Meet Lemonlight client Zuma!

Zuma, the brainchild of award-winning creator Rainer Becker, is a modern-style Japanese restaurant with locations all over the world. Inspired by the informal dining style of izakaya, the food is all about being paired with the drinks, which is one of the reasons why we created a whole brand video just for Zuma’s bar. Here are some tricks we used to bring this video to life.

Use background sound effects for emphasis.
Even though there’s a background track throughout the entire video, we used select sound effects to pair with specific “action” moments in the video, like the ice shaving at 0:01 seconds, the shaking at 0:04 seconds, the drink pouring at 0:13 seconds, and again at 0:23!

Bring static shots to life with movement.
Almost every medium or close-up shot in the video features a slight pan across, up, or down, bringing the close-ups to life in a subtle way that keeps them feeling active.

Use cross dissolves as bookends.
In time with the music, both at the beginning and toward the end, we use cross dissolves to bookend the video. After the second dissolve, we no longer show drinks being poured, but instead use a few shots of the establishment before bringing in the final title card.