A Bourbon Like No Other? How Maker’s Mark Captured the Beauty of French Oak

In a limestone cellar, ten seared French oak staves are fitted to a barrel. Inside, a delicate whiskey percolates between them, absorbing notes of caramel, vanilla, and baking spice. The result is Maker’s Mark 46 - a uniquely velvety bourbon whiskey made possible only thanks to the inimitable qualities of French oak. 

Capturing both the properties and the beauty of that French oak was the priority for the latest ad campaign from the iconic brand. It’s fitting, then, that Cake Factory’s Martin Wonnacott was the man tapped to do just that. Over the course of his career so far, Martin has become something of a specialist in head-turning product photography and film - the kind of work that simply and subtly implores you to take a sip. 

All of those skills were brought to bear in this ad, which was built upon a strikingly intense creative premise. In order to showcase the qualities of the wood itself, samples were shipped over to NYC where Martin, alongside a team featuring longtime collaborator and editor Dayn Williams, painstakingly sanded each piece of wood down in order to film how its patterns changed over the course of that process. The result, best viewed in the director’s cut below, is an awe-inspiring piece of film which is at once beautifully inviting and somehow quite alien - almost as though it will take audiences a few moments to realise quite what they’re looking at. 

To find out more about how the ad came together, LBB’s Adam Bennett sat down with Martin… 

LBB> Martin, this is a gorgeous ad. What was your brief heading into the project, and how closely does your vision align with what we see on-screen in the finished film?

Martin> Thank you! Well, the entire premise was based around French oak - and the original idea was to somehow take the viewer through the wood, experiencing all of its intricacies. The message needed to communicate how it imbued the whiskey with this unique flavour, and our film had to capture that. 

My director's cut puts a bit more focus on the liquid itself, set against the wood. But what I’ve kept is this stop motion approach which, the first time I saw it, I couldn’t quite fathom what was going on. It took me a while to break down the fact that we could shave down the wood and, by capturing it in stop motion, make it look as though it was moving. That’s what gives this weird, kind of unique effect that we see in the finished ad. 

LBB> Let’s talk about that process. So you actually physically shaved off all that wood? How long did that take?!

Martin> Ha, well, a long time. We went to great lengths to get the wood in the first place, right at the inception of the project. But once that was done, the hard work was only beginning. Don’t get me wrong, because it was a fun experience - but quite a painstaking one at the same time! 

We used devices called CNC machines - which stands for ‘computer numerical control’, apparently - and they gave us the ability to hold the wood in place with virtually pinpoint accuracy. From what I understand these are normally used in manufacturing. But, given that we were shaving off tiny slithers of wood at a time, that level of control was essential.

Even so, in the event it took us a lot longer than we initially envisioned. We had a trial run beforehand which went amazingly well and had us all thinking that the whole thing could be done within a couple of days. However, our error there was that we actually used a different kind of wood to the authentic French oak that we were going to be using for the real thing (we didn’t want to waste it on a trial, naturally). What surprised us was that, because French oak is so fantastically and utterly dense, it took a lot longer to shave down than the average-Joe wood we used in the trial run. So that slowed down the shoot somewhat - and not to mention taught me just how different two types of wood can be. 

All told, creating the film clocked in at around one hour per frame. 

LBB> You mentioned going to great lengths to procure the wood. Can you tell me more about how you did that? 

Martin> Yeah, so we actually have a ‘behind the scenes’ film which tells this story. We were able to find an architectural salvage yard in LA which did have French oak, and we got that shipped to the studio in New York. The problem was we had no idea how the wood was going to behave until we shaved it down. We had limited pieces and needed back up.

But Dayn - the editor of the ad - is in fact part French and was in France at the time we started the ad. He just so happened to live close to a lumber yard which, through some bizarre fluke of fate, had piles of beautiful aged French oak! 

However, that still left one admittedly tricky challenge - getting the wood from France over to the States. Fortunately Dayn was up to the task (literally piling up logs of French oak and driving them to the airport) and we were able to make the shipment. And it’s some of those logs that we see in the finished ad. 

LBB> That’s incredible! From an artistic perspective, did this whole process give you any kind of new found appreciation for natural wood? Do you think it’s something that you’ll use again in future projects? 

Martin> It did actually, yeah. Honestly, I’d say it was quite inspiring to see. I love craft, and this was a true process of craft from start to finish. And what we ended up with was true to concept and true to the brand. From a creative perspective, however, it was just a fascinating journey. 

I’ve learned a lot about the grain structure of European oaks and how they’re different from American oaks. I can now look at a piece of oak and tell you which continent it originates from, which is not a skill I ever thought I would have. Oh, and I learned it’s very hard to cut! 

LBB> The music on the ad is also particularly memorable. How did that all come together? 

Martin> We were fortunate enough to be working with Patrick Cannell, a really great composer who’s now working with Dreamworks. I wanted a piece which felt like it was driving forwards, and at the same time was very unusual. We also wanted that classical element to it which was reflective of the brand image. It was live instruments, and something that - for lack of a better term - vibed with the aesthetic of what we were creating. 

And the result was exactly that. Just as with the rest of the project, it was pure craft and there were never any creative shortcuts taken. 

LBB> And is there anything you’d do differently if you had your time again? 

Martin> Of course, the most common wish in the world is that we could have had more time. In practice with this ad, however, I just wish we could have had more CNC machines. That would have enabled us to get more stuff happening at the same time, giving us more options for stuff to shoot. But we just didn’t know how tough it would be to shave down going into it - so that’s very much with the benefit of hindsight! 

LBB> On a final note… that’s a lovely bar you managed to construct in your New York studio. How long is that going to be sticking around for?!

Martin> Ha, well, good news - it’s permanent! We made some tweaks to it for the shoot, but that is in fact our bar which we’ve had in the studio for a number of years. It’s quite a nice trick to have up your sleeve, given the expense that might otherwise come with booking out a bar for a shoot. It’s a pretty special place. In fact, it was the only bar in midtown which stayed open through Covid!