Meet Pharrell Williams' Signature Squad of Dancers in New Short Docuseries

Cutting Room peers behind the fierce onstage intensity and charisma of Pharrell Williams’ signature squad of confident and spirited women, The Baes, in the new online series “Meet The Baes.” Cutting Room Owner/Editor Chuck Willis led a team of editors to carefully piece together the narrative from the extensive footage helmed by aWHITELABELproduct director Crystal Moselle. 

She artfully captured an extensive wealth of footage from tour performances, interviews and behind-the-scenes to deliver a fluid documentary piece that authentically illustrates the Baes’ individual personalities, and the overall vibe of female empowerment that Pharrell endorses for his team of dancing divas. 

The “intro” video launched on Pharrell’s Facebook page on Monday, December 8th, and the remainder of the full videos went live on the i am OTHER YouTube channel this morning, Tuesday, December 9th. Additional short teasers were cut for use on Twitter and Instagram.

As a multi-faceted editor within the commercial industry, Willis worked closely with his fellow Cutting Room editors Merritt Duff and Brian Sanford as well as mentored junior staffers to cut 10 pieces that would seamlessly flow together to create over 30 minutes of content that could stream as a complete documentary or a series of separate docu-shorts. 

Since the project was shot over 10 days in seven European cities, Willis had over 35 hours of footage of the performers to work with. He initially cut the first two pieces of the series to establish the style and arc of the storyline for the remainder of the videos. With this framework established, the Cutting Room team got to work infusing the additional videos with this aesthetic, collaborating and sharing edits, as they often do, to deliver a unified style and high level of precision to all of the shorts. Cutting Room worked meticulously with the client to deliver an artful representation of the genuine effervescence of The Baes that weaves in the Adidas product, without overt branding.

Sometimes limited by music choices for commercials, Willis relished in the opportunity to have a wealth of music at his disposal for this project. He notes, “In working with Pharrell, we had complete and total access to some of the best music around. From upbeat R&B to instrumental, he has it all and it made it so enjoyable to cut, along with the wealth of vibrant material to work with and choose from.”

Cutting Room also leveraged their partnership with Light of Day to engage an additional team of top-tier post production talent, providing comprehensive finishing and color for the videos.