05 Apr Case Study: Waterford Crystal for Business Insider
What was the project?
Business Insider commissioned Idiosync Films to shoot a short documentary on Waterford Crystal for their So Expensive series on YouTube — one of the platform’s most-watched documentary formats, dedicated to exploring why iconic products command premium prices. Idiosync Films supplied the cinematography and on-location production; Business Insider handled all editing and post-production in-house.
Who is Waterford Crystal?
Waterford Crystal is an Irish luxury glassware manufacturer with over 200 years of history, headquartered and produced in Waterford city. The company is internationally recognised for the craftsmanship and complexity of its cut crystal patterns, and for producing some of the world’s most iconic ceremonial objects — including the Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball, and trophies for the PGA Tour, Formula 1, and the People’s Choice Awards. Individual pieces range from approximately $150 for stemware to well over $1,000 for vases and statement pieces, with price driven by the uniqueness of each pattern and the level of skilled handwork involved. Craftsmen at Waterford Crystal undergo an eight-year apprenticeship before working independently on the factory floor.
What was the production brief?
Business Insider needed a single day of high-quality documentary cinematography inside the Waterford Crystal factory — cinematic b-roll of the production floor and interviews with craftsmen and staff. The factory is open to the public as a visitor experience, which introduced a significant logistical consideration: the production team needed to capture clean, uninterrupted footage of skilled craftspeople at work while navigating an active tourist environment throughout the day.
How was the shoot approached?
Idiosync Films supplied two videographers and two 4K cameras, along with lighting and microphone equipment. Operating as a two-camera crew allowed one operator to focus on interview setups while the other moved through the factory capturing the detail and process-driven b-roll that defines the So Expensive visual style — extreme close-ups of tools and hands, wide establishing shots of the factory floor, and the slow, deliberate movements of craftspeople working with molten glass and precision cutting equipment.
Managing the tourist presence required constant awareness of sightlines and timing. Shots were planned and executed during quieter windows, and camera positions were chosen to exclude visitor groups from frame where possible without disrupting the factory’s normal operation.
Interviews were conducted with several craftsmen and members of staff. These conversations formed the narrative backbone of the documentary — explaining the apprenticeship process, the technical demands of cutting crystal by hand, and what distinguishes Waterford’s patterns from machine-produced alternatives.
What did Idiosync Films deliver?
Idiosync Films delivered raw 4K footage — b-roll and interview recordings — to Business Insider’s editorial team, who assembled the final documentary in-house. This is a common arrangement for international media productions shooting in Ireland, where a broadcaster or digital publisher commissions local videographers to supply camera-ready footage that their own editors then cut to the publication’s house style.
What were the results?
The finished documentary has accumulated just under 700,000 views on YouTube, performing strongly within Business Insider’s So Expensive catalogue. The video reaches a global audience interested in craft, manufacturing, luxury goods, and Irish heritage — a demographic that maps closely to Waterford Crystal’s international customer base.
What does this project demonstrate about documentary production in Ireland?
Ireland has a growing number of international media organisations — broadcasters, digital publishers, and streaming platforms — that commission location-specific documentary content and require experienced local crews to shoot it. For these productions, the value a local video production company provides is not just technical: it is logistical knowledge of the location, familiarity with Irish institutions and how to access them, and the ability to operate professionally within environments — like a working factory open to the public — that present challenges an international crew arriving without local context would find difficult to navigate efficiently.
Supplying raw footage to an international editorial team is a legitimate and increasingly common production model. It requires a high standard of cinematography from the outset, since there is no post-production phase in which problems can be corrected — the footage delivered is the footage that gets cut.
Idiosync Films provides documentary cinematography and location production services for Irish and international media organisations. Contact us to discuss your project.