JOHN COFFELTEditor

Common John Brewing Company recently held a release event to showcase a video created by a Middle Tennessee State University program that showcased the community ties the brewery works to maintain.

The student-produced video featured interviews with founder LeBron Haggard, along with employees and customers.

“It puts a little frosting on the top of the cake,” Haggard said. “It’s hard to stop and think about what’s going on until you stop and see a video like that and hear the impact that (Common John) has on people.”

Common John’s John “Bull” Fletcher said at the event that “whenever I started out back in the nineties trying to do arts and media there was no support here. So I had to go out to different cities and work with different people.”

Fletcher said that the brewery began partnering with the university to staff interns from the MTSU fermentation class. That connection let to the eventual partnership with Professor Paul Chilsen from the MTSU College of Media and Entertainment.

He hoped the partnership between the local governments’ tourism commission and that of the local schools will lead to additional opportunities for students to become involved in video production.

Chilsen said that his students spent hours shooting editing and producing the video.

“This does establish a strong possibility of a continuing relationship not only with Common John, but also with Manchester,” he said.

The students produced the video for coursework for the class, Reel World. The video was an opportunity for the students to work in the real word to create a professionally produced product to add to their portfolio, called a reel in the industry.

Video Cinematographer and drone operator Joe Jones called Common John a really unique place.

“They take a lot of pride in brewing everything fresh,” Jones said. “They are really good with community engagement and are really excited to reaching out.”

“it’s like a really big family,” he said.

Video Editor Caleb Snelltaleb said that the project was a lot of work but fun.

“We ate a lot of Rubens. We spent about four months of work, dozens of hours, but I think it turned out good,” he said. “And we’re all pretty happy with it.”

John has been with the Manchester Times since May 2011. John has won Tennessee Press Association awards for Best News Photo and placed in numerous other categories. John is a 1994 graduate of Tullahoma High School, a graduate of Motlow State Community College and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Middle Tennessee State University. He lives in Tullahoma, enjoys painting, dancing and exploring the outdoors.