On Friday, June 20th, Shinebox Studios pulled two film genres from a hat of about twenty: action adventure and silent film. We had to choose one. Then we were assigned a character, an object and a line that would have to appear in a short film of no more than 7 minutes in length. That was essentially the brief. Game on.
We went with silent film and kept the action/adventure behind the cameras. A good portion of the agency was mobilized that weekend. After writing, not sleeping, shooting, editing, and scoring we submitted our entry to the 48 Hour Film Project competition Sunday night with 20 minutes to spare. While shooting Saturday, the temperature outside was pushing 100º. The film is called, A Cold One.
On Friday, June 20th, Shinebox Studios pulled two film genres from a hat of about twenty: action adventure and silent film. We had to choose one. Then we were assigned a character, an object and a line that would have to appear in a short film of no more than 7 minutes in length. That was essentially the brief. Game on.
We went with silent film and kept the action/adventure behind the cameras. A good portion of the agency was mobilized that weekend. After writing, not sleeping, shooting, editing, and scoring we submitted our entry to the 48 Hour Film Project competition Sunday night with 20 minutes to spare. While shooting Saturday, the temperature outside was pushing 100º. The film is called, A Cold One.
On Friday, June 20th, Shinebox Studios pulled two film genres from a hat of about twenty: action adventure and silent film. We had to choose one. Then we were assigned a character, an object and a line that would have to appear in a short film of no more than 7 minutes in length. That was essentially the brief. Game on.
We went with silent film and kept the action/adventure behind the cameras. A good portion of the agency was mobilized that weekend. After writing, not sleeping, shooting, editing, and scoring we submitted our entry to the 48 Hour Film Project competition Sunday night with 20 minutes to spare. While shooting Saturday, the temperature outside was pushing 100º. The film is called, A Cold One.
You might ask…
Why would an agency and its video production unit do such a thing? Good question. Participation was voluntary, yet half the agency raised their hand and sacrificed a weekend. Three main reasons come to mind.
Flex problem-solving muscle
When you have very little time and virtually no money, you have to think really fast and make decisions even faster. There is strategy involved. How can we prepare before the kickoff? How do we not bite off more than we can chew in the time given. What production efficiencies can we leverage? What communication and workflow protocols can we establish ahead of time? What are the known unknowns that we should be ready for? If these sound like questions any agency would ask in the face of doing work for a client, then you get my point. This was cross-fit for our producers.
Practice storytelling
Our expertise of finding a brand’s story and then telling that story is a craft you can’t practice too much. Because this was low-stakes and non-client work, it was the perfect opportunity for younger team members to learn a thing or two about the elements of production and of story. In this case it has a beginning, a middle and an untimely end.
Disrupt for good
While we talk about this phrase as an expression of a brand in the marketplace, it’s also a meta mantra for how to foster a workplace culture whose mission is disruption for good. This project was outside of the ordinary. It had lots of unknown variables. It disrupted our week for lots of good outcomes including team cohesion and talent development. We also developed new relationships with the actors and the musician who joined us.
In hindsight I would change a few things for sure. But 48 hours is 48 hours. We held our own and finished second overall, along with awards for best: Editing, Use of Genre, Graphic Design, Use of Line of Dialogue, Musical Score, and Sound Design. We certainly got a lot more out of it than we put in. Maybe that should be the goal for the work we all do, every day.
You might ask…
Why would an agency and its video production unit do such a thing? Good question. Participation was voluntary, yet half the agency raised their hand and sacrificed a weekend. Three main reasons come to mind.
Flex problem-solving muscle
When you have very little time and virtually no money, you have to think really fast and make decisions even faster. There is strategy involved. How can we prepare before the kickoff? How do we not bite off more than we can chew in the time given. What production efficiencies can we leverage? What communication and workflow protocols can we establish ahead of time? What are the known unknowns that we should be ready for? If these sound like questions any agency would ask in the face of doing work for a client, then you get my point. This was cross-fit for our producers.
Practice storytelling
Our expertise of finding a brand’s story and then telling that story is a craft you can’t practice too much. Because this was low-stakes and non-client work, it was the perfect opportunity for younger team members to learn a thing or two about the elements of production and of story. In this case it has a beginning, a middle and an untimely end.
Disrupt for good
While we talk about this phrase as an expression of a brand in the marketplace, it’s also a meta mantra for how to foster a workplace culture whose mission is disruption for good. This project was outside of the ordinary. It had lots of unknown variables. It disrupted our week for lots of good outcomes including team cohesion and talent development. We also developed new relationships with the actors and the musician who joined us.
In hindsight I would change a few things for sure. But 48 hours is 48 hours. We held our own and finished second overall, along with awards for best: Editing, Use of Genre, Graphic Design, Use of Line of Dialogue, Musical Score, and Sound Design. We certainly got a lot more out of it than we put in. Maybe that should be the goal for the work we all do, every day.
You might ask…
Why would an agency and its video production unit do such a thing? Good question. Participation was voluntary, yet half the agency raised their hand and sacrificed a weekend. Three main reasons come to mind.
Flex problem-solving muscle
When you have very little time and virtually no money, you have to think really fast and make decisions even faster. There is strategy involved. How can we prepare before the kickoff? How do we not bite off more than we can chew in the time given. What production efficiencies can we leverage? What communication and workflow protocols can we establish ahead of time? What are the known unknowns that we should be ready for? If these sound like questions any agency would ask in the face of doing work for a client, then you get my point. This was cross-fit for our producers.
Practice storytelling
Our expertise of finding a brand’s story and then telling that story is a craft you can’t practice too much. Because this was low-stakes and non-client work, it was the perfect opportunity for younger team members to learn a thing or two about the elements of production and of story. In this case it has a beginning, a middle and an untimely end.
Disrupt for good
While we talk about this phrase as an expression of a brand in the marketplace, it’s also a meta mantra for how to foster a workplace culture whose mission is disruption for good. This project was outside of the ordinary. It had lots of unknown variables. It disrupted our week for lots of good outcomes including team cohesion and talent development. We also developed new relationships with the actors and the musician who joined us.
In hindsight I would change a few things for sure. But 48 hours is 48 hours. We held our own and finished second overall, along with awards for best: Editing, Use of Genre, Graphic Design, Use of Line of Dialogue, Musical Score, and Sound Design. We certainly got a lot more out of it than we put in. Maybe that should be the goal for the work we all do, every day.
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Disrupting for good.
Helping brands disrupt the status quo — for the better health of individuals, communities and our environment.
Disrupting for good.
Helping brands disrupt the status quo — for the better health of individuals, communities and our environment.
Disrupting for good.
Helping brands disrupt the status quo — for the better health of individuals, communities and our environment.