We love making short promotional movies. Sometimes we create them for ourselves, to highlight our creativity and techniques. This can be an effective way of sharing ideas with a client, so that they can begin to visualize the brand identity solutions we’re developing for them.
The movies we’ve created in recent years to celebrate the Chinese New Year are among our favorites. They challenge us each year to produce something unique to this traditional celebration that begins the first day of the month of the Lunar calendar, the new moon, and ends 15 days later with the full moon and the Lantern Festival.
In the past we often focused on the animal or reptile — tiger, rabbit, dragon —that commemorates each calendar cycle. The distinct personalities of these creatures offered a starting point — a concept— that allowed us to develop a movie.
Defining a concept is the cornerstone of our work on any project and the basis for both artistry and success. We ponder and then cull the elements that clearly express ideas and emotions that will appeal, inspire and transcend.
The Year of the Snake created a quandary. How many times have you heard someone say, “I love snakes”? A negative public perception is difficult to navigate. The footage we reviewed for the film seemed a bit scary to us, and we thought it would have the same effect on our clients and friends.
So how do we portray the snake and what’s the concept?
Fortunately, we work as a team. I thought back to my favorite memories of celebrating Chinese New Year, especially while living in Asia.
Ningning Lu is not only a member of our creative staff, she was born and raised in China. Her insights about the cultural mores of her birth nation are invaluable.
I also asked our new studio designer Alan Lawrence to join in the mind storm that is often required to find a starting point that will flower into something unexpected and memorable.
Finally, the Lantern Festival became our focus. It’s a wonderful, colorful night. Adults and children stay up way past bedtime to gather in parks under a full moon. And they bring lanterns of all shapes and sizes. Some small and traditional in style; others quite large, modern and electronic. The lanterns fill the sky like a thousand moons as the Chinese look upward seeking renewal and a broader perspective for the year to come. These exciting and often chilly nights were some of my favorites, especially in Victoria Park in Hong Kong.
We were enthused. We’d never focused on the culmination of the New Year festivities and loved the fluid light motion the lanterns provided.
But what did lanterns and a moon-lit night have to do with snakes?
The Year of the Snake would focus specifically on this year and the black water snake.
Ah. Water … illumination … movement … !
Coming soon...Concept Creation 2: Our movie storyboards wriggle to life
