In my previous post, Concept Creation 1: Chinese New Year Lanterns Shed Light on New Movie, I discussed the process we use for defining a fresh concept for our promotional films.
Regardless of my decades of experience conceptualizing brand identity solutions for global corporations, I continue to be enriched and delighted by the power of creative intention: we plant a seed (a cliché, perhaps, but one that has earned its place in the pantheon of artistic metaphors), and then gently nurture it through group mind storms, individual exploration, inspirations, intuitiveness and … faith. Yes, faith that something invigorating will emerge.
And something did emerge.
As we undertook the fascinating alchemy of blending inspiration with bold initiative to create our The Year of the Snake movie, we found a way to connect the life of a water snake with a thousand lanterns waving at a full moon.
Water … illumination … movement.
Part of our creative process for the movie included reviewing and culling hundred of clips of stock film footage that related to the body movement of water snakes, lanterns and moving light. The goal was to help strengthen the concept, first by putting the snake in perspective. Like all the other creatures in the Chinese horoscope, the snake, which some people fear, has fascinating, redeeming qualities that we all might emulate, such as its graceful movement in water.
Next, Alan Lawrence, designer, conjured a way to connect the snake’s natural habitat to a luminous night sky.
He succeeded when he found footage of a black water snake majestically rising toward the surface of the water, which was bright with the light of day. Or a full moon? Maybe.
Alan would share his thoughts and ideas with me when he was at a crossroads, and I would help him crystallize his notions — those wisps of intuition we all experience — and strengthen his resolve in what he had found.
Soon we were matching water snake footage with other snippets of film that expressed excitable light and lanterns and other mysteries. Now the murky concept of snakes and New Year celebrations began to coalesce into something we might call aspirational. Even a snake ascends. Even a creature from the depths seeks light. Just like the revelers on the 15th and final night of New Year’s festivities.
Still afraid of snakes?
First drafts of storyboards began to incorporate the unfurling of circular snakes and flickering, phantom light. I recalled the time we created The Year of the Dragon promo by using film footage of snakes in the grass. By enlarging the image, expanding the scale (and closely focussing on the scales of the snake), then toning the images, we gave the illusion of a real, live creature that breathed fire.
We’re artists. We spend long hours searching for unique, expressive solutions, even when we’ve been told, in so many words, “That can’t be done.” And we never give up, working with tight budgets, hard deadlines. In the end, it is the strong concept and story, the design details and creative usage of all the elements that dictates successful creative expression.
Coming soon. Concept Creation 3: Movie storyboards and Music
