Let’s talk a bit about how creative ideas come to fruition. In this post, I want to reference two people whose opinions on the subject matter I fully share: Ed Catmull and Stephen King.
Ed Catmull claims that all new projects at Pixar are their “ugly babies.” By definition, every new project is ugly and imperfect, requiring many man-hours to work on and improve. Just like newborns who need care and nurturing to grow and develop, early story concepts often appear unpolished and flawed. They require time, effort, and patience to evolve into something beautiful and fully realized.
Stephen King has a similar idea. He compares all his books in their embryonic stage to a fossil discovered by an archaeologist. You carefully dig and look for a discovery until you finally stumble upon what might be a fossil. You meticulously clean around it, trying not to damage it, and in this process, you discover what this element is. King describes ideas as seeds that need to be nurtured. He believes that ideas are everywhere, and it’s a matter of recognizing and developing them. These seeds or fossils can come from personal experiences, news stories, dreams, or random thoughts.
Rather than meticulously planning out every detail, King often lets his stories grow organically. He starts with a basic premise and then allows the characters and plot to develop as he writes. This process of discovery keeps the writing process exciting and unpredictable for him.
This is how I approach making videos most of the time. Yes, in the beginning, before the actual shooting, I have an idea of how and what to shoot. I even have a vision of the end product, including the rhythm, probable B-roll footage, narration, and so on. However, as many can relate, it’s almost never the case that everything goes according to plan. By the time I am in front of the computer and ready to send the clips into the timeline, my previous ideas often don’t look as mind-blowing and effective as before, or something just doesn’t add up. It is very easy to get disenchanted at these moments, but if you really care about your final project and are really into making something beautiful and eye-catching, then you start looking for a new approach and new ideas. Little by little, like Stephen King himself, you slowly start unwrapping the possible new idea and testing new images.
That’s what happened when I was creating the video “Taste Adventure.” I need to mention that I didn’t know what I was going to do with my initial footage. It was just footage of the restaurant hostess sitting at the communal table (or bar) and sipping red wine. Plus, there was footage of me sitting with the camera on one of the bar stools and rotating, capturing everything around. As it turned out, this rotation video happened to be a decent visual introduction to the whole narrative, with a dissolve to the young woman at the bar tasting red wine. Since I didn’t have any suitable video to continue the story, I shifted my focus to one of the stock footage websites, looking for suitable clips with Greek scenery and possible dining experiences in Greece. And voila! I found it! A young girl sipping wine somewhere outdoors with a fantastic view of the water and bright sun making the whole imagery look like paradise. Exactly what I needed! The only thing was she was sipping white wine, not red wine like in my footage. Nevertheless, I was determined to make it work.
Have you heard of a match cut? A match cut is a film editing technique where two successive shots are linked by a visual, aural, or thematic element that creates a seamless transition between them. In this case, it was a match on action cut: the image of the lady at the restaurant bringing the glass of wine to her lips dissolved to the lady in Greece slowly sipping her wine. A few tweaks here and there, and bang! The new meaning is born and conveyed to the viewer: the restaurant in New York can transport you to Greece via its wine and food tasting. All I had to do to reinforce the idea of transformation was to add some stunning visuals of Greece over the girl’s head in the restaurant (suggesting the idea of her dreaming and imagining she’s in Greece), and a few inserts of close-ups of the dishes being consumed in the restaurant, which we shot a few months prior without knowing exactly how we would use them. It was very easy to find a suitable tune for the video, matching its cuts and overall pacing. A light, dynamic, and inspiring soundtrack perfectly complemented the visual narrative, making it even more powerful. At the end, the title “Embark on a taste adventure with us” organically completed the whole video. And I have to add that the mismatch with the wines possibly even reinforced the idea of transportation and transformation through the dining experience. Red wine in New York (often not so sunny and warm) vs. white wine in Greece (which in our minds is always hot, sunny, and full of celebration).
I consider this video to be one of the best creations from the period when we were still finding our voice and honing our approach to video making as a tool for promoting a business. This video exemplifies how a simple, basic editing technique can create a certain meaning and mood, and reinforce a business’s selling propositions.