Several years ago while producing an event for a prestigious Japanese manufacturer, I chose to hire someone outside the creative mainstream to provide an energy boost to the project. We already had a number of technological firsts going for us (we were eventually written up in the trades), yet I felt we needed an additional spark.
The spark came from a performance artist based in Soho called Eileen who was brought on board to shoot some ‘extra’ video for the project, bringing a fresh and open vision. Quite a bit of Eileen’s footage ended up in the show and some of it was pretty weird… like taking a tennis-sized glass ball and rolling it in front of a series of product displays. She followed the ball and shot only the reflections in the glass and then got us to composite that with straight video of the same displays. The result was totally original and it transformed the piece and made for one happy client.
In today’s risky climate, many creatives are becoming risk adverse, believing it best to play it safe. Yet, memorable work is never safe. Sometimes you just have to take a leap and turn to someone completely different… someone like Eileen.
(Author’s Note: The title of this piece parodies a line from a Monty Python sketch.)
