Doing Words

When all the world seems made of pixels

// April 14th, 2010 // My work, Video

I’ve been working on a video project for a few months. First I worked on the strategy that led to brand development, which led to the scriptwriting and direction. The product will be launched in a couple of weeks and then I can show you the video.

But first, how to explain a product that doesn’t exist, in a video? You can’t show people the product.

Well, the product is used to help people collaborate on ideas. People in groups are easy to shoot, but how do you convey the development of ideas without a big special effects budget?

The solution: a visual metaphor. We came up with groups of people building ideas out of Lego-style bricks.

Then the brainstorming got a little out of hand and we agreed we’d try and build the brand-name using the bricks and feature them in the climax of the launch video.

Oh boy. For a week I struggled with designing the brand name in letters large enough to be legible in a wide shot writ small on a YouTube-sized video, while using a brand of bricks that really didn’t stick together in shapes much bigger than 30-40 blocks. Forget good typography, this was survival-of-the-fittest-letter-shape.

In the end it took a lot of silicone adhesive to keep some of the more unstable letters (like ‘R’ and ‘S’) together. We got the shot done, but for a few days afterwards I was left seeing my surroundings re-imagined as Lego bricks. ‘If I had to build that car/building/person out of bricks, how would I do it?’ was all I could think of.

Here’s some stills from the shoot:
Can we pull this off?
Pause for further direction
Cast member on monitor
Collaborating on an idea
Shooting the CEO in a lift scene
Cast holding the letters

Here’s a much more impressive video project using pixelated shapes. I wish I’d had half the special effects budget and a tenth of the creativity of this team!