Embracing creative risks: It’s time for our industry to get comfortable with being uncomfortable
Sunday Gravy’s Jack White reflects on the industry’s tendency to play it safe, reminding creatives that “if an idea isn’t scary, it’s not an idea at all”.
Have you ever sat in a creative review, biting your lip, as someone unveils an idea so outlandish it sounds like it belongs in a fever dream? Imagine getting pitched this film – it’s a wild sci-fi-drama-comedy mashup. Meet Evelyn, a laundromat owner who’s not just fighting the IRS but hopping through insane alternate universes. Imagine a world where raccoons control minds and hot dog fingers are the norm. Sounds like a script that got written on a bad LSD trip.
This is the premise of A24’s ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’. Now picture how that script would go in a focus group? I know if I were in that focus group as a participant, I would look straight at the one-way mirror and tell the execs munching on stale pizza to play it safe – maybe opt for a ‘Seinfeld’ reboot instead. But here’s where it gets interesting. The Daniels, the creative geniuses behind this controlled chaos, faced scepticism from big names like Apple, Netflix, and Amazon. “It wasn’t the Apple brand,” Daniel Kwan observed, reflecting on their initial response.
I think you’re not separating ideas from execution, which is the biggest worry in our industry these days. Ideas can be incredibly safe and comfortable. For example, ‘Skittles brings unexpected fun to any scenario’. The execution of that idea, eg Skittles ‘touch’ or ‘plant’, that’s where the magic happens. I worry about any agency that says ‘be brave’ when buying an idea, I should feel incredibly comfortable with the idea if it has a drumming gorilla or not, because I can separate the idea from the execution.