Exploring Risk: Conversation Yields Innovation

The times they are a changing. We’re finally breaking into a new era, one that’s much less about companies filling formulaic advertising buckets like single page ads and 30-second spots, and much more about finding new approaches to connect meaningfully with an audience.

As a professional creative, this is a huge breath of fresh air for me.

It’s with that in mind that I’m excited to introduce some of my latest work: two short films exploring the topic of RISK. Risk is something we all experience everyday. It presents itself–and is mitigated–in a myriad of ways. What are YOU risking in pursuit of your job, your hobbies, your profession? How do you deal with it?

The two shorts above are the beginnings of a five-part series that I’ve been commissioned to create, thanks to an amazing company called Russell Investments and their latest campaign Conversation Yields Innovation (please check it out).

Few clients give the kind of freedom to the artists they hire as I’ve been given on this gig. The normal escapades usually require that we dress-up advertising imagery to simulate real-life. This project is entirely different. At its core, Russell has asked me to find and interview…a handful of not-so-everyday people, and understand how they feel about real-world concepts like risk, security, and innovation. They are genuinely interested in the conversation. The only requirements for these films are that I reveal interesting insights and make them beautiful. I hope that I’m on the right track. I’d love to know what you think about what we’ve created.

For the techies, we shot all this using the RED one and Nikon D3s cameras and we used a variety of cool techniques to capture the footage. We’ll deliver a behind-the-scenes look in the very near future…

But more important than all that, is this: since risk is such a part of expressing yourself as an artist and since it plays a huge role for those of us that are independent business owners, I’d love hear from YOU about about risk in your life. How do you engage, mitigate, and live with risk?