My Why

My Why

My Why started like a lot of assignments. You get one and you're like, okay, well, how do we do this? The executives at Schell Brothers wanted to show what it's like to work there, that employees are treated really well and that people are happy. I think the idea of everyone holding up little cards came from one of the execs, or it was a constraint that came with the brief. Either way, my question was: how is this gonna look good?

Turnarounds were quick. In the meeting on Monday it would be, "We want to do this. Can you shoot it Wednesday?" Often it was just an idea at that stage, and my answer was, "Yeah, I'll figure it out."

So we first shot it in a different location, and it just looked terrible. Sometimes it's like that. You shoot it, you put it together and you're like, this is not gonna work. But we learned from that not working, and the next week I knew we had to put it on that red wall we had, because that just looks so much better.

I think we sent out an email saying we needed a bunch of people to come and do this. Once a group was over there, I was like, "You know what? This is so quick. I just need you to hold this card. All of you jump in there and just smile and hold the card."

It still needed to build to something. The Friends ending just popped in my mind, so for the end I wanted everyone to cram onto the couch. I remember looking at it and thinking, this looks good, but not amazing.

That part was kind of funny. I told them, "You guys got to cram in like you love each other." I remember having to say it like three times: "Get close, get close, look at each other, act like you're having fun, you're laughing, ha ha ha." It wasn't translating, so I got specific: "This is going to be really awkward, but you guys have to cram into each other. Give me a lot of movement. Really play this up. Laugh like you've been told one of the funniest jokes. Get comfortable."

Eventually I got them all to completely overact, and I think it looks super natural at the end. It's another one of those simple videos, but I think it came out pretty good: well executed, and it gets its point across. That's what's great about this one.