Why the industry should meet on uncommon grounds to push boundaries in creativity
Last week saw artists and the creative industry unite at the second Noise Gif Festival in Singapore where a panel event uncovered that the best creative comes from getting stuck in and collaborating.
Gif Fest itself sits on an uncommon piece of ground at Gillman Barracks. Now one of Singapore’s art and creative hubs, as the name suggests it was once an important military base. The event exists to bring artists from the region together to use the Gif and short-form video to create a collection of work and give prominence to upcoming creative talent. The industry night, this year brought to life alongside Facebook, aims to show what brands and agencies can achieve by partnering with new talent on new formats.
Speaking at the event was Facebook APAC agency development lead Matthew Drury, artist Marty Cooper (aka Hombre Mcsteez), Parallel Studio’s Yann Pineill, We Are Pinwheel’s Eduardo Meza and TGH Collective’s Tay Guan Hin.
The term ‘uncommon ground’ is not a nod to the venue’s military past, however, but a project launched by Facebook and 72andSunny as a way to show the power of unusual collaborations. The Drum caught up with Facebook’s Drury at the event and asked where the idea for Uncommon Ground came from.
“We believe in the idea of meaningful connections and wanted to explore the idea of collaboration through a mobile canvas. We also wanted to tackle the notion that a lot of traditional artists cannot necessarily be agile enough to design for digital mediums or that somehow, digital creative doesn’t require as much craft as a television ad for instance," he said. "Finally, we wanted to show the creative innovation that results when people connect and collaborate with someone they thought they had little or no common ground."
The idea of whether digital means less craft was also debated on stage by the panel, who argued that while it’s challenging to convey all emotions in quick, mobile formats if more people try, the craft will evolve.
The piece of work that shot Parallel Studios into ‘viral’ levels was used to show how tuned into human emotions just a short piece of digital work can be. It’s ‘Unsatisfying’ film, a collection of very short animations about unsatisfying moments, was a worldwide hit.
For Meza and Tay, who both work with brands, they said that success with newer mobile formats came from experimenting with how to tell a story. While classic lessons in storytelling would always need to stand, the panel said differing the output was about being open and experimenting.
An example of this is work that Pinwheel carried out for Netflix to launch Stranger Things. The agency took a local story about the area of Yishun, which is famed for being a bit... strange, and turned it into a short piece of content for mobile and social.
In terms of the Uncommon Ground project, Drury said this is why Facebook wanted to match more traditional creatives with modern tech-led creatives.
“The technological tools we have today means that anybody can be a creator and work alone to produce interesting work. However, collaborating with people who have a different approach has the benefit of disrupting established patterns of thinking. Newer formats do demand a certain level of risk-taking and reinvention – both of which are exciting to explore in collaboration. This is also why some of the most creative work in short-form video is being done by collectives and small social-first creative agencies,” he explained.
As for how creatives should start this process, Drury said people should explore all the possibilities of the new formats – look to design full-screen, immersive experiences, non-linear narratives, build in sound and interactivity, encourage audience participation and even co-creation.
“Don’t be afraid to experiment with vertical storyboarding and formats and educate clients about it too,“ he added, explaining that the power of community and embedding yourself in the cultures of online communities is a good place to find inspiring stories and connections for creative work.