From Hollywood to Healthcare

Working with movie studios for 25 years has taught us how to hone our narrative storytelling skills in order to boil a story down to its elements. This allows us to advance a plot in a 30-second timeframe, as is commonly seen in television commercials.  

By contrast, Hollywood films benefit from a longer run time and a longer form of storytelling that allows there to be a story arc over a period of time.  

Corporate and medical communications traditionally chose FX studios that specialized in short-form storytelling  — but then the digital revolution happened, bringing with it a panoply of venues for advertising, as well as neat technological innovations that people can try in person. New, longer-form content was needed to make use of these new venues, like virtual reality headsets.

The medical industry often educates and engenders empathy using video case studies as a time-honored way to help healthcare providers appreciate the impact of a medical condition on daily life. Virtual reality is an excellent tool that allows us to put the participant in a patient’s 360-degree point of view. These experiences complement the treatments for conditions — and put healthcare providers in the shoes of the patient to elicit empathy. The soundtrack or the voiceover can be used to simulate the patient’s inner monologue, which further places the audience in the patient’s shoes.  

A VFX studio that works in both of these industries can leverage its complementary experiences.

This point was made clear to us during a presentation we recently made to an advertising agency. The agency had traditionally relied on studios that specialized in short-form storytelling. We were billed as some big Hollywood movie-making company that does visual effects and CGI — that also works with the medical industry. They were very excited about what we were going to be bringing to the table.  

While presenting their team with a series of before-and-after VFX shots from our recent work on the film Uncut Gems, we talked about how the storytelling experience can be leveraged for marketing projects. It is exciting to bring Hollywood to agency clients’ projects, which in turn helps us all engage more enthusiastic audiences.

Everyone who is making their own content and media dreams of being up on the Oscars stage. We share in that excitement and are eager to bring our experience to the table for all types of projects.

Originally published: 09/24/2021