![]() Top tips for creative execution You’ve certainly heard that “rules were meant to be broken.” Nowhere is that adage more true than in the field of creative services. Break the rules! Be a star! If only it were that easy. In this article, we’re going to show you some of the best rules for breaking. We’ll explain (briefly) why the rules are there in the first place. We’ll show you some good examples of opportunities for creative rule-breaking. And we’ll give you ideas of how to go about actually breaking those rules, in ways that will surprise and delight your audience—keeping them engaged and motivated. Why have a rule? Why break it? These are important questions. Rules exist—whether in grammar, design, composition, video editing, etc.—in order to make things easier on the audience. Grammar rules should make sentences easier to understand. Rules of composition should make a concept easier to grasp visually. So they’re not only well-intentioned; they’re important. Which begs the question: Why would you ever want to intentionally confuse your audience? The shortest answer is “context.” We read a story of a film director who wanted to build suspense in a scene where someone dangerous was about to enter a house and threaten the heroine. The heroine is in the bedroom; the villain is approaching down the hallway. Think about where you expect a scene like this to go. You see a shot of the heroine. You hear something, such as the first telltale footstep in the distant hallway. What happens next? What do you expect to happen next? The fact that we can even pose that question exposes an interesting presumption. We can safely assume that you know the grammar of filmmaking, even if you’re not a filmmaker. Because when we tell you what you’d expect to see and hear, you’ll find yourself nodding: You expect to see the heroine look up in surprise, in reaction to the off-screen sound. You’ll expect to see her walk cautiously to the doorway and just barely peer out, looking for the villain. And then you’ll see what’s called a cutaway or point-of-view shot, looking down the hallway, from the heroine’s perspective, of the villain, down at the end of the hallway, approaching. After that, you’d expect the movie to cut back into the bedroom, where you see the heroine duck back inside and shut the door, search for a weapon, attempt to escape, whatever. That’s the way these stories are told, cinematically. You know what to expect, because you’ve seen it all your life. Let’s get back to this talented director. When the heroine peeked out of the doorway nervously, this director cut to a shot which barely showed you anything at all. How maddening, how wrong is that?! You get a quick glimpse of the hallway, and yet you barely even see any of the villain, just cut off on one side of the frame. What’s the point of that? Well, it’s actually pretty ingenious rule-breaking. The rule tells you to “show the audience what they want to see.” Breaking this rule turns the tables. It makes it hard for the audience to see. In their seats, they’re actually craning their necks, trying to “peer around the corner,” even though that’s patently impossible with a 2-D movie screen. They’re not getting the information they want. It’s making them nervous. Uneasy. And so it’s helping them to better identify with the plight of the heroine. It’s adding to the suspense. Ta-dah. Simply by framing the shot of the villain differently—“incorrectly”—this director created tons more suspense. Which simultaneously makes the heroine more heroic. Because the odds stacked against her are greater. And now you’re rooting for her more than ever—more than if that director had “followed the rules.” Playing against expectations If you’ve read more than a handful of these blogs, you’ll know that we’re huge fans of the counterintuitive. We like the interplay of set-up and pay-off. It’s not just us. All humans have a hard-wired desire to engage with material in this way; you can witness it in everything from jokes to quiz shows. How, then, and when, should you break the rules for that next creative assignment? Here are some examples to get you thinking: Take a page from that director we just described. Literally! If you’re making a multi-page brochure or mailer, and you want it to be a real page-turner (and would you ever, really, want for it to be a snoozer?), you can cut something off from one page, just when it’s getting interesting, and intentionally set it on the following page, just like we broke this paragraph in the middle, on purpose. It forced you to leap ahead. And when you got to the next page/paragraph, you got a little endorphin shot: your reward for figuring it out. Compose yourself Rules of composition traditionally allow for “breathing room” around the subject; remember the “rule of thirds”? Well, what if you’re working in a before-vs.-after context? (As in “before” and “after” this person experiences the products or services of Company A.) Here’s a case where you really want the “before” shot to be uncomfortable. So crop it differently. Force that subject right up against the edge. Simple. (And, like the best creative solutions, free!) Save the “breathing room” for the “after.” The ol’ one-two Sometimes, you’ll want to surprise your audience with a big reveal. Depending upon the medium you’re working in, this can be challenging. What if it’s just copy, for example? You can’t cut to the shot of the big surprise. You don’t have any music or sound effects at your disposal. What, then, do you do? Well, you can try some creative rule-breaking. You know how sentences go: subject, predicate. Well, you can break that rule. You can intentionally create a run-on sentence to leave the reader breathless—and then hit ‘em with one or two short fragment sentences (another broken rule!) as the payoff. Or lull them into complacency with lush, flowery language… and then just when you’ve got ‘em where you want ‘em, slam them with your big reveal in terse, bold language. It’s the literary equivalent of the jab/cross combination from boxing. Need help with that next creative assignment? Overwhelmed by all these rules, let alone knowing when and where to break them? Never fear. We tackle these kinds of challenges everyday, and would be delighted to help you with yours. Contact us now for a no-obligation consultation.
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