 Hi, welcome to Eprim Creative Zone. My guest today is Creative Powerhouse Vikram Pandey, Spiky, the National Creative Director of Reluvenate India. He's done some amazing work for brands across category and some noteworthy work recently for Spotify. Hi, Spiky, how have you been holding up a mental lockdown and all that? Hi, I've been absolutely fine. Thank you for this. And we've been holding up fairly well. In fact, one of the jokes within the organization is what COVID, right? Because we've been doing so much of work. It's just, it's so different than what anybody would have imagined. People would have not imagined that we would have been able to pull this off working at home, but we're all working from home. We're all being able to produce so much more work than we were earlier. It's quite a surprise. So, you know, first I want to start by understanding how has been this experience creating amidst remote captivity and how has creative concepting changed post-lockdown? So that's been quite a challenge, right? And as I was saying earlier also, it's quite a revelation as well. All of us believed and very strongly, very adamantly believed, we were quite stubborn about the fact that we'll never work from home and create a process cannot happen when you're working from home. However, we were restricted and we were almost forced to do this. And it's wonderful how, you know, things have turned out because the fact is, and it's not only me or my team or the kind of brand that I'm handling, but across the, across the floor, across all offices, we've managed to produce a lot more work in the last few months. And that's been quite a revelation for us. Yes, I mean, it's not the same. Yeah, sorry. Yes, it's not the same, right? It's not the same of about, you know, when you're at the set, you can see the actors performing, you can interact with them, you can interact with the director in a very different way. You know, everything is just channeled and takes a little more time, right? Also, the most difficult part has been the editing, right? Editing is just impossible to be pulled off like this. It's a wonder how some of us are managing this. But it's really difficult, right? That those two parts were very difficult. But we managed fairly well. So, you know, I was also going to come to what are the larger execution challenges when bringing an idea to life now? Yeah. So, you know, right from the creative process coming up with that idea and jamming, that that itself is kind of shifted into a way where we're all getting comfortable with video calls and managing that. Also, the clients have been really kind, right? They understand that this takes a little more time than it would. And they're allowing us that time, which is which has been really nice. From there on to sell the concept to then take it to the director to take it to a full production is been quite a process. It's a new one and all of us have been learning and we're still learning that there isn't a book that we can follow. There isn't one that's written as yet, right? But this is all on the job learning and being quite an experienced, right? Ramadwani is the director for the project that we are talking about. And he's a very well experienced director. He's done so many films. He's done, he's been on the set so many times. But for him also, it was new because he was far away. We were in Bombay, we were shooting in Delhi. He was doing this via video call. He had an amazing flawless team who was on the floor were making things happen. Still, everything was new and we were experimenting. So it's been quite a process. But we managed. I think we managed pretty much what we would have otherwise as well. It's almost 1999% there. That's amazing. I saw your work was Spotify and I also wanted to come to you, you know, asking that if you can take us through that work and how did it all come together? So this one started with a very simple insight and the fact and that insight is that, you know, across the world, across age groups, people go through certain emotions and they all lean on music for support. When they go through certain emotions and they lean on music for support, they end up leaning on to the same kind of tracks or similar kind of tracks, and one of those occasions is a heartbreak and that was the first thing that we got out. The other one was getting ready, getting pumped up, getting that energy to go and exercise, day one of exercise. Both these occasions seemed really interesting and when music had a very central role to play. And we took those, we made the campaign on that and we, you know, the larger idea that we came in was music unites everyone. We all united by music because we listened to similar tracks or same kind of music to cope up with these things and that's for the campaign displayed. So you know, this entire situation has also brought in a great deal of people and the way we work. So where do you see the great shoots of opportunity and the positives that have come out of this way of working? So it's kind of difficult to point out the positives as yet, right? It's, and like I was saying earlier, it's a wonder that we've managed to do this, right? And it also challenges our way of working. Somewhere a lot of us were restricted by our thought of, you know, working from home cannot happen in a creative process. You have to be at the set to extract that performance. You know, how will we ever do it? The fact is currently everyone is doing it. We are doing it and so many other agencies out there are doing it and we're doing a fairly decent job of it, right? I don't think so. There's a single commercial which is out there and just got messed up because certain processes were not followed the way they were earlier. So it's actually a big learning for all of us that, you know, maybe we are living with certain notions which aren't true, right? And they need to be rethought. Certain processes have to be re-thinked as well. And another thing, and this is something that my ex-boss used to say always, right? The tighter the box, the more creative a creative guy ends up getting, right? And that happened this time on a lot of projects that we were doing. We were fixed in a very tight box on, you know, you can shoot only with two or three people on the set. You can only shoot inside, you know, all of those and in some projects that we were doing, the only animation allowed, right? We could not shoot at that point. I mean, like the first phase of the lockdown, right? And the tighter the box got, more creative the creative guys got, right? The way they were approaching it, the way they were solving the problem was just amazing. It's been really nice. Also, tell me, how have clients kind of, you know, approached this entire situation? And now, do you see them now ready to kind of like edit and spend and all that? Or do you see them still kind of tightening their first strings? What is the general mode like now? So the clients have been really nice. They've been very kind and very understanding of the situation that all of us are in. They were none of the clients that we've been interacting with have, you know, turned around and say, Oh, sorry, your problem, right? They were not like that at any point of time. They all understand that we're all in the same boat, and we need to cross this, right? So be it, you know, the amount of time we would take to arrive at a creator concept or the amount of time that we would take to get the production going, there were very, very understanding of all of that, right? When it comes to budgets and intentions, that has been initially leaving things for very, very uncertain and nobody knew what was happening. Everyone just, you know, took a step back and said, hang on. We're not sure what we want to do. We're not even sure if we want to be part of this whole COVID context conversation that a lot of brands are also having, right? And that was nice because a lot of brands would have just, you know, gone out and just, yeah, just gone out and, you know, spoken about COVID when they had nothing to do with COVID in the first 15, 20 days of the crisis. But post that a lot of brands learn that, you know, unless you have a role to play, you shouldn't comment because, because the fact is, social media is going to be one of your biggest portion of the media. And if you are, if you're not staying true to what the crisis that people are going through, then brands are going to get a slack for it. And a lot of brands did as well, right? A lot of people came in and said, you know, why are you even talking when you have got nothing to do with this? Or you don't have your process in place. So all that was a learning curve for a lot of brands and for us as well, right? But clients overall have been very, very supportive. Recently in the last 20 days or a month, we've also seen a lot of clients opening up to brand conversation. They've realized that, you know, COVID is a reality or new normal is going to be here for us to stay. So we don't need to be only talking about that, but we can still continue to build the brand. We can still continue to talk the larger message of what the brand would stand for, right? And that's where we're seeing a lot of leads or lots of projects coming. Have I covered what you were asking for? No, no, you covered just perfect. And I was also kind of like coming to, you know, if you can share some production hacks that you've learned. So a few of the things and, you know, like I said, there isn't a rule book to this and we're all learning and maturing to this new normal. But some of the things that worked out very well, right? And time is going to be a super, super important asset to have, right? Always have more time on your hand. Do not rush things, do not overcome it to things. And that's been a big help on most of us. And as I was saying, you know, generally time is an issue with the client, right? Creative guys would like to take all the time in the world to finish the work. But the clients generally would have a deadline, which is generally pressing, right? We've seen that in the last four months of, you know, real crisis, the clients have been really kind on deadlines. They've been really, really nice and supportive, right? And that's helped them because the kind of work that we managed to produce for them doesn't look like it's a lockdown production. That helps. So time was a big, big learning. The other learning was processes, right? A lot of processes, one would skip when they would do it in a normal way, right? When they were all sitting in a room, you would hope that people are understanding and you would, you know, spit ball with it and roll with it, right? We are not doing that anymore, right? We have really strictly following the process of what storyboard should be exact drawing of the product window, final production, the PPM docket being absolutely flawless, the PPM not being two days before the shoot, but six days before the shoot, right? All of those things have been followed. And those are, those processes have actually, you know, been the guardrail through these very uncertain times. They've been really helpful. So that's where the third, the third thing that we leaned on and in most, most of the projects we have done this, right? We lean on experience. That's helped us because a lot of people who've done this so many times that they would know what could possibly go wrong, right? So that, that, that helped that experience bit of be the director or the DOP that we're talking about or the editors that we are talking about or us also we didn't ask, you know, we would know, let's not go here. This is going to be, be not possible to pull off with the kind of restrictions that we have versus walking halfway through and understanding, oh my God, we are in no man's land. So these three things helped. Those are actually lots and lots of production hacks, interesting hacks. Also, you know, when we started off, we saw a lot of work like things being shot using the phone and a lot of you just see content. But do you think that as craft, you know, that has also evolved or did you see a saturation? What do you think about that? Did you see like a consumption audience saturation? And also, do you think that that has evolved now, has that craft evolved? So it's quite surprising how this trend happened, right? As soon as the lockdown was announced and you know, production and everything was completely shut, a lot of brands, a lot of communication resorted to stuff which could, would look like you know, user generated stuff, people that, that, you know, things that we shot at home using phone camera like you were saying, right? And that had its own language and, and a reason to adapt to that language. There would be a certain kind of communication when you're talking about real people and their life and the life, the way their life has gotten affected, you know, that kind of, that kind of tone and manner really worked. And some of and one of the hacks that we learned during that process was to make it look as real as possible versus shooting it at home, but trying to make it look professional. The minute we tried to, you know, make the light proper, we tried to get the camera to be as steady as possible, it started looking fake. But the minute the camera was shaking and wobbling a little bit, right? And things were not perfect. We didn't get the perfect expression, but it worked. Right? Two kids who were about to jump from the bed, only one jumped and the other person stayed. And that was actually the best shot of the lot, right? Kind of stuff. So, so that, that was the first bit and that worked out really well. However, like I was saying, that's a language, right? And that, that could be used only for certain kind of communication. There are enough and more that a brand needs to come and talk about. And that needs to look well produced, well thought through, well executed and cannot always look user generated. Right. Did I manage to answer your question? Absolutely. Absolutely. If I'm not answering your question, if you think I'm... No, no, you're an absolute interview pro. So, I'm not, I'm so bad at it, you should ask him here. No, no, not at all. Your answers are perfect, short and crisp. So, lastly, I'd also love you to like, kind of give out a message to creatives on creating amidst adversity because there's a stream of deathful news affecting our lives, then there are executional limitations, there's visual fatigue. So amidst everything, what would be your advice to them on creating amidst this adversity? So, like I was saying, right? And this is something that I've really lived by, right? The tighter the box, the more creative we get, right? We are trained to think of ways of coming out of a really tight space and coming out of solutions which nobody could expect, right? And I think in current situation, in current circumstances, we challenge as to how do you make things happen with certain resources which aren't there for you to access anymore? But I think that is a hurdle which is going to make us backflip and land on both the feet, I'm sure, right? And even if we don't land on both feet, we would definitely backflip. We might wobble a little, right? But we would learn something which is, which is going to be very different from anything that we were doing earlier. So the tighter the box, the better we are going to get. Superb. Thank you so much, Vikram.