At the end of 2015 and beginning of 2016 I worked on a rather large web campaign for Mass Mutual out of Mullen/Lowe Boston that was directed by Stacy Peralta. The idea for the campaign was to celebrate the recent Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage in the United States and to feature newly married same-sex couples talking about their experiences and what the decision meant for them on both a personal and legal level. Five couples were cast and interviewed in a very simple setting. The subjects all felt the campaign was groundbreaking and were eager to participate. They were incredibly emotional about the subject and wanted very much to share their stories. Some actually saw participating in the campaign as a political act, where they could highlight the work that remained to be done and change the dialogue about what it means to be gay or lesbian in America. So naturally there was a wealth of wonderful material that came out of the interviews, and we wound up cutting a story for each couple as well as the anthem long form spot that was always intended.
As a longtime documentary editor, I was concerned not only with making a good spot and accomplishing the client’s goals, but I also wanted to honor each subject’s story and represent their “truth.” There was so much I wanted to do with the material. (1) I wanted to let people who had not had much of a voice and couldn’t be completely out in the media before tell their stories. (2) I wanted to highlight what was unique about each of their stories while also (3) showing how at the end of the day they were not particularly different from loving straight couples. At the same time, I wanted to (4) hint at the new possibility of legal and financial planning for their families while (5) also including all the charm and humor and warmth that came out in their interviews without ever (6) losing sight of the monumental importance, seriousness and impact of the Supreme Court decision and what it meant to each of them personally. In short, I felt the subjects, as well as the director, agency and client were counting on me to accomplish all of this.
As I always do in documentary storytelling, I meticulously logged and selected the interviews, made index cards of all the most interesting/moving/funny and intriguing stuff, and stuck the cards on the wall where I could see them. But then once I had these tools that help me find the pieces I need, as always, I cut from pure instinct. As I went along, I moved stuff around and agonized over the flow and story arc. Stacy had almost no notes on my first cut and was totally delighted with the result, as was the agency and client. So the changes were very manageable. I believe that was because I had already been very very hard on myself making sure I got the balance of seriousness and humor, personal detail, political statement, and charm as right as I could in the first pass.
I think I learned on this project to trust the storytelling instincts I use on movies in my commercial career. When I cut a documentary film, the producer and director leave me alone with the material to do a first pass, excited by what I might bring to it. They actually want the result of me being left to find the story with fresh eyes. Sometimes I think that won’t happen with commercial clients and I second guess my instincts and try to do it the way they tell me the client is expecting me to do it on the conference call at the beginning of the job. On this one, I didn’t second guess myself in that way at all. And I decided not to worry about whether or not the client was going to be brave enough to run with it. After all, they decided to do the campaign in the first place! Not second guessing served me well. It won’t on every single job. But I learned not to worry too much about that.
Click here for the Mass Mutual anthem spot.
