Sols

A whole life story as experienced by feet

WHAT  

A startup called Sols sold 3D-printed shoe insoles. Their product was good, but their brand aesthetic was futuristic and cold in a way that failed to communicate the human lives impacted by their gear. And technology without humans is just matter.  

I wrote and creative directed a 100-second spot that shifted the focus from the product to the purpose, shot from the perspective of one woman’s feet over her life: childhood in San Francisco, losing her father as a teenager, and ultimately rediscovering her passion for drumming. 

WHY  

 I used the tight frame on feet to apply Transportation Theory (Green, M. C., & Brock, T. C., 2000), a psychological process where the viewer experiences mental and emotional immersion in a narrative. They temporarily lose awareness of their immediate surroundings and become psychologically transported into the story world, increasing persuasion and behavior change, and reducing skepticism.

ARTISTIC SIGNIFICANCE   

This film pushed the boundaries of the cinematic frame by focusing myopically on feet while exploring a narrative arc. We used an Arri Alexa cinema camera on steadicam rig with a 21-person production crew, shot across twelve locations over three days. To evoke emotion without seeing faces and with minimal dialogue, we used sound design, music, and pacing to communicate story beats; like when the protagonist hustles out of her waitressing job and runs through the hallways of the hospital to see her dying father.  

Stories allow us to project our own perspective into a hypothetical reality to model emotions and behavior (Murray, J. 1997). But this perspective switching only works if the story feels real. The majority of my films use a documentary-based approach when capturing and constructing the narrative because the subject’s natural authenticity allows viewers to immerse into the story and fuze with their perspective more easily. My “docu-narrative” process is consistent across mediums, forming the backbone of my XR pieces too.

CREATIVE TEAM   

Creative Directors

Wyatt Roy, Kris Cheng, Garrett Gunther

Producer

Briene Lermitte

Director

Pete Lee

Production Company

Scandinavia

Editors

Wyatt Roy, Garrett Gunther, Kris Cheng, Pete Lee

Sound Design

Jeremiah Moore

Colorist

Ayumi Ashley