The ask.

When Cisco first came to us with the ask, it was framed as, “We have this really cool event that isn’t boring like most conferences tend to be.”

The hook.

And so it was born—the idea of a short film to promote the conference, contrasting it against other conferences with rambling and monotone speakers that doll out heavy jargon like catsup on an overdone steak to mask the taste. We knew what we wanted to show for the “before,” but how would we bridge to the “after”?

That’s when a discussion of French cinema led us down a rabbit hole, so to speak.

It was one of those strange instances where we knew the format before we knew the full story. To express that this event was different, the film promoting it also had to be different, and being a silent film (well, dialog free…) was a way to do that. So, if the actors couldn’t talk, how could they express the story (other than exploring the phrase, “mime is money” of course).

I’m late, I'm late, for a very important date.

This is how the story was born. Without words, you show a poor soul at a conference being so bored, he doses off. And, in his disturbed slumber, he dreams of a better conference, shown to him by a magical guide (or white rabbit)—revealed at the end to be no figment of his imagination.

The unconventional for its own sake isn’t enough, and it still needs to work—which is why after vetting it with our audience, we knew we had something worthwhile on our hands.