The Changing Creative Landscape of the Media Production Industry with Vico Sharabani, Founder and Executive Creative Director of The-Artery
The-Artery Founder and Executive Creative Director Vico Sharabani is one of the industry’s leading technologists whose diverse body of work spans feature films, episodic television, and branded content such as the black-and-white psychological horror film “The Lighthouse” (starring Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattison), the critically acclaimed “Midsommar”, as well as the sleek “First” spot for Mercedes-Benz’s “What Makes Us” campaign (which was brought to life entirely through a virtual production). Merging creativity and tech, Vico works closely with clients to find the right innovative solutions by leveraging multiple mediums, including VR, 360 degree live-action videography, and experiential design - to name a few. He is also a frequent speaker at respected events including TED events “Ads Worth Spreading” and TEDxEast, Digital Hollywood, Princeton University’s Design Nation Conference, as well as Johns Hopkins University ISET’s Immersive Media Summit.
Peyush Karel (BT): Vico, you have been awarded the prestigious Autodesk Flame award for your work. What attracted you to the creative industry and what was your contribution in laying the foundation of The-Artery that led to the company’s eventual success?
Vico Sharabani (VS): For me, there was no logical process. I grew up in a house where my parents didn’t have that much money and they both built and decorated the house themselves. In everything we did, we learned a new skill. For example, if a table broke, we would fix it, but we didn’t call ourselves carpenters, and when the VHS video broke, we would try to fix it, but we did not call ourselves technicians. I was always surrounded by creativity and ingenuity, but I didn't even know those words at the time.
My career has been very versatile; I was an editor, director, visual effects artist, a technologist, and a business owner. I studied sound engineering, but then applied everything I had learned about sound to moving pictures a few years later. For instance, I studied acoustics and the way the sound bounces from walls, and light bounces from materials in a very similar manner. When mixing music I was trained to imagine a cohesive space for all of the entities present and that was exactly what I applied later to compositing and green screen on commercials and films.
The Flame Award was a big moment for me. I realized that my art was not merely about making projects beautiful, but from that point on it was about building an environment which would be conducive to creativity and innovation.
I tried to limit myself to the defined boxes that the industry had put forward, and I tried to appear as a specific type of individual. But all of those things break down as you grow and gain your identity, and then build a company as an extension of that identity, carrying on its own characteristics. It’s a wonderful thing to experience.
“I realized that my art was not merely about making projects beautiful, but from that point on it was about building an environment which would be conducive to creativity and innovation.”
BT: Content is becoming more platform-specific and customised for each individual's needs and preferences. How difficult and important is tailoring content for specific needs?
VS: There has been fantastic innovation in terms of personalization and localization of work. We have actually been pushing it for the past four years and have tried to present different solutions for different clients like our friends at Innovid, or Sundaysky which are two companies we collaborated with in the past. For some reason, it was hard for agencies and clients to buy into that early on -- but I know its adoption will continue to be adopted on a larger scale.
When the creative is conscious of the distribution process, it becomes a very powerful thing to use. The magic happens because personalizing is a nice trick. Personalization together with an emotional connection brings added clarity to the message. There’s a lot to explore there and play with. So, for me, it is still in infancy even though the technology has existed for a while. There are always many available ways to combine technology in unique manners. This is what we do and this makes us future proof.
BT: Because technology is influencing and replacing human elements of design in every potential space, is the physical human touch fading in the creative space?
VS: New technology always offers a large promise that gets us excited and then often reveals itself to be somewhat untrue. Microwaves didn’t save us a lot of time, nor replaced chefs. Home computers got us printing more not less. Social media, grew us further apart from each other. With technology, there is always something that you attempt to improve, but you end up making it worse. We always strive for efficiency and get fixated on a technological shiny object, and then sometimes try to revert back to something that slows us down because we went too far.
BT: What is your team’s view about the importance of human touch at The-Artery?
“The content industry is like a shifting tide in and out: one day, creative is king, and, the very next day, data is driving everything.”
VS: The content industry is like a shifting tide in and out: one day, creative is king, and, the very next day, data is driving everything. Then again, content becomes the most important thing because we have the distribution channels figured out. As a team in The-Artery, if I have a great artist, I want to introduce them to the technological advancements. At the same time, if I have a technology geek, I want to have them be driven by an artist. Thus, the magic cannot take place in the isolation of art or innovation.
I am not passionate about technology alone. Technology is a fantastic tool. It may replace humans at some point in the future, but there’s a long way of using technology in the hands of humans so coexistence and combination of the two is essential. Everything is about combining; keeping in mind the changing landscape but not trying to narrow it down to one solution or the other. For me, combination is creativity.
BT: As a director and an entrepreneur, you interact with a lot of clients on a daily basis. How difficult is it for you to deliver projects bound by guidelines and limitations?
VS: When I am creating projects of my own, I allow some deviation from the vision to create something more beautiful and for the sake of my own enjoyment. However, we operate in an industry that delivers art as a service; it is within the context of the service being provided that the best art gets created. If you make something that looks pretty but does not meet the guidelines of a service, it is just a bunch of pretty pixels not art.
When I interview people, people with great artistic calibre, I do appreciate their skills but I ask them whether they are also good service providers because that is what we do. We tend to amplify the initial vision of our clients and take it to the next level.
BT: What stance do you think our authorities have in terms of copyright protection and what loopholes still exist that hurt the industry? Could you highlight the situation with instances from your own company and work?
VS: I am not a copyright expert, but somebody once asked me, “How come it’s called a ‘cover’ when a band plays a Beatles' song, but when you paint a work that already exists it’s called a copy/fake?” which is an interesting starting point to go deeper and see the differences of concerns across industries. When we created our website, another company created a rip-off of it in the Far East with only a few tweaks. It was so violating for us and our artists. We posted that on social media and they ultimately took it down. It is interesting to note that certain parts of the industry are like artistic conversations that we have built for each other, and they keep adding incremental value to themselves. For that reason, copyright infringement is a big problem, and it hurts when your project is used for a purpose that you never intended it for.
There is too much grey in the space of idea and innovation that is not copyrighted and we operate in that space on the advertising side of our business. When you pitch an idea to clients which gets turned down and eventually you witness the same idea being used by them, it reflects a strong lack of integrity. However, at times you can’t do anything because it is not copyright protected. So even if the legal side is covered, the ethical side is often questionable.
BT: For an illusionist and a creator like you, opening up to the world and taking note on minute observations is of immense importance. How has the Coronavirus pandemic posed a challenge on the content industry and your company in particular?
VS: Obviously, while managing an organization you have to shift things around and be very precise and fast in reacting to the changing situation. We were prepared a month before the shutdown occurred because we had been working with a Chinese client in December and witnessed the evolving situation around the pandemic. We were able to make our operations efficient because of an immediate response from my team. Since then, we have been functioning in a fairly seamless manner.
We have tried to make the most of the scenario and have been able to create some wonderful projects, so I’d say the managerial stress was contained and never took its toll on creativity.
We tend to do things in an organic fashion. For instance, we had to make a visual production for Mercedes Benz, where they wanted us to use graphically designed cars for a commercial. We, however, wanted to approach it as a film. We took shots of movies like ‘Westworld’ and ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ and filmed the commercial by incorporating virtual reality and computer graphics designed cars. That was how we were able to combine several different elements to create something unique. We do creative work, but also do the work in a creative way, guided by limitations that provide a particular direction to the project.
BT: What is the virtue that has helped you achieve your vision and now you would want to impart to our readers?
“I used to want to become a great artist or earn more money, but now, I believe I am old enough to have a perspective on my life’s trajectory, a timeline of events lined on a thread, and the only thing that has been of importance for me is growth.”
VS: For me, it is self-discovery and integration. I used to want to become a great artist or earn more money, but now, I believe I am old enough to have a perspective on my life’s trajectory, a timeline of events lined on a thread, and the only thing that has been of importance for me is growth. My personal growth, my company’s growth, and my peers’ growth all combine to elevate all the projects that we do. Early in my career, I tried to put my life on the sidelines while focusing on delivering projects. Now, I understand the importance of integrating life with work and that personally helps me to amplify everything I do.