“If you could give one piece of advice to your childhood self, what would it be?” That’s one of the prevalent question being asked by artist/filmmaker Ivan Cash and his crew at Cash Studios, who were commissioned by cosmetics giant L’Oreal of all brands to make “a film about inspiration.” Rather than create an actual original film, though, Cash, the man who once told us that “reality is malleable,” to “stop making ads” and who was also a collaborator on the Couchella project from last year , turned his lens on the citizens of San Francisco to see what inspires them. As you’d expect, the four-minute film above features random strangers ranging from street musicians to former basketball coaches in SF sharing their thoughts on the aforementioned question or others like “What’s your greatest struggle?” and “what does inspiration mean to you?”
The New Age-y music combined with the people of San Francisco and the city scenery make for a very “Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey”-esque effort, but what the hell, we could all perhaps use a little life-affirming insight from time to time. Of course, this type of project where Cash turns his camera on the people is nothing new for the man, as this SF project follows up his film from last year in NYC, where he asked people what the “Last Photo” on their phone was. While different in concept and tone of course, Cash’s two efforts on two coasts follow the same basic template and leave us wondering if his next short film will do the same and take somewhere in between. Guess we’ll have to wait and see. Credits after the jump.
Creative Agency: Cash Studios
Client: L’Oreal
Directing & Editing: Ivan Cash
Cinematography: Brian Frank
Original Music Composition: Evan Shornstein
Producer: Kacey Hart
Audio Mixing: Juan Abel Elias
Color Grading: Ayumi Ashley