Lifestyle

Tone

The quality and tone of the imagery will bring forth the emotion we’re looking for. Similar to how we experience memory, the imagery should be impressionistic, evocative, experiential, visceral, and authentic. The feeling of bodies around you at an open-air market, the intoxicating smell of charcoal and spices as you notice the white plastic of the chef’s sandaled foot peeking out from beneath the table. The sting of salt in your eyes and the tug of a surfboard on your ankle as you paddle out toward the horizon. The sound of a saxophone wafting through the air as your partner holds your hand, the neon lights from a nearby restaurant illuminating a sparkle in their eyes you’ve never seen before.

But we need more than suggestive imagery here—we need undeniable performances as well. In a two-second cut, we must capture characters who are truly experiencing the moment. If we can convey in just a glimpse what it feels like to connect with a local, to share in a foreign culture, and to get lost in a sea of texture, sound, and smell, then this film can really take viewers somewhere new. We want viewers to laugh, to cry, and to vicariously experience the profound sense of freedom that is written on our travelers’ faces.

World

In the first half of the film, we’re immersed in the New York City streets. I’m envisioning the West Village, with its lovely brownstones, colorful storefronts, and pedestrian traffic as O makes her way uptown. There’s also plenty of street activity, adding texture, dimension, and dynamism to O’s journey, not to mention plenty of noise that will help demonstrate the full power of the LinkBuds’ noise-canceling capabilities. Traffic, construction, children shrieking on the playground, dogs barking in a dog park, the subway rumbling underfoot—basically, all of the wonderful sounds we associate with New York City. 

This is the world of Sarah Jessica Parker, who we’d love to feature in a cameo. Maybe Sarah is in the middle of a photo shoot on the street, or conversely, maybe it’s more of a classic meet-cute—Sarah is just sitting at an outdoor cafe, working while wearing her own LinkBuds, when O catches sight of her. But this could also be the world of Tina Fey, who perhaps O spots standing in line at a hot dog stand—a humorous little touch that nods to Tina’s most memorable character, Liz Lemon. 

The concert venue is full of action and noise as various crews are busy building the stage and tuning the instruments for the sold-out show. We don’t often get to see what happens behind the scenes of the concert, and it’s a great opportunity to once again showcase the noise-canceling power of the LinkBuds. Forklifts are transporting heavy cases from the loading platform to the stage area; there’s the loud din of hammers and drills from the stage hands and lighting crew; the bangs of drums and planks of strings—basically all the nitty-gritty sounds that O can make disappear with just the tap of a button. 

And of course there’s the dressing room, with the chatter of the stylists, the whoosh of the hair dryers, and the clangs of racks of clothing being wheeled from one place to the next. It’s an energetic space with an energetic glam squad, and O is in the center of it all, alternately talking on the phone to her manager and listening to her music to calm the jitters and keep herself in the right mindset.