Someone asked us to make a cheesy brand video that Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn could play at a shareholders meeting. But we knew there was a bigger story to tell. It had been ten years since Nissan nearly went under, having to sell to Renault and bringing in a new CEO to right the sinking ship. In those ten years since, they'd gone through an epic struggle that read like a classic drama. We abandoned the brand video idea and pitched a short film that would tell the Nissan comeback story for the first time. And Ghosn himself approved it.

Two things about this project shocked me. One, the client let us show all the bad stuff - internal dissent, layoffs, admission of failure, etc. And two, we produced an eight minute film...and the client only had ONE minor change to our rough cut. It's the only time that's ever happened to me.