In review – Dogme 95 was a radical film movement created by Danish filmmakers that intended to bring filmmaking back to its core unvarnished roots.
The movement created a manifesto and a “Vow of Chastity,” which set forth a strict set of rules to rid cinema of the excessive special effects which were becoming too mainstream and over-the-top.
Here are just a few of the rules as established by the Dogme 95 “Vow of Chastity.”
- Shooting must be done on location. Props and sets must not be brought in.
- The sound must never be produced apart from the images or vice versa, and music must not be used unless it occurs where the scene is being shot.
- The camera must be hand-held.
- Optical work and filters are forbidden.
And the list goes on.
In essence, the Dogme 95 rules put filmmaking back to its origins and modern-day filmmakers at an extreme disadvantage. The rules create a massive creative challenge to the filmmakers – striped “technically naked” to level the playing field and make films more organic and true to life.
Perhaps the marketing and advertising world could benefit from this and rid itself of the current state of dogma it lives in today.
What in the hell would a marketing buzzard do without big data, artificial intelligence, vanity metrics, retargeting, and the like?
What would the “this is just how things are done around here” marketing folks do if they had to turn off their marketing super computers and meet the consumer face to face in real life?…
… and be forced to vacate the Disneyland safe havens known as Google and Facebook, and do some honest old-fashioned work?
The marketing dogma is real my friends – it’s invisible yet omnipresent.
And it has turned the advertising world into a mutant noise machine – rendering well-intentioned consumers powerless with its insistent messaging, interrupting, and megaphone “look over here!” shouting.
It’s not that people don’t pay attention anymore (more dogma) – no, it’s more like attention itself has fallen into a Novocain-like state of numbness as a means of survival.
Marketing, like Cinema, has become too reliant on special effects and tech-savvy market-makers and is in need of a Dogme 95 kind of reset.
The hype and hyperbole need to leave the marketing room.
Rebel Rebel
Today’s marketers are dogma whisperers.
It’s time to rebel and revolt.
Great thinkers and great brands challenge the existing dogma.
They refuse to comply and outright reject it.
It’s time you give yourself permission to do the same.
Steve Jobs said it best in a 2005 commencement address:
“Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.”
Start here – do the opposite of “how things are done.”
Be brave, be bold.
And challenge everything.
Make one rule – that there are no rules.
Conformity is Novocain for the soul.
Say no!
Have an opinion and don’t blend in.
Be informed – feed your brain.
Knowledge is the energy source for income.
Income can mean different things to different people…
… for some, it’s more money…
… for others, it’s more free time …
… for me it’s freedom.
Freedom to fulfill one’s purpose.
Dogma takes for granted and dictates that everyone and everything be average – a commodity, undifferentiated, and mute.
Create your own set of principles and lead, don’t follow.
And don’t be social for social’s sake (online that is,) you don’t need likes, claps, subscribes, and shouts to be the wind in your sail.
And don’t forget to have some fun along the way…
…the world surely needs more smiles.
Stay unruly ~
