So the other day I heard a hilarious approach to getting a project approved with very few details (that you care about) being pulled or rejected. It was in a topic pages meeting and my good friend and collegue Dallas Petersen was speaking. The principle is called Leave A Green Couch Behind, and the impetus came from a set designer who was tired of having a director come in and make serious changes to his set. So one day he dresses his set perfectly, and then adds an ugly green couch to the soundstage. The director comes in, looks around, and says, "love it, love it, love it - well, let's lose the green couch and we're golden!"
The thinking behind this principle is that on every level of management there must be a contribution made, and so in order to save his work from being completely changed around he threw in an obvious change to manage his management, something that he could quickly extract himself if the change wasn't caught. From that day on the designer began looking for something extra he could throw in, the proverbial "green couch" if you will. Not to say that this is the best or even a very effective approach but certainly a fun tidbit worth sharing ;)
1 comment:
Credits should go to John Uibel. He is the production designer referenced.
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