When you get right down to it, those squishy bastards “ends” and “means” are tricky taskmasters. 

Especially when it comes to the intersecting worlds of creativity, advertising, and production.

Focus too much on the former, and you risk corner-cutting and compromises. Lean too far the other way and you get so wrapped up in the plot, you never get to the happy ending.

Of course, “ends” and “means” are more famously known for the ethical challenges that come with moral justification—no omelets without breaking eggs, where “eggs” are people—but let’s not go there. Instead, let’s talk about a conversation I had with Chad Sipkin, owner of the brilliant NYC edit house, Consulate.

There we were, musing about the tsurris that comes with mutating client project requirements that, like the Energizer Bunny, keep on going.  And coming.

And that AI is likely to exacerbate the mishigas by leading to an equally radical shift in expectations about what’s become possible. 

For reasons known only to the department of random firing synapses, I ventured the notion that maybe the right path forward is for all of us to become “source agnostic.”  

Translation: being willing to draw from any/all available creative assets to tell the story in the most expeditious way. Live action. AI. CG. Animation, digital projection. Stock. Or any, and all, of the 5,040 (for the mathematically inclined) permutations of just those 7.

Not to mention whatever gets invented next.

Now, before we all jump down the twisty brown rabbit hole on this, it’s important to know that what makes “source agnostic” interesting is that it’s additive, not subtractive.

It doesn’t mean giving up on the techniques we love the most. Or even those greasy on-set chorizo and egg breakfast burritos.

It does mean adapting to a very different philosophy of “creative making.”

One that, if anything, puts an even greater premium on finding a magnetic gravity for the piece; an idea that’s imaginative, fascinating, and profoundly visual.

And it also comes with a very real learning curve. Whether it’s discovering how to craft the right AI prompt or investing the time to find the right stock image, you need to approach the thing like a director — with clarity, intent, and vision.

As it happens, “source agnostic” is anything but speculative.  

I say that based on the last few years’ work with the remarkable Bob Brihn on projects that range from a new product launch for a major health IT company to a brand video for a big-league construction firm (examples below).

In all cases, but one, we wound up diving into more than one part of the toolbox to find what was needed.  And in that one case, we used AI to explore set design options where time and budget wouldn’t give us the chance to do it live and in person.

Clearly, this isn’t for the creatively faint of heart. In the metaphorical fogbank of endless creative options, it’s very easy to lose your way.

But do it right, and you have a way to leap over “impossible” and “can’t” to arrive at epic. 

It’s a place where ends really do justify means.