This film was created to open HubSpot's INBOUND conference, setting the stage for more than 10,000 attendees by translating a core business philosophy into a powerful visual story.
ROLE: Co-Writer, Director, Director of Photography
The challange was to create an inspiring opening film for INBOUND that embodied HubSpot's "Grow Better" philosophy. The goal was to draw a sharp contrast with the industry's prevalent "grow at all costs" mentality and connect with the audience on an emotional level before the first speaker took the stage.
The film follows characters as they move from a world defined by pressure and constraint into a luminous landscape of possibility, a direct metaphor for embracing HubSpot's ethos. This transformation was built into every element of the film.
The Constrained World captures the "grow at all costs" mindset, I used cool, desaturated tones, jarring kinetic energy, and a tense, staccato score. I framed this world in a standard aspect ratio, confining the image to the center of the massive stage screen. This created a visual metaphor for limitation and pressure, making the audience feel the confinement.
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The film's turning point, "The Hard Choice," triggers a complete sensory shift. The score swells into a high-energy anthem as the visuals bloom into a warm, orange-bathed world—HubSpot’s signature brand color. At the same moment, the image dramatically expands to fill the entire ultra-widescreen, delivering a physical sense of release and possibility that was shared by everyone in the room.
"The Hard Choice" successfully turned a business concept into a multi-sensory narrative. By integrating the physical architecture of the venue into the storytelling, the film set a defiant and inspiring tone for CEO Brian Halligan's keynote.
It created an immediate emotional foundation that connected the audience to the conference's core message, proving the power of film to translate abstract ideas into a shared, tangible experience.