La vida en rosa, as Édith Piaf would say, is what we want to share with our virtual neighborhood at all times. Images that avoid monotony by passing through a filter that transforms them into an attractive and appetizing pastime. Life seems wonderful posing under the Tuscan sun or in front of the colorful facades of Notting Hill. Although, most of the time, you are lying on the sofa at home thinking about what to prepare to eat with what you have left in the fridge or locked in the library, studying for the driving theory. The important thing in an idyllic print is not what is behind it, but the lens with which it is filmed. And especially the staging.
However, there are times when fiction is stranger than reality. This would explain the success of viral trends such as “Romanticize your life in the style Wes Anderson“, with thousands of video clips to the beat of Obituary by Alexandre Desplat flooding TikTok and Instagram in recent weeks. “We start from a certain predisposition towards videos satisfying, those who visually transmit a lot of peace. If you add to this the solid community of fans that Wes Anderson has, it is very difficult for content like this not to go viral, because there will be interaction yes or yes,” says Nacho Chambó, communication and digital strategy consultant.
Indeed, the hashtag #WesAnderson already exceeds a billion views, and a quick search returns videos of people reading, eating breakfast, working, riding bikes, or walking down the stairs with synchronous and perfectly symmetrical movements. Despite being located in different locations and being filmed with a greater or lesser degree of professionalism, all the recordings have something in common: they imitate director’s style The Grand Budapest Hotel y The French Chronicle with obsessive precision.
Why so much coincidence? Why so much detail? “I don’t think any of this is accidental, there are too many interests behind it. The director is going to release a film shortly, and the most effective advertising campaigns take into account this type of strategy that generates links with the public. It happened, for example , with the viral dance of Wednesday Addams“, says Marcos Blanco, professor of Digital Marketing and Social Networks at ESIC.
Various media outlets and YouTube accounts have posted a list of tricks to replicate Wes Anderson’s style, even if you’re an amateur photographer. You only have to take into account a series of aesthetic keys: frontality, symmetry, light and color. “Perfection is sought in substance and in form. They are videos that reject the boring and exploit the pleasant,” adds Blanco. Word of caution: blurry images are not welcome, so it’s best to first make sure your camera has adequate depth of field and resolution.