A client often has a fair idea of what he wants. If you show him what you want and not what he wants he’ll say that’s not what he asked for. If, however you show him what he wants first, he is then relaxed and is prepared to look at what you want to sell him.
You’ve allowed him to become magnanimous instead of putting him in a corner. Give him what he wants and he may well give you what you want. There is also possibility that he may be right.
A new idea can be either unfamiliar or silly or both. It can’t be judged by description. It needs to be done to exist. It is unlikely that anyone will sanction the cost of something they don’t understand; therefore you have no choice but to do it yourself. At whatever cost.
You may have to beg, steal and borrow to get it done. But that’s for you to work out how you do it. It’s exiting, it’s difficult and it’s fun. If it was easy anyone could do it.
The film Citizen Kane is a very good example. It was stolen not sanctioned. Orson Welles could not find any backers, but he did raise a small sum for casting. He begged, borrowed and cajoled people into building sets and shooting full-blown screen tests which eventually formed a third of the film. It existed. Backers could see what they were getting he got the money. Without him doing it when it supposedly couldn’t be done, it would be another in the endless list of ideas that never happened.
