Reveal and resolve · Leonardo Estrada Studio

HOW I WORK · REVEAL AND RESOLVE

A brand is not revealed all at once. It is built in layers.

I begin by observing what you want to communicate and what the audience receives. Then I organise the decisions that bring them closer together. The method guides both a review and the creation of a piece.

From material to message01 / 04

01 / The material

Observe before shaping.

Explore the layers

I listen to the objective and observe the piece, the person and the context in which the message needs to work.

One piece, four decisions.

Hide just enough to provoke. Reveal what is needed to understand. Illuminate what is decisive for action.

PRINCIPLE

From adjective to substance.

A feature gains value when it serves someone in a specific situation. A low-light camera matters differently to someone who needs to film after work. I look for that relationship before choosing what to communicate.

The same is true in a work of art. A set stops being mere background when it strengthens the character, the situation and the meaning of what happens.

At the editing table

What I look at in your video

What is said, seen and heard can reinforce or contradict one another. I examine those relationships, along with presence, pauses and progression: this may be where the gap between your intention and the audience’s experience lies.

The objective: communicate calm.

Illustrative exercise · 6 seconds

Here, you can slow down.

Optional sound · synthesized tones

Ready to compare

Same scene. Same words. A different reading.

An editing decision / Image

Cutting between details repeatedly demands attention. There is barely time to settle into the space.

On the table: image, words and sound

Visual composition exploring the relationships between image, words and sound

Apply this perspective to my video

IN MY WORDS · MARKETING + DRAMATURGY

From the product to someone’s life

In this excerpt, I explain how our reading of a product changes when we look at its place in someone’s experience.

Original audio in Spanish · English translation

The products we sell are sold to someone, and those products live within an emotional space for that customer.

ORIGINAL VIDEO · 44 S · SPANISH SUBTITLES BURNED IN

I use a shower curtain as an example because it forces us out of the feature catalogue. The question stops being only “what am I selling?” and becomes “what does this mean within that person’s experience?”.

If that bathroom functions as a space for calm, privacy or recovery, communication can begin to build value around that situation. We are not inventing a need: we are understanding more precisely the context in which the product already participates.

Product→Context→Meaning→Value

Characterisation matters here too: the better we understand the person and their situation, the better we can decide which product attribute is substantive and which is merely decorative.

Apply this approach to my video

Explore further: dramaturgy, marketing and languages

DRAMATURGY01 / LANGUAGES

Organising languages to create meaning.

Dramaturgy works with the layers of a work: it relates them, structures them and gives them form so they can build meaning. Those layers may be verbal, visual, musical, physical, spatial or temporal.

It is not only about telling a story. It is about understanding what each sign does, how it interacts with the others and what experience the whole creates.

VISUALITY

Design the frame

Light · line · colour · symmetry · composition · space

MUSIC

Shape time

Rhythm · tempo variation · tone · melody · instrumentation · character

BODY / PERFORMER

Build action

Gesture · posture · objective · conflict · desire · action

NARRATIVE

Dose meaning

Information · progression · tension · suggestion · turn · closure

MARKETING

Connect with someone

Audience · need · pain point · desire · message · action

01Artist

Selects, organises and shapes signs according to an intention.

02Work

Turns those decisions into a language of its own.

03Audience

Interprets, completes, imagines and enters into dialogue with it.

Sometimes the creator directs the reading closely. Other times they leave gaps so the viewer can complete the meaning and become, to some extent, a co-author.

From character to buyer persona.

When I studied marketing, I recognised connections with tools I already knew from dramaturgy. They are not the same, but they speak to one another: both disciplines try to understand a person, their motivations, conflicts and what can move them to act.

Characterisation ↔ SegmentationCharacter ↔ Buyer personaConflict ↔ Pain pointDesire ↔ NeedObjective ↔ MotivationAction ↔ Decision

That is why a campaign, reel or advertising piece can also be worked on dramaturgically: who speaks, to whom, what they want to provoke, what information they reveal, what emotion they build and what action they expect next.

Storytelling is one part. Dramaturgy also looks at the relationship between image, body, word, music, space, rhythm, time and audience.

THE DIFFERENCE

I do not audit only whether the video sells. I audit how it is built.

Marketing helps read audience, need, value proposition and action. Dramaturgy adds another layer: structure, progression, staging, behaviour, rhythm, credibility and the relationship between words, image and sound.

01 · MARKETING

What it needs to achieve

Audience and context · need or friction · product function · value proposition · message · CTA.

02 · DRAMATURGY

How it is built

Scene order · progression · focus · tension · rhythm · gaze · gesture · presence · credibility of the action.

03 · AUDIOVISUAL LANGUAGE

What it makes people feel and understand

Relationship between text, body, framing, image, music, voice, silence, time and the meaning of each element.

The viewer does not need to know how to name what is wrong to feel unconvinced and keep scrolling. My job is to identify those frictions and turn them into concrete decisions.