Heroes Day

What it is

The team invents a superhero for every person in it: costume, stage make-up and a power. The catch is that nobody chooses their own. The characters are assigned by colleagues, which makes the day a picture of how the team sees each of its members.

There are make-up artists, props and special effects. Out of all of it comes a video that stays with you.

When it makes sense to choose it

It works best with groups that already know each other, and above all with teams that have something stuck in the way they communicate. Being given a superhero by your colleagues is a way of hearing what they think you’re good at, and it lands differently from a performance review.

It works well when you need video for internal communications, because the footage is the product and not a by-product.

It works less well with people who don’t want to be filmed. Here the camera is the centre of it, and there’s no behind-the-scenes role as big as the ones in Movie Making.

How it actually works

You start in a circle. The team brainstorms and assigns a superhero to each participant, sometimes a famous one, sometimes a character invented on the spot with powers drawn from the company’s values. Our trainers run this part carefully: only positive qualities go on the table, and nothing that could sting. Then each character gets a secret super move, tied to what that person actually does. A colleague in administration who can make five calls and close the invoicing at the same time. A video editor who can cut a film upside down.

Then you build the look, with costumes and make-up. It’s the part people enjoy most and the only one where the result shows up immediately.

Finally you film, and the video can take on special effects: a landing on the moon, a galaxy, a cartoon world, whatever the team picks. The powers have to be tested in scenes the teams invent, and that’s where the characters have to fit together instead of taking turns showing off. The day after, everybody knows what their colleagues named them for.

Three questions

Do you need to be able to act?

No. You play a character you built yourself, which is easier than playing one somebody else wrote.

What’s left afterwards?

The video, and the photographs of the characters. They travel well in internal communications, better than group photos do.

Can it be done indoors?

Yes. You need somewhere to do make-up and get changed, and a few spaces to film in. It doesn’t need a themed venue.