In March 2018, HP’s head of brand journalism, Angela Matusik, had an idea for series of documentary films around the power of printed images. She reached out to Sarah Klein and Tom Mason of Redglass Pictures, two filmmakers known for their emotionally-charged short documentaries, who helped flesh out the story lines.

Together, Matusik and Redglass pitched the concept to Karen Kahn (HP Chief Communications Officer) and HP CMO Vikrant Batra (who at the time was HP’s head of print marketing). Both immediately saw the storytelling opportunity to spotlight real people whose lives were radically changed for the better by printed images. The team immediately thought a love story would be the best way to launch the project. Klein and Mason then set out to find the perfect couple.

Imagine falling in love after seeing one photo. This is what is explored in At First Sight, a true story of Sikh-American couple and a photo exchange that sparks a connection across continents.

Arvinder Singh was student in her 20s living in the Punjab, India, when a letter arrived along with a photo a young man — with long eyelashes and his hair concealed in a traditional Sikh turban — almost 8,000 miles away in New York.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe, a young man in New York City held another photo in his hands. It was a picture of Arvinder dressed in pink and white, her smile confident yet playful.

Is it possible to fall in love for a lifetime after seeing one photo? At First Sight explores the bond created by a printed image.

At First Site is the first in a series of documentary films produced by the Garage by HP and Redglass Pictures.

From Florida to India, Beijing to New Orleans, History of Memory will explore stories of real life people whose lives were forever altered by the discovery, creation, or preservation of a printed photograph. The mission of the films is to remind the viewer that our most cherished memories must be printed.

To support the film, a micro site was created on HP’s owned content hub (the Garage), along with supporting editorial content to help audiences learn more about printing their own photos.

The film was released just before Valentine’s Day in the U.S, on social platforms and HP’s owned IP.

Once given the greenlight from HP, Redglass Pictures set out to find the perfect couple to feature in the love story. The decision to cast the Avindars was made for several reasons: Not are they incredible on camera and truly very sweet, but they genuinely did fall in love after seeing just one photograph. An added note: By introducing us to a non-typical American family, the film adds another layer of purpose. No matter our backgrounds, love is a universal language.

During the summer of 2018, the film crew spent several days with Avindars in their home in Long Island, NY – shooting them in present day and also recreating scenes from their meeting in 1996. Each photo in the film was created using HP printers, and the film was edited using HP workstations and monitors.

At First Sight is one of HP’s most successful films from the past 12 months. Working on a very limited promotional budget, it gained over 250K Facebook organic views in just several days.

On HP’s owned content site, the Garage, the film’s unique URL saw a 35% completion rate of the film, with over 65% of the audience watching over 4:45 seconds.

Using Knotch analytics to hep measure sentiment, HP asked the question: Does this film make you think about printing your own photo memories? The answer was exceedingly positive, with more than 85% saying yes, very much so.