From Eiffel Tower to Outer Space: How Perspective Shapes Storytelling
When we think about great leaps in art and storytelling, we often picture canvases, cameras or cutting-edge animation software. But sometimes, the most radical shift comes from simply changing where we stand.
Recently, I finally fulfilled a long-held ambition: climbing to the top of the Eiffel Tower. For decades, I had wanted to see the view that art critic Robert Hughes called the object that heralded the beginning of all modern art. A bold statement. What I did not expect was how that same idea would echo through our latest Plume Films project, linking nineteenth-century Paris to the International Space Station.
The Eiffel Tower and the Birth of a New View
When Gustave Eiffel’s iron lattice tower opened in 1889, it was not just an engineering marvel. It rewired how people saw the world. Robert Hughes argued that for most ordinary people, this was the first time they had looked down on Earth from such a height. Churches and cathedrals could not compete. Hot air balloons were rare.
Standing above Paris, the streets flatten into two dimensional patterns and the city dissolves into shapes. For Hughes, this shift was not just physical but artistic. Ordinary people got to enjoy the spectacle and so the Eiffel Tower’s view helped usher in abstraction and the trajectory of modern art.
From Iron Girders to Orbit
That idea resurfaced for me while developing our new Plume project, Marble, a live audio-visual piece built around nineteen minutes of ISS footage looking straight down at Earth. The International Space Station offers another profound shift in perspective. It is the first time humanity collectively saw our planet as a fragile marble floating in blackness.
For the astronauts, it was life changing. For the rest of us, mediated through television broadcasts and images, the impact was sadly softened. But the potential remains. A new vantage point can change how we create, feel and tell stories.
Crafting Story Through Perspective
For us at Plume, that is what storytelling is about: finding the angles that move people. Whether it is a documentary, a brand campaign or an animated sequence, the craft lies in curating perspective. The Eiffel Tower taught nineteenth-century Parisians to see differently. The ISS shows us our planet anew.
Every frame we create is a chance to offer that moment of astonishment. As we stitched together the ISS footage for Marble, I found myself checking the live feed every morning like the weather, mesmerised by shifting light, cloud formations and continents sliding by. Those quiet, steady images carried the same power as that first step out onto the Tower’s viewing deck: a gentle but seismic reminder that story begins with how we look.
From Eiffel’s iron girders to orbiting cameras, the throughline is clear. Perspective is not just a technical choice. It is the heart of storytelling. In a world where content is everywhere, offering people a new way to see might be the most radical act of all.
Want to see how we blend story and perspective? Explore our portfolio or get in touch to craft something extraordinary together.
