Mama Mia!

I admit I’m a drama queen but this ain’t just drama! I know it’s gonna be a freaking circus!!!

I think I’m right royally screwed!!! I have been partnered with an Art Director from another agency to compete in a 3-day competition.

First impressions of Scallywag.

Not good. He talks a lot, I don’t have an issue with that, but he talks nonsense, nothing concrete to peer into his soul and witness his capabilities. I’ll let that pass.

I also think he’s lazy, he spoke a lot or rather explained about sleeping, like it was some alien term.  Fine, sleep all you want, do you really want to tell a girl you’ve just met that? Maybe you would do so, if bed was the next destination on your list.  Oh well since he wasn’t hitting on me, I guess there’s a massive chance of him zzzzzzzzzzz on the brief. Damnit I swear I’ll wring his neck if he snores!!

Yeah and he’s also short on a few years of adverting experience so I have no, absolutely no clue as to how he works or what he’s done or rather capable of.

I’m scared, really, utterly, terribly scared!!!

Though I look like I can’t move a boulder, I can and I’m fiercely competitive. But for that to work, I need motivation, I need to know my partner will give me their best, when they do, I perform.

This competition is a whole different ball game; because I have no faith in him I will fail to do at least what I’m capable of doing.

I hope he surprises me and proves this post wrong.

SIGH

I type

In type.
Depending on my mood, these days it’s Tahoma. Clean, narrow, reflective.

“All the things you’re not” says my Art Director.

Too bad the blog doesn’t allow fonts of all kinds, I think WordPress is being a bit discriminatory.

Oh well! Peace out!

Kudos

I heard his name, then mine. I heard countless voices congratulating. It was all too surreal.

We won!

The competition I wouldn’t say was easy. When we first started I was thrilled to work on the topic, a topic I would say I’m not entirely unfamiliar with, it also helped that we both share a common distaste of the topic. So things started rolling as we guzzled on Coke. We progressed from relatively boring ideas to a good one with half an hour to spare before handing our work in, then suddenly we realized we missed something. Panic and stress set in and we were both trying really hard to salvage our thinking. After many futile attempts we agreed to go ahead with what we had and then sell the idea as best as we could. Damn one line of copy missed, and that was enough to push us from being in the game to the sidelines.

The wait for the presentation was a killer. I felt a surge of panic take over and my hyperventilating partner who tried really hard to hide his emotions (even the best of actors can’t pull off faking real emotions) had sudden toilet rushes.

‘Number 9’

and we were on. The presentation went off well. The judges looked relatively happy so maybe we weren’t that bad. I was strangely calm and Pokey was poised, only I could see the nervousness in his eyes. He did a wonderful job with the presentation and held himself pretty darn well. So I’m absolutelymarvelouslythrilled that we won and I’m undeniably happy to share this amazing experience and victory with Pokey and I’m truly proud of us. We’re such a splendid team, it’s as good as a pair of perfectly fitting jeans

Kudos to us, again Pokes!

Where’s my muse?

The past couple of weeks have been inspiration-less. Now it’s starting to get to me. The problem is I can’t work without being passionate about work. I guess that’s how any creative person feels when they’re hit with a writer’s block or an idea block, but when that happens it’s the chopping block for me!

An awful friday

I’m stressed.
I can’t think straight.
There are so many things going on in my head.
Little sparks and lost thoughts.
Followed by a quick succession of flashbacks.

Tempted to rebel and let sanity escape.
Tempted to stay put and fight my way.
Confusing as it is, there seems to be either this or that,
and a tingling sensation to break that bitch’s neck.

Another goal achieved

So we won. Not one but two of those awards that we’ve all so desperately wanted. What’s especially exciting is that I won one too, something that I wanted badly and now I’ve achieved it. Wow a sense of achievement is running through my veins.

Now to call my family and tell them the good news. They’d be so proud of me, a little of the limelight shall fall on me, today…

The week moves on…

14th August

I’m drowning with work,
with life, with emotion
with unexpressed creativity.

15th August

I took ages to decide what to wear in the morning, after casting away 5 outfits that my poor mum had to iron I decided to wear something completely different. This is a sure sign I’m stressed.

That aside thought I’d jot down some of the events that took place in the past few weeks:

Noir – ­ Went during the first weekend because had a friend acting in it. Didn’t particularly like the first 3 plays, that’s probably because I don’t particularly like Shel Silverstein. His plays have abrupt endings and sometimes he takes on very swearing note. On that precise thought I might as well add that I hated the Devil and Billy Markham. Back to Noir second run I loved the last piece the Lifeboat is sinking. It was extremely hilarious.

Congregation party – ­ Thought I wasn’t going to enjoy it but I did maybe a wee bit up until the part where Voluptuous out of fright gave me bear hug. Well more like a deathly squeeze considering his size and mine. B Man was unusualy quiet then again I didn’t make an attempt to talk to him, I just wasn’t my old jolly self that night. One thing that’s bugging me though is why did Drummer Boy seem weird?

Fashion Design Workshop – ­ I’ve always wanted to Fashion Designer, like I’ve always wanted to be an Artist, like I’ve always wanted to be a Photographer and so much more. Anyway decided to attend this workshop, it was good. I had fun. It’s a curse that it cost so much to learn to be a Fashion Designer. I realized that at this moment I can’t afford it so maybe someday in my life. I want to be very pompous and say that I do think that I have a good sense of fashion, I can take a nice picture and I can draw to a certain extent. Yes Ashan I know “Please come down to earth” right?

Well that’s it from me…in the coming weeks I’m looking forward to the Convention and the Foundation Camp.

Bank vs Advertising

So I’ve got into a heated argument with Specko who’s a banker. I’ve never been interested in banks because they take our money away, do fancy things with it which they call investments and fill their pockets with bonuses while the country goes into recession. Another annoying reason as to why
banks and I don’t get along is because sometimes I have to do advertising for one of our clients which is a bank and that bank is not a pleasant bank to work with. They always get their strategies wrong and the most irritating thing about them is that they don’t like creative stuff. They think that consumers won’t understand, if the consumer is going to invest millions surely they’re going to understand creative approaches. It’s a bank (shouting) did you hear? Banks are boring hence the need for creative ideas.

So I hate banks!

The conversation I had with Specko made me want to poke my chubby nose into it and actually see what the whole fuss was about. I was only interested in two thing during the whole conversation which was when he point blankly said “multinationals are far better than local banks”. I strongly disagree. I believe that local banks try NOT to rip you off, plus the investments are used for infrastructure and projects within the country. That’s good.

The second area of interest was when I told him that foreign advertising in the local market doesn’t work (that’s what his bank does, they get foreign photographs and put them up on hoardings and every form of communication). He disagreed. He tells me it works well for them. Er… I simply can’t take his word for it, he’s really passionate about his company and feels nothing is wrong with it. Never came across a company that’s 100% perfect but I’ll give the guy a break after all he’s only served the company for 8 months.

Okay so here’s the reason why I wrote this post…I want your opinions.

The questions that’s really bugging me right now are:

1. Do you think multinationals are better than local banks?
2. Does foreign advertising work in a local market?
3. Isn’t a 2-year graduate program in a company almost like an internship
with a glorified title and decent pay?

Please leave your comments. Look I’m not an expert on this topic and I might
be extremely stupid about the whole thing but I got to know…Lohengrin I’m
counting on you.

Behind the camera

Spending the past three years in the ad industry has exposed me to a lot of things. I’ve learned a lot and hope to put them into good use. I’ve also picked up a few glitches along the way. For instance, what’s it with Sri Lankan photographers and commercial directors?

First let me rant about the photographers.

I think we have some awesome talent when it comes to photography. Most of our local boys and gals can shoot a subject or an object pretty darn well but when it comes to complex shoots (fashion photography,shooting people) they fail. Fail to get the desired expression. Fail to get the body language right. So many things that they get wrong than right. Why? Because the photographer simply shuts himself/herself behind the camera. There’s this massive distance between the two, so the model doesn’t react, doesn’t feel the mood or rather doesn’t know what it is… I’ve noticed when foreign photographers shoot, they constantly chatter, they encourage, they motivate, they criticize hence the outcome is fabulous. Plus the Art Director, model and photographer work together instead of in
isolation. The problem with our Art Directors is that they’re really good at dissing the photographer after the shoot. When I question as to
whether they mentioned their concerns at the shoot, they laugh and tell me that the photographers never listen so they don’t bother.
That may be true but you’ve got to fight for what you want, right?

Second the Commercial directors, I simply dislike working with Sri Lankans because when the script falls into their hands they like working without the writer. That’s why the finished film is never as good as the script. I had the privilege of working with an Indian Director for one of my commercials and I simply loved the experience. He was open to suggestions and after finishing a scene he would ask me whether that was what I wanted and if I was dissatisfied he would shoot it again. Also he made sure he took a cut he liked, then in the editing room we would view both and come to an unanimous decision. Something else I liked about his style of directing was
that he was very involved with the actors, he spoke to them during breaks, he made them feel comfortable, he got them to do it over and over again till they got it right. That is the attitude I would like to work with instead of obnoxious twits.

That’s all I’ve got to say on the matter. Back to writing scripts and facing clients who won’t approve them.