Angeline's Paradisiaque Palaise

Archive for October, 2010

show reel

This is a trailer of my works during  three years at uni.

When I look them back i found I have been growing up from mistakes and achievements.

Thanks to my teachers who helped and supported me

Thanks to my classmates , who did hard work with me

Thanks to 3 years uni life  ,what i have learnt is that I should never give up unless I try, and I should believe the inside of myself. Be ambitious.

video C storyboard

More about our video C

After I  heard of some suggestions from classmates , I am more confident than before.

Because at that time we were really busy with other subjects and I was really worried about how we were gonna present our video C draft. But amazingly, we made it more that we were expecting.   Maybe under pressure , we had a kind of motivation to work it better than before.

But here are some things we need to keep in mind for the improvements:

1.  More connections between the cards and characters :

Because it seems not much meaning between the stop-motion of cards moving and the characters’ faces.

2.   the speeding of camera’s moving and editing is good,  but maybe we need more than that.

3. we need to recreate the conversation between those three characters

4. maybe we can out more words to explain–like putting some sentences of the poem

5. characters do not interact with each other ( i think we want that kind of feeling )

6. someone suggested that maybe we can build the connection between characters and cards, is that the characters can play cards together. Maybe the card can be seen from the particular shots.

7. Seth said we have improved our presentation , but still need more.   —-Which I strongly agree, because three of us are not talkative people, but we still need to present our ideas clearly besides video playing.  Though we are trying to put all of our thoughts into the video, and trying to make everything clearly presented in the videos.  Hence I made my mind to do more practice on presentation and rehearsal ,     I am hoping during the showcase,  we can bring other people a surprise.  

week 12 reflection on the sketch C

Today ,we had our last class , we viewed the sketches of our last video.  I am really happy to see all of my classmates including  me and my group mates have improved a lot .  Like Jim’s group’s works are always abstract and they are very cool and impressive.  This time he displayed a dreamy video ,and i really like the changes of its lighting on the beach. And he got close-ups of the foot.The blur comes up, the whole feeling of this video ’s visual and sound  make me think of an old projector.  However I think the background sound is too much, .

And Julianna’s group :  Firstly , the picture is very neat and clean .  The secondly they used stop-motion of laptops to start their video, which is interesting.  They used a good communication way —visual, because they put different people speaking different language in the shots, which reflects the theme of their poem. The communication between laptops, between people , has been expressed  very well. But I suggested that maybe it is better they make the volume down during the people’s talking, because it is still noisy.

And for Claire’s group: they used stop motion as well, which is made up from words , shell, and trees. But i think the speed is too fast, I could not really see the words clearly. Their music is good, which has a feeling of memories.

About Lucy’s group ’s ghost story, it is a very simple and funny story. But I  think the language is a little bit over the level that most audience could understand , and i m afraid that if they changed the language it would not be funny any more.  And as they told me, they actually wanted to make a horror one, but it seems to be a comedy.  I did not know that is a horror film at all !  But i think it is very common that happens in every students who just start making their own works ,especially the genre of horror , it is easily to become funny.    However i think it could be a good try.

about our sketch C

As our idea for the video C is that we can use more conflicts , which is different from the previous ones.

Here we used stop motion to present the poker cards. The Queen , King , Jack all have implied meanings of the three characters  And we cuts between the still images and videos.which suggests the rhythm.  And we adjusted the speed ,  the effects of the editing creates a strong visual outcomes.

And I am thinking about maybe those three characters can meet in an elevator in the future.

Prod participation —week12

I think this semester’s PP2 gives us  an awesome opportunity and I gained a lot from practicing and actual video producing.

During this semester we started with brainstorming, and most of our group works’ ideas are from me. And also i was active in shooting and editing. I also helped out with finding of actors. And also all my group really like trying on different things, we love doing some experiments, which give us some ideas for our projects and help us with technical practices.

And I like learning the technical knowledge about Final Cut pro, Stop-motion, and time-lapse.  As a very useful tool, Final Cut Pro makes online video does not need to spend much on shooting, use of editing can bring good effects to the video.  Also I got know more about Canon 5D.   It is a new method that I want to learn since the first time I watched Matrix.

Self Assessment

This semester’s seminars are fanatic, they bring a lot benefits to us . I like inviting people from different areas and meet them . Because media this environment is communicating with different groups of people not only in a narrow area. I learnt a lot from group work about how to organize a seminar and how to work with people.It is very good practice . Here is my self -assessment for my  work in our seminar—Indie Online.

• Contribution and collaboration

At the first stage, I did brainstorming with my group mates and discussed our topic.   And there were several ideas about our seminar’s topic and content. So we decided that  make several different parts to make indie online. After that I did some research on the basic knowledge about our idea. And I shared the link on our facebook discussion page. And then I also did research for our potential  guest speakers, and I created a list of them.  Furthermore, I got 4 professionals‘ replies and all of them would love to come to our seminar . But unfortunately because there were too many people, and my group leader told me to cancel with the last one who replied me. And then my group leader thinks that the second guy is still studying, so not ‘professional’ enough. so i have to apologize to two of them, because they were really nice and help us out. Maybe the second is a mistake. but I have enough reasons for why i want to ask him to teach us something, is that because he already has his own production company , and his professional life is successful.  What is more ,  he did marketing research and practice for his own film productions and he has his own theory ,which is quite good for our topic.And most students would like to listen to him , because he started his career far beyond others .   I think those above  is really worthy us to learn. But the thing may be is that our group got 5 parts , only our one part already has more than 3 guests , that is too many .  After we confirmed with those 2 guests –Ron Brown and Anthon Umit. We decided each roles.    I did staff name tags and table tag for guests.  Also I went to purchase the table clothes with Melissa. I believe the staff tag showed a kind of serious and well-organized impressions to everyone, and the table cloth gives the guests some sweet and home-like feelings.  During the seminar,  I arrived on time and helped with setting-ups and other preparation works.  And I also helped with the food supply with Melissa, no one asked us to do that. But I think even this tiny little thing will make a big difference. Because at that time, we only got cookies and not enough donuts for students. So we got yummy sushi, though we paid ourselves.   At the end, we are happy that we got a lot good comments and feedback from students and our teachers, even though some people only told us that they love the sushi, we are still happy that our classmates did enjoy this seminar.

• Proactive Learning

Communication skills are really important for our graduates , like contacting with potential guest speakers , and how to get them to our seminar , we have to be active and well-organized.  During the process, I found why other group mate can not get reply , maybe that is because that they used hotmail or yahoo, which is not professional and efficient. And what makes me think further , that we have to choose the right communication tool, I contacted with people , mostly I use uni email because it is for my study. And facebook can get people closer, so I used it to contact some professionals to our seminar. But this method is not suitable for everyone, only because our topic is about online. so i think the related professionals should have a facebook account and often use it.

Also how to be a good team player is my long-term research and study subject. Because in different team work , we meet different people and deal with different things. So for this time’s seminar, I am responsible for my part but not only responsible for myself—should be responsible for the whole team, which is a little bit different from what I learnt before.

• Participation

I attended most of the seminars, group meetings and  the event.   And I was active in group discussion online and gave my feedback to others’ posts, not only just click “like”. And I also put my problems (e.g I had a problem with too many guest speakers) on our group page, and asked my group mates’ opinions.  The reason why I did not attend all of the seminars, was because I got a play (drama)  in Melbourne University to help out.

• Connections & intersections – what do you see as the value of the seminar series? Overall what have you discovered about your learning, your group interactions and your networking abilities in relation to this series? How do you see what you have learnt about yourself via the process (and via the content) fitting into your future career development and future work?

As I mentioned before,  our topics have been changed once.  My part has been changed once , from ‘online advertising’ to ‘online marketing’, but I am still happy to find some interviewees who are not doing advertising. Because it is a good chance to practice with my communication skills.  My future career is working in advertising industry , it requires me to deal with different clients and work with different types of people.   So I think our seminar series are extremely helpful for me , because you can learn from  professionals working in different media industries, and learn from the students who did a good seminar, also i learnt from my own practice.  And career development requires me learning by doing , it is about self-training .    Also during the process of our own seminar , i learnt more about problem-solving skills. No one’ s career has no problem , but problem can also bring benefits, the point is about how you treat your problem.

Overall, I will give myself a HD.  Thanks to the seminar series , one of the best part of my university life.

This is the draft of our video C , actually we were just doing some experiments with video camera and digital camera.

The effect is amazing i think .

But the meaning of the poker would be clearer and easily read from the visual.

I am thinking to make it more visual, and put some key words of the poem in our final video.

Because it is our last video, I really want to finish it perfectly

the agency list on my mind

• Adcorp – Advertising communications company helping clients maximize their communications processes.

• Australasian Television Awards – Awards for creative excellence in television advertising. Includes list of winners and entry details.

• Badjar – Internet advertising.

• Breakthrough Corporation – Marketing and communications group existing of five highly specialised divisions including marketing, advertising, direct, design, and media.

• Clemenger BBDO – Advertising and communications group with locations in Australia and New Zealand.

• d74 – Creative marketing agency specialising in graphic design, advertising, and interactive web sites.

• DDB Australia – Advertising agency.

• Exero Advertising – Cross-media platform advertising, marketing and multimedia advertising agency specialising in branded products.

• Foster Nunn Loveder – An advertising media and communications company.

• Glue Society, The – Conceives and produces creative work through copywriting, art direction, graphic and product design, and film direction.

• Green Advertising Group

• Inlink – Delivers information, entertainment, and video advertising via a network of digital display screens installed in the elevators of high-rise office buildings.

• JRA Studios – Fully integrated digital technology studio using the web for advertising media production.

• Michael, Maya & Co – Agency and media representatives specialising in the Asian market.

• Prographics – Offer packages of graphic and web design for corporate requirements.

• Revelation Productions – Offers retail ad management, fashion concepts, and government and community communications.

• Scimitar Advertising – Market strategy, corporate image development, full design and production facility for print and electronic media.

• Spark Brand Communications – Offers experitse in direct and point of sale advertising, promotions, and web design.

• THEM Advertising (SA) Pty Ltd – Marketing solutions for government, retailers, products and services. In-house design and production for press, direct-marketing, television, radio , Internet, outdoor and printed matter.

• Thurnham Teece – Full service advertising, marketing, and publicity agency.

Work Attachment Report

Introduction

Success is not waiting for someone who treats it as lotto game. It is the best thing I have learnt during my intern period.

From 10^th January to 10^th February 2010, I took my internship at Taiyuan Empire Film & Advertising Company (太原圣朝影视传播有限公司 ) as a copywriter. It is an advertising and TV company, it supplies TV commercial advertisements for brands also gets involved in TV programme shooting, and it has been told as the biggest media company in Shanxi Province.

Working this company is a good opportunity to try my ideas, because it is not a huge and worldwide company, so my own intern experience was more practical than others.   And I was happy to see that my ideas were highly valued by the professionals working there, and it was actually been filmed and be on the TV in local area.

The experience I got from this company is very precious, because it is different from what I have learnt in Australia. As my major is media, the difficulty is how myself to get used to the advertising environment, though I took an elective course about advertising, it is more about the marketing theory.  Especially I took my intern at the creative department, I felt it was difficult to start and make people to highly valuate the words from a new intern.

But thanks to those difficulties I had, so I learnt more than usual when everything is ok.

The real talent people do not only use what they have got, they also have the ability to make people to recognize their talent.

Before I put my actual thoughts in a competitive working environment, I thought maybe I should work like Van Gogh —there is no need to make people to believe my talent, what I need to do is only to go on with my thoughts and my own style, However it has been turned down when I first time drafted the creative ideas for a Chinese wine—Li Hua Chun. It is one of the most famous traditional Chinese wine brands. So I wanted to use some traditional cultural elements to emphasize it. At the first I was so ambitious that I made many brainstorming activities with exciting narratives and visuals. Like one of those ideas is a Kong Fu scene —two ancient generals are fighting for a glass of wine, so the audience can see how good the wine is that it makes people fight for it.  But the creative director who I worked for, who also is the guidance to me, told me that we did not need this kind of story, according to the budget and the customer, the method should focus on the audience.  And the format is actually a simple 1-minute animation with professional language of slogan.

However I was thinking it was a shame for Chinese local advertising company, because it has so many limits to make a good advertisement, so the local brand cannot win the competitions with big global brand, such as ‘Chivas’.

But then I realized nothing could prove that you are right unless you show the truth as your evidence to prove your talent. So I learnt that I was wrong because I set up my goal out of the reality, which is too high to achieve.

Learn from the loss.  And be positive.

My second campaign is better than the first one, and it has been broadcasted on TV.  Though I was not happy with the quality of the TV commercial ad, but I am happy that I proved myself.  It is an advertisement for a local supermarket, it is name is “Jia le Mei”, the meaning of it is “good, happy and nice”.   Because it is a supermarket in a particular city, so I made a small script and a storyboard for the ad.  I used four different characters, which are the target audience from different groups of people—- a 60 years old woman, a housewife, a young guy, and a child.  And each other them has a 2~3 seconds shot, and they focused on the different features of the supermarket:

This time I did not make the same mistake, according to the local audience’s acceptable level, and because it is a local supermarket, I think the awareness of the target audience needs to be focused on the ‘local’—with the pride of the place where they are living, they will feel they need to support their local business. And I chose some simple narrative and lines for a short TV commercial video; so within the limited budget, the simple but vivid ad will make audience memorize it, which my guidance also agreed with me.

Character	Lines	Action
old woman	.”Jia Le Mei, good price”	looks at the price of the product
housewife	“Jia Le Mei, wide range of products, good qualities’	puts the product into the shopping cart
young guy	“Jia Le Mei,  happy shopping atmosphere”	buys a hot drink for his girlfriend
child	“ I love Jia Le Mei !”	holds a candy and smiles
end(voice-over)	.“  Jia Le Mei, the supermarket belongs to us ‘”	titles

The opportunity won’t wait for people to catch.

I think the only regret for this case is that I did not go with the production team for shooting, because no one asked me to go. And when creative director asked me why I did not go with the team, I told him the reason. Then he asked I should ask, and I should catch this opportunity to see how my idea to be made to a video.  I did feel regret, because when I looked at the footage, I was not satisfied with the set-up and the character selecting.  But it was too late to say, I will keep this lesson in my mind,

And during the intern I was also responsible to come up with different plans and ideas for different advertisements, like an online shopping website of beauty products, and a promotion activity for a seasoning brand.   But I think my best one is still the local supermarket ad, because I used my strength of media background.

Be aware of relationship with people who are working with you

However besides of working as a creative, I also learnt something that I could not learn in Australia, but it is necessary for me to learn.

Actually, at the first I was working with a different guidance, and he worked as an account manager besides creative director. But I did not learn what I expected until the other creative director asked me to help him and after he saw my draft for an ad, he always asked me to help.    The first day that I worked there was not pleasing, and I cried after work. Because when I arrived the office early and asked my first guidance what I need to do, he only asked me to clean the office, without teaching me anything about advertising, But I know it is quite common phenomenon when a intern just starts to work in a new place.  And as they knew that I would not stay in this company, as I had to go back to Australia, they put my guidance name instead of my name in the credits in the advertisement that was made from my idea.  And maybe I was too shy to ask questions, so I could never get the answers I want.

I was upset when I was treated unfairly on the first day working there, and I was thinking to quit. But they I realised I had to start from the dealing with the difficulties. If I cannot work well in my hometown, how could I successfully work well in a foreign country such as Australia?  So I became more positive and active at work, and there was a very kind professional— Wu Hai Hong, the strategy planner, and he was the teacher of both of the creative directors. Wu Hai Hong  was really nice to me, and he always asked me questions and asked me to bring him any questions on my mind. He gave me a lot encouragement and he taught me a lot about advertising industry in China, which I am so grateful for that, I think it would happen again to me, some people maybe do not think you are useful to them, or they just do not care when they think they have enough experiences. But In someway, there must be someone who recognize your talent and they would like to help you and teach you.   The thing is just like my last guidance told me, “If you never try, you never know.”

Conclusion

Actually I had the thought to take my intern in a big company in Beijing or Shanghai, because it may make my resume more powerful. But when I looked around, some of my friends told me their experience that they did nothing when they were working in big company or production, because their abilities was hard to be trusted. But I am happy with the result of my intern, because I worked in my hometown,  it is developing city with fast speed , it has a touching desire of becoming powerful. Working in this best local media company, I learnt many things, trying of my ideas, and to make people listen to me. And as a local, building the image of our local business brands is my responsibility when I was working as an advertiser.  And the big background is that Chinse advertising market has been refined and reshaped after China joined WTO, the market changes make advertising industry to change as well. With a big population, China has become a coveted market; Chinese consumer consciousness has been influenced by western culture. So the one social phenomenon is advertising ‘s “newness”.  That requires us to highly value the costumers and the audience, and we need to change the perspectives, to think about what the costumers want and what audience would like to see.  And my guidance told me that advertising is a very competitive industry. 10 years ago, there were 50 big advertising companies, now there are only 2 left on the rank, the others all have been placed by new ones.  And it is easy for people to be involved in advertising industry but it is very hard to stand out.   Having some knowledge about psychology and philosophy is a necessary so we can be aware of requirements of people and the society.