It's been awhile. Blame my lack of updates on assignments and exams. However the good news is, I'm now free!!! I've decided to take the time off to get in touch with my music (or rather get reacquainted), considering how long it's been since I last touched my violin. And to reflect on what I really want to do in advertising. Next semester have to choose electives liao, so yeah. It's been a semester filled with all sorts of drama which I will not speak off here, but thankfully, it's over. :)
Oh yes, and I broke my record. 3 DAYS OF NO SLEEP! Okaylah I slept a few hours in the afternoon, but trust me, it wasn't enough. On the 3rd day I could barely think and I had to complete an individual assignment.
One good thing about this semester is that I've grown... Somewhat (I so feel like laughing at myself now). I never knew that there was so much more to advertising than what I learned in the past few semester. Advertising (especially the creative aspect) is HARD. It's not the execution part of it all. It's the formation of it. Execution-wise, every Tom, Dick and Harry can do lah, to be honest. But good ads don't work that way.
This semester was an eye-opener.
And I have my lecturers: Margaret Chew and Alicia Chong to thank for that. Despite the times that I've whined incessantly about how hard the assignments all were, I believe I did learn something from the both of you. I don't think you'll ever read this, but I still want to say a heartfelt thank you to the both of you.
This is an ad that will never ever be shown in Malaysia (Malaysians, we all know why...)
Personally, I feel that Bruno Aveillan (the director of this ad) is a genius. I absolutely love his work. The concept of this ad is clearly seen, and beautifully executed. Now if only we could make more ads like these...
Note: This entry is for the Nuffnang competition collaborated with Dell for a Dell Inspiron 13 laptop.
Being in the Advertising line, I am constantly subjected to many sleepless nights and a whole load of stress. Hence, I am usually seen in college looking and walking like a zombie. In my position, there are many things I'd absolutely love to treat myself to. Unfortunately, time constraints and recession has a huge effect on me. So, the only way I can actually treat myself, would be by using my imagination (stop looking at me like that, I'm seriously broke so let me dream okay). These are my top 5.
#1
How nice it would be... To treat myself to....
A Dell Inspiron 13 laptop.
Given the life I lead, it's WAAAAYYYY past the time I actually owned one. Did I ever mention that besides studying advertising, I'm also an account executive for CREACTIVE, IACT's (my college) Student Run Ad Agency? Being an Account Executive (AE) isn't exactly easy. I have to be constantly on the go, and it really doesn't help that whenever I need access to the net, I have to comb through places to find cyber cafes, and put up with the lousy internet connection at college (when I use the college computers). What's worse is that I have to literally fight my brothers to use the PC whenever I need it. Yep.... A laptop would be great now. However, I'm really picky. I need to make sure that it's a laptop that I love, and can use for years to come. Dell Inspiron 13 is all I am looking for in a laptop and more. It's fully functional, and I absolutely love the blue color. So eye-catching! :D I can picture myself using it right now..... Ahhhh....
#2
If only I were able to treat myself to....
A spa treatment.
Okay, sounds cliche, I know. But seriously, do you know how stressed up I can get?? There are times when even an ant can set me off. Seriously la, when I'm stressed, I'm like a ticking time bomb. You never know what could set me off. SO... For my own sake, and possibly the rest of all humanity, I NEED TO GO TO A SPA, AND RELAX.
#3
I'd really love to treat myself to....
A crystal violin.
I've been playing the violin since I was 10 years old, and despite quitting my lessons to pursue my advertising diploma full time, my heart never left it. From time to time I'd still pick up my precious violin and play with it, just to hear its melodious notes. I've wanted a crystal violin ever since I saw Vanessa Mae perform with it. That was when I was 12, I think. It looked so lovely, so beautiful. I never thought I'd have ever seen anything so beautiful like it. I go absolutely ga-ga whenever I see a beautiful violin. But I don't think I've ever seen one as beautiful as this. From then on, I told myself I'd own one someday. And I definitely will, someday.
#4
I'm dreaming of treating myself to....
A bungee jumping spree!
Not many people know this. I absolutely love extreme sports. I love feeling the adrenaline rush. It's something that really gets me all hyped up and excited. Among all my siblings, I'd be the first one to go on the roller coaster, no matter how scary it may be, I'd go. I'd love to know how it feels to jump off a cliff and.. Not die. Haha.. I never had the chance though... Again, time and money are both huge influencing factors in this.
#5
And I'm really dreaming of...
Treating myself to a WHOLE NEW WARDROBE!
Okay, tell me, which girl does not want her wardrobe to look like this I ask you?? I probably wouldn't have it in brown though.... I'd want it to be white, cos it's my favourite color. And I'd have WAAAYYY more clothes, shoes and accessories than the one in this picture. Besides, my clothes are getting a wee-bit too dull. It's really time for a change.
So, those were my top 5. I may not be able to achieve them all now, but I certainly hope I'll achieve them in the future. Especially that Dell laptop. Soooo..... Pretty please with cherries and sugar on top? :D
Which really makes you wonder how many pictures you see in magazines, adverts, etc are actually real....... Actually, I wouldn't be too surprised if Kristen Stewart actually looked like that. :) I'd love to know how they did it though. Rest assured my pics aren't completely photoshopped (except for certain lighting adjustments and all.... Eh, how can you see the pictures clearly of the picture quality not good huh?)
New drawing coming really REALLY soon! It's been crazily hectic these days. What with the Kancil Awards deadline just over yesterday. College picked us (my partner and I) to send our entry in but we had to send it in ourselves (explanation: my college filters through every entry sent by students and shortlisted Kancil Award entries are usually sent in by the college). It's a long story filled with re-do-s, re-printing and a whole lot of shit we had to deal with, but I'm not mentioning this here.
Anyways, I've heard this movie is quite good.
Yeah, Aly Michalka and Vanessa Hudgens. Check out the poster:
Sounds like a High School Musical-ish movie, LOOKS like a High School Musical-ish movie, the only problem - it's not. Summit apparently made a bad choice in marketing it. It Disneyfied the whole thing. Now, I'm no Disney-hater. In fact, I've loved Disney ever since I was a kid. The only problem I've ever had (and still have) with it, is how some movies/shows they have produced were losing the classic Disney touch (not inclusive of the Pixar movies). But I hear that the Disney family (that was fired from Disney, or something to that extent. Yeah sounds stupid I know, it feels weird typing this) is coming back to Disney, hence we have more classic movies to look forward to (like Princess and the Frog).
ANYWAY, back to the movie. The marketers chose to market the movie via Disney Channel's Vanessa Hudgens and Aly Michalka and decided to call the film "Bandslam" instead of "Will" because "Will" was too... Indie, when in fact the film IS indie (well, according to a source it has an indie voice wrapped up in a high concept). I hear it's a very Juno-like film. It's a School of Rock-ish movie caught in a High School Musical-ish skin. Statistics say that most people thought it was another High School Musical-like movie.
Remember Juno's cute trailer?
Compare it to the Bandslam trailer.....
Here's a brief synopsis about the film:
Charlotte Banks (Aly Michalka) has what it takes to be a true rock star, and with the battle of the bands approaching she's determined to win. Her chief opponent in the upcoming competition is none other than her egotistical ex-boyfriend Ben (Scott Porter) . Ben may be cocky, but there's no denying his charisma when he takes the stage. With a little help from new arrival Will Burton (Connell), Charlotte's band begins to develop a unique sound and starts writing some original songs. Meanwhile, as Will and singer/guitarist Sa5m (Hudgens) start to make a love connection, disaster strikes, and the band is forced to choose between conceding the competition or standing tall and finally living up to their true potential.
Apparently, Rob Freidman, the person in charge of this trainwreck of a marketing plan heard Hudgens' singing and thought there was only ONE way to sell this film - High School Musical. The problem here, was that Vanessa isnt playing Gabriella from HSM. Her character here is a monotone, dark, goth character. My source tells me, she's actually pretty good, but I think the bad advertising overshadowed that. Would a dark character be marketed as.... Smiling and happy, I wonder? The poster was already a huge spoiler. And by that, I don't mean for the movie plot.
You can read the full rant (I don't mean it in a bad way) here.
The marketers definitely did not read the movie right, neither did they take the time to know its target audience, which are two VERY important aspects when it comes to marketing. They made a quirky, unique and cool indie film into a tween flick. Mind you, the movie was rated PG. No tween flick could possibly be a PG film.
At first glance, I wouldn't even consider watching Bandslam. I mean, I don't even like High School Musical. But after checking out some info about it, I think I'd really want to watch it.
Note: If you are a Twilight fan (especially if you're an Edward Cullen fan), please do not continue as this entry may be offensive to you. You have been warned.
I'm pretty sure you guys have seen the recently released New Moon Trailer. A lot of hype has been re-generated over the Twilight saga, and fans are just rearing to watch it. Now, I'm not Twilight fan. I cannot fathom why the girls go all ga-ga over Robert Pattinson, when all I see is a seriously constipated face trying its hardest to look.. I dunno, sexy in vampire-like way? I still hate Bella (the one in the movie) because she was so expressionless I thought she was a robot that was trying too hard. I totally did not see any chemistry whatsoever between Bella and Edward, and by the time they got together I went: "THEY WERE IN LOVE???" The ONLY person that managed to catch my eye was Mary Alice Brandon's Alice Cullen. She was just too cute! I found the plot amazingly dry, so bloody typical, and awfully tedious. The cold, stiff acting didn't help much either.
Yes, picking up an apple from a tree for a girl is enough to make her want to be you girlfriend. Every boy who wants to get a girl should really do this! Right.
Judging by the trailer, New Moon is probably gonna be just as cheesy (the dialogue made me want to vomit. How the actors could keep going all mushy-mushy to each other and keep a straight face, I have no idea), and just as dry. Gosh, I want to slap Bella so badly.... Is it just me, or am I liking the evil-looking blonde voltur-whatsitcalled woman more?
Okay, if you are a Twilight fan, ignored the warning, read this far and are about to throw stones (or whatever you can find) at me, let me say ONE redeeming point about the Twilight saga: Jacob Black. Watching the trailer, Taylor Lautner made me actually want to watch the movie.
Look at that. He kinda looks like a guy from a surfer ad to me, but honestly, he is hot. Check out those abs!
If you asked me..... Taylor Lautner is way more handsome and way hotter than Robert-I-Need-To-Poo-Fast-Pattinson. I'm so glad they cut his (Taylor's) hair.
Maybe he WAS trying, but I seriously don't feel turned on.
AND another thing, why on God's beautiful Earth, did they choose Robert Pattinson, over HIM????
Gaspard Ulliel. Ooh-la-la.
He doesn't even HAVE to act sexy, the guy OOZES sex appeal. He, in my opinion, would make a much better Edward Cullen. Whatever possessed the director/producer/whoever was in charge of casting to overlook him? I'd choose him in a heartbeat. Heck, this guy made Hanibal Lecter look sexy. I'm not sure if he was good in it, cos I did not watch the film (with me getting nightmares so easily and all....). But boy, was he hot. And when he speaks in French... or even in English, WITH THE FRENCH ACCENT.... Oh lord...
I tell you, I can never remember the name of the product of this ad even though I've seen it so many times. It's what we call vampire creativity, an ad that is so creative, that you cannot remember the brand name at all. This ad won the "Golden Pencil Award". According to my lecturer, this is the ultimate award that a copywriter can wish to achieve.
So, tell me what was your first impression of the ad, and... can you still remember the brand name after watching it? :)
This post is dedicated to the lovely Paik Hwa and... Uh... Lam Ming Guan who will both be flying to England very soon. This picture was taken last Thursday during our farewell party for the both of them. I can't believe we're all flying off one by one! Next it's gonna be MichT. I hear she wants to fly to Aussie... I think. After her, it'd probably be me.... I'm not sure who else is gonna fly off, but I'm pretty sure that the yam-cha gang is probably gonna whittle down to one or two people. I'm gonna miss you all so much! I feel so nostalgic thinking of the wonderful times we had together. I have one thing to say though, please, PLEASE don't forget us! Do remember to keep in touch and TOLONGLAH, don't come back to Malaysia like a pendatang haram and NOT tell anyone about it.....
Paik Hwa and Lam, please take care. Please stay in touch. And remember this, we all love you (well if the others don't, I know I do. ;)). It's not exactly a very heart rendering speech, I know. These are very simple words, but I really mean them (I can feel your bulu naik-ing). With that said, bon voyage and have fun!
Here's a vid I've been meaning to post up a long time ago, but I kept forgetting the title. I saw this back in Sem 1 (which was last year), thanks to Joyce Ngu. The shirts are plain shirts by the way, they just added in graphics. The graphics here are damn cool. And by that, I mean that the timing of all the graphics on the tees is so precise, I was amazed. So amazed, I started raving about it the next day. Enjoy!
P/S: This isn't the original version, guys. There were a few scenes left out, so... Not as cool as the one I saw. If I manage to find the particular version I saw, I'll repost the vid.
I saw this ad a few days ago in class. Not sure if you guys have seen it, but personally, I feel it's really creative. Apparently, after the launch of this ad, the sales of Carlton Draught rose. It was really bold of the advertisers and the company to choose such an unconventional way of launching a beer ad, considering that your average beer ad does not involve millions of people running around and singing.
Nope, I did not trace this. It's really simple and really rushed. I used to draw a lot. My books would be filled all sorts of drawings when I was small. It irritated my parents and teachers really badly. Oh yeah, I painted a lot too. These days, I don't draw so much cos I got busy. I'm not too sure how to pixelise it. AM planning to post some of my artwork here. Especially since I don't have much to blog. Most are gonna be handdrawn and black and white. I'm not too good with CG yet.
FINALLY, this blog is revamped. It took me this long to figure out how to change the template so yeahhh. I am happy. :) Like I promised, I've edited the blog and everything.
However, I think I lost some of my links, not really sure la. Cos I had to upgrade my blogger account settings and all. Being me, and I know I am prone to being extremely muddle-brained, I cleared my previous layout without thinking, and yeah, lost a lot of my widgets. I guess you can consider this blog still under construction, though I'm not quite sure what else to do with it....
For now, I must go back to my cross cultural essay..... Whoo-pee.
Sorry guys, but I'm not going to edit this blog until I can figure out how on Earth to modify the html codes of the blog templates provided by yummylolly.com. Don't worry guys, I'll definitely revamp this blog. Thank goodness I'm not doing creative multimedia (as interesting as it may be), or I just might die.
At this point in time I should be:
A. Vegetating in front of the TV (though I don't watch it as much anymore)
B. Leveling up in my PS2 (sadly, PS2 saya rosak. Have to send for repairs. How I wish for a PS3!)
C. Reading a good book on my comfy bed (Which reminds me, Ches can I pinjam The Diary of Anne Frank please?)
Unfortunately I have an essay to do, some bloody groupwork that I totally forgot about, and I STILL haven't organised and revised my notes. At least it's a holiday tomorrow.
Quite frankly speaking, I prefer Twitter to Blogger. For one thing, updates are way easier, and there's much less hassle.
At around 10.30 AM in the morning, an SMS woke me up. I checked my phone - it was Pauline:
Uncle Simon passed away yesterday, I'm not kidding. Funeral is tomorrow.
At first I had no idea who she was referring to me about. I thought she meant that her uncle had passed away, and she wasn't coming to the potluck (groggy as I was, that was my assumption). So I put the phone down and went to sleep.
An hour later, I was awoken by yet another SMS. This time, it was Wei Ling telling me that the party was canceled because Mable and Pauline weren't able to come due to the passing away of "Uncle Dobby". Then I started thinking.... Uncle Dobby? Uncle Simon? Who...? Then it hit me. It was the uncle from "Kindly Laundry". The owner of the laundry shop near my old college.... I was shocked.
It turns out that Uncle (as we all called him), had died of a heart attack just yesterday. It seemed so unbelieveable.
We knew uncle through Pauline, who was his goddaughter. Almost half of my class knows him, I think. As I remember him, Uncle was kind, friendly, and fun to be with. We'd all go over to the laundry shop to hang out and chit chat. He'd make all sorts of jokes, and we'd all laugh. Uncle had a jolly face. You could see it in him that he was a cheerful person. He wasn't like any of the uncle-s I've met. He was hip, and actually really cool. We called him our "rockstar".
I remember this one time when uncle called us over to eat lunch. He'd made lunch for us. It was so good. He cooked mushroom and chicken soup with eggs. I ended up doing the washing (I offered la).
I horribly regret one thing. Not spending enough time with him. Everytime I come by the shop (which grew less and less), uncle would tell me : "Hey Miss Woo! Long time no see! Why never come to the shop now hah?" I guess the increasing ammount of workload made me withdraw, socially speaking. I went home immediately after class, spent lots of alone time in college, cos I really was very stressed up. I regret so much for not spending time with him. Cos now I can't. I won't see him anymore. My last memory of him, was that tight fatherly hug he gave me a month ago. Mable told us that he told his sons that he missed us. My heart ached at those words, and the tears started pouring.
I cried a lot yesterday, thinking about you, and how we won't see that jolly face of yours ever again. I'm sorry I couldn't come for the funeral, I am so mad at myself for not being able to go, and at my dad, for not letting me go. I sincerely hope that all is well. I pray with all my might that you will rest in peace. I pray for your family, for Auntie, for your sons, Sonny, Stanley, and one more (I forgot the name... Really sorry). I know that I, we, will never forget the beautiful memories we shared together. Here's to you, rockstar. We'll always remember you. We all love you.
okay.. I know this blog is getting kinda abandoned.... I need to revamp it la. Any ideas?
Generally, there's nothing bloggable at the moment. Either that, or I'm too lazy to blog. I'm trying to find a new template though... ('cos I don't know how to design my own blog - HTML issues, dimension issues, etc.)
I tell you ah I'm very far behind the html world now. I need to get my knowledge back! RAWR!
Anyway, I might be going for a potluck party tomorrow. I'll blog about that, I guess. If I have the pics.
