Day Eleven; The Extraordinary Joy and Glum

I decided to wear a little more formal today because I’ll be following Aliya to the off line presentation later. I woke up thinking that my vision was blurred but actually it’s just oddly misty today. Not a nice day for a sunny photo shoot. It even drizzled in the morning. Mornings like this only make me want to lie down and snuggle in bed. Ah Boy guessed that breakfast today would be nasi lemak while I guessed fried noodles. As usual, I’m always right or rather she’s always wrong. Haaha. Desiree, Gogula, Van were seated at the table while Gin May got herself a drink. Today, Calvin, another intern from Lim Kok Wing joined us for breakfast. He’s a mix of Indian and Thai/Chinese parentage. We had a fun time chitchatting and as always Van and Ah Boy is always competing to be the joke of the day. Please note, I did not say joker. Haahaha. One of my favorite line from Van is “Sometimes you all like to make me seem so stupid!” Haaha. Van, its not that we want to. You want to know why I said they were competing to be the joke of the day? Van was TRYING to impress us by asking a kiddy question, “What is a female peacock called?” Ah Boy, the smart one, answered “Peapussy”. We all had a great laugh and then after more teasing, we returned to our seats to begin the day. Gin May suggested we have pizza today. Sounds good to me. Let’s give the sandwich family a break. Oh Jenny is back. But she left again. I heard from Jas that she is taking an emergency leave or something. Desiree just treated me to some Breadstory bun, leftovers from a meeting that just ended. Aliya gave me some job requisitions to submit to traffic and at the same time explain the changes to me. Job reqs are like work request sheets for the creative. Whenever anyone needs the creative to do something, they need to submit the job req to the traffic so that the traffic is able to monitor the workload of the creative as well as make sure work is done prior to the due date. Aliya also told me that there would be a photo shoot next Tuesday! Yippee! She says that I would be able to see the amount of work that goes behind just one photograph. There is even someone called the “Food Stylist”. Wow, I am so looking forward to this. Van just told me some disturbing news She told me that Aliya is going to leave soon. I haven’t heard it yet but I hope it’s not true. What am I going to do then? We’re going to order from Dominos and we’re going to order 4 large pizzas for the price of two! I have the Dominos Gold Card and Desiree will be going out to buy it. 4 Large pizzas should be sufficient to feed 7 people, I hope. I helped Gin May type out some stuff and munched on some Pringles I bought today. Today is going to be a fattening day. Pringles and pizza. Yummy, fattening? Who cares! Oh my god. Something super extraordinary has just happened. It started like this. Some of the senior staff went out and came back with bouquets of flowers and a cake. Then Connie, somebody I just got to know today, came out of Cyril’s room and they all started singing the birthday song. I then heard “Faster faster where camera?” For some odd reason, I felt the urge and without any thought, just stood up and said “Here! Here!” Only then I realized that eh wait, I’m in the office and I don’t know any of them. They were already smiling and stuff so I just went on and took some pictures. They then got to know me and Cyril asked if I was free on Saturdays. He wanted me to roam with them for an event and take pictures on behalf of the agency. He asked me how much I made a day and when I said “RM 15?” He replied, “Screw that! How would you like to earn more money? You just tag along with us take some pictures and we’ll just pay you.” Sounds pretty nice! I’ve got the 15th of December booked now Bringing a camera to work has actually paid off. I don’t know how much I will be earning but it’s still an extra! I was freaked out actually. They now know who I am and what I do. I am not that invisible in the office anymore. And to think, it all started with an impulsive reaction when I hear the call for a camera. “Faster, faster where camera?” Connie and her surprise cake. Malu but true. I now have the chance to earn extra pocket money :) Who would have thought, my first paying job as a photographer came from the agency itself. Oh before that, Aliya told me that the one who is going to sit next to me is quite cute. Hmm, it’s casual Friday tomorrow isn’t it? 1.40pm now and Desiree is still not home yet. She is caught in a jam I guess. Ah Boy and Van has already started grumbling and all we can do is wait. Everyone was so hungry. The pizza finally arrived at 2.30pm and I have to leave in about 15 minutes time. I gobbled it all as quick as I can (I’m bloated now) and helped Aliya send out another job req. Gin May kept getting calls and couldn’t even finish one slice when I had already eaten at least 3. Work never seems to spare her some free time, not even for lunch! We will be leaving anytime soon for Damansara. We're almost done. Aliya and I left the office at about 3.10pm in her new Honda Civic. Wow, it’s an awesome car. In the car we had a chat and yes, it is true. Aliya is leaving and next Friday would be her last day. Honestly, I don’t know why but I feel sad deep inside. It’s like; I’ve lost my purpose for going to the office. I won’t even know what work to do now. I was already curious as to why I have receive three mass emails from staff of Leo Burnett wishing everyone well and saying goodbye despite the fact I’ve only been in the agency for a mere week and a half. Aliya says I’ll be receiving her goodbye letter too and about 5 or 6 to follow soon. In the advertising world, the turnover rate is rather high in comparison with other industries. People tend to move around because the industry is pretty small after all. However, Aliya said that this shouldn’t really be happening so frequently in an agency such as Leo Burnett. Leo Burnett must be going through some tough times. Aliya has only been in the agency for 7 months. Soon, she’ll be going to Bali for holidays. I wish her well I am so thankful for Aliya because she has been an incredible mentor to me. She takes the time to tell me things, explain the procedures and even take me around for shoots. In the world of Advertising where patience is rarely heard of, Aliya is one patient woman. I also noticed that Aliya which is she is an extremely polite person. I have never seen her raise her voice and even when she is not satisfied with something or someone on the phone, she keeps her cool very well. It doesn’t even show. Aliya even promised to introduce me to Yasmin Ahmad before she leaves. How cool is that? The walls are bright orange In VHQ. We arrive at VHQ Post, a post-production company to view the rough cut of the shoot we did the other day. You will not believe the amount of work, effort and attention one puts into a mere 15 second ad you might not even remember. “Ali Baba had a cat that was fat. The cat that was fat ate lots of rats. The rats that were eaten by the fat ass cat were very sad.” There, if you read the sentence above, 15 seconds has just passed. That is how quick 15 seconds is in reality. You hardly even realize 15 seconds. I realized that the shorter the advertisement, the more careful you can be. Every second or even a split second is carefully watched. The video, the audio, and the synchronization must be perfect. A decision of whether one should sulk or smile, even if it is only a one second frame needs to be carefully contemplated. That is the world of advertising for you. Once we, the agency, saw the rough cut, we immediately mailed it to our partner agency in Hong Kong who is supposed to immediately rush to a conference in another hotel to pass it to our client. The world is extremely connected now. Within 5 minutes after we in Malaysia watched it, the whole process of sending it to Hong Kong and to a hotel where the client is, is done. Another 5 minutes later, we are on a speaker phone having a conference with the client from Hong Kong about what is wrong or needs to be adjusted. If you believe the rumors you hear about advertisers having a blast in their casual wear with beer cans scattered all over and bottles of liquor on the table, it is time to rethink that. It still amazes me how connected we are and the amount of attention is given to a 15 second commercial. I think I will start appreciating advertisements more often now. We were done only at 8pm. Aliya took me to Megamall to catch a cab before going off to Bangsar to have a drink or two. I got back at 8.41pm, bedazzled yet hollow of what has happened today. The thought of Aliya leaving is still boiling in my mind. Picture this. A nation without an identity. A driver without a destination. A tribe without its head. I feel so lost. I am not ready to do anything yet and I still need guidance, lots of it. What becomes of me when Aliya leaves? I have a week to prepare myself. Amounts of “Fucks” today is 4. An interesting addition to the family that deserves mention is “Wah Lan Eh!”. It basically means Wow, but with a vulgarity on the rocks. Orientate you tomorrow. ~ Countdown till Aliya leaves : 8 days.

Day Ten; The Work and Play

I woke up at 7.30am again and went straight to the shower. I put on my jeans, yes jeans, and a shirt. Comfortable at last! Ah Boy came at 8am and we arrived at 9.05am. I cleared the memory in the camera and changed a battery. Today I arrived for a breakfast of fried rice, noodles, and roti sardin armed with a camera. Van posing in a way she doesn't seem to pose. Ah Boy, picture taken by Vanessa. Gogula with the "I'm brown and cute!" stance. Gin May with the "I CEO. Give me my coffee." look. We all played around with the camera a bit before going back to our seats. Aliya just walked in at 10.18am. Ok, I have to go photostat some documents and chop them and after that, search for all the Brunei final artworks. It’s 11.27am now; I’m looking through the O’brien’s menu. Heehe. I took the menu yesterday so that I’ll know what to order IN CASE it rains today. But then it seems so sunny outside, a perfect day to go out and take pictures. How how how? Walk to the sandwich bar or call for a delivery from O’briens? Ok, I’m not going to miss the chance today. We’re walking to the sandwich bar and I’m bringing a camera The sketch. Wow, I can actually tell its a human! Aliya got Jas to bring over some McDonalds things from the Leo Burnett side of the company for me to see. How nice! There are scripts and pictures here for me to see. Yippee! Wow, all these are actually confidential documents. They contain the media selections, rationales and the most detailed information about the advertising effort. It is detailed to the point every one McDonald’s store has a guide as to where to place what ad and how. There are also procedures for McDonald’s staff to carry out in the event of a client wanting something different, such as mixing their meals, or using a coupon. A lot of work goes into making the Golden Arches the McDonald’s you see today. Ah Boy, Van, Gogula, and Li San came along to buy sandwiches. Gin May gave me her ‘recipe’ and asked me to get her one too. Along the way, I only managed to snap a few pictures before Van stole it from me. Haaha she takes picture while walking. It looks as though the camera has become her vision instead. The Gin May special. When we arrive at Lapis, the sandwich bar, we all scrambled to get our sandwiches. Today there was some other bread as well. Mine was quite huge actually and was spilling out. We then played the guessing game and guessed the weight of my sandwich. I guess 346gms and it came out 343gms. I told you I had special abilities in the fields of sandwiches. I told Van to bring Gin May’s sandwich home first and asked Ah Boy to carry mine. I went out first because I wanted to go snap some pictures and I know they will eventually catch up. I had only walked about 10 meters away and they were already in front of me. Evidently I was taking my own sweet time being trigger happy. I took a slow slow stroll back with the camera. Along the way, I saw a big flock of pigeons feeding in front of a store across the street. I went there and was greeted by an Indian man who was scattering bird food on the ground. He smiled at me as though to welcome me. I smiled and nodded. I think he mistaken me for a tourist. Lots of pigeons. I took a lot of pictures of the pigeons eating and flying about. I kneeled and waiting for the moment, the moment when all the pigeons fly above my head. As they flew, I constantly snapped away though they were quite quick. At the same time, I was praying that I would not be blessed with gold droppings. Thank god I’m all clean. Pigeons in flight. I then hurried back. By the time I got back, Gogula had already finished his sandwich and Ah Boy had finished half. Ah Boy had finished half? That means they had came back very much earlier than me! Gin May wasn’t at the bistro. She ate as she worked. She told me that even to finish her lunch, it seems that today, it’s going to take her 2 hours. Oh my. It’s 3.39pm now. I finally have time to write. I spent about one and a half hours browsing through folders after folders searching for some McD pictures. My eyes were turning blur. Wow, Gin May still has a quarter of her sandwich left. Poor girl, we brought her sandwich back about 2 hours ago and she still hasn’t found the time to finish it. Hey! She was right! It’s been two hours now and she is still having her lunch. Haahaha. Today has been the busiest day for me so far. Scavenging through files after files, CDs after CDs. I wonder if the workload will grow as the days come. Who am I kidding, of course it would. Oh well. Hmm, now that I haven’t anything to do, I’m going to mail Gogula and Gin May their pictures. Aliya just told me that on Friday, two girls will be joining the McDonald’s team and she is going to give them an orientation so she asked me to come sit in so I’ll be able to know even more about the whole department. Remember the smiley receptionist that always plays Sudoku? Her name is Vivian. Just a while a go, Van asked me to send her mp3 player downstairs. Van left at 4pm today because she has to go meet her landlord. Anyways, I talked to Vivian the receptionist and take a wild guess what was she doing? Yes, playing Sudoku. She said that she is not going to finish it because she’s lazy. It’s a 5 star Sudoku today. Vivian said that she does probably 3 Sudokus a day, depending on how many newspapers she has. I went out to the bistro to take some pictures and I took some of Vivian too. Sadly, it was quite dim there so the shots came out a little dark and I didn’t have a flash with me. The shutter speed was at about 1.6 seconds and she had to hold still for that amount of time. Haahaha. Vivian taking a break from Sudoku to pose for a picture. Its 6.26pm now and I’ve been reading Juice for over an hour. My work is pretty much done since just now but I’m just waiting for Ah Boy to finish hers. Gin May just offered me a Dunkin’ Donut. Yum…just what I needed! Thanks Gin May! Somebody stole her chocolate one and she’s eating an icky green one. I finished a pink one and I still don’t know what flavor it is. Aliya just went home. Wow! Another first. The first time she went home earlier than me. Anyways, tomorrow I’m going to follow Aliya to Damansara for the off line presentation. Remember the rough cut of the video for the client? Read Day 8 again you lazy bummers. It’s 7pm now and Ah Boy is finally done. To occupy myself, I went around snapping more pictures and I scribbled and doodled in Vanessa’s notepad. She’s in for a lovely surprise tomorrow or maybe not, if she read this tonight. Total “Fucks” today is four. No new members want to join the gang. Toilet cam whore! Off Line you tomorrow! ~

Day Nine; Of Rain and Sandwiches

* Some shoot related pictures added in kaypopotamus. Back to office today. I set my alarm at 7.00am and another one on my computer at 7.05am. I got up at 7.00am, walked to my computer and switched that one off and set my phone’s alarm to 7.15am. I then got up at 7.20am. I guess the symptoms of laziness are starting to show. Even when I’m lazy, I have to do it with style. I procrastinated till it was 7.30am before hitting the shower. Three things excited me for work today. They are my new bag, new belt, and erm… sandwiches. I still feel the uncanny need for a sandwich. Ah Boy came 8.15am and we arrived an hour later, just in time for nasi lemak and some chapatti. Van, Gogula and Gin May was already there munching away and my first task today was opening a jar of jam. One of the many reasons why women need a man at home. Haaha. We talked a little; teased Ah boy (as usual) and Gin May told us that in Australia, they drank weekly. Sometimes twice or thrice a week and drinks are relatively cheap there. It sounds nice. Aliya told me that she had a meeting this morning and would only be back sometime during noon and Jenny is in Hong Kong if I’m not mistaken. Till Aliya gets back, I guess I won’t have much to do. I transferred some of the photos out of the camera but ran out of battery. Sigh, now not only I cant transfer files out, I cant even snap anything! Argh. Wong just offered me some Toblerone chocolates but I didn’t take them. I want sandwich! I want to call O’briens now but I think I’m just going to walk down to the road to the sandwich bar and make myself another sandwich. Lunch is anytime now! No! Stop! NO! Why did it have to rain? Why? You cannot imagine the gloom that bloomed in me now. I am so exasperated now I type everything extra dramatically. I want sandwich. I want it so badly I even considered calling O’briens again. Gin May suggested I buy sandwich from downstairs but I don’t want the ordinary triangular egg mayo sandwich. Ah Boy constantly laughed at me. Gragh! I even contemplated going with an umbrella. In the end, with no options, and a broken soul…Ah Boy, Van, Gin May and I went down to the food court to get some Indian food. I wondered if they had Indian sandwich or something like that. The closest thing that came to mind if I had asked for one would be a roti telur. No, I don’t want it! So with our to-go boxes of Indian food, we went back up to the bistro to eat. I got myself a can of Soya Bean (yes, I washed it) and started to devour my unsatisfying meal. Right when I fed myself the last bite…it seemed somewhat unpleasantly clear outside. Yes, it had stop raining. Gin May had a little chocolate crave so she wanted to go down to the little sundry shop. I followed her down and while we were on the escalator, I realized that I could have bought a sandwich from the café at the bottom! Earlier Gin May was telling me about the café, not the triangular ones in the food court! Oh my gosh. The gloom that bloomed in me had now spread to my pancreas and is killing it. My lungs have already contracted the malaise from my broken heart. Drama maximus! Guess what Gin May got for herself. Strawberry Rocky! And a chocolate bar. Haahaha. I got myself a huge piece of honeydew that I couldn’t finish. There is still a quarter left on my table. It’s raining again. Ok, I feel better now. Back to work! It’s 3.30pm now and it finally stopped raining. Piggy just sent me a link on MSN and it was her very first byline. Written like a pro, I’d say! Piggy wrote about PKR and their conquest for a newspaper permit. I showed her pictures of Katherina and Jerwin and we both agreed that they’re really supercanmelt.com.my. I cant wait to transfer all the other pictures. Just now an Elsze came and asked me where to find a file and I showed her. Elsze was from the Leo Burnett side just like Clarissa. Oh, I forgot to mention about another person. His name is Cyril and he’s a big man. Cyril’s quite tall and most of the occasions when I see him, he’s has a Puma shirt or gear on. I’m guessing he’s a huge Ferrari fan. Ferrari is tied in with Puma as well. Besides, Van tells me he has pictures with Michael Schumacher and it’s hung in his room. What triggered the thought of Cyril was his bag. I turn green with envy whenever I see his bag. It is a Louis Vuitton messenger bag. Though I would very much prefer a Burberry, LV wouldn’t hurt now would it? Ok, stop. I‘m starting to sound like Ah Kuah again. 3.52pm Aliya introduced me to the ‘final artwork’. Final artwork is something to be sent to the client for approval and she asked me to proof read it word for word from another sheet of paper. Double checking. It’s 4.39pm and I’m just done. I spotted quite a lot of mistakes and it happens. That is why we need a few eyeballs looking at it before actually sending it out. Things like dashes and underlines and spelling errors are common. After proof reading it, I told Aliya and she took me to the creative department to see what happens next. We met this lady named Shara who corrected the mistakes on the spot. Her fingers were quick as lightning and she did all her work by hotkeys. Amazing. I’m now awaiting the corrected copy to be printed so I can have a final look at it. Vanessa just tried to call my extension and I just found out that my extension is 2457. Wow, this is the first time my phone rang. Interesting. It’s 5.41pm. I double-checked the final artwork one last time about half an hour ago. I just finished sketching a picture of Vanessa. She’s so glued to the computer that she isn’t moving and I had nothing better to do. This is Vanessa. I will show you the sketch tomorrow. In awhile more, I’ll be going home and before going home, I MUST, I repeat, I must get myself a sandwich. Today wont be over until there is a sandwich jammed down my throat! Ok, maybe not jammed in but slotted in. Whatever it is, I want to eat a sandwich! 6.14pm now. I just finished some printing for Aliya and I’ll be going home soon. Gin May has already packed her things and is ready to go home. This is the first time she is going home earlier than me! I’ve been thinking about my work attire. I gathered my courage and I asked Aliya if I could wear denim to work and she told me that I can wear whatever I want to! Hooray! I don’t have to wear really formal wear to office anymore though it wouldn’t hurt looking smart once in a while. I left the office at about 6.45pm and to O’briens in Chulan Square. Upon arriving, I was repulsed by the sight of a waitress shifting the tables and chair back inside as though to keep them. I hurried to the counter and asked if I could please have a sandwich and the lady was nice. She said they were closing but sure I could, if I was hungry. I got myself the Crambo Club, a triple decker sandwich and munched my way to heaven. Finally my day is completed. Today, four ‘Fucks’ were heard and an addition of a very very interesting word. “Ma chattt?!” at one count. It is the Cantonese equivalent for “What The Fuck?”. See you not so formally tomorrow. ~

Day Eight; The Shoot

Today was a new experience. I woke up at 6am to be on time. I was suppose to go to McDonald’s in Damansara Damai (I haven’t even heard of it) at about 7.30am to 8am and so I followed Mum to work and she dropped me nearby One Utama to catch a cab. Initially the cabdriver asked for RM20. I said no, and then he asked the magic question. “You kerja kat McDonald ke?” I arrived where I wanted to at about 7.40am, paying only what the meter showed. By the way, my answer to his question was…unmistakably yes. It takes a bigger swindler to con a swindler like me Upon arriving, I saw two big trucks packed with filming gear and the taximan said “Wah ada shooting ka? You banyak nasib! Boleh tengok.” I nodded while my pancreas secretly laughed at him. read Aliya wasn’t there yet so I talked to Eric, the director. Eric appears to me as a talent-friendly and patient man. After all, he has to deal with two kids today. Jerwin aged 4 and 5 year old Katherina. I asked if Eric worked under Leo Burnett too and he told me that he works under Superwonderful, a production house. It goes like this, the client hires an agency and then the agency outsources the filming to a production house. Casting and talents search are depending on the production house’s services. In this case, this was a packaged thing so; talents, production, and post-production are all given to Superwonderful to take charge of. I started snapping away immediately. It has been months since I held a decent camera and my fingers were excited. In no time, 200 photos were taken. I had to delete some as I only have 1GB worth of space today. At medium size, I could take close to 600 pictures only. Oh, my companion today was a D70 and an 18-70m F3.5. I then met the kids, Jerwin and Katherina. There were cute as heck! There was having their make up done. One of the make up artist had tattoos on both her arms and they were quite nice. Katherina, the girl, was evidently a morning child. She went on and on and on talking. She loved the camera too. Whenever I pointed my camera at her, she immediately flaunted her best and cutest smile. She was very polite too. She started every sentence to a stranger with an ‘excuse me’. Jerwin was a quiet one when I met him. Maybe he just got up but he was cute none the less. He too, was very camera friendly. When I asked him to smile, he would and would ask for more shots. Jerwin’s family was there too. His dad Jonathan, mom Nellie, and his sister Lavinia all came to accompany him. Little did they know, Jerwin didn’t need company, Katherina and him became friends and that was sufficient. Besides, all the other staff was more than willing to spend a minute or two entertaining the two stars of the day. Hussien was a man in his early thirties who was supposed to play the Dad in the advertisement. He was a quiet man whom I didn’t get a chance to talk with. At about 10.25am, someone called out to me and it was Aliya. Aliya is a really nice person. She kept on asking if I was ok and offered to answer any questions I had about the whole shooting process. Sometimes she would come and chat with me a little. She is a really sweet person and I am so thankful for her. She explained to me about our department, and its function and how it connects to this shoot. In Brand Management, we are the one who always have to fight. When a client wants something, say an advertisement, Brand Management are the ones who becomes the link between the client, the creative department and the finished product. I have mentioned this in one of my previous post. Now the reason why a lot of fighting and debates happens in Brand Management is because, they have to acquire as many components as possible from the client to provide the creative team enough limits and boundaries to work within YET give them enough room for creativity. The creative team needs to know how much resources are they given, how much time, and all those yet have enough space for them to input their own ideas. Besides that, Brand Management has to fight for their client’s wants as well as protect the creative department’s work. Ironically, Brand Management is actually the link between the two and determines the rough idea. Aliya says that sometimes, (actually most of the time) clients make really bad calls on their whole campaign, and it is the agency’s job to suggest and fight for a better solution and some clients are willing to listen. However, there are clients that will say “Screw you, I’m paying the money. You do what I want.” That is when we have to also consider the name of the agency and reply “Screw you too, we have a reputation to upkeep and you have to allow us to help you achieve sufficient fitness to actually compete in the market.” It is not easy balancing a client’s wants and the agency’s needs. This is a very important thing to constantly remember in Advertising. After that, I bought a burger for lunch and as I was about to sink my fangs into my Spicy Chicken McDeluxe, I was abruptly stopped by two cute beings. Jerwin and Katherina. Katherina came first and asked me why I was eating a hamburger. She said she liked noodles but she like hamburgers too. She then started playing with my chili sauce packet by trying to smash it and make it explode. Jerwin then came by. I had to stop eating and started snapping away. These two are too adorable to not take photos of. They each smiled and then Katherina showed me a sad face while Jerwin did a happy face. Then a scary face followed by a monster face. Katherina then asked for some tissue paper and for a piece of paper. She was trying to fold the paper in a package. She then gave it to me and said it was a present. Ohhh how sweet! When I opened it, it was a straw fully plastered with sticky clay. Eeuw. It’s still in my bag though. Oh before that, while I was looking through my pictures…I heard a stomp of the foot. Hussien had smashed something under his foot and was calling for a worker to bring a mop. Suddenly my heart paced. I think it is what I think it is. A…cockroach. He then lifted his foot and revealed a flat and SUPER DUPER EXCLUSIVELY EXTRA SUPERSIZED UGLY COCKROACH. OMG! Thank god I was looking through my pictures and not at the floor when the cockroach ran in front of me. I would have screamed worst than little Katherina. Jerwin was also shocked at the sight of it. Anyways, I found myself always looking at the make up artist’s tattoos so I gathered enough courage and asked her if I could take photos of her tattoos. She said sure and so I snapped a few shots of her. I then found out her name was Vicky. Thanks Vicky, though I doubt you’ll find your way to this site here. At about 1.30pm, it started pouring all the sudden. It made me really sleepy and I was already quite tired and restless by then. I bought myself a Chocolate Sundae which succeeded in keeping me up a few extra minutes. It was a really new experience seeing a shoot for the first time especially when kids are involved. Eric took many takes on the scene where the father, the son and the daughter had to be together. Everyone had to constantly remind Jerwin and Katherina to do what they were supposed to. Jerwin was supposed to give a James Bond pose which he referred to as ‘The 7’ pose. Katherina had to play with her toys. At about 2.45pm, I asked Aliya if she needed me to stay till the shoot was over and she said it was ok, I could go. I hitched a ride from Katherina’s mom to KL Sentral. It was a long 2 hours journey because some roads were under construction in Damansara Damai so we had to go further up and around the world to places like Sungai Buloh and maybe Kuala Selangor before actually going on the Federal and NPE. I was so tired I accidentally fell asleep in the car for about 10 minutes. Ok, maybe it was 30 minutes. Sorry! After I arrived at KL Sentral, I took the KTM to MidValley to pick up my pants I bought yesterday and also to meet Ruzanna and Amanda. They were in casual clothes and that’s what they could wear everyday! How nice. I then went to look for a sandwich (I still have a sandwich crave) and Amanda showed me where her office was. After that, I went to get a cab and arrived back home. Sorry I can’t show you pictures related to the shoot yet. It isn’t ethical and I think I have to wait until the advertisement is aired. It is schedule to go on air probably late December. Oh by the way, this shoot was for a template shot. This means that the scenes are all the same throughout the regions but when it is given to the other regions; they add their own text, their own language and stuff like that. After today’s shooting, the off line, which is a rough video presented to the client will be prepared and then an online, which is a refined version of the video will be prepared. It usually takes 2 to 3 weeks before the thing is processed but we’re hoping to get this done in a week. There are 6 commercials to shoot and this is only number 1. I have a feeling I’m going to be in for more The shoot has taken up more than half a day and it is only a 15 seconds ad. 15 seconds on air is a whole day in reality. No counts of “Fuck” and any other words today. Hmm, I wonder how Ah Boy and Gogula are doing in Leo Burnett. Tee hee hee. See you tomorrow! ~

Day Seven; First Sunday

* I just realized the sidebar looks EXTREMELY SMALL in Internet Explorer. I reckon something is wrong with my HTML there. If you know how to solve it, please drop me a message. Thanks. No work today. However, read the about the vending machine at work.

Day Six; First Saturday

No work today.

Day Five; The Sandwich Crave

I don’t have to wear formal today. Relaxed as I thought I would be, turns out that today was the hardest day for me to dress. Well, formal wear this week was incredibly easy considering I only have one pair of pants and I just have to put on a shirt. My other pair is coming soon. Casual wear…more options, more decisions and more vanity. Which pair of jeans, what colour, a tee, a shirt, do I pair it with a jacket? Which shoe should I put on? And I was looking forward to dressing for today for the past four days. Ironic. We left the house at 8.15am today and found ourselves caught in more of a jam than the previous four days. Inside my head, I kept telling myself, no matter what, we must must must reach LB by 9.10am. I need breakfast. After taking a lot of alternative routes, we eventually arrived at 9.10am. Phew. Breakfast today was nasi lemak with super spicy sambal. Vanessa, princess of sambal, ate hers up no sweat. Her rice was practically red! Amazing. Vanessa through a mug hole. When I arrived at my table, four teddy bears and a note greeted me. No, it wasn’t given to me. The note read “please take pictures of these and send them to my email”. It was from Aliya. Taking pictures, I like! I got the camera from Jas, it was just an old Sony Cybershot. It was still fun though. I then emailed them to Aliya, and dispatched the goods through Jas. Oh, by the way…yesterday at the Bond With Comedy stand-up comedy competition at Bond, Avenue K (yes, it’s a confusing name and competition) I WON! There were four contestants and I won! Guess who decided to take part too…Teoh from Love Perhaps. He is one of the many guys who are in the show. Yesterday, I won myself a trophy and a one-hour body massage at an exclusive spa. If I win the finals in December, I’ll win RM500 cash and a stay at some luxurious resort that I can’t seem to recall its name. Cool! The champion's throphy I won last night. Jenny tapped me on the shoulder and apologized for calling me “Boy” yesterday because she was too busy. Haahaha. She said she told her daughter about it and her daughter said it was mean. Then we continued to talk about her daughters prom, how she had to pay for her daughter’s prom dress which looks too old for a young 18 year old to wear, the hair and stuff like that. She also said that in advertising what’s most important is the working experience. You can have all the fancy degrees but if you don’t know what you can do, it’s pointless. Working at a higher position doesn’t mean you get to boss and relax. The workload increases too…tremendously. After that, she told me about the Kancil Awards tonight and told me to just go and gatecrash. Go after dinner and just walk in and have a look, she says. Hmm, I wonder if I should. But then again, Klue gave me an invite to attend tonight’s Viva Brazil party at Maison. I feel like staying home with my computer on, lazing on my bed, listening to emo songs and just lie down. Ahhhhh. Sounds good. A week in Leo Burnett, there is some pretty weird things that I have gathered. People naturally listen to songs that reflect their mood or perhaps, the day of the week. I remember on Monday, I heard really slow songs. Mostly things you hear on Light & Easy. Mid-week, you’ll hear songs like Switchfoot being played on laptops, some Michael Jackson perhaps. Today, a Friday…it is no surprise that I have already passed 3 laptops that are playing…techno. The change of songs is like a pattern. I have to wait till next week to see if it really is a pattern but as of now, I can clearly listen to Tiesto-like music from the back, some electro trance in front and some hard hitting bass from further back. Oh, Tanner just blasted his Cake. Awesome choices of songs! Well for me, Tanner’s taste in music is pretty similar to mine; he has his fair share of slow songs and some upbeat ones. Nice. Then, a tune caught my ear. It sounded very familiar and close. I know this song. Spies by Coldplay. It came from Gin May’s computer. Wow, she knows this song? It’s a song from Coldplay’s first album Parachutes and it is one of my favorite albums. She then told me she only liked their first album, which I totally agree with. I knew she had some wicked sense of music when I heard some her playing some world music the other day. Today is a weird day. I seem to be having a sandwich crave. I tried calling O’Briens but they couldn’t deliver today. One of their staff called in sick. Then Van told me about this place down the road that sells sandwich and only sandwich and they wont make it for you. You make your own sandwich as you please and they charge by weight. Sounds good! So Ah Boy, Van and me proceeded to this place about 10 minutes walk from LB. On the way we wondered if Gin May would want a sandwich or not, so we called her. Haaha, I told Van that based on our ‘superior’ taste in music, I would say she would go for the turkey or salmon. True enough, all Gin May wanted was turkey ham and cheese. Bingo! After that, I started predicting what vegetables each of them wanted and oddly, I guessed them all right. I even manage to reveal what meat Van doesn’t eat and what Ah Boy and Gin May would prefer or not. It seems I have discovered an amazing hidden talent. The hidden ability to predict people’s preference in sandwiches base on music preference and face value. Haahahahaha. My sandwich consists of salmon, mozzarella, turkey ham, olives, roman lettuce, and Caesar sauce. I paid RM7 for it, which I think, wasn’t bad considering the height of my sandwich. Yummy! By the way, another interesting fact about the community in LB is that everyone calls everyone Babe. Or maybe it’s the localized ‘beb’. Everyone seems to go beb beb beb. The younger ones, the older ones, girls, and guys and all in between seem to refer to everyone as beb. “Hey beb, bla bla bla” “Cannot la beb, bla bla bla” “You sure ah, beb?” Funny. It’s 3.40pm now. I feel so embarrassed. I just found out how to properly use a…paper hole puncher. Van saw me filing some things into box files and she asked me why wasn’t it aligned. I said I don’t know (yes, typical me). She asked me why didn’t I fold it in half first and use the puncher’s marker. OH! So that’s what the ‘arrow’ on the puncher is for. Aiyo, embarrassment looms upon me. Jenny just asked me to go gatecrash the Kancil Awards today because it would be quite nice as a first time experience. I then asked Aliya and Jenny what the dress code was. Aliya provided the best answer ever. “Advertising people…*sigh* don’t have dress codes.” 4.46pm. Wonderful! I just got another call to perform tomorrow. It’s for The White Ribbon Campaign and they’re inviting us to perform. Hopefully I will be able to find out more about it before I actually do it. 6.25pm. I guess I won’t be attending the Kancil Awards anymore or the Viva Brazil party, I’m going home to get some rest and think of tomorrow’s get up :) I told Jenny I won’t be going and she attempted to con me by saying that people at LB must work on Saturday and Sunday and maybe she’ll give me a half day off for Sunday. She even got Aliya to join in and con me. Ishhhhh! They’re quite fun for superiors actually. They spend the evening joking about how Jenny referred to me as ‘boy’ just like a mother would to a son. Ok, I’m going home now. I’m excited about what’s going to happen on Monday’s shoot. Yes people, I'll get to do more than see the ad before anyone else. I get to be there! I’m bringing a camera! "Fuck" reduced to 2 today. "Bitch" at 1. Plus, it was all said in a jokingly manner. The wonders of a coming weekend :) Shoot you next week ~

Day Four; The Random Encounters

Woke up at 7am today, tired but somewhat satisfied. Yesterday’s show went quite well for me considering the fact I only got my material in office. Haaha. Thanks to all who came. Anyways, Ah Boy picked me up at 8am today and we found a small shortcut that enables us to bypass a couple of traffic lights to the parking area. Funny how taking risks such as intentionally taking an unknown path can be rewarding. Breakfast offered today consisted of fried mee, kuey teow, some eggs and mini sausages. Oh, and some vadeh too. However, I had toast bread with butter and kaya and some milk. Van and the Strawberry Rocky girl from yesterday were here earlier than us today. I was then introduced to Desiree, a sweet and friendly girl with one of few CD burners around my compound. So, the next time I have to burn my CDs, I know where to go. No coffee as of yet :p I’m going to go burn 14 CDs for Aliya like she asked me to yesterday. Desiree told me that I needed to get the blank CDs from Sharon who was on the Leo Burnett side. For that, I need a job number and to pen down the description on the ‘CD book’. After burning CDs, I’ve got some uploading to do and then wait for the meeting. Jenny just invited me to attend today’s PPM (pre-production meeting) with some clients today and to tag along to next Monday’s shoot! Hooray! Thank you for the opportunity! I just came out of the 45 minutes meeting. It was done over the speakerphone with a lady who sounded Philippino. It was a final pre-production meeting to make sure everything is settled and confirmed before the actual shooting of the advertisement. Lots of things were discussed such as the storyboard, choices of talents, their wardrobe and location. I’ve learnt that branding does not consist only of ideas but minute details as well. It is all about positioning. Which toy to highlight, which meal to highlight, what are the key frames, how should the situation be and even if the talent should smile, laugh or sulk. This is branding at its finest. It was truly a beneficial experience for me. People present at the meeting were Jenny, Aliza, heads from the creative, the director and also the producer. This is going to be a regional advertisement that is going to be used in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines. I can’t wait for Monday! I wonder if I am allowed to bring a camera along. I shall ask later. Anyways, Aliya introduced me to Li San, the superhero copywriter, and Kamal who was in traffic, just like Jacky and Angie. Ok, now I got to get back to the CDs and then courier them out. I had an indomie goreng kambing for lunch today. Wasn’t too bad. Ok, apparently I had forgotten about a stand up comedy competition tonight. I guess I will have to reuse some of my old stuff again. Ok, now to sort them out and set them well. 3.37pm now and the CDs and printouts are done. Aliya introduced me to J, the art director. She sits beside Li San, the copywriter and wow, loaded with dictionaries and thesauruses! It's a pillar that looks like the Leo Burnett pencil. Till now, overall it is quite an idle day. However, I realize that today, more and more of my colleagues are in casual wear. Most of them are in jeans already. I should ask Aliya if I’m permitted to dress like that too or not when she gets back to her seat. Oh, they restocked the vending machine. I have had myself 2 cans of Soya Bean already. Yummy yum. No, no coffee for today. Woah, I just rushed photostating for Jenny. She seems to be in a great rush and is worrying me a little. Thankfully I didn’t mess anything up…yet. After that, I had not much to do so I helped Van to look for some pictures and then take a breather at the bistro. Oh! Before that, Strawberry Rocky girl treated us to her home made cookies! Chocolate chip! Yummm. Anyways, I thought it would have been perfect if only she had used salted butter. But, it was still yummy none the less! Ummm, umm! While at the bistro, I was looking through the Fashion Week pullout and sigh, I wish I could attend it and take some pictures. Missed out on a great deal of opportunity there. Then, a man came and talked to us. His name was Jerry. Guess what? It turns out, he is the cousin of Melinda Looi and Beatrice Looi, the esteemed fashion designers of Malaysia. Oh my gosh! He told us a bit about the sisters and then I excused myself and returned to my seat. It’s 6.07 pm now. Boring oh. I went and disturbed the Strawberry Rocky girl and found out her name was Gin May. Amazing, she’s only been here a week earlier than me and she’s busy as heck. She has been going home at about 9 since I came in. It got me thinking. I wonder if my next week, is going to be just as busy as her this week. Hmmm. Ok, it’s 6.38pm. I’m going to leave now for Avenue K. I have a stand up comedy competition at Bond later about 9. Wish me luck. WOW, just when I thought the excitement at the office had ended; guess who was in the lift with me. Ng Choo Seong. Ok, Jason. Ok, the sepet boy in the film Sepet. YES! Wow, he must have been going to the gym, he’s bulkier now. It was a awkward moment…well for me. When I went into the lift, and we saw each other, it seem as though not only I recognized him, but he recognized me from somewhere, we just didn’t know where. Odd. Anyways, its casual Friday tomorrow. No need to buckle belts and make sure your fly is up and walking around in man heels! I can’t wait! Total “Fuck” today = 6 Catch you casually tomorrow. ~