WEEK 8

(Day 44 – 46)

30/11/2022 – 2/12/2022

As demand for the team was high, a new art director joined to lessen the workload, though one of the copywriters was unable to work for the rest of the year so there was only one copywriter left handling everything. It was a difficult situation though I admired how well she handled it, working on all the copywriting as well as briefing the new art director on all the active projects.

Everyone was quite tired by the sports drink brand now at this point. The presenter had been changed from what was initially a football super star – Erling Haaland, to Harry Kane, to a Thai footballer who was at that point became a monk and would still be bald with no eyebrows by the time filming was scheduled to begin. It was a weird yet rather amusing discussion over whether to put him in a wig, if a wig would be realistic, or how much it would cost to edit hair on his head in post-production, not to mention the fact that he was playing for a Sapporo team which may require production to fly over to film the ad in Japan, hiking up the costs even more.

While going through different references for the commercial, I felt more free in addressing possible issues that may arise when applying the method of an English commercial to a Thai commercial due to the different alphabets and reading system. I was glad that the team took my opinion into consideration and figured out a way to avoid the issue.

The soy milk brand came back with a different brand plan, wishing to emphasize the other different flavors from their main one, like showing appreciation for the other kids in a family other than the eldest one. It was another long day in the office, looking at different ads and exploring different themes though it was quite difficult.

At first, I found the way the office was set up quite odd as members of a team could be stationed in separate areas of the office with other staff members from different teams, though at times it proved to be useful when my boss would turn to ask someone else to pitch in ideas after viewing the brief with fresh eyes, or knowing a different reference that could be useful.

Once there were a few general directions, I was asked to find some reference photos for each direction which I had learned I wasn’t very good at as what I imagined in my head would be different from what the team wanted. In the end, none of the references I found were used, though I didn’t feel exactly discouraged by this. I understood that this was their jobs and they should be able to produce the best work possible.

WEEK 9

(Day 47)

6/12/2022

Only the art directors in the team came into the office today. I had my reservations starting off seeing how a majority of the workers in the office were men. Though all the art directors in the team were men, I didn’t feel unsafe around them and felt that they took care of me well, even walking with me to a store I couldn’t find in the mall and waiting while I browsed.

For work, I hadn’t thought much of the graphics I made for the presentations after I had finished them, though I didn’t know that one of the quick social media mockups I made for the powder foundation brand were actually going to be used until the client had requested some changes to the design and writing in it.

I was given the official working file of the brand’s graphics to work with and though I struggled a little bit initially from how large the file was and the load it had on my laptop, I felt more free in a smaller team to ask technical questions about the program.

The first image is from me redoing my first graphic, and the second is after the art director sent me references of the brand’s media and gave me feedback on what to change

It was another long discussion over the milk brand in the evening. To emphasize how the different flavors provide different benefits, the team came up with the idea of wishes, though I did wince a little at the discussions of using religious imagery from different cultures. The team eventually strayed away from showing this directly to avoid conflict and sensitivity issues.

(Day 48)

7/12/2022

It was unfortunate seeing how things kept having to be revised due to the budget. As everyone was busy working on different projects, my boss sent me clips of makeup brand campaigns and an Apple showcase, asking me to create a storyboard for the powder foundation with using the clips as reference. I studied the different videos, taking any frames that had interesting composition and arranging them into a rough storyboard. I was also told to do some copywriting of the script along with it, which was new to me and expectedly difficult.

Having worked with the team for almost two months at that point, I got to see a variety of copywriting for different brands with different tones to match the project’s mood. It didn’t simply require linguistic intellect, but also being up-to-date with trends and catchphrases young people use as well as adapting to the conditions given from the clients.

Another issue I came across was the programs used, though not the technical side of it. A majority of the office used a MacBook and keynote to work, but my laptop ran on windows. I created the storyboard on Photoshop as I was able to create multiple art boards and look at all of the boards at the same time. However, to hand over the boards to the copywriter who didn’t have Photoshop, I had to transfer every single text and image I had on the program to rearrange them on Powerpoint in order for her to open the file and use the images. It was an overall frustrating process on top of my laptop gradually reaching the end of its lifespan and freezing at the most inconvenient times. I ended up sending the final file quite late which I felt incredibly guilty about, given that the copywriter would have to stay up later to finalize it.

(Day 49 – 50)

8/12/2022 – 9/12/2022

• everyones getting tired of sponsor lol
• never really satisfied
• felt sick so i took a leave for the day
• sometimes there are so many meetings i catch myself spacing out

Though I understood that advertising projects are far shorter than film projects in terms of its process duration, it was clear that everyone was growing tired of the sports drink brand. As the client were unable to secure any of their tentative presenters, plans had to keep getting revised, starting from a famous star among Thai Gen Zs with a world-famous footballer, to a different British footballer, to a Thai footballer, to a complete change of both presenters with a Thai volleyball player and a Thai track runner, now to two Thai volleyball players.

WEEK 10

(Day 51)

13/12/2022

• working on

(Day 52)

14/12/2022

• making lo’real graphics after plan changes
• i think i’m getting the hang of this maybe, less revisions this time

(Day 53)

15/12/2022

• smart heart graphics. i’m not very good at this