organising my chaos
Journaling my one-year DPS journey
I was under the impression that advertising would entail working on a project for a few months then moving on to another once the first project was finished or nearing completion. I was wrong.
Projects came and went quite randomly with no insight beforehand. We would attend a briefing for a new project then have it get discontinued indeterminably or handed over to a different team, which was the fate of the first two projects I had seen on my first week.
This was my first time attending a briefing for a food brand, in this case a sports drink that was popular among old people. They wanted two different different presenters – a famous footballer and a Thai actor that was currently popular with young women. My team was immediately apprehensive – what did this guy have to do with the brand? How would they justify using him? How do we connect these two wildly different people?
I witnessed starting a project from scratch, and it involved a lot of mental power.
Do you remember that ad from four years ago?
A lot of the earlier brainstorming was finding references for the possible different directions the project could take, which mostly involved my boss trying to recall the many ads he had seen over the years and me looking for them online.
An issue with the client, as told by one of the copywriters in the team, was that they could be quite conservative with the ideas, not wanting to try out different ways to market their product and leaning more towards the old conventional way.
Everything felt like they were blending together at this point with another briefing while at a post-production house of another project. Three projects were being juggled together at this point and it became blurry at times when trying to develop ideas for one and work out the script for the other.
With the fashion project closer to its completion now, every stage had to be presented and approved by the client. Due to scheduling conflicts and the main client being absent most of the time, not everything was able to reach the client before moving on to the next stage. Another slightly frustrating aspect was that working with a client was essentially working with someone who didn’t share the same creative vision and whose main goal was to sell things. This lead to a few tense feedback sessions where the client would request changes, the studio making those changes, and the client not liking the changes.
On a lighter note, as the day wasn’t as hectic, I was shown the example of what files with the subtitles should look like which helped immensely in me understanding what I was supposed to do, and I didn’t feel as clueless as I was innitially.
Pre-production was broken down into several stages. Everyone did their own individual research and presented their ideas to the rest of the team, where ideas were then merged or dropped into a few strong directions. These are then presented to the team leader who would go over to refine every direction as well as find more references to make the visual aspect of each idea clearer. The early draft of the presentation would then be shown to the internal account executive team who would give feedback according to their knowledge of the client. During this, visual elements such as graphics for the presentation and storyboard were made before it was time to present to the client. For the sports drink project, we were currently at the early stage of presenting to the team leader one morning at another production house for lighting and color for the fashion project.
The day was focused on those two projects. The team would go in to check if the lighting and colors were according to what the client had asked for, then they would come back out to work on the sports drink project while they waited for the production house to make those changes. As one of the art directors were absent, I had to crack down on making subtitles for every version and ratio of the commercial. As I was getting the hang of the program, it wasn’t too much stress, and I was glad I was able to contribute to the project even though I hadn’t been here from the beginning.
Throughout the production process and visiting many different studios, I managed to get glimpses of what it was like working in specific fields, be it video editing or coloring, with some programs that I recognized but mostly didn’t.
At a studio for editing images, I was given the chance to sit right next to the editor as he retouched the photos from the photoshoot last week, answering all the questions I had. He was using Adobe Photoshop which I was familiar with, and simply monitoring him helped me learn a lot about the program. I enjoyed this little moment of observation a lot – it was great to be able to ask questions freely as well as see how a program I use is used professionally.
The project came with a lot of struggles, be it time restraints, absent clients, or an overall uncertainty on how the client would react. Now was no different when the editor became very baffled at the information that the client hadn’t seen the photos beforehand. It was likely that his finished product here would have to be revised. Flustered, he said something along the lines of “That’s like cooking them white rice and they ask for sticky rice. What do you do then? Just tell them we don’t have that.”
One of the producers who had dealt with this client before said grimly, “You tell them you do and it’s cooking right now.”
Especially with this project in particular, a lot of pressure is put on those in charge of visual aspects. The editor was given a lot of strange requests, one being notably, “Make this black stool white.”
I was tasked with working on subtitles and additionally the small disclaimers commercials are legally obligated to have at the bottom of the screen. It wasn’t the most daunting thing I had ever done, but I found value in spending more time working in a program I wasn’t familiar with and understanding the post-production process.
WEEK 1
All I know about myself was that I could draw, I could manage my time well, I could work independently and collaboratively…all within the context of university. I have no idea if any of this could translate into a professional environment. I don’t know what exactly I want to do or what I could do – the world is overwhelmed with choices and information, yet I still wouldn’t know what it’s like in different work environments or if the career I’ve chosen is right for me until it’s too late. The thought of graduating and either being unable to find any job due to a lack of professional experience or getting a job and struggling due to a lack of professional experience terrifies me.
A suggestion I had gotten was to dip my toes into everything, to try out a bit of everything to find out what I want to do.
ANIMATION:
ADVERTISING:
Fortunately, I managed to secure an internship for creative direction with the company Ogilvy. They’ve created many different advertisements globally including Thailand, where I recognized many of the ads due to their high praise.
I had many worries going in on my first day, especially because of how prestigious and intimidating the company seemed, walking through a hallway filled with hundreds of trophies on both sides. However, my stress dissipated after meeting my team, who are incredibly casual and open. Though the work itself may not be the most enjoyable (researching ideas, watching ad campaigns and gathering references), it was reassuring to know that I will not be overlooked, left with nothing to do.
It felt like my opinion was genuinely valued, having constantly been called over to discuss different projects with different higher-ups and professionals. I found that I had managed my expectations well: the work wouldn’t directly require all my skills in animation, it wasn’t going to be a thrilling jam-packed day of fun, and there will be times when I don’t understand all the keywords fully, having joined the team in the middle of the projects they’ve been working on.
My first day involved a lot of researching, getting used to the work environment. I was tasked with researching different ad campaigns over different topics, compiling the ones I find interesting and presenting them. As per the Thai culture of respecting your elders, I was frequently called over to introduce myself to different professionals and adults.
I got to attend a briefing which I mostly glossed over with all the foreign business key terms and talks of cryptocurrency.
That was the new project that came up that day: a mobile app for trading cryptocurrency – a concept I personally don’t align with but that have fallen into my hands anyway. Seeing as I had studied in the UK, I was tasked with researching how cryptocurrency is advertised abroad, especially for people who have no knowledge of cryptocurrency, which is a part of the client’s target audience.
A downside of this job was that I couldn’t decide what projects I could take, though I tried to view this as a challenge, especially to try and understand the appeal of something I personally don’t like.
These were the two main tasks I was given: research the integration of the metaverse in beauty, and how cryptocurrency is advertised.
Despite my hesitance, I found that this process wasn’t too foreign to me as it was quite similar to all the conceptual research I had to do for university.