Check it out! Care Factor: Zero - official trailer

Shameless self promotion in the title of this post, but yes, please enjoy this trailer to an upcoming web series produced with my two production companies MPK Studios and A.B.C =)



Another outcome from my honours project, this short web series is about a procrastinating uni student. I wrote it after, and during, a long bout of failed attempts at starting my project - I just wasn't inspired and just couldn't get anything done. So I decided to use that to kick-start my creativity. And it worked =D

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iPhone Condom

An interesting marketing campaign by DUREX, the condom makers ;)

My initial thoughts was "cool!", but then it succumbed to scepticism as to how successful it will really be in terms of encouraging guys to use condoms. I mean, it'll have the fun element at first with everyone rubbing iphone's, so the viral part of it will definitely have a great 'viral' kick-off. It will definitely get annoying after a while, no doubt, especially if it is, from what I gather, a very hard app to get rid off unless you actually go and buy an actual durex pack. And I know that's the point, but will it really make guys more condom conscious?

But then I remember, this marketing tactic, more than anything, is to market the brand itself, DUREX, and anything that gets people talking about a brand and imprinted in the mind as the first association to a product (in this case, condoms, or even contraceptives in general).

It's been a while since I did the introductory Advertising/Marketing subject, so forgive any of my over simplistic evaluation/terminology - I just wanted to put my 2 cents worth on something that I reckon is interesting in terms of the use of new media in marketing.

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Tribute to Michael Jackson - our cover of "Heal The World"

A year has passed since the departure of one of history's most beloved pop icons and so, in his honor, A.B.C would like to dedicate this video and our cover version of 'Heal The World' to the one and only - Michael Jackson as well as all his fans. We are not professional singers but merely passionate fans of his work.

So enjoy the video and lets all honor his legacy by remembering the love and joy he gave to the world through music.

For the King of Pop.

We recorded this song late last year in the recording studio at RMIT - I just wanted to try out the studio because it's always been there, so I figured why not? And one of the sings I really wanted to record was this beautiful MJ song, because that way we could get a lot more people involved in the one song. I also thought we could film it and do some sort of tribute to one our most beloved pop icons, and had this whole nice MV planned out where we would have a fedora, placed onto a lonely mic, with one spot light shining down.. it was all very epic. But alas, not even time since recording the song alone was difficult enough. But it was really good fun and I reckon everyone did a fantastic job. Big kudos to Peter for putting it all together in what is a more than fantastic, sweet and solemn tribute to the one and only Michael Jackson.

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Rising Sun - a mini-series

One of the outcomes from my honours.

It is a draft of an opening credit sequence to a mini-series I am developing about Asian ANZACS. I reckon such a story is highly relevant at the moment, in light of the Billy Sing feature film fiasco.

It is a DRAFT, so not perfect. It's just a way of exploring our options. Will hopefully be able to get out there and shoot the real thing soon.

The title Rising Sun was an interesting decision process. Whilst brainstorming ideas for a title, I started off literal and dragged out titles like "The Diggers" and "The Forgotten". I was trying to capture a sense of the forgotten nature of the ANZACS that have slipped through the cracks of mainstream modern Australian history, including those from the indigenous population.

I arrived at Rising Sun because the symbol of the Australian army is the "badge of the rising sun". But what also occurred to me was that the term Rising Sun is often associated with the Empire of Japan - land of the Rising Sun. Because of this, I became a little unsure, and a began to ask everyone around me what they thought when the hear the phrase "Rising Sun". But then I thought, maybe this plays to an advantage. Since I am focusing on Asian ANZACS, and Rising Sun has the Asian connotations of Japan, maybe the confusion would suit the series purpose on the whole.

I reckon it's interesting that the symbol of the ANZACS is similar to the symbol of one of the former enemies of Australia, and I dunno, that might add an interesting element to it, especially in terms of marketing the show.

Anyway, here are some details of the vid:

Filmed by Changas, again on his d3s.

Music composed by yours truly in garage band, with the orchestra JamPack.

Ending title graphic was knocked up in 10 minutes in AfterEffects with just some jpegs of a hill, the Rising Sun badge, and a digger - sunset flare created with Video Copilot's Optical Flares.

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Reflecting on Creativity

A quote forwarded from my Honours program director. Wise and thought provoking words from the founder of Apple (i.e.; the person who gave creative geeky type people cool laptops and gadgets to play with. Oh and allowing people to go deaf younger.. =D)

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask a creative person how they did something, they may feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after awhile. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or have thought more about their experiences than other people have.

Unfortunately, that’s too rare a commodity. A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. They don’t have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions, without a broad perspective on the problem.

The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better designs we will have.”
- Steve Jobs

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