and the hits keep coming

after weeks of working and refining concepts for an upcoming unresolved depression awareness direct TV commercial, today, we finally presented to the client. of the 10 that were presented, 5 were my copywriter partner's and i. the presentation went well (considering presenting is not really one of my best suits, i guess it mustve been the proud feeling of presenting next to the creative directors that made me just want to step up and i guess also for the fact that it's probably the most coveted project in the agency right now. PLUS ed, the ceo, popping his head into the room and setting up the meeting in his tony little canadian 110% all enthusiastic voice, saying the concepts were "to die for.").

the clients picked 6 concepts to proceed with. i was absolutely surprised (and delighted with their choices). the "aspirational" very client-friendly oprah-ish you've seen-it-a-million-times concept which i personally expected and feared would be their number one choice didnt get chosen at all. whew! AND, the wackiest "creative" wild card concept of ours (which we absolutely loved but were fearful of how they'd take) turned out to be their number one pick. wow, i guess i overunderestimated their creative choice.

of the 6 concepts that made it to the next round, 4 are earle and i's. below are pdfs of our chosen concepts. enjoy the initial stages of a tv commercial, and a free inside view on tv commercial making—from concept to eventually a finished product.

concept #1—boomerang

the first board brings the idea of depression and its recurring nature through a very simple analogy. a boomerang. depression symptoms may keep coming back no matter how one tries to distance them away. this should be a good fun shoot. especially that part where people get hit.

concept #2—maze

our first board talks about how symptoms of depression may keep on coming back. we show it through a person trying to free herself from a room that she cant seem to escape from. id love to see this eventually the one produced. would make for a great cinematic shoot.

concept #3—reflections

this next board shows how though someone who's taking medication for depression, may or may not be feeling fully herself/himself still. we show this through very intimate quite quirky shots of people checking themselves out, seeing whether they're really ok or not.

concept #4—schedule

the day's biggest winner—the client's favorite board and the agency's too (and hopefully eventually the focus group folks' too). a nice unexpected way to tackle such a serious condition—through humour, albeit dark dry humour. if this gets produced, i smell some awards a-coming. (but then of course that's just secondary, as the need for providing information to people with depression is the primary one)

in other related office news (fuck, im sounding like i absolutely love my job, which is quite scary), we had our timelines/budget discussion with the client this morning as well on an upcoming 10 minute dvd/documentary. we're still finding ways to lower the close to $500K proposal but im terribly excited with getting on with this project (especially that im lead art director on this as well—technically second lead of course, coz julian, our creative director will always have the final art say). casting, picking directors, shoots, animation, post production, rough cuts AND the most important of all, the craft services (woohoo, free food!!!). fun times are here again. (not that they left anyway)

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so it's not all office shit—i had a nice swim after work. it's amazing how swimming could be the most tiring and relaxing thing in the world. great way to de-stress and think about nothing else but one's breathing. i really should do it more often. except i cant do a 100 laps straight anymore as i used to ages and ages ago. oh well.