Inspirations for the day

i quickly discovered that one of the most useful survival skills for my job is gathering and maintaining a pool of references. from videos to images and (less often for me) music, sometimes simply pulling the right reference for the right brief is enough to turn a hair-tearing creative drought into hours and hours of writing when your fingers can't fly fast enough to catch up with your ideas.

i started maintaining a reference folder on my desktop shortly after joining bda. i was both amazed that my boss could so effortlessly cherry-pick and develop ideas from his seemingly bottomless pit of reference, and frustrated that he had had least a fifteen-year headstart collecting them. i figured if i was going to be useful to him, i had better start catching up.

anyway, today i found two videos in my stash that helped me write a pitch for the army (yes the army here is very media-savvy), something i usually detest doing, in the matter of a several hours. while both videos work on the idea of a missing element, a "what if" scenario that i found interesting, i'm happy to report my finished concept turned out to look like neither of the two! and my bosses liked it!



a quiet, mood and thought-provoking ad for fotoprix.



a hilariously vivid and very panicky (!) football promo for sky sports.

Give me that remote

you know you spend too much time watching trashy tv shows when your husband (husband!!!) starts quoting tyra.

this was a yahoo messenger exchange i had with marlon this afternoon while he was on hold with a customer service rep from orbitz, trying to get a refund.

marlon: wow- i'm really using whatever flirting skills i have with this operator. "yes ma'am, I'll wait as long as you need me to, and thank you for the assistance."
me: i'm jealous.
marlon: don't worry. tyra says, "my man can flirt all he wants so long as he comes home and does ME."
me: *FREAKS OUT* OMG WHAT!? WHY DO YOU KNOW THAT?? i've never heard that until this very moment. hahahahaha!
marlon: it was on america's next top model. some girl was crying because her boyfriend had been flirting while she was away doing the show. and tyra was like, "in this business you gotta be STRONG, girl." hahahaha!
me: haha.
marlon: are you scared?
me: my husband is quoting tyra.
marlon: let me join white collar boxing na kasi, i need more testosterone in my life.

he has quoted heidi klum on several notable occasions ("your outfit looks cheap... and uninspired", "...a sad... brown... dress"), but i must say tyra is a new low. time to start watching more bbc...

Boy-watching at Beijing

marlon and i spent most of our weekend taking care of the ironing in front of the tv, which was tuned into the beijing olympics. it's the first time i've ever really sat down to watch an olympics and it just blows my mind!

i found myself shrieking out loud when romania's poor marian dragulescu landed flat on his ass at the very end of his floor routine, and again when he went completely ker-SPLAT on his face on his second vault... after an almost-perfect, gold medal shoo-in first vault. my heart broke for him... and i'm not even really into gymnastics! i mean, we almost expect to be awash in glorious olympic moments that bring us to our knees in awe, but i didn't know olympians could fuck up so badly either! either way, it's great tv!

one more reason to shriek: spain's bad boy hottie gervasio deferr (okay ang bantot ng pangalan), who won a silver for his floor routine.


shet sana ako na lang yung medal.

Gorging on Gossip

at the rate of two to three episodes daily, i am fast approaching the end of season 1! a few more observations:

1. serena speaks like one side of her jaw is wired shut. this is one of the reasons why i am on team blair.
2. i heart lily!
3. why does chuck purse his lips and give us cheekbones after each line?
4. why does he never stop squinting?
5. yuck kaya ng vanessa-nate angle. hindi patok sa akin ang tambalan nila because vanessa sucks! does the lone "artsy" chick on the show have to look so tasteless and be so annoying?
6. omg eric is gay!
   
7. when asher revealed his true (rainbow) colors, he also revealed a creepy resemblance to perez hilton.
8. omg georgina is a total freaking psycho! the moment when she said "hi... my name is sarah" gave me the biggest chill to ever be caused by a television show since that friday the 13th series back in the 90s.
9. from some angles, michelle trachtenberg, who plays georgina, looks like an evil scary white bratz-doll version of my friend mayte. the resemblance ends with looks -- mayte is one of the friendliest, funniest, most unassuming girls i know. we could make mayte undergo an intensive six-month bleaching regimen and put on some celia rodriguez eye makeup to close the gap.

michelle trachtenberg na nagdidiva-divahan

mayte and i in parc guell, barcelona in 2006

Catching up with gossip

i've elected to get with the program, literally, and start watching gossip girl. the deciding factor: how easy it is to download movies via limewire with my new macbook pro. if you knew how long it used to take me with lulu, you would tear your hair out. i nearly did, a couple of times.

nineteen minutes into the first episode, this is what i have to say:

1. the girls are really, really pretty.
   
2. where is it written that the boys have to be as pretty as the girls... and wear as much, if not more makeup?
   
3. i wish we could have dressed up our private school uniforms that way... with gorgeous tweed coats, shortened hems, stockings and jewel-colored patent pumps. rarrr.
4. it's betty and veronica all over again. and i've always been on team veronica.

Project Runway Philippines

speaking of project runway, here's a funny coincidence. a bride from the weddings at work group just asked me to send her pictures of my wedding gown, saying that she was a huge fan of kate torralba but didn't think she could afford her. so i recommended the designer i would have chosen if kate and i hadn't agreed on a "friendly" rate -- veejay floresca.

in my email, i described veejay as "kind of like christian siriano from project runway" -- young (they're both 21, or least veejay was when i consulted with him early last year), super creative, extremely fast, and fun! they even kind of look alike. of course, christian ended up winning project runway.

the dutiful bride emailed me back to say that veejay would be tied up for the next two months with project runway philippines. hu-waaaa? project runway philippines?!?!?!?! may ganon?

apparently it started taping last week. all i know is that the local workspace (a.k.a. parsons) will be at the school of fashion and arts in makati. but who will tim gunn and heidi klum be? judges maraming puwede -- the greats like rajo laurel and inno sotto, even some of the fossils icons like ben farrales. i hope they do a great job on the show, not like the snoozefest that was philippines' next top model. we have so much fashion design talent, it truly deserves a well-planned and excellently produced show.

it will air on ETC... not that i'll get to see it. darn! i'm oddly happy for veejay -- i ran into him at gma after i decided to go with kate and he was most gracious about everything. he's great and i still want him to make me something someday :-)

best of luck, veejay (if you ever google yourself and come upon this blog). as the venerable tim gunn would say, "make it work!"

---
photo from veejay's multiply.

Episode one

on wednesday, i woke up to a wonderful, wonderful email from lilian at bda.

i have this small project for you. it's an episodic promo. would you be interested in doing this?

in j's words, tumumbling ako. would i be interested in my first paying job in singapore EVAR?!?!?! hell yeah!

lilian went on to tell me the rate for a 30s episodic promo spot: SGD250. she explained, rather apologetically, that if they had a generic series plug for me to do, the rate would be much higher but would i mind? what did i think?

what did i think? forking over two hundred fifty dollars to a workaholic-turned-housewife who can barely afford to get herself a mani-pedi or keep herself stocked with magazines and chocolates (my weekly must-have luhos) without dipping into the hubby's pocket is like offering a glass of water to a man in the desert.

and two hundred fifty dollars for an episodic? dios mio, marimar! ina-outsource pa ba 'yon? that's nearly a third of my monthly salary at gma for something i used to do every single feckin' day! (and on really long days, i could do literally half a dozen episodics in a day!)

put it this way: two hundred fifty dollars for an hour of logging tape. maybe another hour of scripting -- at most (this generous speed assumes that i am practically brain dead, wear lead weights on my fingers and take a languorous snack break). on my first day at gma, i wrote my first script in ten minutes. and i knew nothing about the job or the show. my fingers were literally trembling as i typed.

then maybe another half hour each for revisions (if any) and brainstorming with/briefing the graphic designer (which used to take me and charlie eons). here i'll have to supervise the voiceover session and edit session, which i never did back home, but that's just another two to three hours tops, five if things go badly or slowly.

so, total it up and it works out to two hundred fifty dollars for less than eight hours of exactly the same type of work i used to do (and love to do) and the chance to wedge my foot in bda's door. who am i to complain?

wait, it gets better. the next day, bda's production manager lay tuan emailed me with the details.

i'm doing a promo for THE BBC!

the promo spot i'm doing is for an episode of BBC's horizon. (clicky on the linky. the promo for the memory episode is awesome.) and i have ten days to do it! kakaloka! toto, we're not in gma anymore!

first of all, i actually received a production schedule for an episodic. at gma, you're fortunate to even get a job order. second, the schedule stretches out over ten days from viewing and timecoding to final edit and dub out (or as they say here, dump out). the long gap between scripting and edit is for client approval and revision. back home, the faster the better! episodics have been known to be viewed, scripted and edited within hours.

i got all my instructions (plus a couple of sample promo spots and a nice tip from lay tuan to bring a jacket) last week, but i'm still thrilled and delighted. i feel totally vindicated to have held out for (and pursued) work that i really love and can get super duper excited about. i don't think i would be in this big a tizzy if i had sold out for an easy-come job like... i don't know, a tindera at an estee lauder beauty counter. which i seriously considered for... one whole afternoon. haha!

tomorrow's the big day! i plan to wear my gray team manila shirt (reprezzzzent y'all!). and right before i step into the bda office, i will put on my nice, new, hard-won hat -- you know, the freelance on-air promo writer/producer one.

*kilig* i can't wait.

Missing bading

if you are what you are nostalgic for, then this speaks volumes about me.



i miss gma! i miss michael v and my other favorite artistas! i miss my beloved badings! i miss being babaeng bakla!

on that note, thank goodness bitchik will be here next week. haha!

A happy 26th

aiieeeeeeeee!!!!! dingdong dantes just called me to greet me a happy birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the story:

i had to reformat my phone a couple weeks ago and lost all my numbers. so a few minutes ago, this unknown number calls my phone. i put on my suplada voice, which i use for calls from unknown numbers (just in case they turn out to be annoying p.a.s or people selling me stuff).

"hello? hello! who's this?"

"e($)*&^(&-ong."

"who?"

"dong."

"i'm sorry, i can't hear you, who???"

"dingdong."

i immediately had an apoplexy caused by embarrassment and kilig. i fell all over myself apologizing about not having his number on my phone, and thanked him for calling.

"omigod! thank you. thank you! how'd you find out?"

"basta, i have ways. may nasagap lang akong info today." (i bet toni's h put him up to it. but still!!!!!)

"wow. hey, congrats nga pala. ang galing n'yo." (he's only the hottest leading man on the country's top rating show.)

"thanks. maganda kasi ang simula natin." (natin!!!)

"wow, thanks ha. okay! bye!"

*dies of kilig*

Looks familiar

i have recently crawled out from under my rock and discovered heroes. i have lots to say about it, but at the moment all i really want to say is this.

i love nathan petrelli/adrian pasdar. the slash is their because his/their gorgeousness renders me unable to separate the two at the moment. maybe someday.

way back as a boy-crazy little girl, i also used to love adrian pasdar . i saw him in solarbabies (just like labyrinth, you'll never know what kitschy eighties movies will stick with you) and never forgot him. so much so that when i saw his name in the opening credits of heroes, my heart skipped a beat. then i started really liking the character of nathan petrelli, and put two and two together with some help from imdb.

at eto pa. i also used to be in love with someone who bears a disturbing resemblance to adrian pasdar.

separated at birth? sorry, i have no better scanned photos of this man

this fact just hit me over the weekend, stunning me into spending a good twenty minutes or so of my sunday sitting in a wave pool at a water park in pasir ris (yes that's in singapore), blabbing about my imagined past with this man to marlon. (who by the way is so wonderful and loving that he readily validated said imagined past.)

parang gusto kong manood ng top gun. but wait i gotta finish off episodes 13 to 18 first! argh adik adik adik!

running home now. bye bye!

Walastik

so this is what i've been up to lately.

for something i thought was my waterloo (comedy), approvals for stuff i've been working on for this account have been really, really, BIZARRELY easy.

fun fun fun.

Heath is the new Jun-Jun

hi folks. just a quick post to say that i'm alive (just barely -- long weekend = death by plug), my favorite account is back in business, and that heath is the new jun-jun.

meet heath. not his real name of course -- i don't want the hordes at my door just yet.

okay na ba 'to, ate?

i do believe the naughty boy was trying to sneak a peek down my shirt the other day. but then that could just be too much notes on a scandal. or pure wishful thinking.

if this sixteen year-old, six-foot, adorably cocky adolescent heath ledger doppelganger is not famous by the time this season is done, i will eat my desk so help me god.