I’m a bit miffed; I keep using this Moleskine for work. We’re not far from the end of this first book now and well, soon it will be time to buy another one… or two. I’m thinking maybe one for work purposes and another for personal, i.e.: sketches, notes, journal entries etc.
Admittedly, this in itself opens me up to a whole new world of potential pitfalls. It will not take long to tire of carrying two book instead of one, and I can imagine quite clearly just about to present somewhere and finding that I have the wrong notebook with me. The more I think about it however, the more I realise that this is really the only true path forward.
Hellboy 2 flashes before my eyes. I don’t know why.
Two Moleskines it is then, for 2010. Let’s see how we get on with that one then, this time next year…
What day is it today? 15th? I think so. That’s right, ten days ’til Christmas, I remember.
It’s been a fair while since I emptied my thoughts into this moleskine of mine, but excuses I have none. Instead I have nearly three months of hard work to look back on. 1000heads is treating me well, very well.
It’s hard work, challenging even, but in the best of ways.
I can’t talk about any of of the stuff I’ve working on, obviously. However, let’s just say I am in exactly the right place at the exactly the right time; I’ve seen the future, and it’s very bright indeed.
It strikes me that it might be some months until this entry makes it out onto my blog. So apologies in advance if this seems out of time at all.
I wonder if, in time, I will be able to talk about what I’ve actually worked on, i.e.: projects of the past. I’m finally getting to grips with how fast this place moves; last Wednesday I helped out with creating an invitation for the Ovi Daily App Awards. Between us we nailed the copy, design, look and feel and just for good measure, a comedy QR code to boot.
They were signed off, printed and sent out within 24hrs and, by Friday, blog posts were alreadyspringingup. Amazing.
I understand that this might just be par for the course for some of you but, coming from a veritable behemoth of an organisation, this is not how it’s done ‘client side’.
I’m yawning as I write, I must be boring myself.
Writing from a plane (again), we’re headed for Helsinki. There’s a man two seats away who spoke at OpenLabs. Remember that?
Three weeks I’ve been doing this job and I think I might have worked out what I’m doing here. There’s obviously work to be done and I’m getting stuck in, however I still feel like an outsider.
New to the pack, some of the larger animals don’t know how to take me. Yet others are still trying to be open. We’re getting there. Slowly. At least I’m getting there.
The hardest part to deal with is the clients, I guess. They don’t trust me and, while my name maybe associated with The Really Mobile Project, I don’t think they ever will. It’s gutting because I’m not just some blogger off the street; I’ve spent the last 5yrs carving out a career as an expert in my field. Call it comms, word of mouth, community, dare I say it ‘Social Media’ and, in all honesty, I’m not an idiot (no laughing at the back please). I’m really not. I’ve never broken an NDA and I’ve always conducted myself in a professional manner. Yes, there is some bleeding across the lines with the new role, but really?
“We’re not going to show him anything he might blog.” — Really? Give me a break.
24hrs later – Validation. Defence. A small amount of insight and trust – as tenuous as it is – is restored. Although I fear this won’t be the last time it happens.
Not least the epic workload of the pages that have gone before. A job, not small, but not important either – at least, it would seem right now.
I want to be able to do my job my NEW job to the best of my ability but currently, I don’t feel I can. There is… the learning process. The transaction process that which, over time, defines how your tenure will be judged… information… there is much. Relationship building, plenty.
“Following on from the smattering of ill-advised hangers-on clinging to the coat-tails of the meme itself, we’re moving into the phase where agencies have had time to look on admiringly, schedule a meeting with their client, pitch a similar idea, rush it into production, write the press release and bring it to life.”
This level of personalisation is nothing new. In fact I doubt there are many reading this right now who will disagree with me when I say that the Old Spice campaign was just so impactful you’d be forgiven for thinking that they invented it.
However, what it actually succeeded in doing (on top of dramatically increasing sales, mass awareness and no doubt going on to win a bajillion awards in the new year), was highlighting the potential benefits of harnessing social media in this way. A – dare I say it – old and staid brand throwing themselves at social in such a left field and disruptive manner is going to win brownie points for sheer bravery alone.
But what about the #singingtweetagram? Inventive, yes. Fun, also. But this re-iteration and personalisation of tweets, again, is nothing new. When I first saw it hit I thought ‘Genius! It’s an audio version of IrkaFirka!’
For those of you not in the know, to be ‘firked’ is to have one’s tweet taken, turned into art and tweeted right back at you.
The Feed’s elevator pitch? Hashtag your tweet ‘#singingtweetagram’ and they’ll pass it on to the Rockabellas back in the studio who’ll sing it and again, send it back to you.
What is the objective? How does singing tweets to *anyone* have any direct correlation with brand values, product launches, campaign assets… Who knows.
You heard the audio up there through Audioboo. For some reason The Feed didn’t think to add an option to embed the MP3 on my own site; share it through Twitter? Yes. Download and keep? Also. But no embedding for you.
I’ve never seen @FrankG laugh so much in my life. He loved this and he smiled. A lot. What else? When giving the ‘premiere’ of the clip to the rest of the office, they all laughed too. Wonderful stuff.
Number two is an oversight but one and three cancel out each other quite nicely. If your brand or your client can simply make someone smile and laugh, then who cares about the campaign objectives?
I am a fan of David Fincher. I’ve seen everything since Alien3 and loved nearly all of it. When it was announced that he would be lensing ‘the facebook movie’; among the naysayers, I was not.
A few months back, the trailer hit.
Superb. This past Monday I was invited to a preview screening care of Sony Pictures and it left my brain buzzing.
First off; the film on its own is a fantastic watch. Although, and it is an odd comparison to draw, very much like Scott Pilgrim vs The World, the social network I think will only speak to people of a certain age. What is that certain age? I don’t know.
Actually, scratch that. it’s a generational thing. Fact.
Whatever way you look at it, the social network really is a great film; there is Fincher throughout, but quietly. Almost like he’s whispering in the background and steering gently from afar. His custom clean, dark-shaded visuals, of which he is a master, are there but the flights of camera-based fancy are almost non-existent (save for a set of stunning establishing shots at Henley on Thames; tilt-shifting never looked so good).
This is a Fincher film all over but he’s adult enough to step back and let it shine on its own. Good job.
For me, the title ‘the social network‘ itself is an interesting play on words, in that while it’s obvious that it refers to the software platform that our protagonists are squabbling over, it also resonates as a nod to the group of friends who started out on this journey together and furthermore, the ensemble cast that present them to us.
Jesse Eisenberg is perfectly believable as the nerdy but gifted Mark Zuckerberg character (a point to which I’ll come back later) and holds the film together well. For anyone that’s ever watched a single episode of The West Wing, the throwaway remarks and razor sharp dialogue will be distinctly Sorkin and, although the story is boldly told from different perspectives and narratives, it is clear that ‘Zuck’ is our hero; anti-, tragic or otherwise.
Justin Timberlake, as Napster founder ‘the evil Sean Parker’ is surprisingly very good. I’m not sure why I say ‘surprising’, I’ve always thought that he’d be quite a good actor however, there’s always something nudging at you when he’s on screen. That small voice in your head saying ‘Hey… Hey! That’s Justin Timberlake up there!’, but once you get past the first 10mins or so it settles down and you can enjoy his performance which, by the way, is as good as he is dislikeable. You want to punch him in the face. A lot.
Spider-Man-in-waiting, Andrew Garfield, is probably my favourite thing from the whole film. You feel his pain, his hurt, his lack of judgement, his anger.. All of it. He is a very talented actor and, for someone so young, brings immense gravitas to what could’ve quite easily have been just a one note role.
Fincher explains in the production notes that he’d never worked with such a young cast before (Aaron Sorkin also mentioning he’s never written so young either), so he pushed for take after take after take, sometimes up 80 or 90, just to make the language more casual
“If you’re not speaking at speed, then I won’t believe it”.
When Eduardo Saverin arrives late one night looking worn out from flying, it’s because Andrew Garfield had been shooting that scene for five hours and his exasperation shines through. It’s a punishing, yet fantastically rewarding technique. Love it.
Finally, on the casting front at least, a hefty hat tip to Armie Hammer who to plays both the Winklewoss twins with an ease that is almost unnatural. I’ll admit, he’s the only one of the main cast I haven’t seen in anything else before, however if he can play two of himself with ease (I can’t imagine the line learning, shooting technique, SFX etc that were needed for that casting decision), then he definitely deserves some special attention.
Sounding like Xerses from the 300 and towering over Jesse Eisenberg like a pair of Grecian Gods, he embodies the Harvard final final club elites perfectly. Jeremy Irons would be proud.
So what of the film? Well, it’s a tough one. The different times I’ve talked about it with friends and colleagues since viewing have produced multiple responses;
“It’s an Aaron Sorkin script, with a Fincher wrapping.”
“It’s a modern day myth”
“It’s all still so fresh.”
I’ve said it a number of times already, the film is great… BUT you find yourself watching it all with a healthy pinch of salt. I’ve read interviews with Mark Zuckerberg. A lot of interviews. His views on privacy, sociology, business… all of them are there if you look hard enough and there are certain characteristics which don’t come through in the film. Yes, we’re six years on (just six years) and no doubt he’s changed a fair amount but still, some of it didn’t ring true for me.
Which actually, isn’t that surprising given that Zuckerberg was the only one who refused to meet with the film-makers before, during or after production. C’est la vie. When you watch this film, remember you’re watching the characterisation of a real person. One that has been drawn and painted, by others, without any approval from the source. That’s all.
Let’s put it this way; if you’re under 40 and you have a Facebook account, see this film. If you’ve been a part of (or worked within) a start-up culture, see this film. If you’re a fan of Fincher or Sorkin, see this film.
The aforementioned bold decision to not stick to one core narrative will leave you wanting more, reaching for those parts still left untold and somehow feeling that you weren’t given the full story…
But I guess that’s the point.
No matter if you end up seeing the the social network or not, the final word has to go to Zuckerberg himself:
“We build products that 500 million people see… …
..
…if 5 million people see a movie, it doesn’t really matter that much.â€
Unfortunately, in my infinite wisdom I managed to hit the ‘off’ button on my alarm this morning. OFF instead of SNOOZE. The latter would’ve made sure I was up before 7am. The former ensured that I found myself stirring a little after 9am. Bugger.
Up, like a shot. It’s 9:11. Shower. Teeth. Shave. It’s 9:20. Pack. Spray. Earphones. Leave the house, it’s 9:25. Walking, fast, I trip and stumble. My ankle cries out and I follow suit. Limping, I make it to the station. It’s 9:35. Coffee, rain and the 9:41 arrives on time.
Today is my first day at 1000heads and so far it’s going swimmingly!
I bought this Moleskine specifically to chronicle my travels this past summer. As it stands, the book itself is only a little under halfway full and here I am about to begin a new adventure with my new colleagues at 1000heads.
What I’ll use this book for from now on I don’t know. But knowing me, no doubt I’ll try and share as much I can…
I look at it from time to time and, on occasion, point wildly at it whilst making some word of mouth-related point about something or other.
The best way to illustrate this? Spam is personalised. Post-it notes are personal.
Over the past couple of weeks we’ve been sending out our #WhatisWOM infographic posters to all and sundry* and every single one of them went with a hand-written, personal note saying ‘thank you and enjoy’.
This is important.
Relationships are important.
People are important.
And that, dear readers, underpins everything we do.
whatleydude.com 