Our team at Rockstar have an eclectic taste in music – with die-hard fans of everything from Lady Gaga, to David Bowie, to Michael Buble, to Mozart. Me I’m a die-hard fan of an indie-pop garage-rock band, The Go! Team.

And finally after a long and painful 4 year wait, they’ve released a new album Rolling Blackouts!

And it’s the best thing ever!

Attempted description of The Go! Team…

The Go! Team are like nothing you’ve heard before. Their music can be described as an addictive up-beat sugar-hit melody trip of dandy, that beamingly awakens the fun-loving kid inside everyone! And that kid still is inside everyone.

The Go Team! is pop without the lame. Pop-rock without the “same old” vibe. It’s not for everyone, but everyone gets it. It’s flutes, trumpets, chants, hip-hop and cute-as-hell vocals that make so much sense! There are cherries there too. Yes. cherries.

The Album…

Rolling Blackouts is The Go! Team’s third gear. And while you don’t have to have heard their first 2 albums, you have to know that gear 3 is so much more smoother, faster, and slicker than the first 2.

Individually, almost every track has an original soul of it’s own, and when heard together back-to-back on the album, every track in their entirety and order makes so much sense. Unlike albums 1 and 2, nothing feels out of place, lost or boring. When the energy gets too much, in slows down. Not to a crawl, but a melodic peace that soothes your sense for your next joy-powered overload.

If I had to make a complaint about Rolling Blackouts, it would be the vocals. After all, with a lead vocalist called Ninja – you have to hear them right? Yes and no.

I’ve heard the album quite a few times now, and sometimes I wonder what the hell I’m tripping out to. Am I zinging along to a chant about doing big poos? Does it really matter? Not really… It just would have been nice to have a vocal anthem track on there like “Doing it Right“. But that’s not to say there are no athems.

If I had to pick a favourite, I’d say Tracks 2 (Secretary Song), 3 (Apollo Throwdown), 4 (Ready to Go Steady), 5 (Bust out Brigade), 6 (Buy Nothing Day), 8 (Voice Yr Choice), 9 (Yosemite Theme), 1o (Running Range), and 13 (Back Like 8 Track) are all tied as the favourite.

haha. seriously – they’re all that good! If I had to pick an absolute absolute, it would have to be 10 (Running Range), and 13 (Back Like 8 Track). Again – I can’t split them.

A few months ago, The Go! Team released track 1 on the net (T.O.R.N.A.D.O.). It’s probably the least representative track on there, so don’t pay too much attention when you first get started.

By now, you would have worked out that I’m pretty fanatical about this album. It’s the first time I’ve ever written an album review. On my business website. That creates yearbooks. Yeah.

So go buy it kids.

Finally, the bestest bestest thing about the album are the trumpets on the last track. If there was a theme for “winner!”, as in “WINNER!!! – I told you so!“, and “WINNER = the good guy wins the heart of the pretty girl“, – it’s that track. It’s triumph at it’s best. It’s The Go! Team saying “we’ve been away for 4 years, and now we’re back”. And it was certainly worth the wait.

Also a little video mix we put together. Music by DJ Earmworm.

Anyone who tells you that they don’t make mistakes is lying. We’re human. Mistakes are part of our life and blood.

At Rockstar we’re proud to say that we make mistakes. Our difference however, is that we:

1. Recognise mistakes, and work to become better people for next time.
2. Fix our mistakes, and provide products and services which are close to perfection for our clients and partners.

Your happiness is our driver, and our one motivation. And I really mean this. The philosophy for this “business” has always been, make clients happy and the money will take care of itself.

In the 5 years that I’ve been Directing Rockstar full time, I’ve learnt so much. As the 2010 busy season has arrived, I wanted to share some recent insights that I’ve experienced. I had these experiences probably because of miscellaneous mistakes – mistakes made on my part. It’s all good though. I strongly believe that many instances of success, cannot be reached without firstly going through some failure.

My motivation to share is primarily to reflect and document, but also to help provide an understanding of Rockstar’s culture to our existing and future staff, clients and partners.

Working with staff who are in their early 20s.

Rockstar’s client base is clustered into various segments: 16-18 year old Year 12 students, 18-24 year old Uni students, 22 – 50 year old professionals. To appropriately connect with our client base, we tend to employ a lot of uni students who are aged 19-22.

Youth has its many advantages:

• enthusiasm and spirit
• hunger and drive
• the ability to work hard and long hours
• not being fixed in their ways
• ability to learn quickly
• having no idea of the concept that most of the world “boxes” employees into a sandbox they’re socially / operationally allowed to operate within

I’ve also found that Youth has its disavantages

• having to learn to communicate effectively in a working environment
• the undeveloped skill of thinking 2 steps ahead, to avoid future mistakes
• inate selfishish – everything is driven by selfish desires
• the lack of consideration of actions, onto the rest of the team
• not knowing that if they carry on “sucking” or operating in an inappropriate manner, they’d get massacred / fired, in the “real world”

Combine the advantages and disadvantages inside a person, and you have their early 20s “attitude”. It’s a growing part of life that everyone goes through – especially given today’s society and generation.

Whenever we advertise job vacancies, we’re guaranteed to have at least 200 people apply. After a long an exhaustive selection and interview process, we tend to offer positions to those who display a good attitude:
Youth’s advantages in it’s full strength + Youth’s disadvantages minimised.

In the past fortnight, I’ve made 3 of Rockstar staff cry in the studio, because of the pressures of work. It has really affected me. I’ve felt quite bad about myself, and have been wondering if I have done the right thing.

As I eat my dinner in front of the computer and write this post (yes I have an awesome life), I have worked out that these recent events has transpired partially because I’ve changed. Here’s what I think has happenned:

Back in the early days, when Rockstar was first going, I didn’t have much experience in directing staff. While I had worked 2 years as a Consultant in Deloitte, I never had staff work directly under my financial and operational responsibility. In the early Rockstar days, I relied upon my skills of asking staff nicely to do stuff – and then hoping they would follow through.

I think I was really, really lucky early on. The staff we took on ended up being priceless pillars of today’s Rockstar. Without the early crew, especially Michelle and Jess (who were both 20 at the time), Rockstar would never ever ever, have gotten to where we are today. (I also wouldn’t be sitting here in front of the computer. Alone. Eating my dinner and blogging. Alone. at 10pm…. ..)

The point is, I could rely on my skills of asking staff nicely to do stuff, and they would follow through – simply because they were simply amazing.

Over the years, as we’ve grown, inevitably the awesomeness has diluted itself as our numbers and scale has grown. I’m definitely not saying that everyone we’ve taken on recently, suck. I’m saying that as there are more people, and as I have had to delegate more responsibility to others, the strategy of asking staff nicely to do stuff, and then relying on hope, has become less effective. I have had to change and adapt to the growing demands of our business. It’s an issue that every growing business faces.

The changes that I’ve made this year, I think, include:

1- Making staff financially responsible for their actions

In February, I implemented an open P&L (Profit and Loss Statement) Policy, where senior staff now know exactly how much our business is on track to make, or lose. (They have signed confidentiality agreements). I think this has been very beneficial for a couple of reasons. Firstly, as a manager I’ve been able to better justify my “asking to do stuff” requests, and secondly; it gives clear, understandable and reasonable goals to work towards. My dream is to open up the books completely to trusted senior staff, so they have an even greater understanding, and knowledge of how business works.

In regards to our junior creative staff, they’re made fully aware and reminded of their primary purpose of employment at Rockstar. Rockstar junior creative staff do not seek employment at Rockstar with payment as their primary consideration. Their two primary purpses of employment are to: firstly create amazing solutions for our clients, and secondly to LEARN. It’s a one-third job, one-third work placement, and one-third classroom. Junior creatives know that 100% of the fees being charged to the client for design, go straight to the them. We operately differently to most creative agencies. Incidentally I’ve actually gotten into two big debates / arguements with potential clients who flat-out refused to accept and understand our business model. I guarantee our junior staff as just as effective as senior staff elsewhere, because 1) They’re driven by the passion tomake your project succeed – (not their timesheet), and 2) We train them better, partially because they’re in the mindset to learn to do things better – (not set in their old ways). We pair the wisdom of our seniors, with the energy of our juniors. We’re stronger at the top, and stronger at the bottom – we’re not stuck in between. It’s a unique win-win-win situation.

2- Less ask, more tell

In the past month, as the pressure has increased, I’ve noticed that I’ve been more direct in communicating. Rather than beat around the bush, be my usual nice self and ask for something, I’ll tend to tell what I’d like, and tell when I’d like it. Less ask, and more tell.

Doing this is not as “nice”, and goes against every philosophy I’ve been brought up with. It however is a necessity for me, for them, for the business, and most importantly – for our clients and partners. These days, I’m more likely to tell and show someone how to improve, rather than suggest and hope they do. As someone who is generally quite “nice”, a little more introverted than extroverted, with traditional Asian parents, this is a big, big step to take.

The combination of these two changes I think, has changed the dynamics of our team a little. I sense that we’re still as positive, upbeat, and happy. But we’re also more driven, because the pressure from me as the boss has increased. I realise that I have to be very very careful and not push too hard.

Dare I say this though, I truly believe that getting pushed over the edge (and recovering nicely with the right support), is far, far, far, far better than just another walk in the park. Just another day at work is a waste of a day.

We only live once. We’re only young once, and we only get one shot at life. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t sign up for life to be ordinary – I want mine to be great.

I aim to get the very best out of our team at Rockstar over the next 3 months. There will continue to be adjustments, and we’ll all make minor mistakes. We will fix it in time though, all grow, and all get better. As long as I’m not blogging in 2 weeks time that all our staff left…. – it’ll all be good : )

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PS Did you see our new Rockstar “Studio” Intro?

Well done to Michael Chen for all his amazing work!

First up– Congratulations to all the high school graduates of 2010!! Well done on getting through a roller coaster ride of a year, hope it was a memorable one! Good luck in the upcoming HSC… don’t forget to study hard!!

Congratulations also for completing your yearbooks. It was a blast working with you all, and they’ve turned out fantastic! Therefore, to celebrate, we at Rockstar made some Rocking videos yesterday to show off the great work you have achieved. Please ENJOY!

Baulkham Hills High School

Canterbury Girls High School

Cranbrook High School

Leumeah High School

Ku-ring-gai Creative Arts High School

Lithgow High School

North Sydney Girls High School

Redlands

Riverside High School

South Sydney High School

Sydney Girls High School

With much love,

The Rockstar Team.

I’m having one of those moments where you suddenly realise themes that pop up consistently in day-to-day things.

Rockstar being snotty to Optus

Rockstar aren’t perfect. We try hard to be, but we sometimes do the human thing and fail. What’s important to us however, is realising our mistakes, solving the problem and trying to prevent the mistake from happenning again. We/I learnt something today…

Our Studio internet data usage goes through the roof between September and January. With hundreds of concurrent projects, sending high resolution files and yearbooks chews up bandwidth. Since April 2007, we’ve been with Optus “Small and Medium Business” DSL Direct. For the most part, it has been a good relationship, with good speeds, high uptime, and relatively good value for money. What was frustrating however, was how we would get speed capped at the end of each month for going over our tiny data quota. Usually caused by Karen downloading porn. Having 25 people share a 64kbps cap isn’t very fun or productive.

The problem always has been, that Optus does not have a Small + Medium internet business plan with higher bandwidth usage. By higher, I mean anything greater than 50/70GB up+download a month.  This is related to our paper tiger ACCC having the inability to haul into line the broadband cartel that Singaporen + Australian telcos hold Australian businesses + consumers to. Productivity in Australia dies because of rip-off data rates. “Australia is a big country”, isn’t a valid excuse anymore. Anyway I digress.

Rockstar have always been happy to pay for a higher data plan. But they don’t exist with Optus! Optus arrogantly does not offer better options. Optus insist on data throttling, instead of offering alternative options to either: 1) buy more data, or 2) sensibly, upgrade to a better plan (which don’t exist). Explanations provided by Optus over the years have included:

• “Our clients tell us that they don’t need more data”
• “most of our Small + Medium Business clients are plumbers/doctors, and don’t require more data”
• “We’re working on upgrading our plans”… (6 months later)… “We’re working on upgrading our plans”…

Meanwhile, Optus will happily increase their home plans offering 200GB/month up+download each month. Nice one.

If you are a Small + Medium Business customer with Optus, and want to have more than 70GB up+download each month, and stay on as a business customer, you have to:

1. Upgrade to the Optus “Evolve” network
2. Pay a $1,650 installation fee
3. Pay $330/month for unlimited data.

You go from $149/month for 70GB (with unlimited phone calls), to $330/month for unlimited GB (no phone calls). There is nothing in between. Nothing.

WTF?

So I got snotty, like a Sydney-sider does, and wrote a snotty twitter tweet, complaining about the situation. I @tagged Optus, knowing they had a social media team who would try to resolve problems.

It’s always fun complaining on the Internet. You become invisible + invincible because you lose the accountability. Being a former Westpac Banking Telephone banking Complaints Call Centre rep, I can hold my own on the phone, and have called Optus many times before giving them a polite forceful piece of my mind. Nothing ever happened though. Nevertheless, the next step was writing a strongly worded message to the Optus Social Media team, in response to their tweet reply.

I didn’t think their social media team would do much. I thought it was just a bit of fancy PR. My @optus mention was written out of cynicism. Spite even.

But alas, Snotty Sydney-sider was wrong.

After a few missed calls, Julian from Optus Social Media telephoned me back, where I explained the situation to him. While I knew this, Julian kindly explained that the only way to get more than 70GB, and not get ripped off, was to switch to a Home Optus plan. So this has what has happenned. We’ve been switched to a Home plan. Julian organised for this too – I didn’t have to speak to an Indian call centre person pretending to be Australian.

I’m not sure if there are any GST implications in switching to a Home plan. But you gotta do what you gotta do.

Thanks to @optus for solving the problem via Twitter, and for proving me wrong.

Clients being snotty to Rockstar

Rockstar aren’t perfect. We try hard to be, but we sometimes do the human thing and fail. What’s important to us however, is realising our mistakes, solving the problem and trying to prevent the mistake from happenning again. We/I learnt something today…

We bend over backwards to meet our client expectations.

I gotta word this correctly for multiple reasons. So this post will be finished when there’s a bit more time. TBC…

We wanted to jot down some of the lessons we learnt from directing and filming today’s lip dub. Hopefully this will be useful for other budding lip dub organiser and directors!

Know every word – every syllable – every beat of your song(s)…

You can’t know your song(s) too well. Rehearsal time is tight, and when directing individual parts, you’ll need to be able to rattle off the words off your cuff. Knowing every single word to “Good Girls Go Bad” was disturbingly  effective and life saving today. If the Director is not the camera person, the camera person should know every word, syllable and beat too.

Rehersals are by far the toughest…

We had 200 students at the Baulko dub today. Individual part rehersals were compressed to 75 mins – a lot of detail to get through to a lot of people. Bring an energy drink. You’ll need it. No matter how fit you are – you will fatigue. No matter how in control you think you are – you will get stressed.

Have a trusted team around you…

From a Director’s point of view, today wouldn’t have been possible without the awesome Creative Consultants Anna and Michael. All the little things make the big difference. Let your trusted assistants take care of minor detail, so you can focus on directing.

Some will surprise, others will disappoint…

Some of your lip dub participants will amaze you with their efforts, enthusiasm and amazing ability to help you out. They’ll really make your day. Unfortunately there will also be others who won’t listen, are half-asleep, and waste your time. Don’t let the bastards weigh you down. Be direct and upfront with them. Don’t let them waste your time.

Break down the file…

This one probably saved us 2 hours. 2 hours we didn’t have. Break down your song into individual parts, and break down your mp3 into mini clips matching the parts – complete with orderly named ID3 tags. During rehearsals, you’ll need to be able to quickly, accurately and repeatedly restart the song from various points. It’s far easier to ipod playback exactly from the right ID location, than try to fast forward + rewind awkwardly to the approximate spot.

Lifesaving equipment is lifesaving…

Portable megaphone. Portable ipod dock. iPad was amazing useful too – first time we found a legit use for it actually.

Dress up, or don’t do it…

Today would have been terrible if no one dressed up. Half the battle is won when you arrive at the shoot with everyone in amazing costume, ready to party. It’s a great feeling for a director to have

Steadicam…

Try to borrow or buy one. The lip dubs that work really well are generally filmed with a steadicam. You don’t want to give the viewer a headache right? We used the Glidecam HD-2000 with body pod. You need the body pod, or you’ll die. I work out at the gym regularly, and it’s tough to hold the Glidecam steady for longer than 15 seconds. Your clip goes for 5 minutes right?

Order of events…

We started off with a big group meeting with everyone in the same location. This was following by 75 mins of individual part rehearsals. A dry practice run with the “camera off” then took place, where we could get a feel of everything gelled together for the first time. We then had one last big group meeting, following by the live filming. We took two takes. By the second take, everyone wanted to go home (and study so they can get a 99.95 ATAR, get into Med @ UNSW, become a doctor and fulfill their Asian parents’ dream… it’s ok I’m Asian, I can make these jokes… I didn’t get 99.95 either, so perhaps I’m just bitter…). The moment we knew the lip dub would be awesome, was immediately after the dry practice run. We got to the end like clockwork, with all participants SCREAMING like crazy. We smiled. It would only get easier from here. This was the best moment of today

OK I think I’m starting to ramble now.

We’re working on fine tuning the video over the next week or so. We’ll post the video + making of + photos up soon. If you’re in Baulko Class of 2010, and can’t wait that long, apparently you can get us to work a little faster by convincing the Class of 2011 (as in the Year 11′s) to get their yearbooks + video + jewellery with Rockstar Memoirs and Trellum

1 x Music Video Choreographer

We’re filming Australia’s first lip-dub music clip, with 200 students dancing to Just Dance – Lady Gaga and Good Girls Go Bad – Cobra Starship. Can you choreograph dance and lyrical sequences on the move? More info….

1 x Operations Assistant

Are you patient? Would you like experience on running a busy creative studio? Have 18-32 hours availability each week? Becoming an Operations Assistant at Rockstar may just be for you. More info….

5 x Junior Graphic Designers

As you prepare to graduate from college, you should gain as many design skills and experiences as possible. Whether you hope to join an agency, studio, freelance or see what happens, Creative Starts equips you with solid professional design experiences that you will be very proud of. More info….

…and a partridge in a pear-tree!

……   (slow clap)…. … that wasn’t even funny. It’s a joke my dad would say… I have no idea why I am not deleting this entire paragraph.

End blog post awkwardly.

Rockstar’s annual Orientation took place last Friday, and it was an absolutely awesome event! The fifth one we’ve ever run, each year keeps getting better and better. Orientation is Rockstar’s way of welcoming, training and making comfortable our new creative staff. See all our photos and videos on our Facebook page.

Before starting Rockstar, I worked in a few large and small companies. The moments that really mattered to me, were the ones were my managers went out of their way to connect with me: My boss at Westpac, taking the time to explain how the “real world” workforce worked. My Volvo boss allowing me to drive his flash new S60. My Zurich boss letting me take extended time off for personal reasons, and my Deloitte partner taking me out to lunch on my first day. Oh… and the bar tab… I remember processing the concept in my head for the first time, that I was the recipient of a bar tab – where my boss had put his credit card, and I could drink all I wanted… Oh the grin on my face…. Those moments are priceless.

I’ve carried on those traditions at Rockstar. On everyone’s first day at Rockstar, the whole team go out to lunch in North Sydney. Lately we’ve been having yum cha. It’s hilarious seeing Westerners (I was born here, but parents are Chinese) try to use their chopsticks, and destroy the food. Most of us work part-time, and it’s also pretty funny how the team tend to magically turn up to work on days with a new starter. The record is still held by the lovely Jess in 2007/8, although Chris this year is getting very close.

Oh, we’re doing a lip dub soon for a really cool Year 12 grade. Can’t wait for it to happen!

1) Best Quality Guarantee

We use the newest proven technology and materials to make the highest quality yearbooks. Every single Rockstar yearbook is quality checked before being boxed and sent to you. On the off chance you find a problem, we’ll fix it free of charge.

2) Best Prices Around

We print tens of thousands of yearbooks each year, and pass on savings onto you. We’re confident that our yearbook prices are the lowest around. If you find a quote that is priced lower, we’d love to be able to beat it – please let us know!

3) We’re actually located, and print in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

On the off chance that something goes wrong, we can visit you and fix the problem. Be careful – other yearbook companies are located far out in Western Australia and South Australia, have really expensive delivery changes, and others have gone broke (taking $thousands in deposits with them).

4) Trusted by Hundreds of Schools

Since 1999, Rockstar have been trusted by tens of thousands of students around Australia. Student groups and schools keep coming back to us for a reason. Read some testimonials from students, teachers, and school principals.

5) The Best Service in Australia

We create yearbooks, only because we love them. This makes a big difference in our motives. Rockstar’s purpose is not to make a quick buck, but instead to help people capture and celebrate their experiences. Sounds corny, but it’s true.

6) We’re Yearbook Specialists

School photography companies are only suddenly desparate to help schools, because their photography services are declining. We’re also often told by teachers that “Magical Online Yearbook Builder” systems are terrible: limiting, ugly, and very frustrating to use. Chat with us about the real way to publish.

7) Supporting Young Australian Designers

The Rockstar Yearbook Design Team are young, talented, and love to design amazing yearbooks. Our team are hand-picked from Australia’s best design colleges, and trained to amazingly implement your design brief! Unlike other yearbook companies, we do not source workers from 3rd world countries (+unethically pay them). Rockstar only proudly employ, train and pay Australians, helping keep our local industry strong.

Hear from others have to say!

Thousands of students, teachers, and school principals can’t be wrong. Hear it from them…