October 15, 2010 - Posted by Virginia - 0 Comments
Just like the saying; “All good things must come to an end”, my week of week experience at Rockstar Memoirs must draw to a close. Starting as a nervous, short, little, asian girl, the past 5 days have impacted me in ways that written entries cannot succeed to accurately and entirely express. This week has taught me many things; not only about how Rockstar functions, but also important skills and qualities that will definitely benefit and refine me for the workforce.
The most significant part of today was enjoying the different people around me. Everything was so casual and informal, yet busy at the same time. The best bit of today was listening to all the spontaneous comedic lines from various people, which sparked bursts of giggles and laughter, most jokes coming from Chris in particular (All were completely appropriate of course…).
Today wasn’t so laborous, it was more of a laid back, care-free day with me just mainly photoshopping various images… and frustratingly losing them. I took photos for Rockstar Paparazzi; ready shots, stolen shots, and completely random shots.
A place of wonders
Being my last day here, I’d like to thank a few people before finally departing.
Amelia Walkley: young, vibrant, cheerful, and a busy Consultant. You played a big role in helping me ease in and making sure I was comfortable during my stay here. Thanks for organising an itinerary throughout the week for me; I know this is a very busy period of the year for you and everyone else, and I appreciate how you made time to instruct me despite your hectic schedule. Thanks for taking care of me this week, and thanks for taking me out to lunch on my first day! Good luck for the rest of the year; I know you’ll be able to handle all your tasks!
Nathan Leong – ‘The Big Boss’: Professional yet casual, stern yet friendly, a walking collection of paradoxes, comedic, and a very busy man. You gave me an image of the kind of leadership I would like to be trained under, and qualities which I would like to develop in preparation for the working life ahead. Although you didn’t really directly teach me anything, I have learnt a multitude of things just by overhearing your instructions to consultants, and discussing areas of improvements with designers. (Sorry if it’s eavesdropping! I can’t really block it out.) Your frequent desire for music playing in the studios and respectable manner of communicating to fellow workers and clients, has given me an idea of what I would like to achieve and look for in the near future. You have become one of my role models of leadership, and have definitely set a standard for me! Thank you for this and for making me feel comfortable throughout the week.
The Rockstar team – A community of young driven people, friendly, stylish, talented and skilled at their job; a huge inspiration! If it wasn’t for the amazingly friendly, funny, workers of Rockstar Memoirs, I doubt I would have experienced what I went through this week, at the level of comfortability and enjoyment I had. I could talk so casually with anyone, and join in the laughter. All of you treated me like I was part of the team and conversed with me on the same level as everyone else. I’m definitely going to miss this community. Thank you for being the crazy amazing people that you are.
In conclusion, my time here has persuaded me to consider applying to become a freelance designer for Rockstar when I grow older during my uni studies. This week has definitely been a memorable week, one that I will never forget. Rockstar Memoirs, you have embedded yourself in my memories.
p.s If you ever decide on using the photos, they’re in a ‘Rockstar Paparazzi’ folder, in ‘Pictures’, in the user ‘Veronica Mesa’ lol.
October 15, 2010 - Posted by Virginia - 0 Comments
Ever battle has a victor, and in most cases, the victorious party is congratulated and celebrated. So in turn, I would like to begin my recount of today by sharing and celebrating with you my glorious victory over the army of coloured C6 envelopes. Ever since I received the task of addressing the envelopes, I had made up my mind to try and get rid of it quickly as possible and get it over and done with. Personally, there was no other way to do this but to complete the task in its entirety at a reasonably fast pace, while maintaining quality, rather than find loop holes to shove it aside. Today was the day I conquered and reached my goal. Thank you for celebrating with me.
During the day, Michael gave me the task of creating a yearbook cover design for one of their current projects so I could possibly help out the designer assigned to it. When creating yearbook covers, the design has to fit the rest of the pages within the yearbook, so using the same theme, colour palette and style of elements used is appropriate.
Normally I would design covers or title pages in Photoshop; I’m more experienced here than in InDesign or Illustrator. However, destiny had something else in plan (actually it was more like ‘designers logic/common sense’). The only way I could get the proper dimensions and measurements for the cover spread was through InDesign, so I was stuck with using this software rather than Photoshop. (Insert unnecessary lines depicting my early frustration, silent complaints and occasional difficulties with InDesign here.) But as time passed, I started getting the hang of it. In fact, I’m not so against using InDesign now; I’m starting to see the many pros of using this software for such related purposes as yearbooks. Also, a designer came in and taught me a few basic things on how to use InDesign, and some fancy tips with text aligning. Thanks for that!
After some time on the cover, I teleported back to the other studio where I helped Michael by sharing some of my opinions on previous Rockstar Annuals for Universities and Colleges, and helping Amelia refold the lovely advertisements that were to be mailed to different companies. They’re pretty awesome! We were sitting on the couch folding and casually conversing with others around us, sharing a few laughs, re-telling some past experiences; it was a relaxed, laid-back moment.
As the afternoon flew by, It was soon time to head home. After denying Nathan’s offer of coke (lol) and showing Bryan, a designer, the yearbook cover I worked on throughout the day, I was ready to return to my humble household in the west.
October 14, 2010 - Posted by Virginia - 0 Comments
Ha, I’ve learnt my lesson from the past two days, so I decided to write my blog entry for my 3rd day now while I’m not so busy, rather than 4:00.
Today wasn’t as energetic as yesterday; I have now conquered more than half of the 200 C6 envelope army. My hand is quite tired from raging war, but at least it’s refined my handwriting skills? lol, very useful for keeping my school books neat and tidy when I go back to Penrith next week…
Picking up from where I left yesterday with moodboards, I completed mine this morning for my ‘MARVELous comic’ template idea. Amelia then went through design briefs and project briefs, going through some of the early steps of processing a project with me.
Clients who want Rockstar to design their yearbook must fill out a Design brief, which is then retrieved by a Creative Consultant, who passes the design brief to designers. The designer must then fill out a project brief, which has all the relevant information needed to create the client’s yearbook, including timelines and other details. The designers then build on from here, creating concepts, drafts, and conversing with consultants and clients to ensure all the details they want are included in the yearbook, before finally releasing their masterpiece.
Aside from design-ey stuff, I also learnt a few points when dealing with technology issues. (Gotta love how technology is so unpredictable some days) When faced with a technological problem, trial/error various alternate ways to isolate the issue down to hardware/software deficiency. Thanks for that Nathan!
October 13, 2010 - Posted by Virginia - 0 Comments
Day 2 of my work experience program and I’ve forgotten to post up my blog while I was at the studio, again. Oh well, I guess I was too excited about my work to spare some time for writing. So here I am sitting on my humble throne, in front of my royal computer, in my average palace. Behold! the wonders of my 2nd day of work experience at the kingdom of Rockstar Memoirs.
I entered the studio with ‘killer enthusiasm’, eager to find out what I would be doing during the day. My magical touch brought the mac to life and I played around with photoshop for awhile, before helping Amelia out with their whiteboard calendar. It was rather exciting updating and organising the calendar. Not because I liked the variety of brightly coloured post-it notes, or the challenge of using double sided tape. It was because I was able to have an insight on the number of projects that the company was undertaking, witness how they organised their projects and the sort of system they used to maintain order in their work, and somehow silently share and relate to the rest of the team when it came to dreadfully looking at nearing deadlines on the calendar. Being part of my school’s yearbook team and also other groups outside of school, I felt a sense of familiarity with the routine, soon followed by a warm feeling of ‘belonging’. (Totally not cheesy!)
It was time to tackle the army of C6 coloured envelopes! After the calendar, I undertook the task of addressing, sticking, and stamping over 200 envelopes to their respective recipients. An easy job, you say? I think not! Though it didn’t require much creativity, mental knowledge, and bursts of imagination, it demanded consistency, focus, the ability to maintain a positive attitude, and a steady hand! All were qualities which I possessed of course. In all honesty, I wasn’t bored one bit. Call me crazy, but I was fine going through this manual labour. Thinking back, I realised that complete adoration and awe for their marketing strategies was more than enough to continue fuelling me. Rockstar was seeking to expand their services, so hand writing the addresses manually and using coloured envelopes to mail their TOTALLY EPIC advertisements was a strategic way to build a more personal connection with future clients. I was inspired.
In the afternoon, I moved on to brainstorming new yearbook templates and creating moodboards. This part of the day was what ignited my passion the most; it was like a drug which gave me highs. As Amelia was going through moodboards and template ideas with me, I could feel my spidey-senses tingling in the cases of delight. Excitement and adrenaline was moving in as I could feel my inner creative beast urging to be released. I went back to my work area, focused on my idea, and prepared myself before finally unleashing… the Incredibly Creative Beast within!
To sum everything up, I’ve learnt many new things today:
An organised system of organising information and peoples work using and effective database and calendar arrangements.
Effective marketing strategies implemented to other workplace.
Introduction to moodboards, and the process of yearbook designs. (More on this tomorrow!)
At the same time, I’ve also noticed some aspects of myeslf that I need to further improve:
Time Management
Working faster
I know this is another long, drowsy entry, but it’s kind of difficult of condense my excitement and joy into short paragraphs. From my time at Rockstar so far, I’ve come to fully realise that the more you genuinely love your job, what you are doing, understand the reasons behind tasks and their positive outcomes, then you have a strong, firm foundation to build your work on. Loving what you do will give you the ability to maintain a positive attitude, and will help you press on in dull times or during times of stress and hardship.
As my watch ticked towards quarter to ten, I could feel myself transitioning into a mild state of panic and nervousness. This was my first time in North Sydney and I was alone trying to find building 247, that which was the location of Rockstar Memoirs; yearbook design and publishing. A couple of times during my trip to the workplace, I was swept with a kind of “oh crap, where the hell am I?” mood as I silently contemplated and cursed the differences between the content of my current location and the content in my map. Nonetheless, I didn’t get too lost, and I arrived at my destination right on time. My work experience program at Rockstar Memoirs was about to begin.
My overseer was Amelia Walkley, Creative Consultant. She welcomed and introduced me to everyone there, making sure I felt comfortable and at ease. Nathan encouraged me to step out of my comfort zone and feel free to approach anyone and just be myself; everyone was really kind and approachable! After going through all the important details with Amelia, I was logged into their intranet on a MAC (every young designer’s favourite toy!) and was given my own Rockstar account - I felt a part of the team. On their administrative webpage, I was exposed to grid tutorials in InDesign, the philosophies in which Rockstar Memoir builds their work on, an overview of recent projects that were up for grabs, and the Rockstar blog which delved into the thoughts and recent happenings of the Rockstar team – a rather entertaining read. My first task was to create a form, Rockstar Paparazzi. I had to take photos of everyone and formulate questions for them to answer as their profile. Amelia told me that it was a fairly busy period for Rockstar so rather than wait for responses, I moved on to the yearbook library, after sneaking some time to photoshop an image or two of course.
After some time, I moved to the other studio and immersed myself in a wide collection of all the past projects that Rockstar had undertaken. My next task was to organise and sort the library, but at the same time, jot down some ideas and brainstorm some design layouts and concepts. Sorting bookshelves could seem like a boring task to others, but when its combined with your favourite hobby and what you like doing, any dull task can be turned into something that you enjoy and are enthusiastic about.
As lunch break ended, I went back to my task with a new sense of gusto and drive. To paint a clearer picture of this, you could compare it to getting a Hyper potion in Pokemon when you’re in the midst of a battle, or taking pots in World of Warcraft… if that helped at all. By this time, all my nerves had vanished. From my cosy hub near the bookshelf, I was attentive to the constant ringing of the phone as the team exerted all the help they could give to clients; schools needed to be chased after and projects completed to meet the due date – the afternoon was a very busy part of the day. After helping Chris L unpack/pack a few boxes of yearbooks, and dropping some envelopes for Amelia at Westpac, It was soon time to hit home.
I left with a broad smile on my face at the success of my first day. I witnessed the hard work that Rockstar inputs in all their projects, and the youthful drive of the team. My respect for such people only expanded as I learned to appreciate the effort and quality that is exerted into these projects. From witnessing today’s routine, I’ve come to realise that teams like these are often under-credited as some clients fail to recognise the full enormity of the hard work that is developed in constructing quality yearbooks. Rockstar is a great environment composed of driven people, balancing studies and work, all striving and aiming to produce only the best quality results. I look forward to the remainder of my time with you guys!
Make no mistake, creating a yearbook, jewellery, video or creative production is no easy task. The process involves the input of tens/hundreds of contributors. The pressure for excellence is high. The deadlines are unforgiving.
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:
Recognise mistakes, and work to become better people for next time.
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!
September 27, 2010 - Posted by Nathan - 0 Comments
What is it with Sydney? What is it with our snotty little attitudes, wanting the world, wanting it perfect, and wanting it NOW.
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:
Upgrade to the Optus “Evolve” network
Pay a $1,650 installation fee
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…
… and it went amazingly awesome! A huuuge shout-out to all the Year 12s at Baulkham Hills High School – an absolutely amazing grade!
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
It’s almost September, and we’ve almost hit 4th gear! We’re looking for 7 awesome people to join our crew:
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.
