Thursday 10 July 2008

Chapter 3 - Part I

The paramedics arrived and I explained to them what had happened. In the lapsed time since the accident a huge crowd had gathered around us and were debating what had happened.

"He pushed her into the road!" One over weight man accused.

"No I
didn't!" I replied.

"Yes you did, I saw you do it!" He demanded.

"No I
didn't and no you didn't. You have only just got here and pushed your way to the front. Jesus Christ." I breathed out and pushed my way through the crowd.

Away from the hoards of blood thirsty New Yorkers I punched some buttons on my phone until Mikes number began to dial. "Mate, I don't think I will make it back into work today."

"Oh, it went well then? Let me guess, you are taking her for a slap up meal and then back to yours for coffee and a bit of one on one. I'm right
ain't I? You sly dog!" Mike whooped and cheered down the line.

"Not exactly mate, I think I might of killed her!" I told him.

Silence.

Mike burst out laughing, I could hear him wheezing and gasping for air in between bursts. This lasted for a least 30 seconds until he regained composure. "Your bloody kidding me Jack, you have killed her before even sleeping with her? I mean, where is the sense in that eh? You should conquer them in the bed then shoot them in the head! Thats my motto, have I not taught you anything?" Mike hooted at me, the man was full of morals.

"Your a twisted bastard, I will see you tomorrow, dick head!" I hung up the phone.

As I made my way back onto the block the paramedics were
heaving Stephanie into the ambulance. I walked over to the scene and introduced myself to a couple of NYPD's finest, who then took down a statement from me and told me to be on my way. From what I could gather Stephanie had been taken to the local hospital, I needed to know how she was so flagged down a cab.

On the way to the hospital I thought about what had happened. The memory had an interesting theme tune of some of India's finest
Bollywood hits. I wondered why there were so many foreign cab drivers in Manhattan. These thoughts took me all the way to the ER reception desk.

"Hi,
erm I am looking for a girl that has just been knocked over by a cab down town, I think her name is Stephanie." I asked the large black lady behind the reception desk.

"
MmmmHmmm," She replied. "And what be her last name may I ask you sir?" She looked up at me from her computer.

"Gosh well I don't know. I don't really know her that well, but I was there when she was knocked down." I said with a nervous smile.

The woman tilted her head as she peered at me in silence. "So your the asshole that pushed Miss Stephanie into the road while that big old taxi was headed round the corner," She began to swivel around on her chair. "Phylis!" She yelled. "This here is the boy that pushed poor Stephanie into the road. He ain't as psycho as we thought he would be!"

A short, white haired women in a nurses uniform came trotting over to the desk to see me. She looked me up and down, spun me around and pinched the skin on my left arm. "Well, he certainly seems quite normal to me. What is he like when he talks? Coherent?" Phylis looked over at the other woman.

"Well, sounds to me as though he is from England, so I don't know if coherent is the right word. I am going to say well punctuated Phylis." The larger woman looked me in the eye. "Do you
Brits often push young girls into the path of cars in the street?" She asked with a damning glare.

"Jesus
Christ no, i did not push Stephanie into the road. Who the hell has told you that?" I looked at both of the women. "I was simply talking to her and she walked out into the road without looking either way. I tried to stop her but it was too late. The taxi swung around the corner and hit her, I thought she was dead." I stepped back from the desk.

"Humph a likely story there Phylis, wouldn't you say? What say we call on security and have this young man escorted into the car park." The larger lady looked past me at someone just walking in through the automatic door.

"No no, you don't need to do that. I have already given my statement to the police. It was a rumour started by some big fat man in the crowd that gathered, I really had nothing to do with the accident." I demanded.

"Oh, so you are being prejudice towards over weight people now? Boy, this is not looking good for you. Phylis I am calling security." She picked up the phone and began dialing a number.

At the same moment I heard laughing coming from a bank of curtained
cubicles just beyond the desk. It was a girl laughing, and I recognised the laugh instantly, it was Stephanie. Infuriated and fed up I gathered my composure and headed towards the laughing curtain. By now the two ladies had given up the game and were laughing too.

I wrenched open the curtain and stepped inside. Stephanie was lay on the bed looking a bit of a state, but with a big grin on her face. She had a big bandage wrapped around her left ankle and leg, leaving her toes poking out of the top. I wondered now how long it had took to get here, a lot longer than I had thought. Most of her was covered up with a hospital spec blanket and I could see she was wearing a hospital robe as well. Her hair was an amusing mess and her make up had run a little, but I thought she still looked beautiful.

"That was not funny at all." I glared in at her.

"Oh but it was, it was my pay back!" She continued to laugh.

"Pay back?" I yelled. "Pay back for what exactly? For watching you get hit by a cab, then fearing for your life, then calling the paramedics and staying with you until they arrived, being verbally abused and accused by a crowd of strangers, then coming all the way here to make sure you were okay. Jesus, you should be the one paying me back!" I took a deep breath.

Stephanie just sat there in stunned silence, in fact it seemed the whole ER had stopped work and were listening in on my rant. My cheeks burned red with embarrassment.

"Humph, sounds like somebody is a little bit antsy this afternoon, something troubling you boy? Had a busy afternoon?" A familiar voice ridiculed from behind me.

I stepped further into the cubical and whipped the curtain closed behind me, blocking everyone else out and leaving me and Stephanie alone. Her eyes were wide as she watched me pull out a chair and take a seat. She seemed utterly helpless and
didn't seem to know what was coming next.

"Right." I said, and leaned forward.

Friday 4 July 2008

Chapter Two

The next morning I was brimming with excitement as I headed towards the Empire State. Could it really be the Stephanie that I had scared the life out of yesterday that had picked up my stray phone? I thought it highly unlikely with so many people going in and out of the building yesterday that it would be her, so I tried to keep my feet on the ground.

I rounded the corner of the building and stopped dead in my tracks. Stood about twenty feet ahead of me, facing in the other direction was Stephanie. The very same Stephanie that I had harassed the day before. I couldn’t believe it. From behind she looked even more amazing today than she did yesterday. She was wearing a crimson beret with her long dark hair in loose curls underneath it. She had a large, vintage over coat on and dark crimson skinny jeans. Her pumps were replaced with all black converse sneakers. As I approached I noticed she was holding my mobile phone in her gloved hand. This was just to good to be true. I reached out and tapped her on the shoulder.

“Hi there Stephanie me again. The guy from the top of the tower.” I beamed a wide smile in anticipation for her facing me.

She turned around to look at me. “Oh Jesus, not you again. I thought I had lost you yesterday when I left.” With this she turned on her heel and started walking away.

“No wait, you have got the wrong idea. You have my phone in your hand, you left me a message last night to meet you here.” I shouted after her.

She stopped and turned to look at me. “If I had known it was your phone I would have thrown it in the trash.” Her eyes grew narrowed.

She was playing hard to get, and I liked it. I was not going to give up on this one come hell or high water. “Look love, you have my phone and I am grateful you called me to let me come and get it. I would really love to buy you a coffee or even lunch to make up for your effort.” I jogged after her and touched her shoulder.

“Right, just take your phone and leave me alone okay, I am not interested. You can give me the change to buy a coffee but that’s all. You’re just not my type; I don’t go out with stalkers.” Reaching out, she put the phone into my hand. “Now get on your way and go follow somebody else already.”

“God almighty, I was only trying to be a gentleman, and I am certainly not stalking you. You are the one that picked up my mobile phone, I would put you at the top of the stalkers point table right now.” I replied with a laugh.

“Humph, I don’t like you.”

Stephanie took one last look in my eye and turned towards the road. Without looking where she was going she took three steps out into moving traffic and out of no where a yellow cab came along and swept her off her feet. She fell to the tarmac in a heap and lay unconscious.

“Shit!” I thought. “I’ve killed her!”

Thursday 3 July 2008

Pizza Express TV Ad Spot Storyboard

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Image Hosted by ImageShack.us


I first came up with this idea along side one of my class mates. The brief was to advertise the new Romana Pizza Base from Pizza Express. We worked on the concept together and then I drew up the storyboard and came up with the slogan "Romana. The Base of an Empire."

The advert starts with a scene of the Trevi Water Fountain in Rome. In be the background you can see people bussling around and the sounds of the city. Without warning a piece of pepperoni pops out of the fountain. Shortly following this more toppings begin to pop out of the fountain and The Blue Danube begins to play softly in the background. More and more pizza toppings fly from the fountain and tomato sauce begins to explode from the fountain to the crescendo of the music. The camera begins to pan up and we see the fountain turn into a pepperoni pizza. The pizza then appears to be on a table in the Pizza Express restaurant with people taking a piece. The camera pans back down and you watch a scene of a busy restaurant. The Pizza Express logo then appears on the screen followed by the slogan "Romana. The Base of an Empire."

Belu Water TV Spot Storyboard

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Image Hosted by ImageShack.us

Here is the first example of my own advertising work you will see on the blog! I showed this to the DCD during Mondays interview.

The ad starts with a man drinking from a Belu Water bottle. He stops half way through and holds the bottle of water infront of him. The bottle quickly begins to biodegrade in his hand and the water and bottle spill through his fingers and onto the ground. From the spot where the bottle and water fell a small shoot begins to grow. This shoot rapily grows and transforms in to a large, green leafed tree. The Belu Water appears in the shot and as the VO reads "Belu Water, doesn't just taste good, it does good too" we see the man walking away from the new tree.

The advert is to promote the special bottle that Belu Water use. It is made from a product of corn and decomposes and biodegrades much quicker than a plastic bottle. I came up with the original idea and original slogan.

Chapter One - Part IV

It was gone eight in the evening before I finally turned off my computer and headed out of the office. Mike had left two hours earlier to get ready for another hot date. I think he has been making up for lost time by dating the city since we left England. He was averaging about 4 dates a week, with at least one of them coming in for coffee, if you catch my drift. I on the other hand never seemed to have time to go on dates, I had been on maybe five since we got here. Every time I met someone and got a rendevous set up, a problem with one of our projects would arise or a client would need some questions answered at some unruly time of the night, and I would always be left to deal with it.

I made my way out onto the street and hailed a cab. It was just starting to get dark. As the cab made its way through the city I gazed up into the lit windows high above the street, ooccasionally I caught a shadow of another poor sod working late. Everyone seemed to work late in this city, and then party hard early into the morning, I had yet to get the hang of this pattern of life.

Getting out of the cab I was greeted by the doorman of my building.

"Good evening Jack, how was your day? Working late again I see." He said, pulling open the glass door to the building.

"Yep, we have a big project to work on at the moment and we just can't seem to get our heads round it. How has your day been Mario?" I asked.

"As doorman days go, it ain't been half bad." Mario laughed to himself.

I smiled. "So has Mike come down yet?" I asked.

"Well yes he has, and he has shaved off that awful beard he had. Obviously another one of his hot dates?" Mario was flicking through some papers on his desk.

"
Apperently yeah, he met this one in some dive bar. Shes blonde, blued eyed and big breasted, just the type for him to use and throw away." I pushed the elevator button and waited.

"Well I will be sure to let you know what I think of her if she comes back with him tonight Jack. Have a great evening."

"Cheers Mario, you too." I stepped into the elevator and clicked for my floor.

I stepped out onto the carpeted corridor that lead to my apartment. There were 8 apartments on each floor, a selection of studio, one bed and two bed condos. With such a great location I had only been able to afford a one bed condo but there was plenty of room in it. I checked my hair in the mirror halfway down the corridor, the hairspray had worn away and left it looking frizzy and dry, my eyes were dull with dark rings underneath, I looked and felt exhausted.

As i reached to put my key into the lock and open my door, I heard a creak from the apartment next door to mine. It was Mrs
Plinsky. She was short, skinny and very, very wrinkled but insisted on wearing thin, see-through night gowns, and insisted on catching me unawares as I came home from work. All I knew of her was that she originated from Russia and that her husband had died about ten years ago. She lived alone in her apartment with two cats, and didn't get out much.

"Hey Jack, your looking mighty fine this evening. Can I invite you in for a night cap?" She slurred as she looked me up and down, obviously she had already hit the vodka tonight.

"No No I'm in a bit of a rush tonight
I'm afraid, maybe another night?" I opened my door and tried to make my way in as Mrs Plinsky latched onto my arm.

"Now come on, I will only keep you for a minute. Maybe we could get to know each other a little better." She started to tug on my arm.

Just at that second one of her cats came running out through the gap in her door, down the corridor and round the corner. It was black and fast, and quite menacing. "Oh Mr Biggles, where are you going?" Mrs
Plinsky called after the cat.

"Oh,
erm you go inside and I will catch your cat for you." I looked down the corridor and took a deep breath, this wasn't going to be fun, I hated cats!

I started to jog down the corridor and followed it round to the right. At the end was a door to the back stairwell, my heart sank as I saw Mr Biggles sat poised at the gap in the door. The moment he saw me, he shot off through the door and down the stairs. "Perfect!" I thought.

I puffed and panted all the way down to the second floor as I chased after the cat, finally Mr Biggles had got distracted by a big ball of fluff floating between the stair cases. He had stayed still just long enough for me to catch up to him and grab him. I walked out into the corridor and made for the elevator, cussing at the
dammed Mr Biggles all the way.

I finally made it back to my floor and walked over to Mrs
Plinsky's apartment. I pushed my way in through the door and found her laying spread eagle on the sofa passed out. There was a half empty bottle of Russia's finest on the table next to her. I closed my eyes and put Mr Biggles down on the floor, out of breath from the chase and mentally scarred by the sight of Mrs Plinskys knickers I went into my apartment.

Putting down my back and jacket, I noticed the red light on my answer machine was blinking, I walked over and clicked the play button.

"You have two new messages." The machine told me.

"Hi there, um I found your mobile phone on the floor today at the Empire State Building," My heart skipped a beat, the message went on. "I found your number in the contact list on the phone. Ha, don't worry I wasn't being nosey. If you want to come and collect your phone I will be at the entrance to the Empire State tomorrow at noon. Bye." The machine clicked.

I stood still for a moment, my heart rate pounding. I checked my jacket pocket and found that indeed my phone was missing.

"Message number two." The machine announced.

"Oh, and my name is Stephanie by the way. "

"Bugger me!" I gasped.

Wednesday 2 July 2008

A Creative Director And Me

Ahh, well it feels good to be back behind the keyboard ready to post properly! Have you bloggers missed me? HA!

Right so let me tell you a little about Mondays adventure.

My meeting was arranged for 1pm so I was getting the 10am train up to Manchester. I took my mum along for the day because she was paying and I wanted the company. We go some seats on the train which was PACKED and then at the next stop two teenage girls and their mums got on. They were from Stafford which meant they had the most wierd and annoying accents you would ever hear. And the best bit, they were LOUD! I spent the hour journey listening to the girls sing out of tune to their ipods, argue whether Kate Moss should be dead or alive and if she has had any plastic surgery. It was riverting, one of the girls even had to explain how a train travels!

"I thought trains went like super fast, this one is going proper slow!" Says Girl 01.

"Yeah, but like we are going into the next station arnt we so it is going like slowly so it doesnt crash." Replies Girl 02.

"Oh right okay, so will it go dead fast then after this station." Asks Girl 01.

"I don't know, but Kate Moss has definately had plastic surgery, have you not like seen her face! She should definately be dead." Said Girl 02.

So, as you can imagine it was quite a longggg trip! Half way to Manchester I get a phone call from the PA of the Creative Director asking if we could rearrange the meeting for another day as a urgent meeting had just come up. Typical. I explained that I was already on my way so she kindly arranged for me to meet with the Deputy Creative Director and Head of Art instead.

When we arrived at Manchester Picadilly my mum and myself wandered through the city to find the agency, which we found quite easily. We then made our way to the nearest coffee shop for some lunch and a drink. Cafe Nero was our destination and I had a Vanilla Fescato and a Meat Ball panini! The panini was cold and a bit yuk but the Frescato was top!!!

After sitting around for over an hour waiting for the meeting I made my way back up the road to the agency. I managed to find myself going in the back door to the building and getting lost for a good 5 minutes. Finally I found a sign and made my way to the front door and buzzed the agency. A woman let me in and told me to climb to the first floor, which I did. I found that the agency was not on the first floor at all so made my way up to what ended up being the 4th floor. How stupid can a receptionist really be?!

Entering the agency I acidentally allowed the door to slam shut behind me and as it was an open plan office, found myself being stared at by most of the creatives and account manager working at their desks. A very good start I thought. I was greeted by the receptionist and told to take a seat. My choice of seat consisted of two deck chairs and a swinging bench. I did not realise the bench was swinging until I threw myself onto it and nearly fell off. Causing more embarrassment and my heart to race.

After a minute I was ushered through the office and into one of the meeting rooms, where I proceeded to sit on my own in silence for another 30 minutes waiting for the Deputy Creative Director (DCD). I pondered what the meeting would be like, and calmed down. I observed the office through the window. There were creatives sat at large desks with expensive apple macs and huge monitors. They were all listening to the radio and chatting away, it looked like a great environment to work in.

Finally the DCD came in a sat down and we started chatting. It was first established that they would not beable to take me on for a placement this summer as they were under staffed and as I was a first year I would need my hand holding too much. Dissapointed we carried on. I had spent most of last week and the weekend preparing ideas, storyboards, ad concepts etc to take with me. They were all neatly mounted onto black foam board and I felt quite proud of my achievements. The DCD did not quite agree.

He spent the next twenty minutes trashing my ideas and my art work. The only things he liked were the few slogans I had thrown in here and their. I was going into that meeting as an aspiring art director but left wondering if I was more suited to copy writing. He liked on idea more than the rest but still picked many faults with it, I felt that he was not impressed at all by what I was showing him. I found this strange as my uni tutor, who has 20 years in the industry and was a creative director herself LOVED all my ideas and proclaimed I had the most talent in the group! I felt a little hurt, as you would, and did not really know what to say. The DCD told me to keep in touch, come back for more critiques of my work, and then probably have a placment next summer. I left the meeting with mixed feelings.

It was great to see a working agency, it was great to get a contact in the industry and I suppose it was great to have my work trashed as it tells me I am going to have to work harder. I felt that I had come quite along way for such a short meeting. But this is the way it is I suppose. I am definately going to keep in touch with them and go see them throughout next year for sure. I maybe just wish he had something a little more positive to say at the end of the meeting to make me feel just a little bit better.

The trip back home was relatively uneventful accept for an amusing, big breasted girl snoring like a wild bore on the train and driving an australian family sitting next to her insane. I love to people watch, and Monday gave me a lot of time to do it! Manchester city center was lovely, I have been for a night out there once but don't remember much of it, and hadn't been into the center since I was 11 and a lot has changed.

So there we go, if you managed to read all that I congradulate you and you are obviously a very dedicated person! Please leave me a comment if you like. I am going to write the next installment of Untitled In Progress later on today as I am having withdrawal symptoms and people have been asking for more. I might also scan in some of the stuff I took with me on Monday so you can all see the kind of stuff I have been talking about. So please do come back.

Finally, I am wondering if there is any way I could create an archive of sorts to put all of the Untitled In Progress posts into so people can navigate to them easily?

Catch You Later x