Saturday, November 18, 2006

Speaker Series: Mike Henry

Our speaker today was Mike Henry, a writer and character for Family Guy. Mike plays Herbert the Old Man, Cleveland, Cleveland Jr. and Death among other characters. His voice, while not any one of theirs, has aspects of all of them, which made his talk quite amusing. During his time with us, he focused on a few things:

The making of Family Guy
The Family Guy Theory of Comedy
His biography

First, he talked about the making of the show. He told us that when creating an episode, the writers keep in mind that they have 22 minutes to present a three act piece. For that reason, they start their storyboard with one simple idea: being fired up about being an American, day labor, etc. After choosing a main concept, the show unfolds as the writers focus on sandwiching emotion in humor. To make each episode is a three month process that goes something like this:

Whiteboard
Outline
Seth McFarland looks at it
50 page script is written
50 page script is torn apart in meetings
Table readings
Fix jokes that don't work
Record
Fix jokes that still don't work
Animation
Color screening
Rewrite again
Sound mix with 30 piece orchestra
Put the show on air

Second, Mike talked about the Family Guy Theory of Comedy, which he summed up as "make Seth laugh." He pointed out that most shows focus on getting the whole audience to laugh. If a joke won't appeal to almost the entire audience, it's out. At Family Guy, they don't agree with that idea. Mike pointed out that if everyone is laughing at every joke, the jokes are probably too broad to be memorable. Instead, the writers at Family Guy believe in what they call 10%ers: jokes that make 10% of the audience laugh really hard. In short, if it's funny it should be in the show. One thing that I found particularly interesting is what 10 out of the 14 writers do voices on the show. That way, the show remains pure -- comedy is heard the way that the writers intended, as there is no middleman.

Lastly, Mike talked about his history and how he met Seth McFarland. Mike Henry originally started in Advertising on the account side. He worked at Martin and found himself uninspired to the point where he spent his time making prank calls to his boss and making fun of clients. he moved to Hollywood, took classes and did standup for threee years before discovering that he needed a reel to get anywhere. And so, he moved back to Richmond where he did radio vices, produced and worked with some small agencies. After building a reel that way, Mike moved to New York. At that point, his brother was a student at RISD, and kept asking Mike to be in his film projects. His brother also happened to be a friend of Seth McFarland's. The three of them became friends, Seth created Family Guy, and Mike has had a job ever since.

Mike's final advice to us was that side projects can keep you alive creatively. He taked about taking time off from Family Guy to get some perspective and do other things, working on his own films in his free time, and always envisioning new things rather than just relying on Family Guy to fulfill him creatively.

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Speaker Series: dennis Ryan

This week's speaker was dennis Ryan, Chief Creative Officer of element79partners. dennis was a fantastic speaker and gave us some extremely practical suggestions. It was especially fun for me to see his talk, as dennis was my nextdoor neighbor when I lived in Evanston, and then moved near to my family in Winnetka as well. As a little kid I had no idea what he did, but I remember thinking that he and his wife were possibly the coolest people to walk the earth. Years later, he's still pretty cool.

dennis' talk was about getting and keeping your first job in advertising. In brief, his suggestions were as follows:

1. Make the agency value you.
2. Make the agency value your work.
3. Set on a path to keep growing.

To make your agency value YOU, dennis suggested a few things:
- Work hard.
- Focus on creativity. Creativity is not the dominion of a select few. It is a mindset, not an asset; and if you work in an agency in any job, you should always think creatively. It produces better results and it's "the fun part" -- in all realms.
- Prove that you are a valuable person by being enthusiastic and curious. Smart, cool, exciting, fun thinkers who have excitement about their ideas are capable of selling those ideas. Enthusiasm is key. Curiosity is equally key (and is the foundation of the element79 culture). Have a constantly questioning mindset.... Why (question)? Why not (scepticism)? What if (inspiration)!
- To get that first job in advertising, make sure that you bring yourself to the table in your book. Be you. Don't murder the differences -- they influence your work.

dennis' suggestions for making your agency value your WORK:
- Advertising is the only team sport that operates without a play book. Nothing is done by yourself so play well with others.
- Always remember that this is a confidence game. Not a con game. Take pride in your work and have the confidence to speak up for it and showcase it.
- 'The work' is different than 'selling the work.' There will be compromises, and the client cannot be the enemy. In order to keep the integrity of your work intact, consider the following: What compromise will kill your idea? Have you truly done your best to persuade people, and do you understand the art of persuasion? Are you dealing well with the people around you who have influence?
- Learn to sell to your boss first.
- Figure out different people's problems. Understand and empathise with people. It will better your work and relationships.

To GROW in a job, keep the following in mind:
- There is so much you don't know when you start -- that's okay. Take experience where you can get it. Learn fast but don't pretend to know it all when you get there.
- The editor shapes a story. Know new music, know the editor.
- People are interested in learning and sharing their experiences. Ask.

Parting thoughts:
- When researching, focus on ideas rather than execution.
- Give context and persuade. People have a hard time getting outside of themselves.
- You are always answering to someone.
- Build trust with your clients. The best client allows you to take chances, isn't a pushover, helps to shape ideas, and lets good ideas get in.
- Clients should focus on finding an agency that they trust and knowing that the agency cares.

element79partners Info:
- At element79 you will work harder and get paid less... but they're nice.
- Visit www.e79ff06.com to keep yourself fired up about ideas.

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

I am not an art director

This post is dedicated to Devika, who likes to encourage my artistic expression.

In my heart of hearts, I would love to be some kind of do-it-all strategic art director. But alas, I just used photoshop for the first time today and am not quite accomplished at the whole concept of the 'layout' yet.

For my quant/qual course, my assignment is to write a brief for a product for which I am not the target. I chose to write about Earth's Best organic baby food. This was an interesting assignment for me in two ways. First, Earth's Best is something I had tried to write a brief about last winter, for the purpose of building my own book. Second, part of the assignment was to do your own art to prove that the brief was usable. It was interesting to see where my brief was last year, versus where this one is now.

In the end, I came up with the following two brilliant art pieces. One ad for a parenting magazine and one iasle ad for a grocery store. Don't laugh too hard.

Wednesday, November 8, 2006

Positioning before communication

First Ideas are rarely great. And so, try to keep the following in mind:

Is my thought big enough? (big ideas are frightening!)
Am I describing it enough?
Is it motivational, evolvable and the soul of the brand?

Tuesday, November 7, 2006

Things to remember: talking to clients

About Yourself:
You are a brand
Life is not like Las Vegas -- things get out

About your Clients:
If you want to increase the level of trust, know your clients and their business
Give them a chance to talk about their company -- you might learn something, as well as earn respect
Save people from themselves... respectfully

About Agencies:
Industry change rarely happens from within
Good ideas are often watered down by bureaucracy, among other things

In General:
Trust gets lost in translation

Monday, November 6, 2006

Creative brief writing 101

When writing a creative brief, try to answer the following questions in a creative, inspiring, truthful, to-the-point way:

1. Why are we advertising at all?
2. Who are we talking to?
3. What do we know about them?
4. What should we be telling them in our advertising?
5. What is our brand position? (in 10 words or less)
6. What are our brand values?
7. What can we offer to support our message?

Ethics

We talk a lot about ethics in my Business of Advertising class. It becomes more and more clear to me that the difference between a white lie and a major misrepresentation is actually quite small. It also becomes more and more clear to me that in corporate situations where big money is involved, people often rely on the "it's not that bad" and "everyone else is doing it" methods of self-testing to decide if their personal ethics are high enough.

I feel that I am a pretty ethical person in general. And yet, ethics in a sterile room mean very little. What would I do if my job was on the line? My promotion? My reputation? And so, I am beginning to develop a series of questions to help me guide myself ethically, should I ever need them. Here is what I have so far:

Why do I feel that it is necessary to do this?
How will it change someone's perceptions of me and of my capabilities?
Can I prove (in a timely manner) that I actually have those capabilities?
What will I gain?
What will the other person(s) lose?
Would I feel at ease telling my friends what I did?

Sunday, November 5, 2006

Thoughts for the day

Inspire, don't direct

Integrate creativity into accountability

Don't be satisfied with the status quo