#have you ever seen brazil the theme song is so good but the original is also good

[dockaspbrak]

what if you could book a trip to the tron world i feel like id understand what tf was going on there more if thwas was the case instead of whatever it is

[madcapmoon]

Ten questions for Guy Picciotto

This is an interview I conducted with Guy Picciotto of Fugazi, Rites of Spring and One Last Wish fame back in 2006. I was working in the Italian town of Pescasseroli in Abruzzo at the time and Italy had just won the World Cup. Fugazi had been on hiatus for four years at that point and unfortunately over five years after this interview took place it looks as if they may never reform. My friends Anthony and Eugene kindly published this interview in the 10th anniversary issue of their legendary fanzine Loserdom so many thanks to them as always for allowing me to publish various interviews and musings over the years. 

1. It’s been four years since the last Fugazi concert and  each member of the band seems to have worked or be  working on other musical projects: Ian Mackaye is playing in the  Evens, Brendan Canty has been touring with Bob Mould and Joe Lally is playing solo concerts. You played a concert with the group International Silence in 2003 and I read somewhere a few years back that you had been working on music with Eddie Janney. What musical projects are you working on at the moment? Even though Fugazi itself hasn’t played a show or recorded anything new in a dog’s age, the business of keeping Fugazi’s affairs together remains. It’s kind of like tending to a monument – the landscaping needs to be kept up and the plaques shiny – so, since we are self-managed, that work continues for all of us. Lately, we’ve worked on remastering most of our old records and we’ve also added 10 more shows to our live archive project (at www.fugaziliveseries.com).

Beyond that, I have been doing alot of production work for various bands. The latest project was a record for the Blood Brothers which I co-produced with John Goodmanson out in Seattle over the last 2 months. It comes out in October I think, and it’s a fucking killer bunch of songs.

I have also been doing some music writing on my own. I did perform a few new songs in Belgium at a film/music festival curated by my friend Jem Cohen late last year – that was the first time I’d sung into a microphone live since Fugazi last played in 2002. It felt good so I want to try and get my shit together and do it some more.

Like you mentioned, I have also played some improvisational shows as a member of International Silence over the last couple of years, ( International Silence is a rotating cooperative of improvisational musicians put together by Mats Gustaffson). For the last 3 years I have also been writing with Eddie Janney, my old bandmate from Rites of Spring, and we’ve amassed tons of material but I’m not sure what will happen with it. It’s not a conventionally ambitious situation but it’s really interesting music and maybe it will coalesce into something more public at some point. But for now, I’m from the Orson Welles school of “no wine before its time”.

2. You have directed two short Super 8 films and I read you had plans to make a third short film on 16mm. Did you ever get around to making it?

Nope. I did work a bit in some capacity on the last Jem Cohen movie “Chain” – I’m listed as one of the producers but really I was more like a sounding board for Jem during the conception, filming and editing. I love film and I hope to do more of it but the Super 8’s I made were strictly goofs – an opportunity to fuck around with friends and try to learn about the process.

3. Are these films available anywhere on the internet?

Not that I know of. Honestly, they aren’t any great shakes. I do however encourage people to see “Chain”. It should be out on DVD soon and it’s really worth checking out. It’s kind of a portrait of the global landscape as it reaches a crisis level of homogeneity as filtered through the experience of 2 women, a homeless American and a Japanese businesswoman working for a theme park corporation.

4. Parts of Fugazi’s recording session with Steve Albini have recently surfaced unmixed on the internet, will those recordings ever be remixed and officially released by the band?

I don’t know. It’s possible that someday they will though it’s been a long time since I heard them and I’m not sure what context we could put them out under. Its kind of a drag that they got leaked onto the internet – if only because I think of them as being incomplete and not a fair representation of what they could be. I mean I’m not huffing and puffing with rage over the leak – but still, I don’t like sneakiness. For the record: We had a blast working with Steve and he remains one of the smartest and funniest people I’ve ever met in my life as well as a masterful recording technician. That session was the beginning point of a longer acquaintance and its been great getting to know the guy, play dice with him and play shows with his band.

The session we did was an experiment for us to try recording outside of our Inner Ear Studio homebase in DC and the original intention was just to go up and fuck around with the latest bunch of songs we were working on. We weren’t in the mind-set of “we’re making an album” it was more like ” let’s go see what happens”- we ended up having a great time but we didn’t really play all that well (or rather sing that well to be specific) so we decided to re-track it once we had the songs down better – and that became IN ON THE KILLTAKER.

5. With Fugazi you played concerts all over the world and got to see many cities and countries, have you ever thought about moving away from Washington DC to  one of the countries or cities you have visited? If so which ones and why?

I’ve definitely thought of living in other places besides DC and being someplace outside the USA, particularly of late when the political environment is so soul-crushingly depressing. I do love DC and having been born and raised here I can see never leaving but I definitely wouldn’t be weeping hot tears if I was told I had to move to either Brazil or Italy. Both countries have amazing spirit, amazing food, amazing people, amazing culture and I’ve felt really at home in both.

I also love Paris and I speak decent French so that would be another one I could definitely handle. Can’t say much bad about Melbourne, Australia either. Or Sydney for that matter. Gotta love Edinburgh, Scotland too. Basically, I think I would be easy to please in the geography department.

6. You have worked with various bands as a producer, what are your criteria for working with a band?

I don’t really consider myself a professional producer, but I also never have considered myself a professional musician. It’s just something I fell into out of my love of music and through relationships made through music. I first started recording other bands out of my old group house which was called Pirate House. Fugazi had set up a small 8 track analog studio in the basement so I just started recording my friends there and taught myself the ultra-low level basics of engineering. I did records for the Make Up, Metamatics, Crainium, Blonde Redhead, Slant 6 and others there. It was really low key and the focus was on doing things cheap and fast, before the neighbors could get too irritated. I was also learning some of the ropes just by working on the Fugazi records with the rest of the band.

Over time other bands asked me to do things in other studios in other parts of the country and when I had some time apart from Fugazi stuff I tried to do it. Mostly, I worked with friends like Blonde Redhead or Casual Dots -people I’ve known for a long time but I’ve also more recently done stuff with bands where I didn’t initially know them that well personally but was more just a fan of what they were doing like the Gossip or the Blood Brothers. At minimum, though, I like to have seen a band live and met them – just so I can get the sense of whether or not it will work. I don’t have that much time to devote to production stuff so when I do it, I really try to make sure its a good fit and that both the band and I will have a good experience working together.

7. In an interview a member of Blonde Redhead said that when you are producing their records you become in their opinion a non-playing member of the band. Is that a fair assessment of how you work with all bands that you produce or just specifically Blonde Redhead?

Production for me is really kind of a promiscuous activity – its total bed hopping –  getting to intensely collaborate with all these different groups for short periods of time – insinuating yourself deeply into the decision making process then moving on once the record is done. You get alot of creative bang without all the dirty hard practical work that goes into keeping a band functioning over the long haul.

And for me, being in the studio with another group is alot like being a non-playing member of the band – I do get very invested in what goes on. Alot of that comes from the fact that I like the music I work on. I come in as a fan of the bands I work with so it’s not just a technical task for me – I really want the record to be as good as it fucking should be cos the band is already fucking great in my mind. It can be a bruising experience because, as anyone in a band will tell you, its not easy to make good records, to take what’s in your head and translate it whole to tape (or hard drive or whatever).

When a band is actually satisfied with the finished product, it’s a great feeling because with every record you are trying to marshal a ton of crazy ass variables and have them line up into something killer which is really nuts. A good session usually happens if the band feels comfortable enough to let cool stuff happen, to get over the self-consciousness and the anxiety that can come with the process and just let spontaneous cool shit go down. I’ve been really lucky to work with some great engineers and co-producers because, straight up, my technical knowledge lags light years behind theirs = people like Don Zientara, John Goodmanson, and Ryan Hadlock.

8. While Fugazi have released many records and toured extensively Rites of Spring was a short lived band that released just one LP and an EP but is regularly listed or referenced as one of the most influential alternative groups of the last twenty years. Are you ever surprised by the enduring influence of the bands work?

I am pretty stunned considering I think we only played 14 shows and only 2 of those were outside DC. I often wish that Rites of Spring had gotten our shit together and actually toured a bit but it’s kind of a pipe dream considering how volatile the band was. It made for a great energy within the band and on stage but we didn’t have anything close to resembling the kind of discipline it would have taken for us to actually play a series of shows back to back. For one thing, every single show resulted in destroyed equipment so we were always scrambling to get some gear together for our next show.

Also, we were very young and at that age (17-19) your mental landscape is changing every minute – it’s hard to stick to one vision and be satisfied. Just a couple of years later the exact same line-up was re-united as Happy Go Licky and the sound was totally different. We were just pushing all the time so it was hard for us to stay situated in one spot. I do like the first album alot just because we did it in 2 days and it sounds feral, like a time capsule of being young and jacked up out of our minds. And I loved being in a band with all four of those guys. At the time I was pretty wrecked when we couldn’t keep it together. That people still listen to those songs honestly suprises me in a good way and makes me very happy.

9. Musically the Rites of Spring LP is different from any other record made in 1984. It seems deeply personal, innovative and completely uncontrived, for me it’s the musical equivalent of Vigo’s l’Atalante! What music, films and bands influenced that record?

L’Atalante !!! You are completely insane. Let me think – we were really into all kinds of shit. At the time it was like The Saints, The Adverts, Rudimentary Peni, Venom, Blitz, the Zombies, Discharge, the Buzzcocks, Wire, the Wipers ( who Brendan met on the West Coast visiting his sister), the Birthday Party, Black Flag, Bad Brains, Void, the Faith… alot of stuff. The Stravinsky connection was intentional too – we wanted to bust up the genres like that.

But the main thing about the band was our hang – we hung out all the time driving around town in my Chevette Scooter, practicing in our parent’s houses, working the same jobs. We were really close friends so it was almost like we could give a shit if anyone else thought what we were doing was cool or not. We just wanted it to be fresh to us.

10. Finally, I think everyone has a guilty pleasure, e.g. a television show or a band which they know they shouldn’t like, mine is watching football (the English kind), what is yours if any?

I save my guilt for the truly terrible things I’ve done in my life so I take my pleasures freely where I can. I feel no shame for watching the Wizards (DC’s basketball team) religiously. The World Cup was pretty good too this year. I never liked sports when I was younger but now I love them – I hate contingency and time so sports is a deeply masochistic pleasure.

[grandemasterpyrokitsune]

Happy 10th!

The time has finally come to talk about why PaF is so important. Really, anyone could do this anytime, but this date alone has a significance to it. To any of my followers who don’t know(and will sit through this brick wall of text to find out), today is the 10th anniversary of the sneak peek premiere of Phineas and Ferb; technically, February 2008 is when it officially premiered around the world, but I’m sure that everyone else in the fandom is eager to kick off the celebration today. I’m sure this will turn out to be a multi paged thesis, so I’ll try to split this up into parts.

-----------------------------------

PART 1: Best Day Ever

Anyway, ten years ago today marks the 10th anniversary of Phineas and Ferb. This show is considered an old soul of sorts, enjoying a long lifespan of 8 years, tons of merchandising and entertainment opportunities, the admiration and respect of many celebrities, and a very long summer. As formulaic as it appears, this show has more history to it than it appears to have.

PART 2:Busted

(This part details history of Disney’s TV animation ventures and basically life before PaF. Feel free to skip if you’re clued in to its history.)

The 2000s were considered a lousy time for TV animation . While many say it's the "worst" decade for it(whether worldwide or just in North America), I'd call it a transitional period. The 90s was an exciting a refreshing time for TV animation where the stories were driven by the creators, not toy designers. I would generally consider it more of the same from the Golden Age of Animation but more modern. The 2000s had newer technologies to work with and perfect while the ‘90s mainly just worked w/ cel animation and did it so well. Flash and CG were in their infancy, so I assume the software got a bit more attention than the stories. Primarily, companies were just looking to work with more cost effective options to make their shows with. It was a rough period,but far from the worst. Anyway, this kind of TV animation is still a relatively new type of animation. Disney were the first ones to spearhead this movement and they made three or four blocks of new cartoon for different generations of kids. 

The first block(formally known as Disney Afternoon)was ushered in with three pilots; Fluppy Dogs, Wuzzles and Ducktales. While the former two merely tested the waters and the latter was the only one successful, all three were made with stellar animation and complex storytelling for what everyone knew as entertainment for kids. After the success of Ducktales, Disney was brimming with pride and made seven years worth of cartoons for this block. Even if some cartoons didn't strike people the right way, they were still wildly memorable. While their D.C. original programming generally doesn't get more than short compilation discs, the DA 'toons get full series releases digitally and through DVD. This prompted to launch One Saturday Morning on ABC. 

With the acquisition of Nicktoon Doug, Disney paired it up with Recess and Pepper Ann, chasing after the success they had a few years before. The aforementioned series were the highest rated on the block while other series are more obscure and buried by Disney. They are acknowledged as good but were overshadowed by 24/7 network like Nick and Cartoon Network bringing a lot more cartoons to a lot more times of the day. 

Disney started to notice how much of an animated surplus they had and that they air their cartoons for weeks on end. Thus, Toon Disney was founded,which became a more visible hub for the cartoon blocks of the 90s and all other ages of Disney. At one point,they started airing Sonic the Hedgehog and making their own co-productions under their most popular TV cartoon brand, Jetix. As extensive as these programs got, they were being seen by fewer and fewer people. 

To overlap slightly with the end of OSM, Disney started making more cartoons for the Channel’s demographic. Shows like Kim Possible, Lilo and Stitch, and American Dragon:Jake Long began airing and netting extraordinary ratings. In fact, Disney Channel was probably most successful in the early 2000s. It found its new groove if you will with its signature style of tween/teen sitcom and animated series. The former seem to have more clout on the network after the premiere of Lizzie McGuire,solidifying the formula. Similar to OSM, many cartoons were more or less not acknowledged the way they were 10 years before. Since sitcoms dominated because they were faster and cheaper to make, it seemed that the outcome was better. Over the course of the period (c. 2002-2008) they released the smallest selection of DC cartoons ever while the sitcoms got more and more press. It’s unclear what Disney was going to do next, but soon summer of 2007 came along...

PART 3: Gotta Make Summer Last

Disney Channel aired the premiere of High School Musical 2 and decided to air the first episode of PaF afterwards. As a result HSM 2 netted 17.6 million views and PaF 10.8 million views. We could easily deduce that eager HSM fans made up the clout of viewers, but that’s not to say the show couldn’t prove interesting to viewers anyway. In fact, Disney delayed its original 2007 release in the US to release it in February in multiple countries. Places such as Latin America, Brazil, Japan, France and Portugal got to experience the show right along with us. International promotion was rolled out which only netted PaF even more press. It became one of Japan’s most popular Western cartoons, it got wild promotion in Latin America and most of Europe(all around) made excellent dubs and gave it the lion’s share of time slots. This was a pretty good outcome all things considered.

Thus the cycle began. First came DVDs and games, then came interviews and guest spots, than movies, Disney park attractions, live events and then omnipresence.... scratch that last one, but you get the idea. The TV Movie itself was more or less the peak of the show. It remains the 10th most watched DCOM premiere of all time and the show remains one of the longest running animated series of the main Disney networks(DC, XD, and Junior). I think the last time Disney mass merchandised a TV cartoon this much was Lilo and Stitch(last one not already a franchise was Doug or Recess). The show is even part of the Marvel and Star Wars universes(non canonically of course)Even then, Disney elevated the show to new heights. It had everything Disney wanted; likeable protagonists, innocent motifs, enough songs to last for days, episodic adventures, and tons of mass marketing appeal. This simple show connected people across the world(if the Tumblr/DA fandoms for PaF were any indicator)through its mult-faceted music and rudimentary themes. While this show raised the bar, it also left the bar to be raised another notch by...

PART 4: Meet the Man of Mystery

In 2012, Gravity Falls premiered as a sneak peek behind DCOM Let it Shine. While not an instant ratings hit, it quickly became one of the most critically acclaimed Disney TV cartoons of all time. The spotlight quickly began to fade on the smartest stepbrothers around as new episodes were coming infrequently. While the numbers were still big enough to make Teen Titans Go mutter in awed jealousy, it still was becoming less of a force on the main network. However on Disney XD, it was still Adored by the Network. I remember how I felt watching day long marathons several times a month, sometimes without reason. Despite its mass appeal, Phineas and Ferb could be classified easily as a boy targeted program due to the protagonists and the subject matter. Until XD found its groove, they would continue to spam PaF for what felt like eons. To this day, they still occasionally air it in primetime slots.

The way I wrote this last part may sound cynical,jaded, and/or pessimistic. However, it’s written that way to emphasize another point. After the success of this series, Disney went from relying on a few filler shows to releasing a new show basically every year and truly giving them all the promotion they could. While not all series got the treatment we all wanted them to have, a lot more of them have come and gone to try to re-innovate and reinvigorate the brand. Phineas and Ferb (more or less) singlehandedly convinced Disney TV to put more stock in their animation division. Don’t know how many Fallers know this but Disney actually asked Alex Hirsch to make his pilot for them after seeing his work. They were actively seeking out new talent and new stories. Honestly, while Kick Buttowski and Pickle and Peanut got a lot of flac in the day, they were(to an extent) a sign that the House of mouse was trying to experiment and make something they liked to see. The latter especially seemed like a personal pet project of XD’s off sense of humor. 

I’m sure the networks would have reinvented their cartoons eventually, but PAF brought it out in the best way.  In a way the boys were kind of dc celebrities in their heyday. When you can summon a bunch of popular characters from the live action sitcoms to dance for possibly hours for a two minute music video in the name of a teal platypus made out of digital ink and pixels, that’s pretty special indeed.

CONCLUSION

Phineas and Ferb is my favorite animated series,explaining why I can info dump mostly from memory as I have in this post. While many have told me that it’s nothing special, to me it stands out as the brightest diamond in the rough and a shining testament to the duality of animation in general. Ten years from now, I hope that I can write better when I must wax sentimentality about my favorite cartoon show. Thanks to the cast, crew, creators, and fans for making summer last. See you at the 20th!

[sturmxundxdrang]

So, the day where I’ll finally spill out everything that happened when I went to see Rammstein is finally here. I do warn you, that this is gonna be an extremely long journey, if you decide that this is worth a reading. So, yeah, buckle up and prepare yourself for tons of details (I’m a writer, if I don’t put details here, I’ll die haha) and me rambling. It’s under read more ‘cause not everyone wants a huge post on Rammstein in their dashboard :p (plus a few pictures attached)

Inspired by Paulie x.

Just so this won’t be longer than it already is going to be, I’ll make things short that I have been a fan since 2011 or something, and the last time they had been in Brazil was 2010, I believe. Ever since I started listening to them, I was sure I wanted to see them live, but to me, I always thought I’d have to wait like a long time because either they wouldn’t come back that soon, or I wouldn’t be able to go, for some reason. 

It was mid 2015, my last year in high school, when the news spread that Rammstein would come in 2016. Just rumors, but I started saving right away. So, I had a friend in school that, for the sake of me, would put up with my nonstop talk about the six german men I loved so much. She’d fangirl over Richard with me, sing Du Hast the whole damn class, and even said she’d go to the concert with me if they really came. So I had in mind that I’d have at least someone to go with me, but I was wrong. As soon as it was confirmed that they would really come to the Maximus Festival, she stepped back, saying she couldn’t go. Now I had two more friends that were willing to go, but in the end, none of them could. And plus there was Hel, who would of course go with me, but for bigger reasons, she couldn’t make it. So, I was alone in the end and there was no way my mother would let me travel alone to a music festival. The first plan was for her to go with me, but when they started selling the tickets, it was too expensive to buy two for us, so I started looking out for someone else. I did buy one ticket right when they started selling, just so it wouldn’t sell out, and I had in mind that if there was no one going with me, I didn’t really care, I would go by myself.

One month before the show, I met this guy through a friend, and invited him to come with me, to which he said yes. Now I had him coming, and plus a cousin that lives in Sao Paulo. I kept on talking to him, to get to know him and all, because, hell, he’d spend one of the most important days in my life with me so I might as well get a friend out of this, right? Okay, we became friends, and on September 6, at noon, we took a bus to Sao Paulo. Five damn hours, I was extremely excited, hoping not to have a panic attack and shit, and we needed to make it before night so we still had the time to go pick up the tickets. I never had been alone in Sao Paulo, didn’t know shit, but me and my buddy had to figure it out how to make it to my cousin’s home because he wouldn’t come pick us up, like what was originally planned. Long story short, my cellphone died, we waited for hours at the train station near my cousin’s house so he could come pick us up, we had to pick up the tickets before the show next morning, and we barely had any sleep (not that I would sleep anyway, as soon as I laid down in that bed I just started rambling to my friend about how excited I was haha).

At night, we planned on waking up at 6am, because it was a damn long way to the arena, and of course we wanted to be there early, right? In the end, we woke up at 9, my cousin convinced his mom to let him drive us there, and after we picked up a friend of his, we left. It was a damn huge walk to get to where we would get the Maximus bracelet (I guess that’s the therm) because dumb us parked way too far. We arrived at noon and got inside like... After 1pm. The place was huge, themed with Mad Max stuff, and it was just... Amazing! I had never been to a music festival before so you guess how damn happy I was that in my first festival, I was about to see my favorite band in the world. I’m gonna attach a few pictures that my friend took, because I took my father’s phone instead of mine and the camera was terrible lol

So this is us (you can see who is me haha) my friend beside me in plaid, and my cousin with the Anthrax shirt. (the girl beside me is my cousin’s friend, who is with me the next day - you’ll know if you decide it’s worth reading everything). This is the damn entrance guys, over those barrels, there was fire. Fire! Like, shit, this is my place to be. 

I was stunned at how big and amazing it was, everything had fire coming out of it, it was damn awesome.

Here are the stages. Rammstein would play at night in the one in the right, the Maximus Stage. So, you guess where I aimed to be during the whole day. 

When we arrived, Shinedown was playing, but we walked around a bit to get to know the place, then my cousin and his friends left to their own and me and my friend stopped at the Maximus Stage and saw HellYeah. It was insane, the first time I ever saw them, and honestly, it was damn great. After that, we went to grab something to eat, and some water for me, and so I said ‘here’s the deal, I’m gonna be in that crowd the rest of the day’ ‘cause obviously I wanted to be as close to the stage as I possibly could. So, me and friend done that and agreed on meeting at the locker room thingy if we got lost of each other. Smart me, knew I would eventually get lost in the crowd, because as I fought my way inside, he kind got left behind. And honestly, I couldn’t look out for both of us, so, had to leave him there.

Fast forward a bit, after Halestorm, Bullet For My Valentine and all, there was Disturbed (pic above but you can’t really see them :p I was a lot closer than this). I absolutely adore Disturbed, have known them for as long as I know Rammstein, and I was so fucking happy that I got to see them that night as well, and I was going crazy, singing the whole songs, jumping, all that stuff. People around me kind stared, because everyone standing that close to the stage was obviously waiting for Rammstein :p but yeah. Also, I cried real tears when they made a cover of Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For. Next, was Marilyn Manson. I so regret not paying full attention to his gig, honestly. But there was a reason: there was a guy behind me, who kept pressing himself closer and closer. Like, I understand I’m in a fucking crowd and all, but there’s a difference between not having enough space and trying to press yourself to someone’s body. I said nothing, didn’t move. Up until he literally came closer to my ear, asking me if I wanted to leave with him. Like, dude, what the fuck, I paid to see my gods, I paid to see the hot German dudes, I paid to be here and yell at them how I love them, not to leave with a damn random guy from the crowd that I’ve never seen in my life ?? so, okay, I say no, start looking at the huge screen trying to focus on Marilyn Manson. Now, I never felt attracted to him in no way, but I have to mention this little part. As soon as I saw him in the big screen, my first thought was: damn, he doesn’t look bad at all. (And that was the beginning of my fall because for the next month I went crazy over Manson :p). At that point, dude behind me was pressing his things on me, and I was uncomfortable, of course. Every time I moved away, he moved closer. I had to think fast, so yeah, I saw these people beside me talking. A small girl older than me, a very tall guy with her that looked as nice as a puppy, a guy and a girl my age (that saved my number to send me the pics she took during Rammstein but never really sent me anything :p), and an older guy in front of them. They were chatting about Manson, so for the damn first time in my life I joined a conversation I wasn’t invited in. Then, after talking a bit, I looked over at the guy my age and asked him if he could switch places with me because the guy behind me was being a jerk. He said of course and I was so damn happy I could have hugged him (plus the older dude standing in front of us stared at the guy behind me for a good few minutes). We proceeded to start talking again, sharing where we were all from, they told me they had been at the hotel and met the guys and how they were sweethearts (specially Flake) and we were all begging Manson to be over soon (it’s not like he was bad, but he kept pausing for like 5 minutes in between the songs, stuff like that, and let’s be honest, we wanted to see Rammstein, right?). I remember feeling like I’d fall down anytime, because I had been standing there for hours, and for a few seconds I thought that I wouldn’t make it, like, seriously, I thought I’d faint and they would take me away.

So, as soon as Manson’s show was over, the crowd was all pressed towards the stage, and lucky me, got closer :p I was standing like very damn close to the stage now and I couldn’t be happier. It took them a good 10 minutes, and man, we were all going crazy. As soon as the damn countdown started, there was this energy and everyone screaming and like... Dude, we were one right there. I remember the small girl beside me (she was such a sweetheart) saying she wouldn’t count down, and I said ‘I’m too excited, I can’t count right now’ but as soon as it got to ten, the two of us were counting together lol but like seriously, it seemed to take ages to that countdown to end.

Then finally, the curtain fell down and I never felt my heart beat so fast (although it’s racing right now as I type down these words), and I stopped in my tracks, staring at the stage with the biggest smile on my face and already crying of joy. I feel so damn blessed that besides being so close, I was standing right in front of Richard. God, I was seeing this man I loved so much right in front of me... I couldn’t take my eyes off of him for the most time. I remember looking at Till when he walked in and thinking ‘my God, they are fucking real. Till Lindemann is fucking real!’ and started crying again. By that time my leg was no longer hurting, because I was so damn excited that I forgot everything. At the moment everything I could think about was the six men on that stage, and only that.

There was this one guy standing in front of me that looked back, realized I was struggling to see the stage properly (I’m smol what can I do), then he looked back at Richard, then back at me, and stepped aside, before smiling at me. I’m so damn thankful for this man, because when I was crying I kinda pressed my arms against his back, resting my chin on it, I didn’t even realize for a good few minutes, so I just kinda apologized for that, and he chuckled and said it was okay (I’m pretty sure I saw him at the airport next day but idk the man I thought to be him kinda stared at me as well, so who knows). Bless him. Here in this pic below you can kinda see where my friend was standing. I was closer than that, I still can’t believe dude. It still feels so fucking unreal.

Now, little fun thing: there was two times where Till grabbed a bottle of water, took a long sip, and then threw it at the crowd. Guess who the fuck got blessed with that water? Yes, me. Both damn times. 

Like, I think I never cried that much of joy ever. It was tears and tears from beginning to the ending, and I sang so damn loud that when I tried screaming ‘ich liebe dich Richard’ my voice wouldn’t come out hahaha I would laugh now and then at the dumb little things they did on stage and I’d feel so damn complete, y’know? Like... Right there I was the happiest I had ever been. It was a pure form of joy, of love. During that concert I knew true happiness, and I know I sound crazy by saying that but if you love something so much... Standing near them is just the most precious thing in the world. And it is such a great and pure bonding between the whole damn crowd and them... It’s like we are one, y’know? There was this pure energy coming from them to us, and flowing back from us to them... It’s just too good to even try to explain.

Now, here’s the kind bad part of me: whenever I experience great feelings (bad or good) I start dissociating. Like, I fly out of myself and it’s like I’m watching from afar, or I feel like that isn’t real. With all these great feelings inside of me, this damn thing was starting to happen, but you know, when the fire started, the heat would hit me in the face and wake me up from this dissociation and I’d think to myself ‘it’s happening, it’s real’. And I just love fire so much and their effects, seeing it live was the greatest experience I ever fucking had. 

We sang all of the songs so damn loud, that I could see their proud faces now and then when Till would stop singing to hear us. We would even hum the melodies, y’know? And Richard just looked at us with this big smile... Goddamn, I love him haha. There was this one time that Till tried saying ‘raise your hands’ in portuguese but ended up with ‘raise your moms’ and that was so cute I wanted to hug him. Me being so small, I barely could see Paul, the only time I got to see him properly was when he went to Richard’s place and Richard to his. With Ollie and Doom too, I sometimes couldn’t see them most of the time (specially because they’re a bit far and I need glasses to see that far :/) but, yeah, just seeing them a couple of times was enough to fill my heart with joy <3 now there was Flake. I would laugh at him dancing all the damn time and he’s such a sweetheart tbh damn... Y’all know how it goes, they thank us, leave, and then come back to sing a few more songs (I can’t remember the right order tbh so I apologize). 

I don’t think I ever been more happy than when I got to see the Engel wings and sing so loud that Gott weiss ich will kein Engel sein, like seriously. During Engel, my friend called me telling me to go back to the locker room because we wouldn’t be able to leave when the show was over and I literally went ‘what?! are you crazy?? I can’t leave now, wait-” and lowered the cellphone just to yell the lyrics ahaha he hung up and I didn’t leave, obviously. So, they left the stage again, but Flake was there for a few more seconds, and everyone went silent for some reason. That’s when I yelled ‘FLAKE!’ so loud and the girl beside me did the same. He damn heard us!!!!! He looked back at us and even waved <3 of course he didn’t know where it was coming from, but he waved <333333 

As soon as he left the stage as well, everyone started yelling ‘Te Quiero Puta!’ and we didn’t stop until the lights went on again and they got back to the stage. But, the thing is: before Till even started singing, we did in such a loud chorus, that the six of them just watched us for almost the whole song. Till was so proud, Richard was so proud (they were the ones I could see from omg), and it made me so damn happy. Man, I truly hope that they could feel the love coming from all of us and how important they are to us, y’know? I just really hope they know that. This time they all got in line to say their final thanks, and Till whispered ‘it was a pleasure being here’ in portuguese, but like, he began so low that all most of us could hear was ‘being here’ and some people even said ‘what?’ and I was like ‘HE’S SO FUCKING CUTE !!!!!!!!!1′ like, I kid you not hahah

Okay, so, the concert part is over now. After that I walked to the locker room (I literally couldn’t walk properly nor feel my legs) to meet my friend, and we started walking to where we agreed to meet my cousin. I met this girl that I knew online, and it was so crazy that I saw her there, like, we didn’t even plan haha I just saw her and yelled her name and it was her lol. Anyways, the plan was the following: as soon as we got out of the gig, we would drive right to the hotel to wait for them. But, my jerk of cousin stepped back and didn’t wanna go. I was like so pissed at him, but y’know, I just had the best time in my life, so yeah. And then his friend told me she’d go the next day to the hotel to try to see Manson and all, and since he was staying at the same hotel as Rammstein, she asked if me and my friend wanted to go. I was like ‘obviously!!!!’, so I got her number and we went home. 

Here’s the sad part, if you don’t wanna hear how I got my heart broken trying to meet my idols, you’re allowed to stop here :p 

I said we had to wake up early to get early to the concert, right? We also had to wake up early to get the train and bus (plus a 10 minute walk) to get to the hotel, and they were leaving at 9am or so. We had to wake up at 6, at least, and be at the metro by 7. It turns out, we left at 8:30, and got there like 10-ish. We got a taxi, and as soon as we stopped in front of the hotel, the security opened the door for me and I honestly thought ‘he’s gonna send us away omg’, but he’s supposed to do it with everyone they’re receiving lol so yeah, he asks me ‘are you guys here for the band?’ and as soon as he said that, I knew it. My heart crushed. I said yes. ‘They left ten minutes ago’ (or fifteen, I can’t recall, I was hurt lol). I had no idea what to fucking do, all I knew is that I had to try everything to go see them. I ask him which airport, and right away the taxi driver says ‘I can take you there for 100′. Like, damn there was no way we could pay all that. I had 50, my friend had 50, and we had already spent like 35 to get there, because we were paying for the two of us, plus my cousins friend (my jerk of a cousin didn’t want to drive us there, if he did, I would have made it in time - I’ll never forgive him). So, I say no, he lowers it to 80, and I decline again. But right away I remembered Uber was less expensive and I had a code that would take out 35. The girl called an Uber, and what was supposed to be 65, lowered down to 30. It was a damn long trip, we were in the car for almost 50 minutes, here’s the map:

So, you wanna know what I did in these 50 minutes? First, I was having a panic attack through the whole trip. Second, my mom knew I was going to the hotel to see them, so she messaged me and all I said was ‘I’m in a cab, going to the airport’ and she went crazy bc obviously, she knew I had no money to come back. We had like 35, and from the airport to my cousin’s house, we’d need to take the train, and a bus. Obviously, it wasn’t even close to what we needed so the three of us could make it back home. So, she was freaking out, saying she would never ever let me go out alone like that and as soon as I came back home I’d hear from her and my dad. Like, at the moment I didn’t even care, all I wanted was to see the guys. Whatever if I can’t make it back to my cousin’s, I’d give it a way, y’know? I had two friends that lived at least a bit close to the airport, but I only managed to contact one and he offered to lend me some money to go back (I think that’s what happened, I don’t remember everything in details because of the panic attack I was having. Lucah, if you ever read this, I love you so fucking much and I don’t know what would have I done that day if you weren’t there and talked to me tbh, you’re one of the most precious people in my life), but I didn’t want money borrowed, because I felt it wasn’t right. My cousin’s parents wouldn’t allow him to go pick us up (like, seriously, they just did not) and we were all freaking out already. (A few weeks ago my brother told me that my mom was so nervous that she was crying and saying she’d slap me when I got back ahahah man I feel terrible that she had to be that nervous, but I had to do it). Long story short, we were going to the airport and we had no money to come back.

So, there were three gates. The driver asked us which one he should leave us, and we were like ??? ‘cause we legit didn’t know, so he left us in gate 1 (or A, I can’t recall). Turns out, it was the wrong one, we had to take this bus to 2 (or B) and then, I saw a guy with a LIFAD t shirt, and I rushed up to him asking if the guys were still there. His answer? ‘they got in literally 5 minutes ago, in gates 3 (or C)’. Goddamn it I never hated time so fucking much!!!!! But still, me, my friend and my cousin’s friend (who I consider now my friend because she’s been with me that day) literally ran all the way to gate 3. We got to the check in area, and I rushed up to this lady, where they get in the little room before going to the plane (I have no idea about the therms in English so cope with me). My friend asked her if she saw a band walk in, and I explained ‘six guys, y’know, big, one of them small’ and she goes ‘oh! they’re famous? no one was here when they arrived’ AND LIKE FUCK GUYS NO ONE WAS THERE TO TAKE PICS???? but I said nothing and then she chuckled and said ‘they were really nice. One of them had to go back to check in because his ticket wasn’t working. I helped him out and he came back saying thank you a billion times’ and that’s when it hit me. They had been there for real. I look at her and ask ‘how did he look like?’ so she smiles ‘he was very tall, had a beard’ I SWEAR TO GOD I LOOKED BACK AT MY FRIENDS WITH MY HEART BEING SHATTERED TO PIECES AND TRYING NOT TO CRY BUT I BET MY EYES WERE ALL RED AND ALL I MANAGED TO DO WAS A FAINT WHISPER SAYING ‘IT’S OLLIE’ (I’m trying not to cry now, it still kinda hurts :p). The lady realized I was about to cry and said they were probably in a different room now, separated from the others, waiting for the plane and all, and sadly she couldn’t do anything for me.

So then I look back, and there’s this one dude beside me and he asks if I’m there to see Rammstein and I nod yes and say they left already. He looks just as sad as me, and he says he’ll try to find someone to get in there and just try to convince them to go out there again (impossible, right? but we wanted to believe that it was possible). So I go around the airport following this dude, while my mom calls me at least five times. First she’s all mad, then I assure her that someone’s gonna pick us up (I actually didn’t really know nor cared how we would get out of the airport) and it was okay, I had talked to my friend. She calms down, and I, trying not to cry, ask her to wait because I’m trying to see if I can talk to them. Five minutes later she calls again asking if I’m gonna talk to them in English (she finds it wonderful that I learned how to speak English by myself so whenever I have a chance to talk to someone she’s literally throwing me at the opportunity lmfao), so I swallow back my tears and say that yeah, if I make it I will talk to them in English, she’s all happy by now, probably thinking that I’m about to meet them, so she hung up. I’m still after that dude that is trying to find us a way, and she calls again. This time she asks if I met them already and I just couldn’t speak because if I said one word, I would break down in tears, so I just whisper, with a knot in my throat, that I didn’t, and again, all happy she asks if I will, but all I can tell her is ‘mom, I’ll talk to you later, okay?’ and she wishes me good luck. 

At this point I had no more hopes, the guy was still talking to everyone he could, trying to get someone in there to talk to them and all, and my friends wanted to go outside, so I followed them and sat down. There were these two guys waiting for Disturbed, and they offered us a ride to the bus stop, which would save us a lot of money so we could eat, because we were already starving. We went to get something to eat, and while they counted the money and how much they could spend, I was zoning out, wanting to cry, I felt like a fail ‘cause I had that thing planned for months and nothing went like I planned and shit. The two of them got something for us to eat, I don’t know what is the therm in English but it’s this little bread thing with cheese that is very popular over here but I swear I hate it because I used to eat a lot. Just the thought of it makes me feel disgusted somehow, but at the time I was so out of myself and so upset that ended up eating without even realizing. After that we went to meet the guy again, and he told me he got a guy from the airport to go talk to the band. He would go out again at 2pm and bring us news, film a video or something like that. So we all sat down while me and the guy talked, he said he had met the guys before and how Flake was adorable, how Richard was amazingly nice to him and even talked to him for a while... I was still sad, but just talking to someone about them made me a little better. I remember telling him ‘I feel like shit because the men of my life are standing under the same roof and I can’t even see them, y’know?’ and I knew that he felt exactly like me, so it was like... I don’t know, it meant a lot that someone knew how it was for me. 

At 2pm, the guy from the airport comes looking from us. We were all excited again, and he just says ‘I’m sorry, they got in the plane already’ and showed a video of him all excited asking someone about the band and this person saying ‘they got in the plane already’. He was sad for us as well, apologized and left. The fan guy talked about his band (I have him on facebook now), said he’s sorry and we should try again next time and left. So, now we were the three of us alone, didn’t meet Rammstein, I was still so upset I couldn’t think straight, no money, and the two guys who offered us a ride had to leave because Disturbed wasn’t coming until 4pm and they had to leave way before that. 

We sat down outside, then walked through the whole damn airport for a good two hours, then met this one dude with a camera in hands saying that Halestorm was inside. We were like ???? but got inside and there they were. They were all very nice, Lzzy hugged me, told me and my friend we were pretty, just as well as her brother (I think it’s her brother? I don’t know much about Halestorm) and took the pic with us. Here:

Then I saw the guys from Shinedown walking in, and they looked in a hurry so I didn’t know if I should ask for a picture or not? They kept staring at us, and it seemed like they were waiting for us to approach them, so in the end I asked Zach if he was okay with taking a pic with me, and he said sure and straight away pulled me closer for the pic and I was happy at how nice he was. The other guys had already rushed to check in.

(Look at him, cute lil bean + forgive my face, I was still trying not to cry). So, after that, the guy with the camera followed us around, and he told us that Disturbed would be there in a while, which made me feel a bit better, ‘cause yeah, at least I would meet a band that I really like, right? So, as we waited, the guy with the camera gave me a pen and a paper to get autographs and all, and we sat outside, staring at every van that stopped there, waiting for Disturbed. We saw most of the bands that played at the festival, but most of them we didn’t know, so we were scared we’d end up confusing the crew with the band members, so we didn’t dare asking for pics and all hahaha 

Also, a girl wearing a Rammstein shirt with her father sat down near us, and it literally broke my heart to tell her that Rammstein had left already (it was almost like 4:30pm by the time) and to see her just as sad as I was. Her father sighed, smiled at her and said they would try again next time, and honestly, I just wanted to hug her ‘cause I knew exactly how it was :/

When we saw the Disturbed van arrive, we rushed inside just to watch them get into the check in area. A security guard told us to wait until they checked in, and they would take pics and all (he was kinda rude, we wouldn’t go crazy yelling or anything, we were pretty chill) so we said alright and waited by the line. John Moyer and Mike Wengren gave me the autograph there, and I was shaking a bit so when I went to hand the pen to Mike it fell and I said ‘opa’ which is like ‘oops’ lmfao so after the two of them autographed, we went to the end of the line to wait for them, and Dave is so small omg (ok he’s taller than me) he was leaning on the counter and it was so fucking cute I wanted to squeeze him haha as soon as they were done, Dan walked us with this gigantic smile (he’s such a big guy but he’s so nice) and I felt so happy, dude. I was the first, handed him the paper and he signed down his name and wrote ‘Disturbed’, smiled at me as I thanked him and gave my friend a hug. 

Then I went to Dave, and I wanted to tell him that I love Indestructible, and ever since I was 13 years old I wanted to use it as my wrestling theme song, and that he's inspiration to a very important character in my novel, but I was kinda nervous and all I managed to say was 'can I hug you?' to which he chuckled and said sure, before opening his arms and pulling me for a hug. I took the picture with him and just looked at them while they took pics with the other fans over there. 

One guy was talking to my friend and filming, asking what Disturbed meant for him, I suppose they're gonna make a documentary and I'm still waiting to see it and look at my nervous ass in the background ahahha (I will definitely share it here lol)

So, Disturbed was the last band and then it hit the three of us that we had to find a way to go back to my cousin’s house. We didn't have money and no one to pick us up. The girl called her mother, that worked until 7pm in a hospital near the area, so she told us she would go pick us up. My cellphone was dead, we had nothing to do and we had walked around the airport too much already, and let's face it, none of us had slept properly that night, so we were extremely tired and sad. We still had like two hours to wait, so we sat down for a while, not talking because no one felt like it. My friend was worried because he had to get back home that day (our original plan was to go to the hotel during the morning, come back to my cousin's for lunch and then take the bus home at the afternoon. We didn't know we would be that crazy and do all that lol), I was extremely upset, and the girl was tired.

We ended up going to the bookstore, wandered around a little, and then found an empty place to sit. It had lots of benches, and each of us sat in one. I remember laying down and telling them 'no one can sleep ok' but guess who fell asleep? Me. I remember having a weird dream and then someone said 'she's dead' and I jumped awake lmfao turns out they were trying to wake me up for a good few minutes and my friend said I was dead and that's when I woke up ahahha I literally jumped up and started walking and almost fell down, he held me as the girl told me to calm down lmfao

We went to the entrance, where her mom would pick us up, and it was so cold omg she thought her mom would be mad at her but she laughed at us for being crazy and going after a band lol she took us back to my cousins house, I put my phone to charge and cried my eyes out before going to sleep lol

Next morning, 6am, my cousin’s father took us to the subway, and then we took the bus home. I slept all the way back, and when I arrived, my mom picked me up and said nothing until we arrived home. I was supposed to go to work but asked her if I could stay home (I work with my dad) and they let me (because obv they saw in my face that something was wrong). My mom was staying home for a while as well, so I sat down to tell her what had happened during those two days (damn I'm legit gonna cry) and as soon as I got to the part where I missed seeing them for 20 fucking minutes, I literally broke down. I couldn't stop crying, it was hard to talk because I was sobbing. My mom rarely sees me cry, (in fact, I never really cry in front of anyone), so at that point she knew how much it meant for me, and she started crying with me. I told her how I felt so cheated on by myself because I had everything to make it work, but I just failed, y’know? Like I was about to reach something, but I was pulled away. She hugged me, assuring me that next time they came she would drive me there to make sure I was gonna see them, no matter what (she even suggested staying at the same hotel, just to make me feel better haha). She always said I was overreacting when I told her I wanted to meet them, but when she saw me crying, I think she understood how important it was for me. Now when I talk about Rammstein, she doesn’t wrinkle her nose like I’m being dumb, she just listens and nods along. She even watched Engel live with me (which turns out is her favorite song now lol) and said how amazing it was that Till had wings during the live version. 

Okay, guys, so that is it. This is my whole experience where I been in a roller coaster of feelings during two days, how I saw the men I love more than anything, and how I almost met them. I feel that the airport day hurt me a lot, and I still get sad now and then but I would definitely do it all over again.

I just scrolled the page and realized it was gigantic, and I don’t think anyone will ever read it, but whatever lmfao I’ll come back to read it myself every other day because I don’t ever want to forget. 

Tagging because I was asked to: @srt-iero @thunder-lightning-strike (I’m sorry about the gigantic wall of text lol)

[charlie-bezkorowajny-blog]

Kit Kat advert and production

Overview

I am currently developing a short 30 second advert with 3 of my friends for the “Selling the dream” section of my course. I will be directing the advert and will be advertising a Kit Kat.

Synopsis

My Kit Kat advert will include 3 different people of various ages, genders and religions all eating a Kit Kat in a different way to show that no single way of eating a Kit Kat is the right or wrong way. Using a variety of people also shows that Kit Kats can be enjoyed by anyone that can eat them. The characters will also be in different locations to show that the chocolate bar can be enjoyed anywhere at any time.

I will use an editing style similar to that of Edgar Wright to make the advert more engaging and to help make it stand out more which will in-turn hopefully make it more memorable.

The tagline/slogan for my advert will be “How do you eat yours?” which further helps emphasise that there is no right or wrong way to eat a Kit Kat. Using the rhetorical question may also make the viewer want to go out and buy one just to see how they eat and if it is ‘normal’ or not.

Research into product

Kit Kat:

•The Kit Kat was originally created by Rowntree’s, in York, and is now produced globally by Nestle since 1988 after they acquired Rowntree. In the United States it is made and distributed by Reese’s, a part of the Hershey company. This will affect my advert if it is to be shown in the US as I will have to use the Reese’s version of the Kit Kat instead of the Nestle version.•Kit Kats are a chocolate bar with a chocolate and wafer filling made by Nestle. It comes as a 2, 4 or single chunky all in different flavours. The flavours include; orange, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate, hazelnut and in some countries other flavours such as wasabi are available as well.•Ingredients: Chocolate [1 oz] Sugar, wheat flour, cocoa butter, non-fat milk, chocolate, refined palm kernel oil, lactose (milk), milk fat, contains 2% or less of: soy lecithin, PGPR (emulsifier), yeast, artificial flavour, salt, and sodium bicarbonate. Using milk in the product makes it unsuitable for vegans and people who are lactose intolerant. Palm oil is also a controversial ingredient that might put some people off buying the product, this is because palm oil comes from the African oil palm tree and to get it the tree must be cut down. Due to this, those whore are concerned with the environment may not buy the product as it involves cutting down trees.•Kit Kat bars are produced in 16 countries by Nestle: Brazil, Mexico, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Germany, Russia, Japan, China, Malaysia, Thailand, India, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Bulgaria.•Red is the primary colour of the products packaging and adverts and is associated with themes of love and energy. This creates the idea of chocolate being romantic and/or giving you energy if you need it.

Advertisement research.

1.      One of the most successful advertisement campaigns of all time is considered by many to be that of Absolut vodka.

      Absolute is a Swedish brand and in the 80’s they decided to try and market their product in the US for the first time but they need a strong and unique approach to make their vodka stand out from the competition. They decided to make the Absolute bottle the centre piece of their adverts with it appearing on every single one of their 1,500 different printed ads. Ranging from the bottle itself to a house in the shape of the bottle to even New York taxis in the shape of the bottle, it was everywhere even if you couldn’t spot it at times, making it a sort of subliminal messaging.

      In 1986 Absolute wanted to target a more younger audience who live more vibrant and modern lifestyles, to do this they collaborated with Andy Warhol who created the first ever piece of art for an Absolut ad.

     Since then Absolut has collaborated with numerous musicians, artists and celebrities to help market their drink. Absolut continued to use this style of advertising using unique printed posters for 25 years until they decided to focus more on digital advertising due to the rise of the internet. At he start of this revolutionary ad campaign Absolut only had about 2.5% of the vodka market and by the late 2000’s over half of the Americas vodka consumption was Absolut vodka. This shows that  even something as boring as a bottle can be an incredibly effective marketing/advertising tool.

2.      Advertising in the 1920’s became much more about consumerism and having all the latest products. It was around this time that the economic boom was starting and lots of people began to have and more and more disposable income to spend on luxury goods such as radios and cars. Companies started to use celebrities and sports starts to advertise their products to try and appeal to as many people as possible. This period was known as the roaring 20’s and the American people were a lot more interested in going out and having fun, to try and capitalise on this new culture many companies tried to change how they advertised their product. A great example of this change is Coca-Cola who up until this point in time marketed the drink as a medicine but changed in the early 20’s to advertise it as a refreshing and fun food.

3.      The first ever official paid TV ad was broadcast in the US on July 1st 1941 over New York Station WNBT. It was shown before a baseball game that was between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies.

4.      On of the best and most successful ads of the 1950’s aired in 1958 and was for Chevrolet. It was named “Boy meets impala”. The advert broke the convention of having lots of talking in the advert explaining the product and how it works, instead the ad contained only 21 words and was focused more on the images that were being shown than what the audience could hear. The advert is about a boy who is about o go to prom only to find out his car has been vandalised so his dad lets him drive his new Chevrolet instead.

5.      Most early commercials were rather long at around 1-2 minutes and consisted mostly of someone explaining the product to the camera while in a relevant setting. The product would be displayed next to or in front of the person and then at the very end of the advert, this made the commercials feel very factual and rather boring especially compared to he adverts of today which don’t end to have much speaking in. The early ads would also tend to include song sort of catchy tune or slogan that would be played at the end and this can still be seen in some adverts today.

6.      World war 2 had a massive impact on adverting in the 1940’s. Most of the men were off at war during this time leaving only the women, children and elderly at home so companies started to shift their advertising focus more from middle age and young men to women as it was the women that were at home and the men who were at war. There were of course still adverts aimed towards men but most were propaganda that were trying to persuade them to join the military.

      Adverts became increasingly aimed at women and were often adverting work for the women. Many of these ads showed a strong woman or a woman with a  job acting independently without the help of a man. It was one of the first times that women were shown as equals to men in advertising.There was also a lot of propaganda posters around during the war and these were basically advertising hate towards Germany and its allies.

7.      Millions of people watch TV in the UK every day so why wouldn’t companies advertise on TV if their product will  be seen by millions of people and potential customers? The whole point of advertising on tv is to get people to see your product and want to go out and buy it. The time of day effects what type of product you will see advertised and companies take full advantage of this. Early in the morning from around 7-9 you are likely to see toys and kids products being advertised as many kids watch TV before school, there’s no point showing a car ad at a time when kids watch TV as they aren’t going to be interested and can’t even get the product. During the day you will see adverts aimed at mums who have to stay at home and look after kids so products such as washing up liquid and bay stuff is shown. Elderly people also watch more TV during the day due to being retired and not needing to work and to capitalise on this companies will advertise products aimed towards the elderly during the day, for example, stair lifts are regularly advertised around this time and chairs that help you stand up.

8.      The first ever British TV ad aired at 9.01pm on the 22 September 1955 on ITV. It was made by AB-Pathe and was advertising Gibbs SR Toothpaste, it lasted 70 seconds which is much longer than today’s adverts which are usually around 30 seconds.

9.     The creator of Britain’s first TV ad was Brian Palmer. He was 26 at   the time.

10.  Radio advertising in the 1920’s was seen as the “Golden Age”. During the early 20’s the economic boom began and everyone began to see an increase in the amount of disposable income they had, this meant they could afford more luxury items such as radios. Radio at the time was a very new thing and was exciting to most people, also there was no TV at the time so this was the main source for mass entertainment at the time. 1920 saw the first radio broadcast and by 1922 there were over 600 radio stations meaning advertisers had 600 options for advertising their product, the more radio stations they advertised on, the more people knew about the product. Between 1920-1930 60% of american families owned a radio making it the most popular form of entertainment at the time with hundreds of thousands if not millions of listeners.

Kit Kat advert evaluation

For my 30 second advert I chose to create a Kit Kat advert. I took up the role of director for this project and my friends in my group took up the roles of camera operator, editor, sound and lighting operator and actors.

Initial research

Part of the planning and pre-production for this advert included the research into the product and target audience. I conducted primary and secondary research. As part of my primary research I created a questionnaire to ask other students about their opinions on certain genres, chocolate bars, social media and more. These results then greatly influenced the final product as I knew what to advertise, what genre the advert should be and who the target audience will be. An example of my research affecting my advert is that I made it slightly comical due to the most popular genre being comedy. A lot of the secondary research consisted of finding out about Kit Kats and other Kit Kat adverts so that we could take inspiration from them and to find what might or might not work in our advert. I found that the Kit Kat is often shown throughout, which you’d expect,  and I also realised that all the Kit Kat sound effects, such as biting into one, are very loud and exaggerated. I then decided to use these loud and exaggerated sounds in my advert to link it to other Kit Kat adverts and because I wanted to use an editing style similar to that of Edgar Wright which used very exaggerated and overly loud sound effects. Another area I did research into was how Edgar Wright edits his films as they have a very specific style that I wanted to incorporate into my advert and I feel I did a good job of this. To create this style we used very quick whip pans, lots of short snappy shots and of course loud sound effects.

Pre-production

There was lots of planning for the shooting and production of this advert. We had to get permission to film in St Mary’s fields as well as risk assessments for us and the equipment and the crew using it all. We also had to find actors to act in the advert but unfortunately we could only get one person to act. Due to this George, the editor, and Taylor, the lighting operator had to act, however this turned out very well as they were good in their roles. It also limited to the cast to people around my age when I initially wanted to include people of different age groups to help it appeal to more people. If I was to improve it or do it again I would ask more people so that we can get enough actors instead of having to use members of the film crew. One problem we did face is that I only drew up a story board and no script so we only had the story board to refer back to which made choosing and setting up some of the shots a bit difficult as we didn’t have much to refer back to. I feel that the strongest part off the pre-production is that I knew what I wanted the advert to be and how it should look so going into filming I had an idea of what to do and how we should approach it.

Shooting the video/production

We shot the video in one day in one location which had both its advantages and disadvantages to us. Some of the cast could only be with us for a very short time so shooting in one location made it easier for them to get to and therefore meant they could get their shots done in time otherwise they may have not got done at all. Shooting in one location also meant there were going to be less continuity errors due incorrect scenery and transitions etc. To shoot the whole advert we used a Sony NXR and a tripod and did not use sound recording equipment as that would be done in post-production. Having no sound equipment helped as it meant we could focus entirely on setting up the shots and making them look as good as possible. We also used the tripod to help make our shots look professional and steady.

Post production

All of the sound was added in post-production by George, the editor, and this made shooting easier but presented problems when it came to editing. All of the sounds were royalty free and found off of the internet but due to this finding exactly the right sound was rather difficult. Some sounds, such as the bag opening, worked great but others, such as some of the munching, didn’t work so well due to the wrong noise levels and how in sync they were with what was happening on screen. To improve the sound effect quality, we should have recorded our own sound effects on the day or created some Foley sound effects in post. Another problem we faced while editing is that the lack of footage we shot made creating the piece and editing it more difficult than it should have been. In future projects we will need to film enough or more than enough footage so that when we come to editing it will make the whole process smoother and quicker, it will also help with continuity errors and make it look more professional. Even though we did encounter various problems and had no real experience with editing we still manged to overcome the issues and create a well-made and professional looking advert that is very true to my original idea and plans.

Finished product

Overall, I am very happy with the finished advert as it is well made and looks professional even if some of the sound effects could be improved slightly. I am also happy with how it mostly stays true to my original idea and plans, one change I did have to make was that it didn’t include people of different ages as we could only get teenagers to play the parts. Ideally, we would have had at least one adult in the advert to help diversify the cast even more and to further put across that anyone can eat a Kit Kat. I personally think the advert is effectively showing the product and it clearly puts across the message that you can eat Kit Kats anyway you want. Another improvement I would make is to show more people eating the chocolate in more ways and to spend more time watching them eat to more effectively put across the message.