I still can’t believe how bumped i am about our project grades. We had put in hours, days and weeks of sheer hard work..
Took the most annoying amount of effort in perfecting our storyline and making sure that we were in sync with the client..
Painstakingly photoshops 96 images into situation-appropriate storyboard frames (including removing the countless BMWs, yellow lines, luscious green grass and adding in an entire landscape into the background)..
Practiced and practiced our pitch to the best that we can do..
Wrote an incredibly deep and intelligently coherent rationale to backup our ideas…
The class loved our presentation. Awed and wow-ed by the amount of thought and detail put into a simple 5 minute presentation.
and fuck, B+. It’s ok i’m totally fine with it if everyone else’s grades are somewhat similar. But noooo they got freaking As!!! What the hell are you thinking professor!!! Do i need to remind you of your instructions in a particular week 3?!?!?!
Ok let me explain it first. We were suppose to be doing a 2 min storyboard for a client, telling people their BRAND STORY. Not an advertisement, not a promotional video, but a BRAND STORY.
Ok guys lets take a look a this together. From the word “brand” we understand that our 2 min film should revolve around a particular company, and by “story” we are suppose to be telling people about the company and their ups and downs, what they did, and why they did it. Am i right?
We got that. And when the rest were presenting their storyboards, we thought to ourselves,” ok they totally got it wrong, dude. They’re doing Ads for them, not a brand story. Like C’mon people did you even read the brief?”. And can i just add that i could sum up all their presentations with one phrase: plants are hard to grow and we know it.
Ours was different. We highlighted the difficulties the brand is currently facing and explained this from the perspectives of all parties involved. A 360 degree approach to the problem. We didn’t want to merely side the brand and portray they all high and mighty. We wanted to tell everyone what they themselves are doing, and what these actions are doing to the rest of the people. A realistic approach to get people to wake up their idea and look at the big picture.
B+
It wasn’t about the grades. At all. It was about the prof and his view of things. If you weren’t in sync with his ideas, you’re automatically “not good enough”. So if i want to get an A+, should i cut up your brain and analyze it first?
We were the only ones who bothered to put so much consideration into our work. We knew what we were doing and we weren’t faltering because we knew we’re right. How can shallow presentations beat ours just like that?
And how dare you. How dare you put our visuals down when something so unprofessionally done could get an A+. How dare you deny our artistic excellence.
What a disappointment. We lost to gimmicks and obvious ideas. Ideas that he suggested. I’m sorry but they aren’t that great.
Maybe i’m so angry because i feel sorry for us, all 3 of us. It pains me to see so much effort gone unrecognized. How all 3 of us were so hopefully and confident, but it came back and slapped us right across the face. How all 3 of us gravely comforted each other and tried to accept our fate.
There is no doubt that if we were to do this all over again, we wouldn’t change anything. We love our work so much.
They say failed ideas are masterpieces in someone else’s eyes. Now all 3 of us have got a masterpiece in our portfolios.
Projects are subjective. You are put to scrutiny by the profs and sometimes, the class. But what can we do? Be happy that you did something that you think it’s great.