Tuesday, December 29, 2009

PM turned AD (???!!!)

As of one month ago I was still a college student at Seattle University and basically sure I wanted to be a Project Manager (PM) for an ad firm. In one month time I have graduated from said college and promptly began considering a life of assistant director work (AD). I blame Red Moon and Jimmy Marble and Co.

The shoot for Red Moon was fantastic. Fantastic in the sense that we hardly slept for 7 days, Ben and the other actors/sailors completely perfected their Russian accents, I only showered twice, I got my own clipboard for AD work, we had the most awesome lego-man-like costumes made by Mr. Martin Morse, our sets looked like a gosh-darn submarine thanks to one Ms. Adi, faux beards were aplenty (hat tip at Ms. Murphy), we had a real crew, we had a REAL intern, we all fell madly in love with movie making and each other and lastly, we had a minor fire on set. Don't worry, no flammable beards/costumes/actors were harmed -- only minor damage on the set that won't even be visible when we begin shooting again. Yup. I said again. We will be back in Los Angeles at the end of this month to finish shooting some last bits of Red Moon. Really, we owe the fire a thank you card. We all will be reunited in all of our Red Moon productivity-meets-creativity love and glory.

Which brings me to my next thought -- I need more productivity and creativity in my life. I am living in Portland now, post-college pre-career, feeling awfully in-between and all I can bring myself to think about is how much I loved making movies. I mean, we're talking loved it. Assistant directing was a job I didn't even have a full concept of prior to the Red Moon shoot and now I can't get the idea of "Reardonk, AD" out of my mind. AD work filled a niche in my creative meets organized self that I have never found before. I made spreadsheets, I posted schedules, I ran back to wardrobe and picked up a needle to help on costumes, I discussed camera angles, I picked up power tools, I swept the floor, I calmed people down, I got people excited ... it was everything I love all rolled up into one glorious, clipboard-wielding job. I'm really in love.


I don't know for sure yet if I need to take a complete shift from my PM plans for a world of AD'ing, but I do know that in the one month I have been done with school I have had countless discussions with folks and many daydreaming bouts that have led me to one solid concept. I can say with almost completely certainty (which is 80% more than should be expected at my current life state) that I want to work in an environment where I can help manage creative projects that I really believe in and surround myself with productive people that push me to make more and do more.


I'll let you know how this all pans out. I'm really curious myself.


More on Red Moon to come, I promise. If you haven't already, check out some of my cell-phone camera stills from shooting on my Flickr. There should be more photos put up soon on the Sirocco Research Labs' Flickr.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Red Moon Poster by Sidearm Design

Everyone needs to take a look at Karl Peterson's blog immediately. Sidearm Design was sweet talked by Sirocco Research Labs to create the Red Moon movie poster. Below is the first round. It is so fantastic. Well done, Karl. Excited to see the final product. I also vote that you make posters for all the other SRL productions. The series would be so gorgeous.


Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Monday, November 30, 2009

Sunday, November 29, 2009

muppet to werewolf; project time

Cleo in the Universe provided The Sirocco Research Labs with a large array of projects. We built spacesuits and muppets and beautiful spaceship sets. And now we are ready for movie number two. Prepare yourself, blog readers. The next month will be a wild ride of project madness rolled up in a movie called Red Moon.

Red Moon is the next installment of the line of short films we are aiming to help produce this year with our dear friend Jimmy. It is a movie about a submarine, love, werewolfs and Soviet Russia. It's going to be fantastic. Jimmy has really done it with this one, folks. Real good stuff. Ben and I will be heading back to LA, home of the Sirocco Research Labs Headquarters (The Hang Zone), to film Red Moon the beginning of December. And by beginning of December I mean next week. Hot damn ... we've got some work to do!

First project on the docket is to build the werewolf suit, played by Mr. Sellon(B) himself. Ben, Annie and I are all chipping in to make this one materialize. It's a doozey. Ben and I started the mask last week and bought oodles and oodles of fur at the Fabric Depot -- all adventures that seem to be par for the course these days now that we are devoted Research Lab Assistants.

This week we need to turn this ...



Into this ...




Can it be done!? Of course. We are Sirocco Research Labs -- making a werewolf costume is like making waffles. No big thing.

Well, it's sort of big thing considering we all are super slammed with many, many other project happenings. Oh and did I mention I am finishing college this week? I give my last marketing class presentation Tuesday, pack up my Seattle apartment, move back to Porltand, return to Seattle for my last Sullivan meeting and final exam, check out of my apartment to then hop on a plane and fly to LA to begin the shoot week for Red Moon. It's happening! Pretty good graduation trip, don't you think? Kicking off my "adult life" with a week filled with sleep deprivation, friends, werewolfs and LA movie making magic. I love it. I really do.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

all that glitter

Sunday I had the chance to accompany The Samstag Saturday crew, a Seattle vintage collective, to the 26th annual Seattle Goodwill Glitter Sale. The Glitter Sale is one of Goodwill's largest fundraising events where they sell some of their best formal attire and accessories they have saved up throughout the year. It was an epic day filled with many adventures -- sleep over prep the night before, 6am wake up call, leotards, donuts and some of the best vintage I have ever seen.

You can read more about our shenanigans on the Samstag Saturday blog.

And take a look at all of our photos from the Glitter Sale.











Thanks Goodwill for an oh-so awesome day!

Thursday, November 5, 2009

LA in review



 
 




Let me just say, I was skeptical. Not so sure how I felt about our dear, lovable, creative Jimmy moving to such a smoggy, mall-tastic city. But let me tell YOU. LA WAS MAGICAL!

My god. Our one week in LA was by far one of the best trips I have ever been on. Maybe it had nothing to do with LA? Maybe it had everything to do with matching pink tank tops, productivity, adventures, producer necklaces and movie making madness?

Nested away in the wonders of the Warehouse District was the Hang Zone, Jimmy's killer loft that is now home to all the Sirocco Research Lab film productions. It smelled like movie magic (and tuna, sometimes). There was not a night the whole entire week that was not spent making sets/costumes/sketches/laughter or all of the above. And to boot, we stayed up late most nights sipping wine and watching YouTube episodes of Are You Afraid of The Dark. And to double boot, we made the most wonderful new friends, Adie and Martin, who we've deviously pulled into our circle of movie making love. Really, it was one long week of taking full advantage of our young adulthood -- no bed time, access to power tools and Funfetti cake for dinner. BOOM!

We are going back. Not indefinitely, but certainly wholeheartedly. New movie in the works. Cleo in the Universe will soon be fin and then it's on to the next. Which is great, because Jimmy has ingrained in us such a heightened level of creativity these days I think I need another movie to work or I. Just. Might. Burst.



*Photos courtesy of Mr. SellonB / more here      

Monday, October 19, 2009

Jimmy Says LA is Magical

I need to go verify that.

You may remember back in August when I wrote about filming Cleo in the Universe, the fantastic short film written and directed by our good friend Jimmy Marble. In a serendipitous twist of fate, some of the footage must be re-shot and Jimmy has up and moved his operations south to Los Angeles.

So, off we go!

Tomorrow Ben and I leave on a Virgin America flight (which I heard is like flying in the inside of an iPod) for the glitz and glamour of Hollywood -- to film a movie no less! A shame production has drawn out so long, but like I said, Jimmy claims LA is magical so I'm excited to go verify that.

Jimmy posted the below still from the Super 8mm footage shot over the summer that he's currently editing. Isn't it gorgeous? Hopefully a trailer will be done very soon.




Other photos from the filming of Cleo, by Abiel Hoff and Greg Boudreau:









Sunday, October 18, 2009

Next?

The idea of having an easy schedule this quarter has faced some resistance from my sense of unrest with the 'planning what to do next' feeling. I have had a hard time doing just nothing when I know I need to be putting one foot out the SU door and trying to figure out what it is I will be doing in December.

I have been spending a lot of my time emailing with potential employers, printing out resumes, sifting through pictures form Portland to combat homesickness and walking around Seattle saying farewell to all my favorite things. A lot of my time is spent with friends doing very not-so-college-like things. The other night Annie and I stayed in and ate a dinner of waffles and wine while watching Mad Men episodes. Likely, a lot of my mornings are spent sitting in the park reading Garcia Marquez short stories and writing project ideas in my notebook. I fear I've aged rapidly since the end of summer. There just isn't much college kid left in me and the new adult-like me is getting antsy for some big adventures

So, what are my plans for December you ask? Likely a job. Most likely. Likely in Portland. Very likely.

I've been missing Portland a lot since I moved away, which is exciting. I like that I feel at home in that city as much as I have the last few summers here in Seattle. Most signs are pointing towards some sort of an entry level job at an ad firm in Portland and moving back in with Ben and the boys in our little green house on Division. Well, not all signs. My fortune cookie the other day seemed to think I should go a different route.

Apparently I will be inheriting a small piece of land soon,



... which is convenient considering that I have been looking for a place to build my dream tree house.




Plan A: Portland

Plan B: Rad Tree House (pending The Ballet Restaurant paying out on my supposed land aquistition)

Plan C: Live on Annie's couch and eat waffles and wine for the rest of our gosh darn lives.

Friday, September 18, 2009

this is what summer looks like

in two days i move away from my amazing little home in Portland, away from Ben, Chad and Jeff, back to Seattle. I am excited for the new school year to start, but I can't help but be pretty sad to say farewell to such a lovely summer.

to paraphrase my summer; it was fantastic. allow me to show you.

this is what summer looks like -

this is what summer looks like from Katie Reardon on Vimeo.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Allow me to clarify

I have not graduated from college. Yup, I was Just Kidding.


So, I graduated. I just didn't graduate. I walked, I had the tassel, I threw the hat, I ate the cake -- I'm just not done with classes yet. I know, it sounds silly, but really there is a logical explanation for my bogus pomp and circumstance.

As you may remember I traveled abroad to India during the fall quarter of this last year. Taking this quarter off meant that I was deferring a quarter of my Sullivan Scholarship, a scholarship group that I am a part of at Seattle University (more on this amazing program later in this blog post). In all its pre-meditated glory, the Sullivan allows its recipients to use essentially 4 years of schooling as they see fit, in whatever chunks and sequence that works for them. For me, this meant that I could take fall quarter off last year and roll over that scholarship money to this year. And, wallll AHH! I am returning to SU for a 5th year fall quarter to take my one last marketing elective class.

Now, you may be asking why oh why would I return for just one class. The answer goes a bit beyond the simple, "Well, in case you didn't notice this isn't the best economy to be joining the work force." My reasoning for returning to SU for one more quarter is much more rooted in the core beliefs and values of the Sullivan program. The Sullivan was created to foster better, holistic leadership in young college students. We work on things like group facilitation, community engagement and general mental well-being. It's the latter of those qualities that has to do with why I'm staying around for a 5th year. I realized I needed a buffer before I had to make decisions about the bigger world outside of SU and Capitol Hill. I'm a firm believer in buffers. With both the monetary and community support of the Sullivan, I now have the time to relax for three months, post-COLAB and pre-world. I'm really looking forward to taking time to enjoy my last class, Entrepreneurial Marketing, having time with a few good friends that are still in the Seattle area and simply reflecting on decisions. In all honesty, those things are likely going to be accomplished by way of sitting in the Quad and going on long bike rides to Ballard. I don't have any big plans for the quarter and I'm really, really looking forward to that.

So, apologies if I confused you with that whole cap and gown thing before. I wanted the pictures to show the grand kiddies some day, you know? It was fake-it or forget-it. And really, in the end, I realized that the ceremony wasn't all a big hoax for me. It felt as though I was celebrating the end of my true college years; the hoopla was to bid farewell to all my good friends and all the amazing memories I made during my four years at SU. In my mind, I'm returning to campus this Sunday not to really go back to school, but rather to relish in the campus life one last time. Say goodbye to it all in a real long, cozy way.

I'll let you know how it goes.



Below are some pictures from this summer's Sullivan Retreat on the Oregon Coast where we talk about our ups and downs, learn to relax better, practice Tai Chi and dance to bad pop music. More pictures can be viewed on my Flickr account.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

COLAB, Over and Out

About a month out from the COLABORATORY grand finale and I finally feel like my thoughts are cohesive enough to write a blog post in review. Excuse my tardiness, but this beast of an intern program is not so easily summed up in one quick post.

The final blowout event of the COLAB program was the team presentations to Columbia Sportswear. The day was something I never imagined myself having the opportunity to partake in at such a young age in my career. The act of pitching our campaign to Columbia, a prominent corporate brand, is alone an amazing thing to have lived to tell about. I think what was most nerve racking for me was not necessarily the Columbia judging panel, but more so the 20 or so COLAB committee members sitting behind the judges. These COLAB folks are the real deal, the professionals that do these sorts of pitches for a living, our bosses from the last six weeks and not to mention the people we all might someday want to work for if we stay in this industry. There was pressure. For sure.

Photo By Erin Davis / Columbia Sportswear judges.


I think our team really found a lot of motivation in that pressure though, or at least I think I can say so for myself. Getting up in front of that room and spilling out on the table the amazing work Wet Paint did was a total rush. It was not so much about "selling it to client" like I had assumed it would be. Once we got up there and got rolling with our pitch the whole thing turned into this sort of enthusiastic show and tell. We were simply showing off this baby we had made, this adorable little bundle of joy all rolled up into one neat package that we called a campaign. Our group really made fantastic work -- we all were so proud of it which made the pitch just seem like the fun part. All we had to do was show Columbia how much we loved our stuff and how much we believed in it and the rest just happened. The rest being the part where Columbia deliberated for two hours to decide which team's campaign would be named the winner.

From the sound of it the other group, Silo5, had a great campaign as well. We didn't actually get to watch their pitch, as is the nature of agency pitches in the real world. Once it was deliberation time the two groups finally, finally reemerged from our absurd six weeks of head-to-head competition and got to tour the Columbia Sportswear campus as a cohesive group of 10 smiling, not stressed-out interns. The results were out of our hands; we could finally relax. During the break we got to meet Mrs. Gert Boyle herself! Such a cool lady. It was so great to see her in person after all those years knowing her as the Tough Mom from the Columbia ad campaigns.

Photo By Erin Davis / Meeting Mrs. Boyle.

When we returned to hear the panel's final vote, we were greeted with a ton of fantastic feedback which again was something I think none of us interns would have imagined having the experience of at such a young age. Immediate, relevant, thoughtful critiques from a real client -- those 15 minutes were likely one of the most pertinent payoffs of the COLAB experience. In the end Columbia chose our team's campaign as the winner. They had a lot of specifics to say about positives and negatives of campaign as well as some good, broad tips for us. I can't give you, my dear blog readers, too many specifics though. Sorry! Both team's ideas are now full property of Columbia, so we've got some super confidential insider info on our hands. This is good news for us though because if all goes well in the next stages of Columbia's ad planning, we very well could be seeing some of Wet Paint's ideas in full swing next Fall. So. Exciting!

In the meantime, I can show you some very basic pictures of the very awesome book Wet Paint designed for our pitch to give to Columbia as a takeaway. Consider this a teaser/valid proof that we had as much fun with this project as I had been alluding to in my blog all summer.

More pictures of our book in detail can be viewed on my Flickr account.
The long, last day of COLAB was polished off with a lovely after-party filled with beer, snacks, awkward bonding and Voodoo Doughnuts.

Photo By Erin Davis / Awkward team bonding at the after party.

Overall, I can't imagine having spent my summer in any other way. COLAB was an amazing opportunity, albeit experimental and nontraditional. If you are a prospective intern reading this blog (because I know there will be some, as the 10 of us 2009 Lab Rats sure did our fair share of Googling prior to applying), I'd say apply if you think you are adventurous enough and thick-skinned enough to survive an internship of such abnormal nature. It was rapid fire, for sure. We had to be on our toes enough to handle three first days of work, three sets of bosses to impress and three sets of office responsibilities. And on top of all that there came the extra time needed to devote to the Columbia campaign work. After a 9-5 day you'd usually have another three hours of work or so to do on your own time for your team. It is a big time commitment, but with that said, it comes with big payoffs. The amount of experience we all gained in six weeks far surpasses a traditional internship in my opinion and the number of contacts you make during the course of the program is unreal. I have a stack of business cards on my desk that would make any unemployed college grad drool. So, apply if you think you can make the time/energy commitment and know that if you are willing to go all out during the six weeks, the experiences will be a huge reward.

I'm now venturing off into the seemingly "real world" knowing that I do feel intrigued and inspired by this sort of industry. Where I will fall within the mix of advertising/marketing/graphic design I do not know. Through COLAB I think I came to realize that for me the allure of being a project manager in some facet of this industry is rooted in my love for the process. The late night work session with Wet Paint where some one would get an idea which would make another person sit up in their chair and go, "Oh, oh, OH!" Which would in turn cause everyone to start scribbling away in their journals... that is what I really enjoyed. And then the mass translation of all those good ideas into one cohesive pretty package; that's where the good stuff is at. That is what I can see myself doing for a career. Now to just figure out how I want to make that happen... More on big life decisions in another blog post. This one is already proving to be far too epically long.

Thank you a million times over to the Portland Advertising Federation and the awesome COLAB Committee for being adventurous enough to create this weird program and for choosing me to be a part of the second round of Lab Rats. I look forward to watching where this program takes itself and the great things you all will do to help it get there. And of course, thank you so much to Ascentium, Grady Britton and Anvil Media for letting me sneak into your agencies. I learned so much from everyone on your teams; too many great people to name. Apologies for the many questions, drinking a lot of your coffee and building robots in highly trafficked areas. And most importantly, thank you to Jimmy, Jenny, Erin and Lincoln, the most AMAZING intern agency team a girl could have asked for. I was continually impressed with your guys' ability to produce fantastic content all while sitting in my un-airconditioned house. Well done, Wet Paint. Seriously, well done. I miss you all already and hope some day we all can sit in a room again and laugh uncontrollably at absolutely nothing. I really do.

Friday, August 21, 2009

WOO HOO!

we did it.

were done.

we DID IT!

WE WON!!!!



Team Wet Paint walk away with a victory today at the Columbia Sportswear pitch. Silo5 gave us serious run for our money though. Great experience. More blog/reflection later. Right now I'm packing my bag for my 8am flight to Vegas. No joke.

Woo hoo!

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Getting a Minor in Google Studies

My third and last agency placement, Anvil Media, has been a whirlwind. As you probably noted by my lack of blogging, things have been busy. I'm already in my second week at Anvil and last week of COLAB!

In the face of the fun, crunch time madness of planning our Columbia Sportswear pitch for this Friday, there has still been time to learn a slew of new things at this agency placement.

Anvil does search engine optimization and social media marketing--two things I'm not even going to try and pretend I didn't Google before COLAB started. This is new territory for me, but it feels good to be this challenged. Anvil has a very lean business structure. Every person in their 12-person team has basically a comparable title to each other which translates to everyone having their own projects, doing their own research, their own analysis and their own pitching. It's really neat to see everyone work together in such a simplified environment. There are even weekly sessions where the entire team gets together and talks simply about cool stuff they've found that week (blogs, conferences, innovations, etc.). The thought being, this keeps everyone in the loop with not only one another, but also with industry happenings.

Don't let the tech-talk fool you though. The people at Anvil are a pretty is lively bunch. The other day, the office playlist took a romping tour of Dragonforce followed by some Gangster's Paradise. Crazy kids, I tell ya.

My basic takeaways from the SEO world so far pertain to client interaction. In my mind, that is really where Anvil earns their money. They take mass amounts of data and statistics and charts and boil it into a very approachable report and recommendations for a client to immediately put into action. Yes, most of their tools are platforms like Google Analytics, Google adWords, etc. that anyone can access, but Anvil's power rests in their expertise of the tools and their ability to immediately get the SEO ball rolling for a company that would normally be dwarfed by that much data.

It's almost as if what Anvil is offering their client base is 1 part concepts/actions and 3 parts education on what they should be doing. I suppose that is the nature of a company dancing in such relatively new territory. The machine of SEO work is moving pretty rapidly, but I can tell just from my short time here, Anvil has a solid grasp on the industry.

Oh, and one of the other big perks of working at Anvil Media; Heather Schwartz, COLAB Class of '08, is employed here. Heather has been a fantastic resource to have around when I think of random Wet Paint questions. And not to mention she's also just a really rad person. Woo hoo, for COLAB alums!




Monday, August 10, 2009

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

It's all about ideas

One of the most rewarding and encouraging experiences I've had thus far during my COLABORATORY experience have been the times when I get to sit in on brainstorming session.

At both Ascentium and Grady Britton I have seen that in the world of ad/marketing no man is left behind. Brainstorm sessions revolve around every member of the team -- designers, project managers, media buyers, copy writers and interns alike. These sort of free flowing, all-out dump fests are so fantastic. The whole shebang is really show to be seen. It all begins with one good idea. I get excited and start scribbling things in my journal, throwing out random stories. Then someone references a seemingly unrelated event which triggers another idea for 5 other people. We all laugh. Someone reads a Tweet aloud. We laugh again. Then there's an awkward moment of deep-thought silence. Then the whole beast gets roaring again and 58 new ideas flush out on to the table, every single one of which can be traced back to the original good idea that the client had that we as an agency are trying to make BIG. Meetings like this rarely happened in the graphic design world--being on the content side of this creative process is great. Gosh. I'm really starting to like this whole creative strategy thing. I really am.


A sharpie rendition of what a brainstorm session looks like at GB.

Monday, August 3, 2009

space and love

I took a break from internship happenings for a project of a different sort.

This past weekend I spent nearly three days 'round the clock producing Jimmy Marble's latest short film, Cleo in the Universe.The experience (my first on a working set) was surreal, rewarding, exhausting, intensely filled with good friends and, did I mention, exhausting?

The film, I am sure, is going to be gorgeous. We filmed the whole piece in Super 8. Mind you, the film is set in space. Cleo in the Universe will be the most dreamy, soft rendition of space exploration you've ever seen. This I can guarantee.

I played Cleo, the captain of the SS Sweatheart who toils with the juxtaposition of finite love in an infinite universe. I wore a blue spacesuit, took advice from Karl, the onboard computer system, co-stared with the muppet known as Lt. Baby Baby and dreamt about a girl named Duke Jupiter.


Note worthy details from the weekend:

CLEO LEAK from Benjamin Bearclaw on Vimeo.

The warehouse we commandeered.




A picture from one of the many Twitter reports from production.


Big thank you to Jimmy for letting us all be a part of his amazing art. I am very inspired by your unbridled, absurd creative expectations and want to make shit with you for a long, long time. Good luck with post-production!

More to come on the Cleo in the Universe premier. Until then, think really hard about space and love. It'll be good for your imagination.

COLAB meets the future; a huge, awesome table

Last Thursday some of us COLABORATORY interns had the opportunity to meet the brilliant folks at Fashionbuddha, via a typetour of Portland hosted by the ever-so-connected Bram Pitoyo.

Creative Director Todd Greco showed us one of Fashionbuddha's crowning badass projects to date: their DIY touch screen table. Think Microsoft Surface ($17,000) meets a small budget ($1,000-ish). It really blew my mind. Interactive art gallery openings and collaborative symphonic sounds all coming out of one relatively simple contraption. It's agencies like Fashionbuddha that make me increasingly thrilled by the creative work being pumped out of Portland. Great stuff, Fashionbuddha. Thanks for having us!



To watch Todd's presentation on how a DIY touch screen table is made and the insane apps Fashionbuddha has made to go along, see his speech from Ignite Portland.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

In the land of Griffins

The COLABORATORY clock seems to run faster than I had anticipated. It's week 3 already and I am no longer at Ascentium. I started Monday at my new internship home, ad agency Grady Britton.


It's an odd thing shifting between internships at such a quick pace. Kind of jarring actually. I felt like I was just getting the hang of office life at Ascentium, finally knew who to talk to when I needed something and even had a few inside jokes under my belt. And then the COLAB wheels cranked a little bit further and it was time for me to move on. I survived my first few days at Grady Britton just fine, obviously, but I think all of us interns will openly admit that 3 first days of work in one summer brings 3 times the first-day-jitter stress. Chalk that up to an added benefit of this program -- our nerves are 3 times tougher than the average newbie.

Grady Britton is proving to be a good fit for me. Among the amazingly friendly welcome I received and the fact that I've already played on the GB softball team, I think what I'm liking most about this placement is the type of work Grady does. Grady Britton has a strong line-up of really great local clients. They even have a grant program they run annually to provide a local non-profit with $25,000 of creative services. Cool stuff all around.

And where do the good people of Grady Britton find all their energy for such awesome work? Well, Ascentium had their coffee robot, but I haven't found such a fountain here at Grady. There's a lot of griffin swag everywhere in the office in honor of the company's logo, but my money is on the well equipped fleet of razor scooters that line the hallway.