DAY 2 - let your brains work

As i walk into theResidence side of W, i icked up my mind from the lobby which i had left there the previous way. if i did any thinking about the concept. that was when i was in the hotel yesterday. coz wen u get out, u have a 100 things in mind. creativity and busy are two words that doesnt come along together for me. either b creative or b busy. i have this ideas playing in ma mind. after all, being a part of this ad is a dream come true. a video ad, that too for doha film institute is something like a dream. i am happy i woke up at the rite time to realize that dream. When Claude and us sat together, each of us got 2 chances to speak up the concepts we had in mind. pretty much interesting, all were different. its amazing how people put one thing in a hundred different ways. the 2 ideas I presented came back to me like a boomerang with a dozen queations in it. but i succeded in the third one. Claude started laughing as i presented a funny concept and he said here we have a winner. but I am not sure yet. coz when i start thinking, better ones come every now and then.

we split into 2 teams of 3 each. now the real game begins. its frustrating when you want one idea and others are not happy with it. and its more frustrating when others come with an idea and you know that it sucks. but then there need to be teamwork. and i am not someone who want to stuff my concepts to others if they are uncomfortable with. all together, from 15 concepts, we have to choose 2 form each team. and if you choose the wrong two, you kill those nice concepts left behind. so.. it s tough. we arent all time ad makers. this is a first for all of us. and we all wanted to give our best try. cos it's us and cos its DFI. the best concepts survive to be alive when we switch on the camera. rest die young. may b die for the moment,

DAY 1 at Doha Film Institute (http://www.dohafilminstitute.com)

Todays day 1. I received an email and sms with the change of venue from cultural village to W hotel (http://www.whoteldoha.com/). Wow!! As I park and walk into the residence side of the hotel, I am filled up with a lot of anxiety and excitement. I hope I will walk out feeling satisfied of a great job done. When the lift stops on floor 22, I enter the room with some one else, selected as same as me, and meet Robb. Claude joins in and tells us that we r d early birds. While I take a look around the plush living room and d open kitchen adjoining it, claude gets into small talks as to break the ice. Robb and claude looked like nice persons to work with. Within few minutes, everyone else poured in. Ahmed, looked determined and serious. Abdulla was kind of a shy qatari. Nada and jawhar wer the ladies in the group of six with usman, a pakistani guy whose been into tv productions and ad films and finally me. We ve been chosen to make a commercial to promote a viral ad for DFI!! My holy whatnot!! They chose us from the applications they recvd. We were all from diffrnt background but we all loved either advertising or directing. So they teach us how to direct an ad film, from a to z and beyond it. Well... What started as a workshop to making ad films will end up making an ad that will b seen on the web in a few weeks. I am all excited to b among the chosen 6. Coz DFI(http://www.dohafilminstitute.com) isn't something small. It's young but it's gigantic. Its the root of a much bigger tree. And Claude, who will act as our creative director in d first half of the workshop isn't nothing less than an expert either. As we talk, we discover more about each other. I felt proud to b part of a team. Claude (http://www.claudeelkhal.com/) is one person to b with. He's been in the industry and worked for the giants. He's a giant himself with all those ads and short films under his credit.(http://claudeelkhal.blogspot.com/) Well.. After we had tea and some bicuits, the client walks in to give the brief about their requirement. She's this tall lady (robb said some one from DFI, strong and tough enough to be a client will come for the client briefing), contrary to what all robb said..Robb, I bet you havent seen tough ladies ;)

With a one hour session of Q&As , we get a picture of what the client needs. well this pictures, we are gonna color up, add some spices, pour our brain into it, think ideas out of our asses and make it into a viral/commercial.. wow!! the thought that i will go thru all the process of creating an ad makes me feel so good.

once we were done for the day, i went jogging down the corniche. i always have a pair of jogging shoes, tees and tracksuites in my car. (Coz i always come up with reasons not to jog. so i dont want this one to be a reason). And if you ever see in newspaper that i was caught by police nude in car, alone, please understand that i had this urge to jog and I was changing to jogging dress. ;)

back to class

Tomorrow is a big day. I ve been selected to attend a 10 day workshop on advertising conducted by doha film institute. I am so excited.I feel like I am back to college after a gap of 4 years!!!its gonna be nice wen u sit back, listen to wat experts say and find yourself. In a group with 'classmates' around. What's excites me more is that its an advertising workshop. Something I love to do and I do for a living. Hope to meet a lot of creative minds. People at Doha film instotute and doha tribecca film festival are someone noce to be with. Its gonna b mind blowing. And for the first time, I plan to not bunk! Ofcourse its not an accounting class rite? Plan to blog everyday with its happenings.