My Reelity

Not yet on national television anyways, and perhaps not anytime soon as well.

Some of you may recall I actually did an ad last year, which, to date, has never seen the light of day. I called up the production company a couple of weeks ago to see if I can get a copy of the ad and they were kind enough to give it to me yesterday.

Alex was also kind enough to let me view the finished ads off his MacBook. They have actually made three versions; a one minute footage with sound effects, the same one minute version with just music and no sound effects and the final product – a condensed twenty second version.

I shared his view (which was also the consensus of many) that the one with the sound effects was the best of the lot. Unfortunately, I think the client only wanted a 20s ad; and the condensed version have a slightly more “rushed” feel to it, especially after you have seen the full version. But I guess one thing good about the condensed version is that it didn’t show as many embarrassing scenes of me humping the office cubicle divider as the full version. 😛

Alex then explained to me why the ad has not, to date, been aired. It seems like the executive did not obtain the international headquarter’s approval for the ad concept before going on with it and has kinda gotten into serious shite because of this. They have, however, paid everybody else involved in it, so its really up to them at the end of the day whether to air the ad or not.

From the tone of his voice, I felt that he, too, think that its kinda a waste that the ad never got aired. Although, truth be told, the condensed version may not have as big a impact as the full version, its still quite funny after all and I’m sure it will have some good measure of audience appeal.

This made me think back about the prayer I made after I finished the ad and made me ponder over the consequences of such a prayer. At first, I thought I’d be the only one affected by whether the ad aired or not. But now I realised that since its a collaborative effort, actually everyone who’s involved would get affected, not just me.

For instance, the production house and the ad agency would never get a chance to claim credit for the job (well) done if it never get aired. Same goes to the stylist, crew and even the client themselves. So as much as I would like to think that He answered my prayer for the ultimate good of me, I now hope that He answered it in the ultimate good of all those involved as well…

Alex then asked me how things are and I told him about my winter phase right now. He then went on with the usual tirade I’ve been hearing about having patience blah blah blah and thats when I decided to show him my showreel. He was very impressed with the Anita Yuen segment and was shocked that that didn’t turn out to be the breakthrough for me. He could only share his view about the “weirdness” of our industry and continue to encourage me to be patient.

Sigh, I’ve been very patient. Its been a patient five years already.

Interestingly enough, he didn’t feel that my re-arranging some poor dance hostess’s face role would have typecast me for bad guys role. In his own words, he said I looked too guai… Maybe, there’s hope for me yet. But who am I kidding? 😛

Due to the above reasons and copyright issues, I will not be uploading the ad.

However, its availabe for viewing via my phone. 😉