brettsing

How to make your commercial suck.

These rules are definitely NOT stuck to Mid-MO. 90% of the local commercials here suck JUST as much, they’re just usually shot using more expensive cameras.

Important Rules for Local Commercials:

10. MAKE YOUR LOGO REALLY BIG. You paid your sister’s boyfriend $50 for that snappy JPEG logo, make sure you really make your brand stand out by making sure everyone can see it!

9. DO NOT HIRE A POST-PRODUCTION TEAM. The professionals are fancy people with fancy computers, running fancy software. What does all that mean for you = $. You can do this yourself, or better yet you can have your cousin’s step-brother do it for you for free. He owes you one anyway, from that time you bailed him out of jail and didn’t tell your cousin’s parents.

8. DO NOT CREATE STORYBOARDS OR A SHOT LIST. You’ll figure it out as you go, and then your commercial will feel more “real.” Anything that is mistakenly missing or accidentally included, can be easily and realistically added or removed in post-production.

7. DO NOT HIRE ACTORS, you don’t know them, they have to be taught about your company, and will want to be paid. You can use your own staff, or even better, the head of the company. He REALLY knows what you’re all about. For extras, use friends, family members, and especially your children… they’ll be excited because they get to be on TV. If filming in your business, and it is a store, make sure to fill it up with people so it looks really busy.

6. POINT & USE VISUAL AIDS WHENEVER POSSIBLE remember that you really need to make people understand who you are and what you are trying to say. Do you think they just listen to their TVs because they are watching them? No. You need to point at or show some sort of example for every single thing you talk about. Hint 1: A great way to achieve this is to have words appear on the screen and then point at them.

5. DO NOT RENT A LOCATION. Do it outside of your business. This will save money AND give you a chance to showcase the building logos, and signs you’ve paid so much money for.

4. TALK AS QUICKLY AS YOU CAN. Ad space is expensive and you have to fit a lot in your commercial. It is not important to showcase one thing you do really well. Rather you should try to say as many things, or sell as many products and services as you can. Remember: this is your chance to come into peoples homes and tell them what you’re about.

3. DO NOT RENT A CAMERA, MICS, OR HIRE A FILM CREW. Tapes from a HandyCam can just as easily be imported into a computer as the fancy ones the professionals use, and anyone with eyes can take a picture. Making a video is just taking a bunch of pictures over and over. You’re making a commercial here, not producing a cinematic masterpiece.

2. DO NOT HIRE SOUND PEOPLE. Local commercials should sound fuzzy and be barely audible. It is part of their charm. That buzzing sound when people get really loud is normal, and even a plus for you as it will make people pay attention to their TVs.

1. ABOVE ALL, SPEND AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE. Remember, the number one goal of a commercial is to get your name out into the world as quickly as possible. Don’t worry, it doesn’t represent your brand or have the ability to change the perception of your companies image in any way.

Thank you,
Brett Patrick Casey :o)

2 in a 7 day . Not bad considering my recent record.

The last post I had was kind of hurried. Plus it was whiny. Perhaps I can drag this one out a little longer and explain things a little bit better, without being irritating.

We’ll start over.

I moved to Columbia. At this point I’m not sure if I’m going to be staying here or not because I drive to Jefferson City several times a week to hang out with people. I know you’re thinking “But why? Loads of your Columbia friends must be lining up at your door for the chance to hang out with you now that you live near them!!!” It turns out that they are busy. The time-tested, kid approved ”washing of the hair” will suffice as a general explanatory excuse regarding their prior engagements.  Naturally, I’m a little bit surprised as I’d always planned to hang out with people, and part of the reason I moved up here was because I figured I’d be less lonely.

Not so.

I am alone almost all of the time when up here. At work I am surrounded by people but my job involves very little in the way of teamwork and much more in the way of sitting by myself and doing research to answer e-mails from schools and on occasion, from students. At home, I sit in my room alone – usually online in a desperate attempt to find someone to hang out with – until I can no longer stand it at which point (for the first couple of weeks) I go to one of the bars. The bars of course offer only a lonely session of sitting on a stool and since I’m not really drinking all that much lately, very little else.

So now you’re thinking: “But Brett, what about your new roommate… why don’t you hang out with him?” Well, my roommate is nice but I think our personalities don’t really click. Actually, they don’t click in most ways. He’s coridal and friendly and all, we don’t so much butt heads, we’re just not the buddy-buddy type. We couldn’t have all kinds of inside jokes like Tim and I, we couldn’t be snooty about certain things together like Ryan and I, we couldn’t obsess over health food and stuff like my mom and I. You get the idea. We’ve just not got much in common.

Having exhausted all of my searchable outlets for someone to hang out with up here in Columbia, I go to Jefferson City. In Jefferson City I have family… they hang out with me no matter what because they love me… I also have several friends who actually don’t mind spending their time with me. Tim and Debra and Shawna are there, and (the last couple of evenings) we’ve all been hanging out together.  

I guess when living in Jefferson City it was easy to fall into a rut by just hanging out with my family, and coming up to bar a lot. Without really wanting to go to bar, which I had been less and less even before I moved, I was just spending a lot of time with my family. Moving to Columbia has made me want to reconnect with my friends more than ever. Especially some of the ones I no longer see, like Kody and Ryan and Lexy… however they fell out of the “hang out with frequently” list because they, like my friends up here, have other people that they like to spend time with… perhaps a signifant other or friends that they have standing plans with, et cetera. Debra and Shawna don’t seem to mind Tim (and now me) being there all that much. Tim likes to hang out with all of us.

In Chicago I often felt alone, but it was different. There were possibilities, there was always someone new to meet, and there was always a ton of people to hang out with. If someone was busy, I could call someone else. Plus, were a million people everywhere and I could still be alone, even in the middle of them, if that was the need that wasn’t being met at that time.  

So, now you’re thinking “Well, why don’t you just move back here already?! It seems that you’ve learned something new about yourself from this, and perhaps you should just go back and be with the people who want to be with you.”

Well, to you I would say that I want to. Actually I want that very badly right now. However, and I’ll bet you saw this coming, its not quite that simple. First of all, my job is up here. I don’t mind driving back and forth all that much, but it does take up a larger chunk of your day than you would think. With traffic and in/out of the city its less like 25-30 and more like 40-45 minutes each way. Blocked off, that’s almost two hours of time. Of course, if I’m driving back to Jefferson City for people to hang out with anyway… I suppose I’m not saving that much time or gas. However, I’m not driving during rush periods so traffic isn’t quite so bad at the times I’m traveling.

I also have a job interview up here with one of the newspapers for a graphic design position. ["What, why didn't you tell me? That's so exciting for you! Ohmigod I hope you get it!"] Thank you, I’m keeping my fingers crossed. I’m working hard to make sure I’m all brushed up on everthing that they need… and everything else. <blockquote>Sidebar: I’m told that for a part of my interview (which btw is with two people… and I think they’ve been looking for quite some time… this is the second time I’ve submitted my resume to them for this position) I will have to design a graphic layout and/or advertisement using color correction and clipping paths in photoshop and using Quark for layout. </blockquote> So of course I’m curious as to if I’ll get that job, and to how much money I’ll be making… if I could afford my own place… etc. .

Right now everything is all about unknowns, and naturally that makes me really uncomfortable. Will I get this job? Do I want a place in Columbia? If I had one, maybe Tim could come up here and live with me once he got a car. Does Tim want to come up here? Why do I need to be around people so often; why am I not okay with being alone?  Should I try to move to Saint Louis? Should I move in with my friend who offered to let me live with him but he already has a roommate I’m not sure if I like; wouldn’t that put me in the same situation I’m in now? Will I ever get out of Mid-Missouri? Will this thing where I have to be around people prevent me from doing this in life? It seems to prevent me from getting design work done that I should be doing… and that’s something I love. I just like to be sitting in a room with other people when I do it. Is that stupid? Should I go to college when I’m 24 and can get loans on my own, or will I have a job that I should stick with for a while for experience? Could I do both? Should I try to grow my business and do that instead? How come everyone else can get the cracks to work on their iPhones but mine just locks up? Shouldn’t it be easier on mac? I want a prettier dock on my screen! Will I have enough money to visit Christy in spain? So you see, it goes on and on… and I just don’t know.

A while back, I stated that I believe a large part of growing older is being able to realize that I don’t have all of the answers. I’m unsure. I don’t know.

All I know is this: I want to be happy. How do I get there? What does it look like? How will I make the right decisions to lead me to that goal?

I won’t: I’m going to screw it up.

What I will do, however, is admit when I’m wrong, and learn from my mistakes. Because if I don’t make them, how else will I know they were mistakes? Preparedness and (attempted) objective thinking can only take you so far. Things either feel right, or they don’t and usually I can’t know which until I’m doing them.

What I will not do is let being afraid of making the wrong choice keep me from trying things and therefore shaping me as a person Then I don’t grow, and I go nowhere. I’m all about growth and going places (cool and fun places that is.)

Well guys and gals, I suppose that’s all for now.
Brett Patrick Casey :o)

Hey! Hey old man, its time for you to shut up!

So, I’m unemployed. I may have mentioned that before, not sure. But yeah its true, and I have to say that I’ve never found myself surprised to be unemployed twice in one year before, much less so close together.

I’m not sure if my place of employment is staying open or not, but I guess the guy who was sort of managing it with me and myself won’t be running it anymore if it is. In short, because of many, many, many, delinquent bills, and unpaid taxes, as well as several other things, we had to close the store. Leaving me sort of with a job… I guess… but quite without a paycheck which equals quite without a job. I’m not ab out to let the government drag me off to anywhere or try to fine my broke ass because I left a store open that they said wasn’t allowed to be. I feel really bad for all of the mailbox customers though. I know someone who may be looking into opening up a new franchise of the store here in Jefferson City, hopefully that’ll go better. Who knows, maybe I can work there? The work and the job weren’t bad, just the slow descent into a total lack of services and I suppose eventually, utilities as well.

Yeah, so it was a crazy-ass and very broke weekend. I’m so broke now that I’m unemployed, which is good in a way because it forced me to do things without spending a lot of money… I still spent some money, it just belonged to my parents. I guess they’ve started to get checks from one or two of my Grandpa’s life insurance policies that was left directly to his kids instead of my Grandmother like the rest of them. Thank God for my parents looking after me until I can find a new job.

Thursday Byron and I went to see Pump Boys and Dinettes, because he had some tickets that he somehow received through work. The show was quite fun, and I’d only heard a couple of the songs before on XM Radio. The play was quite fun, and the music was well performed.

Friday, Tim and I went to A&C and I performed ‘Family’ from Dreamgirls because it seemed semi-appropriate (and I’m disappointed to report that it was a mediocre performance at best) for the Rain of Missouri fund raiser. They raised quite a bit of money anyhow, I believe over $1700 that evening alone.

“Family” from Dreamgirls

What about what I need?
Curtis says its the best thing for the group.
What about whats best for me?
He feels the Dreams can crossover.
What about how I feel?
But when we’re famous I’ll write great things for ya, Effie do it for me.
What about me? What about me?

It’s more than you, it is more than me
No matter what we are, we are a family
This dream is for all of us, this one can be real,
and you cant stop us now because of how you feel..
It’s more than you, It is more than me
Whatever dreams we have, there for the family,
we’re not alone anymore now there are others there,
and that dreams big enough for all of us to share,
so dont think that your going,
your not going anywhere, your staying and taking your share, and if
you get afraid again, I’ll be there..,
We are a family like a giant tree branching out towards the sky, we are a family we
are so much more than just you and I we are a family like a giant tree,
growing stronger, growing wiser, we are growing free..we need you..we are a family..

That evening, a friend won tickets to a Cardinals game that was to take place on the following day. I begged (just a little) to go, and stayed with another (new) friend who was set to go to the game with us the next day as well– actually, someone from the play the previous evening. I did end up driving back to Jefferson City early Saturday morning so I could shower and change (I guess while slightly intoxicated, I hadn’t planned through the whole going to a Cardinals game in bar clothes thing.) The drive, and even certain parts of the game, were pretty fun though we did lose 13-0. After, we went to Freddie’s for a spell, and then returned to Columbia.

Saturday night, since already in Columbia, I met up with Byron and we went to SoCo. I have to say that Atheena Voce’s Babes In Boyland show just keeps getting better and better. Each time I go I enjoy myself more that the last. Though there were only four performers, they each did quite a few songs and all made fantastic song choices. Dancing with DJ Muffie is always fun, but even more so this week because he put out a song request list. You know the gay people requested some gay ass music too. I danced (completetly sober, mind you) almost the entire evening. I think I only sat out one or maybe two songs. Thanks to Atheena and to SoCo for a fantastic evening. I promise to update your website this week. :o)

Sunday, I painted all day until around 7pm. I was going to quit then, meet up with my new friend from the play (Kent) and Byron and watch Dreamgirls in high definition. Because I stupidly (and I didn’t find this out until I went to take a shower) stuck my head in the wet paint on the ceiling when I was working on the walls, I got a ton of paint in my hair which took forever to wash out. I think there is probably still some there too.

I finished painting the living room this morning, and in doing so messed up the satellite tv. I think I’ve just figured out how to fix it though. (I looked at mine… I’d hooked some wires up incorrectly. Apparently there are specific inputs for different kinds of things, though they all look the same.) Anyway, my living room is all brownish gray now.

As for the rest of today its going to be all about designing posters, updating websites, and fixing satellite tv connections.

I’ll see you kids later,
Brett Patrick Casey :o)

Cats fit on the window-sill, children fit in the snow…

Music: “A Big Black Lady Stops the Show” from Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me

Jefferson City is driving me Crazy.

My friend Michelle, who is a lawyer (which I only mention to indicate how impressive this makes me… to have befriended a lawyer) and I spend a lot of time at O’Donoghue’s which is a local restaurant (that’s actually pretty upscale for it being local) chatting with each other, the bartender, and the other regular customers. Last Friday night, it was sort of busy. Michelle was doing a logic puzzle and I was reading design magazines. Now, I was sort of pissy anyway because I wasn’t feeling any bit inspired or getting any ideas for this project I was working on (which could be attributed to the less than 8 hours of sleep I’d received all week to that point… but whatever) So this guy comes in, and he and his girlfriend go to sit down. She sits down at a barstool two over from where I am. He stands next to her and talks for a considerable amount of time. After about five minutes, I pull my head out of my self-doubt and design magazine worship long enough to realize that he’s waiting for me to move my foot so that he can sit down at the stool next to me. (My foot is a little bit over in that stool’s personal space… not much, but a little.) I realize this and go to move it, but my brain intercepts the signal on its way to my foot with another message: “What the hell is this guy’s problem, that he has to stand there for eight minutes instead of politely saying ‘excuse me’ and sitting down?”

So I leave my foot and continue looking through my magazine.

I decide that if he’d like to sit down, and for me not to be in the space that he can at least have the human decency to say “excuse me” or gesture, or acknowledge my existence, or SOMETHING! I’ve been told I don’t look like a very nice person and that I’m not very approchable… but come on.

Out of the corner of my eye, I notice the intensity of his antsyness increase and his mouth start to curl up a little bit out of annoyance. I couldn’t see it, but even imagining his angrily furrowed brow, I lost it.

I turned to Michelle and very matter of factly stated that I had to go to Target, and it needed to be right-now-at-this-very-moment. Michelle being who she is had absolutely no questions about this at all and so we paid our bill and as I got up to leave… of course having to move my foot… the man finally sat down.

On the way from the parking lot of Target (which was oddly busy for our Target) to the door a monsoon hit, and by the time I escaped into Target I looked every bit the disheartened soggy victim of it. The typhoon, and the thinking time I had during the car trip on the way over had only served to intensify my contempt for the man who had dared treat me with such disdain, as well as the anger I was feeling toward myself for not smacking the shit out of him for being such an asshole.

Michelle took one look at me as I walked through the interior set of air-lock doors and of course read all of this in my expression and suggested we get coffee. We stood in the short line, and the very friendly Starbucks-in-Target barista makes our order. Michelle gets hers and instantly appears more relaxed. I get mine and take a sip as we leave the counter. Its cold.

Not icy cold… like perhaps she’d thought I’d ordered it that way… but worse. It was a very curious kind of a “my coffee has been sitting around all morning and I drank some when I came back from lunch” room temperature sort of cold.

I am incredibly displeased but decide not to go back and ask for her to heat it up in large part because she was the first person in the public I’d had to interact with since the evil-snubby barstool man. And though she messed my coffee up, at least she was pleasant and I felt she didn’t deserve to die. At that moment I was sure I couldn’t collect the kind, good-naturedness required to complain about something in a non-hateful way. So I went on with my cold coffee.

Michelle was checking out the dollar aisle as I was ignoring it altogether, I had a moment to lose myself in thought. I decided that by not returning my coffee, I was being the evil snubby-bar man. At that moment, a fate far worse than death or any other kind of existence. Therefore, the kind good-naturedness must be garnered for the sake of all pissed-off wanna-be designer-homos who’d been treated like shit that day everywhere. Nay, for all humankind!

I went back and waited quietly coffee in hand, with a pleasant look on my face through what now was a signifigantly lengthier queue.

While waiting I searched the counter for interesting products or foodstuffs and chortled at the cup-sleeve proudly displaying “Please be careful, the beverage you are about to enjoy is extremely hot.”

When again greeted by the barista I smiled politely and said: “I don’t want to be bitchy or whiny or anything, but this is kind of cold… could you maybe heat it up for me?” She apologized with all the pleasantness she’d exhibited before and instantly began working on a fresh cup.

After a few minutes when I was once again presented with a white chocolate mocha, it was hot… REALLY hot. I thanked her again, she apologized again, and I returned to the store to find Michelle.

Fifteen minutes, 12 aisles, and four really great clearance-shelf finds later, as I was enjoying the last few sips of my flavored coffee confection I couldn’t help but be a little impressed at how hot they still were. I swallowed them and thought how nice it was for me that my interaction with evil-snubby barstool man had led to personal triumph over my own social-deficiencies in the capitalist environment and how this allowed me to enjoy my coffee in a way that someone who wouldn’t speak up for themselves for whatever reason, like him, never could.

————————–

So, I should be asleep…. (A lot of journal entries through the years have started with that line)

Anyway.

I know I should be writing more, even though there isn’t shit going on. Michelle and I hang out pretty much every day, but we may have to cut that back a bit just so she can get some work done.

I’m still going out a lot, but gradually…. VERY gradually… its becoming less. At least I seem to be enjoying the frequent bar visits less than I used to. Its getting to be more fun like once a week. I know that seems ridiculous for a lot of you… but you have to remember I was a five times a week guy for quite some time. Yeah, I know that’s what’s really ridiculous.

Gay people in general… especially in large groups… are getting on my nerves lately.

It sucks that Ryan won’t return any of my calls or anything, I’m not sure what’s up there. I know he’s been really busy, but seriously… its not that hard to answer the phone once in a while… or to return a call on the way to the grocery store… or… whatever… I guess I’m just bitter. I don’t like being ignored.

I miss Josh, and Christy a lot.

Christy is getting married in June… (as is Debra) Josh is moving into a new place soon, so that’s exciting for him.

Work is strange, I like it, and the time seems to pass relatively quickly, its just strange with a lot of the stuff that is going on.

I’ve been working quite a bit on crap for a portfolio. Probably not enough though. I guess it’ll just come together as it comes together, but I’m trying to speed it up a little. Though sometimes forcing the creativity works, and sometimes it really crashes and burns. Currently, I’m working on a project for a business of a friend. That’s been exciting so far because having someone else’s ideas gave me a springboard for what I do and thus far has produced a pretty solid and attractive concept relatively quickly.

I think I’m becoming a better singer. I still enjoy that so much… maybe I should try to be in a play, or go to college for a while for it or something… maybe I can get a scholarship and it’d give me something to do for a while here… other than going to a bar or working that is.

I have no money, and I want to pay off this damned $3000 in credit card debt so that I can move the hell back up and out of Jefferson City.

Brett Patrick Casey :o)

Emotinally Wrenching

So, Debra’s Musical Education, after this weekend, is now up a few more shows. “How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying”, Jason Robert Brown’s “The Last Five Years”, and Jonathan Larson’s “Rent”, as well as pieces of “Urinetown”, “Songs for a New World”, “Hairspray”, and “Tick Tick Boom…”

Oh to have another person who loves to devour the musicals. And musicals I have to devour! I’m a veritable Musical Buffet…no… smorgasboard… no… those all sound too fat… oh well, I have lots!

This three-day-weekend, though cut short by an evening shift turned evening&overnight shift, and a shift I picked up on Monday is technically only a 1 day weekend. However, I’ve enjoyed it nonetheless… and I really needed it. I only wish I still had tomorrow off too, but I’ve volunteered to work from 9am-2pm, which is good… I’d say I need the money, but with next weekend being my working weekend and all–and my going to Wisconsin, all it really means is that I’ll get to take five hours less vacation… which I suppose is good.

James is coming over and we’re going to watch a movie… I’m pretty sleepy but I’m gonna try to stay awake to visit for as long as I can manage.

Ta-ta for now!
Brett Patrick Casey :o)

Countdown.

As my family has slowly begun to replace our appliances for the second time since we’ve lived in this house, I’ve noticed this: New appliances always have a countdown timer that tells you how long whatever they are doing is going to take.

Washing machine: you set the dial, and when its come back to the top, your load is done, right? Wrong. New washing machine sort of resembles something from outer space, and while it gets whites whiter than I’ve ever seen a washer get them, especially without bleach. It is pretty though, and I have to admit that I could probably spend hours watching it throw little splashes of water over the clothes, turning five times, stopping, switching directions, and repeating. It uses almost no soap, and I’m not sure the clothes even really get all that wet. Of course, it has the obligatory new-appliance countdown timer…. smack dab in the middle.

Dishwasher: Most certainly not an appliance with a digital display timer telling you how long it is until you’ve got clean, dry, dishes, right? Think again. Dishwasher also has a display…. and no knobs anymore, only buttons… there’s a button you can push to only wash the top rack… a button to only wash the bottom rack… and a button for just about anything else you could think of.

I sure am glad that they invented all these appliances to do chores for me so that I can sit around and watch TV instead of scrubbing things.

Brett Patrick Casey :o)