This great internship comes with all the doughnuts you can eat. Virtual ones, that is. Who can resist that? Want to know more? Are you a motion design geek? Looking for the chance to do great work, learn a ton and work with some amazing collaborators? We’ve got all that covered. Here are the deets:

Paid internship opportunity (no relocation compensation)
Full time required
Start/End Date: November 1st – March 1st
Potential employment following internship

What We Want
Well, that’s easy. We’re looking for amazing, artistically talented abstract thinkers at a junior level technical expertise. Oh and we should mention that 50% of our creative team started as interns. Opportunity knocking!

What You Need To Do
Be yourself. Express yourself. Do it within specific visual and time constraints.

How To Get The Job
What? You thought it would be easy? C’mon. You’ve got to work for it. How? That’s easy. Visually represent who you are at your core without conventional descriptions such as your name, gender, age, ethnicity, physical appearance or specific life experiences.

Animation length
Minimum – 20 sec. | Maximum – 45 sec.

Visual Needs
Fully animated infographic. Requires, but is not limited to, the use of iconography and typography, After Effects and/or 3D.

Submission Process
Go to T2′s Vimeo group “Will Work for Doughnuts” and upload your video by 11:59 pm on 10/22/10. We’ll send an email to your Vimeo inbox announcing the winners and provide you with a personal critique of your work. We’ll also announce the winners here.

What You Can Expect From Us
You’ll get to work on cool stuff. Oh yeah. You’ll be assigned real-world projects and work with the guidance of a senior level graphic artist mentor. You’ll gain conceptual, artistic and technical experience in a fast paced production environment. You’ll also be given an exit interview with the senior design team, where we will review your updated portfolio, assess your development and explore the options available for the next step in your career!

Want to know what we’re really looking for? Check out the quality and style we are looking for check out these videos.

TakePart: Participant Media – Waiting For ‘Superman’ – Infographic from Jr.canest on Vimeo.

CRAZY ENOUGH – Title Sequence from Jr.canest on Vimeo.

Build Kansas City from Standard Social on Vimeo.

The annual PromaxBDA conference is the largest entertainment marketing, promotion and design event in the world and attracts execs from top television networks, cable channels, media and creative agencies, design and emerging media and other industry leaders. PromaxBDA was held in late June in LA and it is, without question, an awesome conference. I went to the conference when it was held in Miami several years ago – and I wish I could have made it to this one. It’s always a gathering of some of the best strategists, marketers and true thought leaders in the creative fields.

This video features a snippet from a panel on inspiration, and what inspires leaders in the field. Moderated by Will Travis, Dentsu America, the panel included people like David Carson, David Carson Design; Timothy Fisher, CoFounder, Mk12; Mark Kudsi, Director, Motion Theory; Jakob Trollback, Trollback+Company; Garson Yu, President and Creative Director for yU+Co, along with several others.

I found their thoughts and challenges inspiring and thought you might, too. Under the jump, there’s a recap of some of their comments, in case you want to roll them around in your head like I did in mind.

Will Travis opens the clip talking about change and what scares him. He was challenged by having a big shop, one that helped change the way things were done in the industry – and what comes after that. “You can’t rely on your heritage, on who you were” he says. “It’s about who you are going to be – and how you are reforming that“ that matters now.

And then Trollback wonders, with the advent of the Internet and the fact that sources of inspiration now are so accessible, “are we better, because of that?” And he elaborates that it’s that process – the transformation of one piece of inspiration into another – that drives all of us.

“There is no control over quality anymore” when you put your creative work out there to the public, says Mark Kudsi from Motion Theory. “You lose the details that you put into something.” But then, sometimes, it’s so great to see what the public does when they see a message that you created, and it’s interesting to see how they modify it to suit their own message or their own needs.

David Carson talks about the fact that everybody is influenced by some thing or some body and says “the trick (as a designer) is to take what got you into this field and make it your own.” I like that. And he mentions the creative’s perpetual lament “the tighter the boundaries imposed by a client, the harder it is” to deliver something that will really work for them. Alas. If only clients really understood that.

Bottom line, PromaxBDA is on my list of conferences I should attend whenever I can. It would be great to see you there, too.

Not unlike most businesses, ours has undergone many changes over the course of the past several years. And our strategy has guided it at times and tried to keep up with those changes the rest of the time. This post was inspired by David Bowie a veritable master of change. Listen to the song while you read this post and you’ll see why I was inspired.

Take Two used to be known mostly in the Kansas City market for our post-production work. In order to keep up with a changing industry, we created Back Alley Films to do original film production and motion graphics design. We then created our Integrated Experience Lab to focus on emerging digital and multi-platform work: things like augmented reality, interactive design and experiential design. We’re now known as T2 + Back Alley Films and, while our client base still includes Kansas City based companies, it has expanded to include clients all over the world.

Change has been a great opportunity for us to reinvigorate our business, reinvigorate our staff and completely reexamine our business model. As a result, it has literally changed the way we do everything.

These days, from the very first moments of working with a new or prospective client, the people that we bring to the table is an eclectic group — and a strategically formed one. No longer do we rely on our new business development team — or our producers — to do all the work, instead, we bring the talent to the table. We combine the strategic and the creative thinkers – for a new age of strategic/creative thinking. That means our team, our creatives, our brand experts, our interactive and experiential design teams, our mobile technology team and our social media strategists are part of just about every project or idea, from its earliest inception.

The reality of our business – and any business, really – is that change IS the reality. And in this case, we’re finding that change is making us better at what what we do. It’s creative services — but it’s broader than what it used to be. I bet it’s happening everywhere. What about you? How are you changing the scope of the way you do business? Our generation will be defined by this. Let’s talk about it — and learn from each other.

The short version of the story is that Hukilau identified a problem that exists for many indie filmmakers. That problem is that they had a vision, created a film, took it to a studio, only to have the studio buy it. Sounds like good news, no? But, the rest of the story is that it is not uncommon for the studio to totally ruin a great film by changing the story line to include insipid love stories, uninspiring scenes and things that totally changed the whole original concept of the piece. Or they go the film festival route — fun, but usually not financially rewarding.

Hukilau offers services to filmmakers that essentially crowdsource the funding, staffing, distribution and even marketing services for filmmakers – for both new artists and established ones. As someone who has routinely been involved with not only the production of a film, but with the marketing and distribution as well, I know firsthand how awesome this kind of opportunity is for filmmakers.

For those of you unfamiliar with the term “crowdsource,” it’s a term coined in 2006 by Jeff Howe, as a job traditionally performed by some designated agent, usually an employee or contractor, and assigning it instead to a crowd or collective. It’s also been defined by Trendwatching as “customer made,” but in either sense, you get the drift. Essentially, it’s letting the people decide, not the suits. And, if like me, this is the kind of stuff that fascinates you, you can buy Howe’s book entitled: Why Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future of Business – it’s fascinating. That customer experience is also driving the work coming out of T2’s Experience Lab — and other experiential marketing firms cropping up around the country.

In sum, if you love film, filmmaking and all that goes with it, check out Hukilau – then check out Howe’s book – I suspect you’ll think they are both as interesting as I do. Then, come back and let me know what you think!

Anyhoo, that was the idea behind this post’s background.
I wanted to create something with a warm feel to it.
As always, your comments are appreciated.

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So, five years is a long time, right? The world changes from minute to minute–so FIVE years–a lot happens and changes in that time. Well, five years ago T2 in partnership with Inland Sea Productions and the Kansas City Area Development Council started work on the “The Next American Dream”–a documentary on the revitalization of downtowns all across the nation. Kansas City was a natural fit for the documentary for a number of reasons. First, and most obvious – we live here! Duh!! Why would we shoot a doc on another city’s revitalization? We don’t live there and couldn’t watch the progress. Additionally, some folks had told KC officials that we were doing the rebuild the right way…and apparently doing it ahead of schedule. So…. off we went. Camera in hand. Again…and again….and again….and again….for like–4 years. It was like Groundhog Day, only we knew that we would ALWAYS have six more weeks of shooting and interviews.

Then, before we knew it, years 4 and 5 were upon us. We were in post and knocking out really fantastic story. T2 editor, Cara Myers, is a champ. Plugging away day after day–digging through literally YEARS of footage and interviews. Writers Aimee Larrabee and Larry Garrett helped to keep Cara sane while she was in the editorial suite. I have to admit, I often wondered if they drugged her….oops, I digress. T2 graphics, headed up by Michael Ong, brought the color and elevated entertainment value with the motion graphics. I loved being in meetings with Michael discussing the graphic look for the doc. I finally understood that when an artist would show Michael an idea he had for the documentary graphics–the sometimes response from Michael being “Interesting.”—actually means: “Whoa Nelley, that is kinda ugly and why don’t you give it one more shot.” Michael knew the look and feel of this documentary from day one. He stayed true to his vision–and we are all grateful for that amazing vision!

Premiere time. We finished the doc and it was time for the premiere–Oct. 7, 2009 at the new Power and Light AMC theater. We were all excited…but nervous that all of the folks were going to be looking at our newborn baby for the first time. Would they think its cute? They did and it has been a success ever since. Yes, it has been shown in over 40% of the United States and 32% of the top 50 markets–yes, all that is true. Now for the mushy stuff– it being shown in all of the markets in the world won’t touch the immense pride, joy and pure satisfaction I have for being apart of this documentary. A true labor of love. For me, it truly was a dream come true. I am looking for the next doc for us to sink our T2 teeth into–but nothing will match the passion of our first– “The Next American Dream.”

– Michael Ong

Footnote: Lately, there has been much discussions about how to improve T2 and Back Alley Films’ ranking in search engine results. It seems like there’s a list of cardinal rules one should not break, if one wishes to enter the pearly gates of Google or Bing. And unlike the Ten Commandments which were engraved eternally onto a couple of stone tablets, the search engines algorithm changes constantly, making it even more difficult to be pious. Since T2 and Back Alley Films are in the production and post production business, we are a visual design and storytelling company. It only makes sense for us to go with a very visual rich and dynamic site, to showcase our commercial productions, motion graphics and experiential design works. And naturally chose to design our site in Flash.

Anyone who was geeky enough to watch the streaming keynote of Steve Jobs unveiling Apple’s much hyped iPad, probably heard the almost audible cyber-gasps when the “missing plugin icon” appeared on the NYTimes.com page — a sure sign of NO to Flash.

I dug a little deeper and found out that apparently Google and Apple engineers are both working on standardizing HTML5, which is supposedly the new and improved programming language that reduces the need for proprietary plugin-based rich internet applications. Of course, Adobe (the developer of Flash) is the biggest opponent to it. In this case, will Google’s little eight-legged freak, Googlebot, ever make an extra effort to be friendlier to Flash sites?

All the geek talk aside, T2 has a beautifully designed and dynamic site, which won us the very prestigious FWA Site-of-the -Day title (September 17, 2009), but our all-Flash site is not at all arachno-friendly. Does the importance of SEO force many sites to sacrifice the design and dynamic impact of the ones built in Flash? How do we balance between maintaining the dynamic visual impact, which is the core of our business, and achieving higher ranking?

My first job in production was to watch director reels so that I could familiarize myself with the work, and the talent behind the work.  I had a grading system that filled notebooks full of my green critique – Back then, we had the giant ¾ inch tapes that needed an entire room of their own just to be housed. The room had a metal chair, no windows and sat directly across the hall from one of the most notorious office smokers in our building. As dreary as that Barney Miller-backdrop-of-an office was, it also came to represent the room where I would find my escape from the day to day. A new world opened up to me behind those closed doors, one that gave me a glimpse into the creative talent that I knew I wanted to work with one day.

The grading system was based on points, 10 being the highest. I hadn’t been exposed to advertising long enough to know how important any kind of relevant brand message was in commercials, so my grades went something like this – If there was anyone in a bikini, it got a 10. If there was a Harley spot on the reel, that director got a 10. Anything with Bo Jackson got a 10. But then my grading evolved as I watched reel after reel…I came to appreciate good composition. I started to recognize good acting. I began to see simple concepts make a very lasting impression. My notebooks grew in size, as I wrote about everything I saw and the emotions each spot would evoke. Some directors faded while others started to rise. What became obvious were the directors that stayed relevant with new work. Sure, it was easy for some who had a super bowl spot on their reel to stay relevant and get new bud light work each month. But, what caught my attention were the directors that flew under the proverbial ad-rat radar. These directors stayed busy by passionately driving the work on seemingly unknown and irrelevant brands – and in doing so, they became relevant in my eyes. I associated with their desire to make the most out of every opportunity you’re given. Spoon wrote one of my favorite lyrics – “You got no fear of the underdog, and that’s why you will not survive”.

At Back Alley, we’re building a team of artists –  those artists are a combination of visionaries with disciplines in directing, photography, writing,  music, art, and just about any imaginable creative outlet that defines and shapes their ambitions. Our job is to guard that ambition and throw our net as wide as we can in 2010, providing them with every opportunity to channel those disciplines into creating relevant work that will build brands, grow relationships with customers and create friendships with like-minded creatives & clients.

In the coming weeks, I’ll be blogging with our artists to capture what’s on their mind and relevant to them. I hope it will be information that becomes relevant to you. It’s the dawn of a new decade – one that will be defined by the underdog, and who chooses to seize the opportunities that others fear are no longer there.

I heard today that 2010 is the Year of the Tiger in the Chinese Zodiac. I have no idea what that means, but I like the sound of it.

2009 had a dreary vibe to it, even if you were making money. Every one seemed to be waiting for the other shoe to drop and even the most ostensibly creative projects seemed somehow drained of energy. People walked around with dull looks in their eyes and no one ever said anything funny.

But this year will be different. Remember that scene in Apocalypse Now where the troop is walking through the jungle and that massive tiger comes out of nowhere? Every day is going to seem like that. Or most every day.

There will be a lot of negative surprises and there will be a lot of positive surprises, but there won’t be the boring, grey predictability that seemed to take hold for weeks on end in 2009.

The dull folks had their year. Now it’s time to let the fun people shake things up a bit.

Enjoy the tiger. I hope it doesn’t eat you.