Take 2 | T2 + Back Alley Blog - Part 2

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Year of the Tiger

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.

Stories Beneath the Surface

So, who likes documentaries?

A show of hands…..  :)

Well, I do. In fact, I love them. I love the organic nature–the actual HUMAN aspect. It always amazes me what a camera can capture when somebody is not scripted. I mean, that is real. Real life. THAT interests me.

Maybe its because I am a former newsie. Yes, in a past life I was a TV reporter. ( I had the hair–the blond bob. You know what I am talking about.) I was out finding the stories that would *hopefully* lead the 6 pm and 10 pm news. My beat was crime. Sounds glossy and glamorous, right? WRONG. I worked on so many shootings, rapes, burglaries….blah. I found myself de-sensitized to humanity. Fast forward to today (and minus the bob). It seems that my news background is feeding/fueling my curiosity and passion for real life stories.

One of the last docs I saw was on Roman Polanski. “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired” was an HBO Films piece. I must say HBO Films ROCK!! They have such intriguing docs. Fantastic!!!

One of my faves was on Ted Haggard–“The Trials of Ted Haggard”. Remember that guy? Let me refresh—God fearing minister who admitted to “sexual immortality” and some drugs. Banished from his church, etc.

The filmmaker was Alexandra Pelosi. I love her. So does THAT name ring a bell? Yes, her momma is Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House. Great genes must run rampant in that family!!! Baby Pelosi did a great job. Her doc just draws you in.

Enough of my ramblings. I want to know what YOU have seen lately!!

Later!

Nicole

“Brevity is the soul of wit”

“Brevity is the Soul of Wit”

There’s too much info
for one to read in a day
Hence the haiku blog

— Michael Ong

Footnote: It all started as a tongue-in-cheek idea during a discussion on the appropriate length for a blog entry. Between daily emails, MMS and Facebook posts, do people really have time to read through all the things they need to read in a day, and still have extra time to read the things that they enjoy reading? I often find myself skimming over emails longer than two swipes on my iPhone. I also judge the effectiveness of billboards by the highway based on if I could finish reading the headlines while I’m driving at 65 mph. If Steve Jobs is right about the fact that “People don’t read anymore.”, then what are you doing right now, you might ask.

Being a visual person and a minimalist, I like the challenge of distilling concepts from any visual clutter to their cores. A picture is worth a thousand words. But if one has to use words; less is more.

My subsequent entries will be Haikus and I welcome comments written in the same format.

Well… Hello

In what seems to be our collective and ceaseless quest to be “relevant,” we’re getting serious about our blog – this time.   The other one died a slow and somewhat “irrelevant” death when it was taken over by some rogue colleagues.  But that coup ended peacefully — or so they say.

Fortunately, in the re-birth, I’m just one of the writers. I’m hoping it won’t kill me — or, even worse, bore you. So, get ready, the T2 blog is about to get active and, hopefully, “relevant”  – at the end of what Andy Serwer of Time Magazine dubs “The Decade From Hell.” Staggering really.  No wonder we are all reeling from the psychic pain.  Will America ever be the same?  Will we?

I can tell you with complete authenticity — and some cautious excitement —  that T2, coming out of this decade, will never be the same. And I suspect we’re not the only ones.  Like most companies, we’ve used this past year and a half to reevaluate and reinvent who we are — and it’s been both scary and exhilarating.

When we started the process, we knew we were in a space that was expanding with nimble competitors on a daily basis.  T2 (Take 2) had been around a long time — and Back Alley Films was in its infancy. The Advertising business was changing at an unthinkable pace — and there wasn’t a corporation or client anywhere in sight that felt confident doing “business as usual.”

So, we really had no choice except to rebuild the “enterprise” — and, truth be told, that’s what we love doing.  So that’s what we did. And now, T2 isn’t just a post house and motion design company doing commercials and some corporate work.  These days, we’re also creating amazing content through animation and design for multiple interactive and experiential platforms.  T2 has also created and launched our brand new Experience Lab, headed up by one of our new kids on the block, Garrett Fuselier – so watch for his blogs about it.   And Back Alley Films — well they’ve grown into a curious toddler —  with a new roster of multi-talented artists/directors who create content for way more than just commercials.  In a nutshell, our business has gotten fun again — and that’s what’s better about it, for sure.

So, we’re moving into the next decade, appropriately dubbed “the teens,” with youthful optimism. We have added some amazingly talented and creative up-and-comers to the T2/Back Alley Films team, and they are complemented and tempered by the reality that comes from the experience and talent for which T2 has been known for many years. As a result, we are both wise and wide-eyed. Hopefully, that means we are looking at the world on behalf of our partners and our clients in ways that are not only more meaningful, but also more effective. And hopefully that also means more “relevant.”