By Joe Fraser

 

Cracked (the brief not the website…or eggs)

“Yeah, looks like you’ve cracked it.”

“Sorry, what?”

“Just keep playing with the idea and pushing it and you’ve answered the brief. Entirely.”

“Cracked – ”

“Just need to execute it in a proper way and you’re off.”

“Yeah? But – but – ”

“Right, well, if you don’t need me anymore I’m going to be off sorting out other people.”

“Okay – wait – I – ”

And he’s gone. Off to hear a billion more ideas and leaving me, on my own, to sort out this mess I’ve got myself in. How did this happen? This is shocking. I’ve managed to crack a brief. What does that mean? Do I just submit this? Thanks for your help ‘Mike’. Now I’m even more confused.

“Hi D&AD, it’s ya boy, Joe. Just cracked the brief – send me the next one please.”

But I probably shouldn’t submit that because they’d ignore it and go onto the next thousand ideas they have waiting in their submission cache on their website.

Okay, okay, that’s fine. I have to come to accept that I’ve done something right and just need to run with it. But – where do I go exactly? Which technique do I use? And how do I properly execute it? Shit, this is, like, everything we’ve trained for. I’m going through my notes.

“Six hat. 4 R’s. Scamping. Where’s the complete in a day masterclass?”

I’m well aware that that last one wasn’t real. I just wish it was. These executions don’t come easy. I’ve heard that chat a lot around the studio recently.

“Yeah we’ve got our big idea but now we’re just struggling to execute it.”

I didn’t say that. Someone else did. I should really write these with ‘he said’ or ‘she said’ (if we’re keeping cis) after every bit of dialogue.

But I digress.

This is a big deal. Now I need to write the script and create posters and a case study video and find voice actors and wow this is a lot of work. How did it come to this? If I was in a pair it might be easier. But no. I had to be stubborn and say to myself: “Yeah I can do this. I can work alone on a D&AD brief. No problem.”

I’m not going to say that was a stupid thing to do, because I wanted to try and experiment with myself and my abilities that I could execute this alone. Am I just doing it to copy Gnomes? She was definitely inspiring but I don’t think I can compare myself to her when she was working solo. However, I understand her thought process of just proving it to herself and others of what one can be capable of.

But wow, to quote the seminal Coldplay song The Scientist:

“Nobody said it was easy

It’s such a shame for us to part

Nobody said it was easy

No one ever said it would be this hard

Oh take me back to the start.”

I’m not sure what I’ve parted with, perhaps the possibility of ever having a partner to work on the Giffgaff brief with. Or perhaps that now I’ve doomed myself to living as a single. I really hope not. Or maybe it’s taunting me, saying:

“Go on, Joe, part with your idea. You can never execute it. Sure you’ve got a nice idea but let’s be real. You were never going to make it Black Pencil worthy.”

Well, FUCK YOU Chris Martin. I am going to nail this brief. I’ve already written a script for this one and the Adnams one I’m working on with Leli as well. Because I’m a fucking boss and I’ve got this competition by the nutsack.

Wow.

It’s amazing.

Just listening to Coldplay makes you feel such anger and determination to do the exact opposite of everything they stand for. Should we be thanking them?

No. Their music sucks.

I’m going to keep writing and writing. Like Marc says, it’s all about the craft and iterating and iterating until you’ve made every single damn word count. And that’s what wins the pencils and that’s what wins you a job.

Bring on this coming week.

This competition’s ass is grass, and I’m gonna mow it.

 

 

 

The copy scores 87.7 in the Flesch Reading Ease test