This vacation, I spent some time with my creative friend aku. He works for an advertising agency and I was introduced to the fascinating, and at times chaotic, world of advertising. From designing a new packaging to coming-up with a TV ad story board. The most fun experience however was seeing the steps involved in coming up with a radio ad. First, finding the right jingle. A massive hunt across a monstrous music collection for the right song. When the song is located, the copywriter comes up with a variety of scripts that rhymes with the music and conveys the message of the ad. Then, demo time! Everyone in the office joins in a fun exercise of recording a rough version of the ad to preview with the client (note to self: voice modeling is definitely not for me, not with my fabulous 'r's). Finally, the fun part, the actual recording. After a demo is selected we booked a time at a professional studio and I watched as every track was recorded separately and later mixed. It's amazing how much work is involved in those 30-second radio ads! I have a new found appreciation for them.
Visiting the construction site that another friend manages was alarmingly fun too. Seeing the plans and the amount of thinking that goes into each and every detail. Also the amount of tests conducted to ensure that everything is done according to specification is just mind-blowing. I also got to learn interesting facts, for example, the sewage grid works by gravity! This meant that they had to design the whole internal sewage network with a slight tilt so that the lowest point is actually where the compound's internal sewage grid joins the main grid. And speaking about sewage, did you know that manhole covers can fetch three thousand EGP's ($600) a piece?! How I know? Well, I almost fell through an uncovered manhole near the construction site!
I have interesting friends.
5 comments:
Ooooh Fesh.
Construction Site? How naughty of you... Construction men... sweaty, muscles, panting, picking things up - WAY TO GO WOOOHOOOOOOOOOO!
*Fesh gets into a construction worker uniform and whistles at Jade..
You've obviously never met Fesh. Picking up involves nothing heavier than a whiskey tumbler. I am similar, but because I'm such a lightweight I can't go further than a shot glass.
Ah yes, what we call a Munqy-shot. This is between a 5-year-old-girl shot and a 9-months-pregnant-woman shot. You have to be very careful while pouring that shot... takes a lot of practice.
Yes, it is not easy. I have started to use the empty shell of a peanut to measure out the amount of alcohol I can safel consume.
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