Petronas. the famous national oil company of malaysia. its been years that when they make a tv ad, they usually relate to simplest theme that invoke your emotions. The last ad that watched was the burung murai ad. This year..its the color blind ad for the national day.

I wish i know who made it but i assume they're the ones that they have engaged before for the previous ads. oh! wait!! its yasmin ahmad!! i think she was the director for 'muallaf' which was banned i think in Malaysia and I think she is the one that is behind the family ad in Singapore as well.

Bravo!! bellissima!! Yasmin Ahmad.

More on the color blind ad is here and here and one of her work is here. I love the ad.

Coming back to the human factor. We are all so engross in technology and life now, we tend to forget what matters.

And oh! btw, MMQ's upcoming project will be on soon. The thinking started more than 5 years ago which more than what Yasmin has done/did. So its gonna be a Bruneian Original. Watch this space.

The youTube sensation, Susan Boyle wowed the cynical world at British Got Talent 2009.

I wanna watch her sing

Certainly made my day haha. Nice melodies by the way.

draft one..not complete.

If you were to be on a Royal Brunei Airlines, most probably you will see the SkyShow hmm..show when the plane is about to land.

The voice over was done by Abbe Holmes and you can listen to her here.

Nicely done Abbe..

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I think the advertisement industry in Brunei needs an update. Usually its just straight forward B rolls and names of agency/product/brand/model face 'plastered' through out the video.

I think its time that we realize, in Brunei at least, that we can mix the ad with other elements, be it humorous, suspense or even cinematic rather than the normal "usual" ad template.

Remember the 10 secs rule? why not we make it 5 secs since the airtime is pricey.

I saw a family advert which I thought was about medicine or insurance or something like that. It was in fact a community service ad coming from the FocusOnTheFamily Agency.

The ad begins with a sombre note of death of a family member. Wife of the deceased talked about farts and snoring sounds rather than the usual good/bad memories of the deceased. There were no music at first. As soon as she finishes her speech and started talking about family, then a slow string of melodies (violins) fade in.

It was a good ad. I know that most people will see it as a simple ad. But for me, that what makes a great ad GREAT. A good ad need not be of explosions, slapstick comedies, huge set and grand special FX. What matter was the message. Of course different product needs different treatment. Its the human factor and simplicity of it all that counts. However in my mind, sometimes an ad is so simple, how come the client needs to pay vast amount of money to have it made?. They can come see me!!

Well, maybe thats what separates a good ad agency and a good ad agency. Many factors come into play.

As for me, I still like the LEARN English ad. Where an innocent looking family listen to a vulgar English song and enjoyed it. They dont understand the English lyrics. Google for ; banned commercial. You know what i mean.

Just my rant for today.

Adam

Somebody asked me about how should he rate by editing 20 plus minute worth of video. In Brunei, I usually look at what RTB rates are and calculate for that. With a pinch of salt, I told him that by industry standard for broadcast & tv work, you should be paid about >$100 per hour of time worked if you are using your own facility.

By corporate video standards, you are probably paid about >$60 per hour of time worked if you're using your own facility.

By current wedding video standards, probably $20 per hour of time work?

By home video or amateur video standards, you're probably not paid anything for your hard work.

Quote based on how much do you think your time is worth and how long do you plan to return the investment of your software and equipment...in these economic times, clients will always go for the lowest, and there's always a next lowest bidder dying for that job.