Thanks, SM (That's what I call Social Media)

For my TV Documentary class I took this past semester, we were given three months-ish to find, film, and edit a 5 to 10 minute documentary. Making any sort of documentary is quite a large task to begin with, but with the time frame given to us, it seemed more than reasonable to do.

Enter procrastination. Two and three quarter months later, there was no documentary.

The Sunday before the Thursday it's due arrives, and I wake up feeling quite helpless. The following is how I completed my documentary:

1) Boot up my computer, log onto Facebook.

2) Check the events page, and find this:

(Local? Experimental? Juxtaposition? Cool.)

5) A show was happening that night at the Lo Pub, with a local act, Spirit Children, opening.

6) Documentary subject chosen.

7) Facebook creep the band members and send them a message that can be paraphrased as:
"Hey, I know this is weird, but can I film you for school?"

8) Within fifteen minutes, I received this message:

(Awesome.)

9) I roll over to their jam space to film their rehearsal, pack up, set up and show at the Lo Pub.

10) Monday, I edit the entire documentary in five-ish hours, hand it in and never think about it again.

Without the immediacy and efficiency of Facebook, I wouldn't have ever found out about the gig, nor got in contact with the band so quickly. Most of the time, Facebook uses its power to embarrass and humiliate, but sometimes, it uses its power for good.

Though it seems like I threw in the towel for this assignment, I was actually quite proud of the outcome. I've definitely spent a lot more time on assignments that were worth less, but the amount of effort I put in was just the same. I believe I had good content, and a story with a concise beginning, middle and end. I feel that I represented the band and band members genuinely and showed the process of a up-and-coming local band playing a live show.

But, that's just me. See for yourself and let me know what you think.

Spirit Children from Mike C on Vimeo.

I'm kind of legitimate.

In my third semester of Creative Communications, each advertising major was assigned to create a promotional campaign for the spunky, charismatic, wild-haired Kitty, owner of Berns & Black Salon on Main Street.


My peers came up with some great creative and strategies for the salon, all of which I'd love to share with you, but if I did, this post would simply be just too long.

After sharing our ideas with the class, our instructor ran the plansbooks down the street to the salon and gave them to Kitty and the staff to flip through, read and cut apart. Kitty was given the task to pick five from sixteen, which would decide who would get to pitch to her and her colleagues.

A week later.

Four talented peers and myself get chosen to pitch our campaigns for Kitty. Nervous and excited, we prepared ourselves for the first real client pitch in our professional careers. Looking sharp, and with sweat collecting on our collective brows, we presented our campaigns to our client.

We pretty much killed it.

She loved our work and she grabbed it all to keep to use in the future when the time was right. Luckily for me, she loved the simplest aspect of my campaign and wanted them produced right away.


These loyalty cards are now being handed out to every Berns & Black client that comes in for a style or cut, and they were made by none other than your modest and attractive narrator.

Funny story. A couple weeks down the line, I went in there for a haircut myself and as I was walking away from the register after paying, they stopped me and said, "Oh, I almost forgot. Here's your 'stache card".

(Snip, snip. The end.)

"HAHA" was all that there was...

Tonight was the second and final night of CreCommedy. 21 of the greatest and funniest CreComm minds came together to perform five minutes of stand up to an audience of 100+ people at the King's Head Pub.

All I can say is: WOW. I can't believe how proud I am of everyone! It already takes a lot to stand up and speak in front of people, but to try and make a group of people, who are expecting you to be funny, laugh...well, that's a whole different story!

During the day, my heart was constantly beating as if I was walking up flights of stairs all day, and my right eye was twitching something fierce. I felt uneasy. Sick. And it was because of the anticipation of being unfunny.

In ad class, we had to make a quick presentation on why a specific ad was bad/ineffective. During my presentation, I was calm, collected and concentrated on trying to convince my peers of my opinion. But, as soon as I was finished and my mind got to thinking about stand up again, I started hyperventilating. What a terrible day! And I can confidently say that other comics that went up tonight were just as wrecked as I was.

Fast forward to 8PM.

Everyone got up there and killed it. Jokes were told, and laughs were had. All the insecurities and feelings of uneasiness were left at the bottom of our empty beer glasses. All six of them...

Anyways, I just wanted to give kudos to everyone who went up!

Alexa Lacroix
Michael Fleischman
Tiffany Lachuta
Chase Gouthro
Aggie Semeniuk
Jerrad St. Germain
Jennifer Hanson
James Hawboldt
Jessica Cable
Kevin Hirschfield
Jeremie Wookey

Jeremy Giacomin
Steve Dreger
Jeff Ward
Caitlin MacGregor
Adam Smitzniuk
Berea Henderson
Maeghan Heinrichs
Sean Angus
Jeremy Williams

Also, a big thanks to Dan Verville and Cara Lytwyn who headlined both nights, and everyone who came out and helped with set up, or just came to laugh.

Thanks!

Check out Kenton's YouTube Channel for videos from both nights!

Here are some personal favorites (though everyone was fantastic!). The three Jeremy's!

Jeremy Williams

Jeremy Giacomin

Jeremie Wookey

(PS. Here's mine if you're interested...CLICK)

I need your help!

In Creative Communications, we have something called the Independent Professional Project (IPP). This is our equivalent of a thesis for our program. In the past, students have written novellas, put together a college dance team, or even raised thousands of dollars for great causes.

My IPP will be a website that highlights the most interesting people in Winnipeg through a series of mini-documentaries. I believe Winnipeg is one of the most culturally diverse places in Canada and within this community there are so many talented individuals who are doing great things. We need to show the rest of Canada, and the world, what we offer in humanitarianism, innovation and art.

Right now, I'm currently on the hunt for subjects to film. I've already got some in mind, but if you know of anyone please let me know. I'm looking for business owners, people with odd hobbies, old people with a special story, young people with a special story, someone who goes out of their way to help people, artists, musicians, inventors, entrepreneurs, lion tamers. Basically if you think Winnipeggers should be proud of them, tell me.

Any suggestions would be appreciated and you can send me an e-mail at heymikechoi@gmail.com. Just tell me their name and what they do, and I'll look into it!

Thanks and stay tuned!

One week, one man

and one iPad.

Today marks my one week anniversary with my iPad. Here are the good, the bad, and the ridiculously good looking:

1) It's more useful than I originally thought. It's precise, convenient and flashy, so you look cool.

2) Other than the endless myriad of games you can play during a speech, a date, or driving, there are apps for almost anything, for whatever your interests are. My colleague Jeremy Giacomin recently downloaded a Harry Potter app. He and I no longer work together.

3) I still don't know if I would buy one with my own money, but it's definitely worth grabbing for a discount, or in my case, for free.

4) It's still not as versatile as my MacBook, so MacBook wins.

5) I hate pigs.

I spent too much time of that week with this.

iPad or iFad?

Hello all!

I am currently speaking to you from the future. Actually? Well, no. But I am writing this blog entry from my newly acquired iPad that all advertising majors in Creative Communications at Red River College got today! I was fortunate enough to be the first one in my group of two to get it for the first week. We have 16 ad majors, but alas only eight iPads. So, we were assigned in groups of two and are going to be switching back and forth from week to week. Our faithful leader, Kenton Larsen, pleaded to the Program Innovation Fund last summer and his prayers were answered.

So, I bet you're wondering how I'm liking the iPad so far!

Well, first off, before getting it this morning, I would have never thought to buy one. I saw it as impractical, hard to use, and just a flashy new toy for tech geeks and rich folk to buy. Have my opinions changed after my first day?

Yes and no.

I'm really quite enjoying myself and the time I've had to discover the ins and outs of it. It's very versatile and easy to use. The interface is the same as the iPod touch and probably the iPhone as well, though I've never used the latter. The biggest surprise to me so far is how well the keyboard works. Before trying it, I saw the touch screen keyboard as its biggest flaw, but after the first couple shaky and awkward minutes, I got used to it. Now I find myself typing just as fast a I can on a regular keyboard. In fact, maybe even faster! Wow!

I'm sure it gets easier with more practice but right now I find myself having to spend a lot of time looking for the punctuation marks as you need to go to a separate keyboard than the alphabetical one.

I haven't had much time to check out the apps as of yet, but I will investigate further and let you know. Embarrassingly enough though I did download the free Angry Birds app and play the entire demo in one sitting.

Oh, I just discovered something. It's actually not too hard to place your cursor in-between letters and highlight specific things. The touch screen has really good sensitivity and accuracy.

So I've blabbered on the positives, how about negatives? Well, I'm not going to list any right now. I'm sure if I did, they would just be things I could fix after playing with the iPad for a couple more days.

As for right now, the iPad has impressed me and changed my views about it. Check back later in the week and I'll tell you my impression after our first date. We're going to Olive Garden.

"Hey, I'm kind of broke. Try and fill up on breadsticks, okay?"