Soda - Keeping Curious

Time to dig out an old bloggy favourite and unleash our powerful creative minds on the famous films buried in the 9 word descriptions we have come to know as the Threebies.

Answer all ten to win praise and hugs*

(*Hugs are accepted at your own personal risk.)

1.
Go back North
Bash some villains
Including Alf Roberts

2.
Mentalist kills sinners
What’s in box?
Oh, Gwyneth’s head

3.
Loser gets chance
Has long jog
‘Yo’ to wife

4.
Some stuff happens
Sinister giant pet
Not sure why

5.
Ted (without Bill)
Fights big computer
Talks much bollocks

6.
Bruce gets shot
Everyone ignores Bruce
Find out why

7.
Nutter kills women
Rookie agent investigates
Other nutter helps

8.
Chap gets killed
Pretend he didn’t
Various corpse shenanigans

9.
Fishermen find nerd
He’s quite confused
And strangely hard

10.
Poor orphan boy
Meets sinister capitalist
Musical midget madness

 On a general nose around the net the other day I came across a great little story about a designer who posted his twitter feed with

“I shot the serif #fontsong”

It promptly started a flow of other song titles including popular fonts. For example ‘Bat out of Helvetica’, ‘We have all the Times in the world’ and ‘Knights in Wide Latin’- get the idea?!

Anyway, here at together we thought we would try the same thing only with film titles. Here’s one to kick it off:

Four Wingdings and a Funeral

Leave your own suggestions via the comments link or email me and I’ll post them up.

Occasionally you come across something in the design world which makes you chuckle and this is definitely one of those times. I give these ten out of ten for creativity, ingenuity and hilarity. Anyone know where I can get a set?

Here at Together we pride ourselves on our stupendous taste in films. Apart from John, our senior designer, who claims Last Action Hero to be a postmodern cinematic masterpiece. Buffoon.

Anyway, far be it from us to force our recommendations on loyal followers of this blog, but that is precisely what is about to happen.

As we all know the three main ingredients for any classic film are:

a. a big monster

b. another big monster

c. fighting

This is an undisputable scientific fact. ‘Citizen Kane’ and ‘The Godfather’ may be constantly held up as two of the finest films ever made but how much better would it have been if the film would actually have been Citizen Kane VERSUS The Godfather?

No need to answer that. It clearly would have been awesome.

So, with this fundamental principle in mind we are throwing all our critical acclaim behind what will surely prove to be the seminal work for our generation.

Forget nerdy teen wizards struggling to keep their wands in their pants and big robots that can, cunningly, disguise themselves as slightly smaller robots…the only film you need to pay attention to this summer is…

Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus.

Best of all you don’t even need to traipse all the way to the cinema to enjoy this epic adventure. It’s gone straight to DVD.

We know what you’re thinking.

You’re thinking: ‘Yeah, the Together Agency are a big high-flying bunch of digital magicians, creative behemoths and strategic masterminds, but what about the love?’

Well let us tell you, sonny Jim, this office is so full of love we have to fit in all our work around the time we spend cuddling and writing each other poems.

And as if we needed to provide evidence of our soft and tickly underbelly, today we’ve rescued a lost kitten and returned him to his rightful owner.

Spotting the trembling little rascal shivering in our car park, our account management/animal rescue team, sprang into action and reunited the loveable little scamp with his relieved family.

It’s all in a days work for us here at Together – great marketing, kind to animals, what more could you want?

We’ll leave you to ponder that. We’re off to the seaside to rescue a beached whale and help squirrels cross busy roads.

I am completely in awe of the pattern of life, even though it’s a very strange thing and far too complicated to ever try and figure out. It’s just so weird how things always seem to happen in cycles.

Take this week for example; there are so many things that have happened which involve the people working at Together. It just seems to have been a really busy week at the agency and if I’m honest, people never cease to surprise me.

I bet you don’t have a clue what I’m trying to say and think that this is all a load of gibberish. You’re probably right. But to illustrate what I mean, here are some examples:

1) On Friday Leteachia left Together and Jane arrived on Monday to temporarily take over the role of Office Manager.

2) Also arriving this week was Kylie, our new Account Manager for Boots.

3) On Wednesday I discovered that most of the creative’s upstairs had stayed at Together well into Tuesday night, perfecting a pitch for Bodyform the next morning, with some only leaving the office at 1:45 am!

4) On my way home mid-week, I met Nick Wright and Kylie at the train station and we were all getting on the same train to Cardiff Central which we joked was fast becoming the Together Train.

So really, what I’m trying to say, is that it’s been a very people-y week and you can guarantee that next week the pattern of life will change again and have something new planned for us all.

Now there’s something to think about.

Another thing to think about is this really odd English weather we’ve been having. Thunderstorms one minute, heat waves the next – it’s really starting to grate on me.

Make up you’re damn mind!!! *shakes fist at sky*

I like books. I like how they smell. I like reading the little notes people have scribbled next to words or phrases that they liked (or hated). And I like the fact that if a book annoys me I can fling it across the room. Or out the window. Or at a cat.

So, with this fondness for the printed page, I was always going to be cynical about the benefits of Twitter.

And while I’m still deeply dubious about the social and mental health of anyone who feels compelled to share the news that they’re eating toast or that their left sock has drooped a little and they’re planning to pull it back up; I have been pointed in the direction of a rather brilliant use for Twitter.

Rather than using their 140 characters to tell the world about the state of their toenails, several clever people have been putting them to far better use and coming up with ultra-short stories, or micro fiction.

It’s a genre of writing that harks back to a challenge set to Ernest Hemingway to create an entire story in just 6 words. What he produced was not only crushingly poignant, it’s also the piece of writing Hemingway regarded as his finest ever work. It simply read:

For sale: baby shoes, never worn.

So although I remain sceptical, and a little frightened, by some of the uses Twitter is being put to I am a fan of this growing online community of nibble-size novelists.

So much so that I’ve taken a break from my screenplay for ‘Hollyoaks: The Movie’ to have a bash at my own 140 character story.

And, as ever, I’ve exposed myself to the savage criticism of my colleagues by posting my effort here. Be gentle everyone, I’m a terribly sensitive chap…

Meltdown of an Office Tea Boy
Tea: milk, 1 sugar. Tea: milky, sweetener. Earl Grey: stirred clockwise. Boiling resentment. Sweet revenge. Now the nurses make tea for me.

p.s.

Anyone interested in seeing more of this micro fiction should take a look at some of the mini-storytellers on Twitter, and this chap - http://twitter.com/arjunbasu - is a great place to start.

Huge, sucess garanteed
Boy and girl
Heartbreaking epic fail

One night stand
Results in pregnancy
Lots of comedy

Man gets bitten
Fights some crime
Gets the girl

Two comic policemen
Based in village
Catch the killers

Parents forget kid
Kid builds traps
To beat badies

Man killed people
Man helps people
One big jellyfish

Gets on train
Misses train
Makes big difference

Travel to jungle
Find big monkey
Empire state buildings

For your viewing pleasure…

Now that I’ve been working here for a little while
I thought I’d take some time out to try and make you smile
I’ve got to know you pretty well and so I have prepared
A few brief lines about some of the guys who sit upstairs

Nat’s a lovely lady and she works hard everyday
She always knows just what to do, and has the final say
Everyone respects her because she is the boss
But sometimes she is scary because John makes her cross

Andy is my mentor which makes me really happy
He randomly shouts “monkey” and is a crazy chappy
As far as copywriters go, I’m sure that you’d agree
He’s brilliant with words but he seems to run on tea

Next we’ve got the smiley Stu, with his bushy beard
He designed a rocket sandwich, which is a little weird
He whistles like a champion, although I have to say
My whistling is flawless - I could beat him any day!

And last but not least there’s the man who sits across my desk
His name is Mr Clemmit and although he tries his best
Sometimes mistakes can be made, but when all’s said and done
It’s generally accepted to turn round and say “Oh, John!”

Although we usually live in a glorious ‘Tea-mocracy’ here at Together every now and again one poor mug seems to be lumbered with the role of making tea after tea after tea…

Sadly, for one reason and another, today that said mug appears to be me.

But as I stood stirring endless steamy cups and quietly grumbling I decided to put a positive spin on my demotion to the role of office tea monkey. Frankly it was either that or spike everyone’s tea with some kind of powerful cleaning product.

So, having put my new found appreciation for the art of the beautiful brew into practice I’ve come up with…

The Tea Commandments
(There are 14 of these. Moses was more concise than me)

Thou shall not dunk in another’s brew

Scalded shall be the fingers that try to retrieve fallen biscuit from hot tea

Thou shall dunk quickly the biscuits that crumble easily

Blessed are those who serve chocolate biscuits with their tea

Those who dunk baked goods other than biscuits are heretics and should be shunned

Thou shall honour thy duty on the tea rota or be cast out into the lonely wilderness

Thou shall not leave brown stains in the sugar bowl

A biscuit loosely gripped is a biscuit quickly lost

Bovril is a sin

Those who stir tea with a biscuit should be made to eat a teaspoon

Thou shall not covet another man’s Jammie Dodger

Those who do not blow on hot tea will suffer a tongue of a thousand burns

Beware the bubbles in the tea – they herald grave danger

Thou shall sniff the milk before pouring

I’m also fully aware that tea-making is a highly personal affair and many of you may now be seething like a freshly boiled kettle at the omission of your ultimate commandment.

So in the spirit of making the tea-drinking word a better place for all who brew there, please feel free to comment with your own commandments.