Pork Belly in Tokyo

国産豚

Name -/ Student No. -/ Dates of Internship -/ Internship Company -/ Workplace Supervisor -/ Contact -/

LEUNG Tsz Wan 17020973D 2nd July to 24th Aug SivanS Japan Alessio Milaneschi 080 4818 5160

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CONTENTS

LEARNING GOALS

THE COMPANY

WORK PROCESS

THE INTERNSHIP

LEARNING

CRITICAL REFLECTION

PORK BELLY IN JAPAN

1

LEARNING GOALS

There were three main learning objectives written on the internship contract before I started my internship in Japan. And I expected to achieve all of them during my internship period: • Explore overseas environment in Advertising field • Experience cross-cultural working environment • Put knowledge into practice These learning goals are very important for me to have a real taste in the industry and get to know myself better, in terms of personalities and capability. Through adapting nad learning in a different countries also enable me to stretch and explore my possibilties. It even gave me a very good chance to broaden my horizon, and provided me with opportunity to work overseas, both now and in future.

Before my internship starts, I have prepared myself with learning new softwares, such as the DaVinci Resolve. The reasons of learning something new before going to the company are, not only equiping myself with more skills and knowledge on softwares, but also having basic understanding on some professional softwares, so that I can learn what I don’t familiar with and ask more from them.

Another thing that I have prepared for the internship is to learn some basic Japanese. Since not every Japanese can speak in English, I think it would be more appropriate and respectful if I learn some of the simple Japanese and be able to communicate with them. Phrases such as “good morning”, “thank you”, “sorry”, “thanks for your effort”, “thanks for your hard work”, “please hand me...”, “I’m full” etc., are the phrases that I have learnt from online tutorials. And indeed, it did make my communication easier with my colleagues, and also the locals in Japan that I have met daily.

Things that I have done to prepare for the application of the internship company, except for the resume, would be the personal website for the showcase of my work and present who I am.

I have come up with a theme of pork belly to introduce myself and fit them into my personal site. I took a set of photos in photographic studio with the piece of pork with my idea.

Since I always enjoyed taking photos to present it in my work, I am very pleased that the theme aroused their attention and they were very interested in what I am trying to express through the theme and webiste.

2

THE COMPANY

SivanS Japan is an advertising agency in Tokyo. Setting the location in Ayoma and Omotesando, the central business district of Tokyo, it is regarded as one of the bigger scale of advertising agencies in Japan, with around 50-60 employers in total. We mostly handle jobs and projects related to creatives, shooting, editing, digital media and also events. We have separated teams to work on different tasks, such as the Creative / Graphic Team, Video Team, Digital Team and Account Servicing Team.

Creative Team and Account Servicing Team consists the greatest number of team members among the company; while the Video Team, which I was in, consists of only 5 members. I feel very lucky to be in the team with less people, therefore I can involve more in every project we have and have very close relationship with my team members.

My Beloved Video Team and My Working Area

My Working Station

To talk more about my team, I would like to mention about the internationality of it. Including me, there are a total of 5 team members from four different countries. My supervisor, Alessio, who is also the Visual Effect Director of the team, comes from Italy. Another space designer / architecture in our team is also from Italy. Whereas our videographer, Aurelien, comes from France. After I joined the team for about a month, we have another new comer from the Philippines as a videographer as well. I love this kind of multi-cultural environment in a workplace, as I always think different cultures create sparks, and sparks can turn into creativity. Our job and responsibilties are video and photo shooting, editing, also with graphic designs and event preparation.

These are some of the clients and brands that we have worked for. The biggest client of all would definitely be the FCA. It is an association or a group of Italian automobiles brands, that included some well-known names such as Jeep, Fiat, Alfa Remeo etc.. We have been working on their creative tvc, commercial posters, events etc for many years and established a strong relationship between the company and the client. Some of our staff will even stay in the Hilton Hotel in Tokyo and San Pellegrino are also two of our long-term clients in event organising and shooting. Whereas the Intercontinental Hotels Group is a newer client and one of the project I was in charge of.

There are also other companies that we have been working with such as Wix Japan, OptimalPlus, Shop Italia etc.. that are interesting and fun.

PLACES FOR MEETINGS AND LEISURE

SivanS Japan is founded in Tokyo, where they also have an overseas branch in Israel. In the coming 10 years, they expected to expand their offices to Italy and other potential countries.

3

WORK PROCESS

The working procedure of this company is pretty much the same with other advertising agencies. We receive requests from clients through our account servicing team. A brief will come along and give to the related department / team. These briefs usually either go to the creative team or the video team for further development.

After receiving the brief, the director of the team will assign the work to one of us and start discussing the details of the project. Since the team director has more experience in dealing with clients and project briefs, he gave out very clear instructions and guidance on what to follow from the brief. He also allow me to put my own thoughts and creativity into the project. After the briefing has done, the one who responsible for the project can handle the whole task on his / her own, and send them to the supervisor for any progress or improvements.

works pending to get approval

The design process that I usually work with, is to collect all the information I need from the clients and the project aims. After that, I will start researching the related reference. For example, in the project of OptimalPlus Seminar, a automobile seminar for the industry experts, after the meeting with the international account manager and the clients, I started to get as much information and sources as I can. And then I went on with researching similar events held in Tokyo and how their event landing page looked like. I also considered the actual venue of the seminar will be held and select the information that were important for participants and re-layout them in aesthetic manner. This is how I developed the idea and combined them into a workable solution.

During the design process, we have to consider several things. Since many of us are from different countries, we have limited understanding in Japanese culture. It is very important to ask opinion from local Japanese copywriters on the correct translation from English to Japanese.

English Title

Translated by Copywriter

PROCESS

INFORMATION

RESEARCH

IDEAS

DEVELOP

FEEDBACK

COMPLETE

4

THE INTERNSHIP

Before diving into the work experience log and samples of work undertaken, it would be more appropriate to give out more explanation on my role in the office.

I was assigned to the Video Team of the company, consisting 4 members in total with two videographers, a space designer and a director who basically supervise the whole team and takes care of a bit of everything in the office. I joined the team as a video editor and graphic designer.

Therefore my role is to assit in any shooting (video and photo), and also projects related to graphic design.

I have been assigned to various shootings and assist in events organizing. I have involved in pre-production on storyboard and shooting board preparation. As for the post-production, if the video involved Japanese-speaking contents, they would be sent to Japanese colleagues to have them translated in English first. After receiving the transcript of the video, I will takeover again and start the editing work. From trimming video to color correction, I got chance to finish them all by myself.

The interesting part was always the communication between me and my teammates. Sometimes we have diffterent approaches on reaching the same effect, and it was fun to discuss with them for a better approach.

Another thing that makes me love this environment is that they never judge your way of working, instead they tried to understand your way and were enthusiated to teach me their methods. This is how I think learning should be, not just from the sources, but also people around us.

First Decoration I Saw When I Entered the Office

4.1 WORK EXPERIENCE LOG

LESLIE KEE SHOOTING

The Shooting Location

The first project / shooting that I was involved in, was the “Under One Sun” Campaign we did for Alfa Romeo. The project focused on the disable / LGBT group in the society, and through their stories, we hoped to spread the message of the importance of being “youself”.

We went to a beach away from the city of Tokyo about 1.5 hours for a whole day shooting and event. Leslie Kee, a very well-known photography master was invited to be the main photographer for the event, while our video team set up our shooting area for the interviews of the invited target groups. I was being assigned to help with the reception and shooting of the behind-the-scene photos.

This happened to be a very interesting project for me as I can see how a master work in outdoor shootings, at the same time I can enjoy taking pictures of the events.

4.2 WORK EXPERIENCE LOG

IHG VIDEO

This was probably one of the most memorable projects throughout my whole internship period. The Intercontinental Hotels Group is one of the famous hotel groups among the world. The String by Intercontinental in Tokyo was looking for video editors to create a short video for them. The video includes introduction of newly renovated rooms and facilities of the hotel, and aims to bring out the energetic side of this luxury place.

Since this was the first project that I took in charge of, I felt very excited to put my creativity thoughts into the editing. However, I did feel a lot of pressure before the project even started. The reason is that, the manager of IHG had approached a professional video editing company before for this video. However, they were very unpleased with the result and chose to reject their final video. This made me realize their high standard on this video and urged me to work 10 times harder for it. Another challenge was that, since they have already wasted around 1 months to communicate with the first production company, they gave us a very tight deadline (approximately 1 week) for the editing.

Interior of the Hotel

Another thing that excites me was, this was the first time my supervisor took me to meet the client directly. We visited the String Hotel in Shinagawa Tokyo for the meeting, with the General Manager Nathan, and also the PR officer. The meeting that time also allowed me to learn and experience the traditional Japanese working culture. They valued so much on name cards, that they see it as part of the distributor. Therefore when we receive the name card from colleagues or clients, we have to read them once thoroughly, and put them on the table thoughout the whole meeting.

It was an interesting and eye-opening experience for me. As in Hong Kong, we usually collect the name card of others and we keep it in our pocket after receiving it. However, here in Japan, they treat it differently and I was amazed my this kind of serious and respectful culture.

Name Cards I Received from the Meeting

The feedback received from the client after back and forth amendments.

As I have stayed overtime in the office for the whole week, my hard work finally paid off! What can be more delighted than receiving such a good comment from the client and secured a big client for the company!

4.3 WORK EXPERIENCE LOG

CHOCOMOO SHOOTING

Chocomoo is famous by her drawing skills of cute characters in Japan. She is one of the well-known artist/designer worldwide with her beautiful painting. Our client Fiat was having a car drawing campaign with Chocomoo. Me and the other videographer Aurelien were assigned to shoot the drawing session of Chocomoo in TSUTAYA BOOKSTORE at Futako-tamagawa.

That would be the first time I got to hold the camera and gimbal to shoot in an event. I learnt a lot about shooting angles and camera movements when we shoot an event video. It is also very important to take the shots with a good angle and at the same time not blocking the crowd. It made me realized that most of the time, videographer can only focus on the work instead of enjoying the event!

4.4 WORK EXPERIENCE LOG

OPTIMALPLUS SEMINAR

OptimalPlus is a manufacturing and analyticcal company in Japan. I helped them to build the interface of the landing page of their upcoming event.

This has given me an opportunity to work with the programmer of the company. After I had the meeting with the client together with the international accounting director of the office, I created a landing page layout for the event. Then I started to explain the wireframe and wireflow to the programmer and how I want it to be.

Although the actual site did not look exactly how I designed it to be, the clients were pleased with the result. Therefore they decided to give us full in charge of the event, which was a seminar. They required us to prepare the items that would be needed in the event such as banners, reception, agenda, name tags, EDM etc..

Some of the Items Designed

4.5 WORK EXPERIENCE LOG

COMPANY MEETING

We have a tradition in our company, that we will hold an annual company meeting/party called Sivanication. This year would be the 7th year for us in the office. The founder of the company Sivan asked me to prepare the layout of the presentation and also designing the prizes for the speical awards.

I still remember how rush it was when every department head gave me their powerpoint slides 2 hours before the company meeting started. I have never been so effective in re-arranging and re-layout a powerpoint in my life. On the other hand, I have designed the flight ticket to be awarded to the best employee of the year. I even contacted the production house directly for the output by myself and got the chance to experience how printing house in Japan works.

Flight Ticket I Designed

5

LEARNING

The greatest thing that I have learnt throughout the internship is independence. This company has given me a lot of opportunities to handle projects on my own and allow me to put my own thoughts into them. My supervisor and the boss have given me a lot of support and encouragement, which gave me a lot of confident in trusting my own decisions and creativity.

In terms of skills, the TVC course of last year has shown us with the techniques and skills for professional commercial production. We used shooting equipments such as dolly track, big video recorders and also lighting equipments. However, in SivanS, we focused more on event shooting where we have to move around a lot and handle outdoor shooting. Therefore, I picked up other types of shooting method with gimbals and lighter cameras. Even with the lightest gears and portable equipments, the production can still look great and professional by using the right angle and movements.

The way for me to learn here was to ask questions and try more. As this learning environment is very encouraging, I feel very free and dare to ask questions. Sometimes I seek help from my supervisor, who is very good at using different softwares. His willingness on teaching me what he knows provided me another way to see different solutions and perspectives.

6

CRITICAL REFLECTION

To work in the advertising industry in Japan is probably one of my goals in my entire life. When in school, me and my friends took a lot of Japanese tv commercial and graphic designs as our inspirations and reference. The art direction and creative idea of Japanese advertisements are probably the front-runner among the world.

Me as a designer, always have a lot of thoughts in pouring creativity into every project I have encountered. I always hold the mindset of persisting on my creative thoughts in the production because I am the one who studied design, which I should be able to convince my clients that this is the right way to do it. I also have the thought of not compromising easily with unreasonable comments from clients, especially at my early stage of working in this industry. I am confident that if I give up on what I believed in and start compromising, I will lose my passion and enthusiasm in advertising and creative field.

Turned out I was wrong.

I have met so many clients during the internship and almost all of them gave me some feedback that me and my supervisor felt unreasonable and didn’t match the sense of design and aesthetic standard. Under these circumstances, I seek opinion from my supervisor on how should we respond to these kind of situations. I still remember his reply was to give them what they asked for, even if their suggestions were not what we expected to be. I felt very confused after listening to his reaction. Then I started to ask myself why did I choose this industry and who am I to be if I cannot defend what I believed in. The night before the meeting, I planned to hold my opinion against the client and told them why I insist on the design. Surprisingly, the stronger the will on insisting my own stance, the more I figured why my supervisor gave me this advice.

Studied in design for three years built up my confidence in trusting myself

and how to do what I am good at. This theory actually works the same for my clients. They all studied in different professions, such as hospitality, automobiles, data analysis etc.. They understand the market and what the consumers prefer. More importantly, they see design and advertising with the perspective of someone who knows nothing about design, which pretty much the same with the general public. And advertisements, are meant to be created for the public (as target audience). This is in fact a very good way to see the first reaction of the general public by reading the clients’ feedbacks.

This is the most important lesson I have learnt from the internship.

Working together with the clients does not make us standing against each other when it comes to design amendments. The relationship between the company, designers and clients are actually teammates who tried to pull things off in a short period of time, at the same time winning the recognition of the crowd. The three parties are more like a team who played different part in the game and give the best of their abilities. I learnt to always bear in mind that all of us shared the same goal and we should be going forward for that. It is not compromising or lowering the standards of oneself, but to understand the opinion of different people and professionals. Indeed, as a designer, our duties are to present the best knowledge of us and solve the problems. If clients trust every decisions we made or easily convinced by our suggestions, that would be the most ideal situation for all creatives. However, reality do not usually go with the way we want. And communication and negotiation are okay to be made between us and this is actually also one of the most important duties of a successful designer / creative.

Another whole new experience for me during the internship in SivanS, is the communication between colleagues daily. As living in Hong Kong since I was born, I use Cantonese to communicate verbally with others. However, in the company, people either speaking Japanese or English. Since I only have very basic and simple understanding on some of the vocabulary in Japanese, the only possible way to communicate with my colleagues is using English. Since I have mentioned the internationality of SivanS, speaking English with them was actually like speaking 10 different languages with them. The reason is that, almost all of them are from different countries and they have very heavy accents. Such as my supervisor Alessio, he is an Italian. At the beginning stage of our conversation, it is quite hard for me to understand his command and explanation as the way he pronounce is not the accent that I am familiar with.

However, I started to catch up the difference in Italian accent and American accent, and listening to what he said become very easy. And I very much enjoyed the conversation between the two of us, as the daily English speaking has trained me to become a fair fluent speaker. We always discussed on different topics and even interesting ideas on non-design related stuff. This was extremely important to me, as having casual conversations between us has created a very strong bonding and friendly relationship. I felt comfortable to work under this happy and relaxing working environment.

The bigger challenge for me would be talking to my French and Australian colleague, Aurelien and Lucas. The pronunciation of these two accents are very different from what I have learnt in school and it was hard for me to listen to them very clearly, with them speaking relatively quick. Therefore, I always asked them out for lunch or approach them for more conversations.

It is because I know I would not get any better chance than this, to have the opportunity to get in touch with so may foreigners from different

countries. And I enjoyed learning from them and practice my English as well.

This internship has summed up my third year in the School of Design. I have learnt so much from the internship. However, at the same time the fruitful internship showed me how much I still have to learn and the ways to improve myself. It changed my perspective on how to become a real creative and brushed up my language skills. I look forward to the challenges that bring to me in the final year. It will be a tough year but I have faith this will polish and prepare me to become a advertising creative.

Alessio (left) and Aurelien (right)

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PORK BELLY IN JAPAN