GPC - Day 2 - Asia Rising

...just finished up Day II. Saw some fabulous work from Asia, particularly out of greater China and Bangkok, work that wasn't revolutionary but just exquisitely crafted and well thought-out. Good, solid work that was both aesthetically pleasing, intuitive to absorb, and groundbreaking in its underlying strategy. You'd never think so much effort could go into making a 30 second spot, or a single print ad, but one of the things that really distinguishes great work is that you can tell a team spent a lot of time laboring over the small details. Immaculate attention to detail separates great work from the stuff that's simply mass-produced pulp, pumped out effortlessly like so much machine-made garbage. That's my rule of thumb for all media, actually. A film like Tarantino's Kill Bill is an example of a work of art that functions on multiple levels, where every frame is thought-out and deliberate, and nothing extraneous finds its way into the final cut. But movies like that are rare, and are really the exception in an industry that churns out a bunch of formulaic schwill that may make money, but are essentially soulless explorations of tired storylines that have no vertical depth to their narrative arcs. Ads are no different. You can really tell when someone's spent the hours and bled time and effort into an execution, as opposed to a piece that came off a standard assembly line, and has a few bells and whistles strapped to it in a half-assed attempt to make it stand out from a million virtual clones....
anyhow, i'm beat. probably getting a little inarticulate. gonna go clean up and then head to a nice dinner with the gang... Word on the street is that this restaurant is adjacent to the best anime bookstore in Thailand, so maybe i'll get a chance to pick up some badass asian comics. I'll let y'all know...
happy friday!
more later...