廣告狂人

等待去開會之前，隨機從youtube見到廣告狂人 Madmen 的片子 (不知是第幾季那一集)，廣告公司的創作總監(也就是主角) Don Draper 向柯達公司講解新的幻燈片機的廣告創作概念。

故事發生在70年代，輪盤式幻燈片機還未面世。看後理推斷前文，大概是柯達認為消費者不覺得輪盤是甚麼新科技，感到很難推銷。Don Draper的演說很精彩，連他身邊的同事都感動得哭起來，就連黑人自己都有少少感動，是編劇很高明吧！

K1: 柯達員工1
K2: 柯達員工2
D: Don Draper

K1: so have you figured out a way to work the wheel into it?
湯先生你想到將輪盤融入廣告的點子沒有？

K2: we know it is hard because wheels aren't seen as exciting technology, even though they are original.
我們明白這是很難的案子，雖然輪盤幻燈機是新科技，但消費者並不如此認為。

D: well, technology is like littering lure, but there is a rare occasion where the public can be engaged at a level beyond flash if they have a sentimental bond with the product.

科技就像撒餌(釣魚)一樣，但除了新穎炫目之外，我們還可以從情感層面吸引消費者。

D: My first job I was in house, sort of for a company, with this old pro copywriter, Greek, named Teddy.

我第一份工是某公司的文案，有位希臘人老文案叫Teddy。


D: Teddy told me the most important idea in advertising, is "new". Creates an itch, you simply put your product in there, as a kind of...calamine lotion. We also talked about, a deeper bond with the product: nostalgia. It's delicate, but potent.

Teddy教我廣告中最重要的概念是「新」。一個「新」字令人有種渴求，你只消把產品當成潤滑油般放在消費者面前就成事了。

然而，我們亦有一種更深層的方式將產品和消費者連繫起來：緬懷過去的情感。這是非常纖細但強力的手段。

(開始播幻燈片)

D: Teddy told me that in Greek, nostalgia literally means "the pain from an old wound". It's twinge in your heart far more powerful than memory alone.

Teddy 解釋說：Nostalgia一詞在希臘文的意思是「舊患的痛楚」。也就是一種心有戚戚然的感覺。

D: This device, isn't a spaceship, it's a time machine...goes backwards, forwards. Takes us to a place, where we ache to go again. It's not called the wheel, it's called the Carousel, it lets us travel the way a child travels.

這部幻燈機不是太空船，它是一部時光機：讓人穿梳各種揪心的回憶。這不是輪盤，這是一台旋轉木馬，讓我們可以像孩童般在回憶裡流竄。

(顯示旅轉木馬的柯達廣告構想稿)

Round and round, and back home again, to a place, where we know we'll love.
轉啊轉，再回到我們心愛的起點。

**********

好 ~ 夠鐘起程開會。

無手無腳

在地鐵見到力克胡哲 (Nick Vujicic) 的海報，假如上帝用麵團造人，祂造力克時明顯手頭上不夠麵團，所以力克一出世就沒有手腳。

心中有兩種相反又同樣valid的觀點：力克是上天一個殘酷的玩笑，但上天更殘酷的後著是用現實令他接受甚至感謝身受的頭一個玩笑，而且，還得四處宣揚他是多麼幸福。

另一個相反的觀點，就是一個人無論受多大的挫折，主觀意志可改變現實並克服眼前困境。

兩種想法一正一負，其實沒有衝突可以並存。

鬼佬諺語謂 when God closes one door, he opens another. 這句話通常有鼓勵作用，但用來解釋絕境也同樣解得通：上帝把天堂的門關上了，然後打開地獄之門！嘿！

如果將來有套電影名叫Gates of Hell，我買重注這句話九成九會用來做tag line。

武俠片唱英文歌

呢期睇得邵氏電影多...
又不期然想起三兩年前呢首歌 : to get yourself high
佢段video真係好勁！看得到的加工固然勁，另外剪接做左好多功夫，令整條片節奏跟返音樂個beat

搏命

由二月起學日文，年底就要考4級能力試

學多年英文，跟日文可以有個比較。

現在我的英文程度，跟正宗外國人比自然遜幾籌，尤其聽不懂太濃厚的口音。日常用語遇上深一點的就投降，要靠理解前文後理推斷。看通俗小說或流行讀物(如tipping point之類) 不太需要用字典，跟外國人談話，只要內容不是cultural specific (例如某英國藝人或澳洲諺語之類)，一般都可以應對自如。

這個程度的英語能力，前後花了約二十年。開竅是最後留學的六年，每天幾乎完全活在英語世界，但是比起身邊某些竹昇女生仍然差一截。

學英語是一個個生詞的死記，甚少像中文般有字根如：三文魚、吞拿魚、鯉魚、微笑、苦笑、大笑等等，英文每個月份都不同，那有中文般一月二月三月般容易呢？

學日文有點介乎英語和中文之間，有時候它需要像英語般死記「字串」，例如十二個月份以及一個月的三十日就要死記，有些部份跟漢語相近可以靠字根推斷。

假如想日語學到像英文般流利，估計至少需要5-7年天天浸淫。現在比中小學的時候專注努力得多(讀書時只是抄功課交差)，但相對記憶力和悟心就衰退不少。

只不過路已走過一遍，相對沒有以前般迷茫就是。

***********

為了準備考試，最近去尋找passpaper以及各種日語輔助教材。

出奇地，擁有最多日語教材的不是香港，也不是台灣，是我們偉大的祖國。對日本鬼子最痛恨的炎黃子孫，原來對學習日語最為熱衷，中國人赴日留學的人數也是數一數二地多。

不少強國學子博學強記，能夠把十多年的試題(不論英語或日語) 死記，甚至連作文也能夠一早死背範文，考試時30分鐘「寫」出一篇可以拿A的文章。

我光是每天對著十多個生字已經喊苦了，到底要有多大的決心，才可以短時間內背誦這麼多的資料？

莫講學語文，走到尚書房，一大堆國內雜誌內容五花八門，對比香港清一色八卦和消費雜誌，腦海中只想到「此消彼長」這四個字。內地人對資訊的渴求真的很嚇人，我也只是勉強數得出幾位香港當紅的設計師，內地熱衷設計的朋友，不單止如數家珍，就連這些大師的動向也追得一清二楚。

香港的動漫雜誌(還未死的一兩本)只限於追求最新動漫資訊，每每還要從forum抄料，內地我卻見到有Comicker的中譯版，訪問不同的畫師，以及分享各種繪畫技巧，售價是日文版的四份一。

有時想偷懶，累了，想到假如對著一個內地的朋友，怎樣才可以不太丟假呢？
想著，就爬起來繼續努力了(雖然仍然是很半吊子...)

天涯明月刀

古龍作品，楚原導演，倪匡編劇。
非常精彩，故事超簡單：黑道有個大佬想殺主角，主角還擊，還擊成功，黑道大佬死，完。

重點是人物佈局和各種道具設定。


主角傅紅雪(狄龍飾)是天下第一快刀手，他的裝扮就是模仿奇連依士活的獨行俠。

最特別是那柄鐵尺模樣的刀，刀身可以轉，整柄刀甚至可以拆出來！



這小生才適合演燕南飛吧？偏偏當了個半男不女的人妖殺手。


黑道頭子公子羽有五個手下，分別叫琴、棋、詩、畫、劍。他們的codename 寫在薄紗網上再打燈， 用非常low tech的手法做出今時大多數美指都想不到的效果。


他們的招式也幾有趣，這是唐詩的警告信。


這是棋的一個陷阱，表面是個有得救的敗局，炸藥就是裝在關鍵那枚棋子裡，拿起來即爆。



這是棋的殺陣，可惜當年特技水平所限，效果平平，但意念上是非常好的，用現今的科技一定可以拍得更好。

古龍的對白一貫簡潔豪快，情節也沒有拖泥帶水。臨尾色誘狄龍，就是一個正面的裸女特寫，遠處還有一對裸女互摸做backdrop助興，現在肯定不敢這樣做了，因為會納入三級少了很多票房。(還未計盲光社和女權組織等壓力團體媽媽叉叉)

現在要演傅紅雪這個角色，香港3x或以下的男星一定不可以 (至少我想不到有誰有這種粗獷的男子氣概)，內地人材和美指應該都能勝任，但審檢又跟不上。這類奇情武俠片，只怕又成絕響，向千軍萬馬盔甲片讓路。

絕響

兩位主角都已經仙遊，個VO唔知宜家點呢？



証明葛文輝咁多年d風格都無變過。



細個乜野廣告歌都會照學黎唱，當年唔識 pantyhose 咁深的英文，淨係聽到
Watson's P~T~O...

跟著畫面唱

iTune偶然響起Ah Ha的Take on Me，心血來潮想看看他們的MV
結果找到這個fans改編 Literal version，歌詞基本上將畫面發生的事唱返出黎
ok無聊。

騎劫列車123

今次我覺得中譯比較低能，因為123本身已經低低地，單純直譯就好似d幼稚園興趣班咁。

John Travolta 講對白好型，型到Pulp Fiction 同埋Swordfish 兩套電影既OST碟係會將佢d 對白直接dup做一條track。黑人成日聽，聽到識背。以前佢在Swordfish入面的角色批評荷里活電影脅持人質的橋段失實，唔知係咪諷刺緊十幾年後呢套戲呢？(未睇，希望唔係啦。)



Gabriel: You know what the problem with Hollywood is? They make shit. Unbelievable, unremarkable shit. Now I'm not some grungy wannabe filmmaker that's searching for existentialism through a haze of bong smoke or something.

No, it's easy to pick apart bad acting, short-sighted directing, and a purely moronic stringing together of words that many of the studios term as "prose". No, I'm talking about the lack of realism.

Realism; not a pervasive element in today's modern American cinematic vision. Take Dog Day Afternoon, for example. Arguably Pacino's best work, short of Scarface and Godfather Part 1, of course. Masterpiece of directing, easily Lumet's best. The cinematography, the acting, the screenplay, all top-notch. But... they didn't push the envelope.

Now what if in Dog Day, Sonny REALLY wanted to get away with it? What if - now here's the tricky part - what if he started killing hostages right away? No mercy, no quarter. "Meet our demands or the pretty blonde in the bellbottoms gets it the back of the head." Bam, splat! What, still no bus? Come on! How many innocent victims splattered across a window would it take to have the city reverse its policy on hostage situations?

And this is 1976; there's no CNN, there's no CNBC, there's no internet! Now fast forward to today, present time, same situation. How quickly would the modern media make a frenzy over this? In a matter of hours, it'd be biggest story from Boston to Budapest! Ten hostages die, twenty, thirty; bam bam, right after another, all caught in high-def, computer-enhanced, color corrected. You can practically taste the brain matter.

All for what? A bus, a plane? A couple of million dollars that's federally insured? I don't think so. Just a thought. I mean, it's not within the realm of conventional cinema... but what if?

有時間才試下做中譯 (btw上面出自imdb，今次我無咁得閒又做listening啦)

聆聽練習

波叔套新戲 Bruno 在香港尚未上畫(查實都唔知有無機會上)，淨係睇佢同David Letterman個訪問已經非常好笑，順便將對話內容抄返出黎，練下聆聽筆記同翻譯能力。

B: Borat
L: David Letterman

B: When we're making this film, we want it to be better than Borat, and we thought what could people see that they'd never seen before on film? And we thought one thing would be a comedian interviewing a terrorist, which I think is never been done before...for good reason.

我們希望這套電影比《波叔出城》更勝一籌。開拍前，盤算著有甚麼題材是大家從未在電影銀幕見過呢？後來想到「笑匠訪問恐怖份子」這個破天荒的點子。

So we show the script, the outline of the script to the studio and they say "Oh this is great, who's gonna play the terrorist?" And we said "No, we gonna find a real terrorist."

將大綱交給製片公司時，他們說：「點子不錯，誰飾演恐怖份子？」我們答：「找真貨。」

Now, it's not that easy to find an actual terrorist. In fact your government has been looking for one for nine years.

找一個真正的恐怖份子毫不容易，事實上你們(美國)政府找了(拉登)九年也找不到。

L: Exactly right!

大：全中！

B: There's no Craigslist in Peru for example, so we called up a contact we had in the CIA and said “can you help us? We are looking to find a terrorist.”

恐怖份子沒有Graigslist般的分類網站，我們最後跟中情局搭上請他們幫忙。

L: Bruno has a contact at the CIA?

大：Bruno在中情局有針？

B: Bruno doesn't but I knew somebody who did.

他沒有，但我的朋友識人。

And the guy at the CIA said “We've got a lot of names of terrorists, but we have almost no addresses.”

中情局的人說：「恐怖份子名單是有的，但地址就欠奉啦。」

And so eventually after a few months, we found somebody who actually lived in a town that had a terrorist from a pretty nasty group, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, who kind of …the number 1 suicide bombers out there, if you are looking for them.

等了幾個月終於有人幫忙搭線，對方是Al Aqsa殉道團，假如你需要找自殺式炸彈恐怖份子的話，他們可算是世上第一流的自殺炸彈專家。

And he said " Yeah there is a terrorist who lives in my town." So I said "Great can we interview him but I'm a little bit scared about reprisal attacks from the other people in your city."

接洽人說他居住的城市有殉道團的成員，我說：「棒極了！我想訪問他，但我擔心遭到城裡其他人的報復襲擊啊。」

He said "Don't worry, everybody loves you we love the Ali G show."

接洽人說：「放心吧，大家都愛看你的Ali G真人秀。」

So next I thought I needed some security to get to the terrorist, because it was in the west bank...the guy picks a secret location. So we called around some security firms, everybody said "No Way".

下一步是保安問題，對方要求在秘密地點會面，我致電給好些保安公司，全都不願接我的案子。

Eventually I found one guy who was an Englishman who done the Enrique Iglesias Hero tour.

最後找到個英國人，曾經當過Enrique Iglesias演唱會的保安。

L: You gotta go where you gotta go.

大：你不入地獄，誰入地獄？

B: His main job was protecting Enrique from flying underwear. I knew if it came to it this guy would take a bra from me. So we get there and I said "Alright, I'm a little bit scared that the terrorist and his bodyguards will be armed. If they are armed let's have a code word. If they are armed, say it's gonna be hot weather, and if they are unarmed, there's no guns just say it's gonna be cold."

那個英國佬的工作主要是幫Enrique擋住歌迷拋上台的內衣。一有不測，他大概可以幫我擋個胸圍吧！(笑)

我對他說：「恐怖份子那邊可能有槍，不如用暗語照應吧！假如對方有槍，就說天氣很熱，否則說天氣很冷就可以了。」

So we ended up with the secret location, the terrorist comes in with his bodyguard they'd been checked by my bodyguard, my bodyguard comes in, and I said "So what's the weather gonna be?"

去到會面地點，大家互相搜過身，我問保鑣：「天氣怎樣？」

He said "Well I think it's gonna be cold weather but there's a chance it could be quite warm…and it might even be boiling hot."

他答：「大概是冷天吧，有機會回暖甚至非常熱。」

At which point the terrorist said "No no no, it is not cold, it is warm." And then I realized I was pretty sure that my terrorist either did or did not have a gun on him.

恐怖份子答：「才不是啦，今天很暖耶。」

那時我才明白對方可能有槍或者無槍？！

L: Certainly get your money's worth there.

大：你的保鑣是物有所值吧！

B: And my bodyguard said "yeah you are right, it is quite warm out here, it's kind of much much warmer than North England." At which point I realized my bodyguard had forgotten about our roleplay and was discussing the weather with the terrorist.

保鑣答：「對！今天都頗暖，比英國北部暖多了。」這是我才知道他忘記我們之間的暗語，真的跟恐怖份子談天氣起來。

L: Will these guys eventually see the film did you invited them to the premiere?

大：他們會看到你的新片嗎？

B: I pray to God not.

求神拜佛，咪搞！

打到開花

不準笑節目似乎run了很多年
至少run了很多集吧？印象中看過有英文課、生物堂...護士、旅行，還有刑警

同樣是看藝人們出醜，格式不變橋劃層出不窮，幕後的創作團隊還真厲害

又播歌2

Lothlorien - Foggy Banks

On the foggy foggy banks me boys we pitch and toss about
And we blow our frozen fingers as we hear the skipper shout
Heave away upon the capstan give a hand to heave the trawl

Oh when I was but a lad at school I wouldn't stay at home
Like lots of other foolish lads I thought I'd sooner roam
Heave away upon the capstan give a hand to heave the trawl

So I went and I joined a trawler and it's then I quickly found
That it wasn't all plain sailing when you reach the trawling ground
Heave away upon the capstan give a hand to heave the trawl

You'll be hauling night and day me boys, you're nearer slaves than men
And once you get all your fishes aboard it's time to haul again
Heave away upon the capstan give a hand to heave the trawl

And when the waves are pouring around us and they're pounding against the deck
Well you'll work your bit like all of the rest if you want to save your neck
Heave away upon the capstan give a hand to heave the trawl

And the captain's name is Johnson and he works us 'til we fall
And if he sees us a-shirkin' well it's God preserve us all
Heave away upon the capstan give a hand to heave the trawl




The Sweetest Joy

He sat alone upon a hill, the waves pulling at his side
He could feel the salt inside his veins and could hear the storm arrive

He closed his eyes and saw her face, so plain the others had decried
Yet he'd felt the warmth she'd held within and the beauty that lay inside

Yet their words soon blinded him, no beauty he began to believe
Oh he turned his back and he toasted them, he drank the world for all to see

No more will her palm lay upon his own, a fairer hand has clasped to his skin
'Oh where is my love' she cried in vain and from the door cried 'please let me in'

With haste she turned and chased the night, no tears to wipe with her hand
While he searched the land to find his love he fell and cried 'please help this man'

The sweetest joy the wildest woe of love Bailey once described
Hast thou more of pain or pleasure, does torment dwell and grow inside

He said it swells like the oceans flow, love drew me in as the tides draw the sea
Oh but I was foolish just like my friends - I let my eyes rule what I should feel.


The Lothlorien 係一隊新西蘭既celtic band，佢地認真生不逢時又揀錯名，首先大名鼎鼎的new age女歌手Enya 有首歌同佢地撞名，跟住Lord of the ring 又同佢地撞名 (其實係佢地inspired by LOTR 才對)，所以上網基本上係好難查到佢地的資料。

黑人學堂時代身處外國超無聊，唔想聽廣東歌又唔知揀乜好，誤打誤撞上左mp3.com 聽到佢地的音樂，感覺良好，當年mp3.com 有好多另類artist，小弟又鍾意聽celtic music(因為玩RPG好夾feel)手快快就download 左佢地的作品日煲夜煲。

點知幾年後成為絕唱。一來Lothlorien之後好似同mp3.com 割蓆，剷晒上面所有file，二來佢地都好似停止出售呢首碟，連無所不能既amazon.com 都無得賣。一於將自己既mp3轉成video放上youtube分享下，假如佢地claim copyright，咪當話俾佢地知；世上仲有fans鍾意聽佢地的舊歌。

第一首the foggy banks 道中小弟心聲，基本上係一個有學唔返，貪慕闖闖外面大世界的傻仔，上左首漁船以為好威風，結果做餐死的故事。

the sweetest joy 係男親女愛的故事，我覺得講情愛的歌曲唔需要扯高喉嚨好似側田張敬軒果種慘情先至叫做可憐，平平淡淡當故事咁樣唱，仲慘。

又播歌

Bells for Her- Tori Amos

做野聽Tori的歌有減壓作用，平日聽反而會唔開心。