WEEK 28: Our Best Work Yet

• Humour me
• January 11, 2019

With the release date of our 3D animation film for Arctic Fox fast approaching, excitement levels are rising at Humour Me. Earlier this week we got our first glance at the rendered film – with completed environments, characters and lighting – and we unanimously agreed that this was, without a doubt, our best content till date (in terms of production values). This film is shaping up to be at par with global standards of animation – but I do not wish to influence your opinion. I will contain my excitement till the film is released, and then you can judge it for yourself.

In the meantime, here is a look at some of the other characters that will feature in the film:

The Lemming – This is the focus of our protagonist’s dream. Throughout the film, the arctic fox’s singular goal is to capture this elusive lemming, who always seems to be just out of reach

The Wolves – the wolves are the fox’s biggest obstacle. To achieve its goal, the fox must escape a pack of dangerous wolves (they look at lot more predatory in the film, I assure you)

A new intern joined us this week, and I have been assigned as her mentor. She will be with us for four months, and during that time I plan to not only involve her in the kind of work we do, but also teach her the basics of professional etiquette, and prepare her for her future job.

Professionalism seems to be surprisingly uncommon in this industry, regardless of age or experience. Most recently, my attention was drawn to the lack of understanding many have about the correct way to leave a company. At Humour Me, we encourage people to pursue their passions, even if it means leaving us. However, the professional way to do this would be to tell us that you are leaving well in advance, so that necessary arrangements can be made to distribute your workload in an efficient way.

We have had people leave us just days before the execution of a large project, or simply not come to work and inform the team that they will no longer be working with us over a phone call. While I maintain that a degree of selfishness is acceptable when it comes to one’s career, this does not mean that it is alright to completely disregard the people around you. When you leave a company at short notice, this can cause complete pandemonium. In fact, I have once had to take on a Client Servicing role (which is completely different from my role as Creative Manager) because of someone who abruptly left the company.

Having said that, I have also had the privilege of working with very dependable, courteous colleagues, who not only gave their notice well in advance, but also extended their notice period to make sure that pending projects were completed before they left.

When it comes to my intern, I can already see that she is more professional than most. She pays particular attention to punctuality (a quality I value very highly) and is dedicated to her work. I am grateful, for this will make my job easier. I hope she remains consistent throughout her internship.

In other news, we interviewed a Digital Media Planner today. The applicant was given the task to target our film, ‘Rizwan’ (if you haven’t seen it, you can watch it here). Essentially, this task involved promoting the film so as to reach audiences that would want to watch it. This is done by targeting audiences with interests that are compatible with the genre and content of the film.

To begin with, the candidate questioned the name of the film’s protagonist (Rizwan), and asked why it couldn’t have been a more ‘Indian’ name. After this the candidate proceeded to promote a film about a mild mannered old man to people who enjoy heavy metal music.

We are still accepting applications for the post of Digital Media Planner.

See you next week!