The Tribe

Our ECD, Teeny Gonzales announced her resignation a week ago and the whole office is in a state of mourning, sadness and depression. She's moving to another ad agency. One of our secretaries, Amy, asked me to do a video (something I usually do to people who leave Harrison, especially if they stayed a long time, or made quite an impact over his/her stay). The night before I did the video, one of our CDs (Creative Director), Alex, treated our team to dinner to answer some burning questions about work and about Teeny. Being the good listener that I always am... Alex's words lingered even when I got home and 'til the next morning ride going to work. I already had a plan on how to do the video - but I don't have a script to follow... well, there was a script, but it was all in my mind. I did the whole video in a span of 6 to 7 hours, writing and improvising the story as I do the whole thing. The animation was very simple - usually it's just 2 or 3 frames shuffled to create an effect of movement. The story was also very simple - it's about a leader leaving his tribe - and one of his people questioning his motives. The very first cut I did was... BRUTAL. It did'nt hold back anything. I needed a second opinion on how to end it and asked my teammate extraordinaire, Biba Cabuquit to watch the animation and see what she thinks. She told me it was a very good story but there are some risque words - that need to be cut. And trim it down we did. Biba added the "call of the wild" part in the story. At first I thought it was corny, but I also managed to put it in the story without interuptting the drama. I think it really came out well. The acoustic song in the background is a Jack Johnson song (forgot the title) suggested by art director par excellence, Ronnie TresReyes (who's really good especially in print stuff). When Teeny watched the whole thing... I was really happy when she told me "you took the words right out of my mouth" (or something to that effect). Of course we did mention to Teeny that there was this more brutal original cut. And during one her last TV shoot with Harrison, she was still bugging me that she wanted to watch the original cut. She probably won't see it because I trashed the whole thing already.
The Tribe is how I personally feel for her when she left Harrison. She has always been my boss when I started to work for advertising, and the moment I returned after an absence of 4 years. I'm usually silent at the office, but whenever someone leaves, although he/she won't mention it... I can read their minds and see the real reason why they'll leave. A friend of mine "M" once pointed that out, and could'nt believe how I was able to think what she was thinking. It's simple really... listen and observe.

Here's the link to the animated video tribute:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nH7HXVSM9EY
Copy paste na lang.
After you watch it, feel free to comment.
Pass it on to someone who's leaving your office or company.