So hello. I’m Lolly, I’m the writer. I write a bit of everything. Ads. Novels. Articles. Post-it notes. And now, apparently, blogs…so here goes.

Only, the trouble is, we’ve hit upon a slight quandary. Most blogs are written by one person. So how does one creative team write a blog?

We’ve decided to try and make our blog a little different. We’ve decided to muck around with the genre itself. We’re going to try and do each one in a different style. One day a screen play; one day a romance novel, another day a we might even write a poem.

For now, we’ll kick things off with the über-girlie ‘diary’ format. We thought we’d have a go at what made old gargantuan-pants Ms Jones so famous – and see what all the fuss is about. Don’t worry, next entry will def. be vvvvv. masculine. But for now I give you Nat’s (with a little input from Lolly)’s first blog/journal entry…

“Dear Diary,”

Hurrah. Countdown has officially begun.

Yey to free lunches at Rushes pool parties, yey to free drinks at the ddb party, yey to feeling like you’re rich and famous, yey to free boat trips and not-so-yey as to chatting to creative directors whilst in microscopic bikini at pool party. But. This year is going to be a little different methinks. Am actually going to have to work. The upside – whole trip is paid for! Hurrah! Is all in exchange of having to create a 60” ad in 48 hours for Cannes Young Lions Film Competition! Against 27 other countries between 8am on Thursday and 5pm on Friday. Gnash! But Why Oh WHY in name of cellulite does the buggering sodding Shots party have to fall right in the middle? It’ll be so tempting…must vow to, upon landing in Nice, quickly metamorphose into perfect conscientious über-industrious party pooper with no desire to go and meet hot men and drink plush rosé on tap whatsoever.

So with only few days left… OK that’s it, I’m sorry, I’ve had enough of Bridget. It’s exhausting and it’s cluttering my train of thought. There’s just not room for three of us ladies in this blog. Sorry Bridge, you’ve got to go. And you Lol. Bye now.

Now where was I?

Yes. So, before I fly like at true easy jet setter to Cannes, I’ve been wondering how to prepare myself as much as possible for the competition. We’ve never made a 60” ad in 48 hours before, nothing even close.  We’ve done briefs with tight deadlines before but never had to also execute an idea in such little time. To make it even harder the brief we have to conquer is also always for a charity. I find doing emotive stuff really hard.

So to try and be as on fire as possible for what will probably be the most stressful 48 hours of my life, should I try and eat lots of brain enriching foods, and exercise a lot to release deep hibernating super sonic creative thoughts? Any tips welcome…

For the previous Young Lion Competitions, creative teams were asked to make a 30” ad in 48 hours. The thing is, this year we have to make a 60” second ad.
Without sounding whiney, I think the art of creating an entertaining 60” ad is much more difficult. I’ve mentioned this to a few people. A lot of people think that 60” is easier as you have longer to tell your story and don’t have to rush it. Whereas I think you have to work doubly as hard to keep people interested for longer. So in the irritating words of Carrie Bradshaw, “I couldn’t help but wonder, are 30” ads harder or easier to make than 60” ones?” What do you think?

The whole thing is about working with what you’ve got. You have to shoot it on a Nokia N95, find a suitable location in Cannes, find free actors, use little dialogue so everyone can understand it AND edit in iMovie. Have I mentioned that this has to be done in 48 hours?! There’ll be none of that sitting in The Mill eating posh sarnies. No, it’s fast-paced iMovie edits in our very own shit-to-ice-cream department, in our suite within the festival hall. It is a little strange that the competition enforces that we the creatives, have to shoot and edit our own ad as well as writing the script. Is this a good or a bad thing? I mean, in the real world that’s not how it works. Shouldn’t everyone be excellent at one or two things, rather than a jack of all trades? But maybe that is what will start to happen. Maybe that is the future. One day creative teams will become triple talented creative, director, editing teams. Should this happen or should we leave the art of directing and editing to the experts? Answers on an e-card.

We’re going to be up against 27 other countries. They look amazing, if the Nokia website is anything to go by at nseries.com/cannes. I wonder what all the other countries’ work will be like? Will their styles be really different? Knowing me I’ll get all competitive and devise ways to sabotage any of their good ideas. Maybe I should introduce them to The Gutter Bar…

The UK have never won this competition before so there’s even more pressure to this year. It goes without saying, we’d give our right boobs to win it. Lol and I have only been together for 6 months so this is the perfect chance to prove what we’re worth. Fingers crossed that a true award winning genius thought will pop into our heads at exactly 8am on Thursday morning. If not then, hey at least we got an expenses paid trip to Cannes. Thanks, IPA…

Bye for now. Will write more in Cannes.

Love,

Nat and Lolly x