6/21/2010

Significant Intern Moment #4: Some like it corny

You may or may not be wondering what exactly happened next in the Scriptwriting Sink or Swim. I’ll tell you anyway. I swam. And I paddled and floated right into the next Significant Moment.

You see, what happens after you read your scripts aloud to the room is that every person at the table takes a turn to critique each script. And this is when the opening line of one of my scripts was raved over by half the room (“Perfect opening line!” “Makes me hungry!” “Takes me right there!”) and hated and spat upon by the other half. One of those being the copywriting creative director who has a reputation of telling it like it is and who I’m pretty sure, wanted to throw up right there in the room. Something about the corniest, cheesiest line ever – one that reeked of advertisingese.

And while he was losing his breakfast in the corner, I was glowing. I’d polarized the room! Hell yeah.

Significant Intern Moment #3: Scriptwriting Sink or Swim

In all the time I was in school, learning how to create ads, I wrote one TV spot. More print ads than I can count, a whole lot of non-traditional placements, some online pieces, a few radio spots and one TV spot. And I believe my teacher’s comment was something like, “How is this interesting?”

So when I got my first TV assignment about a month into my internship and found out that the first creative internal would be in two days, I felt a tiny bit out of my element.

And when the team called me two hours before the internal was scheduled to start and told me that they were just going to go ahead and start NOW instead, I felt a whole lot out of my element. So without any time to ask anybody how one was supposed to present a TV script in a professional agency, I walked into the room. And with this being one of the agency’s biggest clients, that room was pretty bloody full. A few planners, a few managers, the principal on the account and the two creative directors on the account. And me, the clueless intern clutching three raw TV scripts in hand, waiting for my cue to present, and acting as if my brain wasn’t screaming: OMG, I DON’T KNOW WHAT THE HELL I’M DOING. HOLY CRAP, HOLY CRAP, HOLY CRAP!

And that, y’all, was how my 2nd, 3rd and 4th TV scripts met the world.



Also, I’m not going to lie. I LOVED it. This kind of delicious adrenaline being a performance major’s crack and all (not the right reason to choose a degree in music, by the way.)

Significant Intern Moment #2: Crickets and Tumbleweeds

On the very same day that those first headlines were slaughtered , I was at the internal creative review for that same client – an internal creative review being the equivalent of portfolio class at school except that my words and ideas were up to be crucified by real-life creative directors plus account managers and planners.

So there I sat as the principal account manager peered at one of my headlines and said, “I love the thought, but the line… it just doesn’t have enough… something.” Not to be daunted, I said, “I have more.”

And the wonderful, wonderful copywriting creative director that was working with me on this project said, “Yes, yes. She has more. Let’s let her read them.”

At which time the entire team turns, looks and listens expectantly. The newest little copywriting intern at the center of attention and the wonderful, wonderful copywriting CD nodding encouragingly.

So I read one.

Silence.

I read another.

Silence.

I read two or three more in a row without pause. Crickets. Tumbleweeds. And more crickets.

And that afternoon, my skin proudly grew one more layer.