David Gray, CTV

About CTV:
CTV is Canada's largest private broadcaster. It has the #1 national newscast seen by over 25 million viewers each week. It's also the #1 choice for prime-time viewing.

About David Gray:

David Gray has been a Digital Sales Producer at CTV News & Entertainment since November 2011. A student from Sheridan, he first made his debut as an interactive designer with Publicist.

Notes:

-pitch yourself as much as you can.

Digital sales producer at CTV

-If you get into an agency you will work long and hard. there were some nights i was doing 15 hour days. Some people slept in the office. In this industry you either love it or hate it.

history

-started out as an interactive designer with Publicist. Worked often at banners. He became a sort of a producer, part of his job being to educate the creatives and proof final products. Title: Acting Production manager.

-Some people think banners are a waste of time. Some people think it's a boring job, but I loved it. You got to do a new project sometimes daily and you pushed out a lot of work."

-Flash is dying, there is no doubt about it. a lot of banners are starting to convert over to

HTML5. But right now, banners are mostly flash. Flash will die shortly."

- during the economic decline David was laid off as were many others in related fields.

- After this, David got into freelancing. This is where your contacts come in handy.

- Try to stay on the good side of others because you need good contacts for freelancing.

- While freelancing David got into the media side of things. He became involved with Q Media. At the time he was with Q media there were three people working for the company. 6-8 months - it just wasn't for him, so he went back to freelancing and did it for almost a year.

- if you're good and you don't mind working long hours or weird hours, then the money is great." - David on freelancing.

-landed a position with TBWA. It was a great company. For instance, every wednesday they would have guest speakers.

- budget cut again - moved on from TBWA

-one thing you have to realize, don't take things personally. Business is business. At some point it's just a big chess game.

- Now he is at CTV Bell media, once again, through a contact.

- A lot of jobs are gone before they're even out. A friend's resume gets put right to the top.

- linkedin is a very valuable resource. David found a lot of connections/ opportunities through linkedin.

Working at CTV

- David is happiest at CTV

-Publishing- he has made a 360 in his career and is not sure if he will go back to an agency.

- I'm now a delegator. My job is now to delegate work.

-Producing is a lot like project management. looking after flow of work, deadlines, production. It is project manager plus more.

- learn all you can about mobile. don't let anyone tell you that something is mobile friendly - it's either mobile or not.

-My first year I was pushing 60, 70 hours a week, working 13, 14 hour days. You've got to love it.

Final Advice

Put in the hours. Be prepared for it and push through it. I now prefer being a producer to a designer.

-Young and single is really the life of an agency

- whatever field you get into, know it.

- theFWA.com - go get your daily inspiration.

Contacting David Gray

LinkedIn: davidjjgray

Phone: 647 297 4707

email: davidgraydesign@gmail.com

Michael Gramlow, Lollipop

About Lollipop
Lollipop is an interactive, creative production company.
They provides interactive direction, full-service production management, design, animation, web and app development services to agencies that need to bring their work into the interactive environment.

Client List:

Virgin Mobile, BBDO Toronto, GSD&M, American Heritage Dictionary, Dickies, Sprint Biz360, Jack Daniels, American Express, Kia Optima, Freedom Filter, Zicam, Chevy, Sapporo Beer, Vextini

About Michael Gramlow

Michael Gramlow is the co-founder & creative director a lollipop. He works with agency creatives to translate their idea into the digital world. Michael works to direct content and manage the art direction and design of work.

Michael has also had the role of Creative Director at Organic and Dentsu.

What is lollipop?
- an interactive, creative production company.

What does that mean?
- over the past couple of years, the agency and interact world have evolved (actually completely changed)
- we saw a need for sophisticated interactive models that mirrors the broadcast production model that agencies are familiar with.


our point of view

strategy > big idea > treatment > shoot/design > edit/post > development

the industry

- this model is more prevalent i the us and europse where budgets are bigger and top-tier interactive production companies have emerged: the barbarian group, big spaceship, firstborn, EVB, north kingdom

- as the industry continues to evolve, i see three areas of opportunity for work - each requires a unique passion and skill set.

1) interactive pure play
-trend toward large scale build

2) integrated ad agency
- work tends to be creative and brand oriented

3) Production company
- works as a partner to agencies to execute work
- well-versed in production techniques
- ability to work on a broad range of clients/projects
-an emerging specialty

How it works
- the rep will give them opportunities and they have to decide if to pitch it, and then how. If they win the contract the rep gets a cut in the contract.
- lollipop has a small core staff. their work is very much project-based and they use a lot of freelance talent to ramp up and down.
-shooting something- all freelance crew.

Advice for the freelance world
- work with a company that places freelancers for exclusive engagements.

"when you finish this program, you have to work so hard to pound the payment to bug people. you've really got to make an effort to get on people's radar, even if you think you're annoying them." - Michael

"sometimes design is not just pixels on a page, it's about the experience, the emotion and the mood that you are trying to evoke." - Michael

"there is a big tendency in this business for something to go directly to the computer. storyboards are critically important, and it's important to take the time to step back and think on paper. Before you sit down and execute, get a piece of paper and get things sketched out." - Michael

Pure Black Sunshine coffee site
Sprint Bz360
- Business-to business thing
- shot on a camera call the phantom - 900 fps
- great tools, powerful video, great usability

Dickies
very cool ad - plumbing breaks down and floods site

TJ Max
- using google maps- enter an address using google maps and share a carol.
- carolers singing christmas carols in front of a googlemaps streetview.

Sapporo Beer
- travel through animated scenes composed of a mixture of live action, cgi and matte painting
- users are guided through the site unlocking scrolls to be entered to win a trip to japan

Virgin Mobile
- wanted to create a user generated site to raise money for homeless youth.
- they've raised $40,000 so far
- consumers come to the site and post a challenge
- html site with javascript, used google check out for the ecommerce dept.

Contact

439 Wellington St. West, Suite 107 Toronto, ON, M5V 1E7 Tel: 416-597-8777 Fax: 416-946-1304