Monday, April 8, 2013

The Hard Goodbye



These are the last few days I am with Media Prima.

In fact, I am scheduling this post to be published on April 8, 2013 at 12 midnight. Which means by this time, I am no longer a staff of the company. I am writing it on April 5.

I planned it so I could complete one last project for them, which culminates this weekend. Didn't feel right to leave the company half-way through what is - I believe - one of the most complicated entertainment events in Malaysia.

A million different moving parts over a six-month campaign period, servicing hundreds of thousands, and in the end millions of people.

Actually, I could have left sooner. This stage of the campaign doesn't require me at all. In fact, some of the stuff I have no knowledge of and no experience with. You ask me, and I'd be like, "Hoh?"

I don't organise events and I hate almost all aspects of events. Don't ask me to hold or organise any event whatsoever. I hate organising events and I hate filling in forms. Fucking hate that shit.

Even though I am writing this past midnight, after completing some tasks necessary for tomorrow and three days later. And I am NOT the busiest people on this project.

In the past two years with this company - the biggest media company in Malaysia, I have been intrigued by mass-online campaigns, national-level communication strategies as well as how corporate new media fits in.

I have seen many types of projects, campaigns, platforms, roles, functions, processes, tips, tricks, et cetera.

These two years completes my 10-year tour of the media industry in Malaysia. Began in 2003 with newspapers, moving on to magazines, TV, movies, newspapers again and eventually the Internet.

What is important are the thought-processes. Some people call it best practices, others call it a minor form of corporate culture - I call it 'the approach'. It is the thinking and how you think as you approach a project, and how other stakeholders think as they approach a project.

The what can be anything. The hows as well. The who is usually - in an ideal world - unnecessary and irrelevant. Unfortunately, in monkey-Malaysia, that plays a part as well. It doesn't matter to me.

So, what next? I dunno. I got some plans, and maybe a company set up, but I don't count the chickens before they hatch. Anything can happen. I am sure that at this time, even on April 8, I am still somewhere in Bukit Jalil, doing social media.

Some rest - a bit of sleep - is in order. I also booked a flight for my next vacation, but that's in May.

I made this decision also to write books. I feel compelled to go back to the stories I so loved and finally write them. I will finish my novels this year and perhaps some short stories. Short films - definitely. Movies, feature-length - I dunno.

I only want to write movies where I can have total creative control within my boundaries as a screenwriter. I also want to only do stories I want to do, unless of course, I am starving and need the money. Those stories never come out right, though.

Oh well. I dunno. I don't know what tomorrow brings. But to the folks at Media Prima, thank you so much for the experience - both good and bad. I shall use it to my advantage and let's hope we cross paths again in the future.

This is not my first goodbye, so it's not really a 'Hard Goodbye'. I put the title as that simply because it's the title of a Sin City story.

Cheers!