Jo de Fina’s Spikes Asia Diary #2

The OTTO Empire founder and executive producer is jury president on Film Craft at Spikes Asia in Singapore. de Fina writes exclusively for Campaign Brief.

I have been in Singapore since Sunday and finally left the hotel at 8.45pm this evening.

Yup, for over 72 hours, I was in a Spikes Bubble.

This aint no party. Its serious business.

It’s deliberation and consideration and debate and agreement, and disagreement.

Today we took the shortlist and awarded metal. That’s when it gets juicy. Its also when we can finally talk and debate and discuss after a day staring at a tablet giving scores. It’s the fun bit!

It was when we broke for lunch, came back, finished judging and had to discuss Grand Prix when suddenly the tension increased.

One of the things about being in a jury, is that we’re in a little bubble in the jury room, and it’s easy to forget that once we walk out, people are going to question where we ended up.

We realised we would need to be able to back our decisions to the world outside so the tone became a little more serious. We’re setting the benchmark in the work we award.

And as Jury President, I’m representing the group.

Everyone had a say, and an intelligent view on the work. The jury system works.

Our jury is a smart, talented group and we listened and heard each other when it came to discussing the work. I had a wonderful time with them all this week and have made some great new friends.

Having jury members from the varying countries also really helps when there are cultural idiosyncrasies.

It turns out, the ‘female empowerment’ work that I had noticed a trend toward in India comes from a Government mandate for big clients to put aside budget each year for Corporate Social Responsibility work (CSR)

Suddenly all the ‘educate women’, ‘service the poor’ themes I was seeing made sense.

After several hours of deliberation, we came to a unanimous decision and it was all over. Just like that.

It was strange to walk out into the world and not be able to talk about what went on in the room. So much expectation and the awards ceremony isn’t til Friday.

Thankfully the CB party was a good distraction. Suddenly I was at Singapore’s answer to The Gutter Bar. Glasses smashing, people spilling out into the street. We could have been on the Croisette. Only we were in ChinaTown. At Gem Bar. And Vodka Tonics weren’t $50. In fact, thanks to the generosity of the sponsors, drinks were on the house.

I’m too sensible for my own good, tho.

With fierce focus on my ‘Mission’ – my ‘Boat Thingie Mission’, I knew I had to keep my wits about me for integrated Judging with all the Jury Presidents the next day so I could then embark on my journey to the bow of the boat. This Mission is garnering some interest so I now have a few people who want to join in on the ‘King of the World’ expedition……Like the pied piper I’ll be leading us all to the Marina Bay Sands.

I pulled the pin relatively early and headed back to the hotel. Ah, my safe little capsule.

I couldn’t find a cab for love nor money, but there were these strange disco vans parked along the road  – smokey, LED lighting. And a driver with a microphone. Hello! A microphone!?

That looked like an invitation to Karaoke, so in lieu of a night belting out ‘Elton John and Kiki Dee’ in a real Karaoke Bar, I decided to take myself home in my own private little karaoke world, singing ‘Islands in the Stream’ to myself at the top of my lungs as we drove through the streets of Singapore……

Sad?  Possibly. Fun? Definitely.