The nice chaps at The Short Form Film Company have a paid internship available for those interested in film and social media.

The internship runs from June 1st to August 31st 2012.

Below are the full details:

The Short Form Film Company is a creative production company based in the heart of London. We are currently working for our client, The Weather Channel on a series of films and viral content.

3 month placement:

• We are looking for a UK film maker / social media expert to perform day to day filming and social media functions for our client, The Weather Channel in the UK.

• We require a dexterous and skilled candidate to work for and with us for three months from June 1^st – August 31^st

This will be to produce and co-ordinate, as well as film and work closely with us and our client, within our strategy and instruction, to deliver content for The Weather Channel.

The candidate will be expected to shoot, edit, and upload the films to the facebook page. They will also be in control of the twitter link and have direct contact with The Weather Channel in Atlanta.

Where possible we will help negotiate access to the events in co-ordination from the production office.  It may be that you have to film in a guerilla fashion around the event as there often exclusive filming rights. eg. Wimbledon, Glastonbury.

We will look to you to film in queues, local shops, markets gathering all the local information that you, The Weather Channel reporter, can connect to. Or you may come up with better ideas!

• Our ideal candidate will be a budding film maker and understand the process of making film content.

• Our ideal candidate will have a thorough understanding of social media.

• Our ideal candidate would also be expected to touch base regularly with The Weather Channel team in Atlanta in accordance with our head office here in London.

The contractor / intern would be based out of the our London Office and have access to all our editing and creative facilities.

All expenses will be paid and other payment tbc.

Please contact the following email with your CV and any other relevant material supporting your abilities and experience to;

lee@shortformfilm.com

Good luck!

I wish my science lessons at school had explained things in this way…

Pablo Picasso

Art is a lie that makes us realise the truth – Pablo Picasso

Summer is nearly here (although you wouldn’t know it yet!), which means it’s Festival Time! Last year we gave away tickets to Wireless, Reading, and Strawberry Fields and this year we’ll hopefully be adding to that list. Last summer some of the guys ended up backstage with the artists and even appeared on the BBC!

Prize

The person/s who come up with the best idea for this week’s brief will get into Reading Festival for Free, and be given the full support of The Bigger Idea staff to bring your idea to life! If you are working on your own you will be able to bring a friend (for free), and if you are working in a pair then you will both be able to get in for free.

The festival takes place from 24th to 26th of August and includes acts such as theFoo Fighters, Kasabian, and Florence And The Machine. You can see the full lineup here.

To see the rest of the brief and claim your chance to win the free tickets, sign up for our live briefs by clicking here

Good luck!

Tim Ferriss - Best-selling American author

That’s precisely the question everyone should be asking- why the hell not?  Why not you, why not now? – Time Ferriss

Dan Pink - Used to be Al Gore's speech-writer.

Here’s the first installment of a great set of videos from Dan Pink about the importance of creativity. Dan’s an excellent speaker, it’s no surprise he used to be the speech writer for the presidential candidate Al Gore.

The rest of the videos can be found here

Here at The Bigger Idea we’re big fans of the Khan Academy. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s an online resource of free tutorial videos that all started when Salman Kahn wanted to help his young cousin, who lived on the other side of the US, with her shcool work. His video tutorials have now been viewed more than 125 million times!

On the site we came across the following brainteaser which drove us all completely nuts until someone cracked it (excuse the pun).

See how long it takes you to complete it, or to sneak a peak at the answer!

Andy Roddick - American tennis star

“At one point in your life you either have the thing you want or the reasons why you don’t”

Andy Roddick

There was a great article in Wired magazine this month about the new rules of creativity for the modern age. According to a survey of 1500 chief executives from across the world, the most important skill they seek in employees is creativity!

Here are Wired’s tips for increasing your creativity:

1. Paint the walls blue

It’s been scientifically proven that blue colours bring out our creativity far more than red colours. Perhaps that’s where the phrase ‘blue sky thinking’ comes from.

2. Take more breaks

Another scientific study has shown that taking a break after generating ideas makes you far better at spotting the best ones when you return to the task.

3. Think like a child

In this study, a group was told ‘You are seven years old, school is cancelled. You have the whole day to yourself. What do you do?’ and another group was told the same thing but without the first sentence. The two groups were then given creative tasks and those that had been thinking like a seven year old, far outperformed the others (almost twice as well).

4. Watch more comedy

Happy people are more creative. Fact. Even a brief jolt of happiness such as watching a great comedy can bring about a spike in creativity.

5. Embrace your constraits

Ever found how creative you get just before a deadline? That’s the power of constraits on the creative process. Set yourself rules, deadlines, and boundaries and creativity can flourish.

6. Don’t brainstorm

Research has shown over and over again that brainstorming ideas isn’t a particularly productive approach. It’s far better to develop ideas alone and then pool your ideas together and debate them as a group.

6. Work with strangers, but not too strange

A sociologist from the US measured a factor of collaboration he called ‘Q’, groups that know each other really well have a high Q factor, groups that barely know each other have a low Q factor. When measuring the success of music productions he found that groups with a very low Q factor performed poorly but there came a point where the Q factor became too high and the results started to drop. So it seems that it’s best to work in groups that have some familiarity, but not too much.

7. Prepare to improvise

Lose your inhibitions and let your creativity off the leash. Improvise as you go, building on each idea as if layering them on top of each other.

Maison Martin Margiela's current website

Maison Martin Margiela is one of my favourite brands mainly because I am a sucker for a good brand story. And boy, does Margiela have a great story. Martin Margiela is a  conceptual fashion designer from Belgium. He went to Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, where many of the best Belgian designers have been (the mighty Dries van Noten and Ann Demeulemeester to name a few) and became an assistant to Jean-Paul Gaultier before launching Maison Martin Margiela in 1989.

The reason for talking about a fashion brand on our blog is that Margiela has one of the most interesting branding strategies that has resulted in it becoming an established fashion brand with a growing cult following.

'Meet the team' as part of their incognito philoshpy the design team has remained nameless

Maison Martin Margiela’s success lies in their concept that they have figured out down to every minute detail. Everything from their fashions, logo, retail spaces, online presence, advertising and even packaging follows the same philosophy and vision – impeccable quality, design, unity and simplicity.

Martin Margiela, the mastermind behind the brand, is an illusive figure in the fashion world and has remained unavailable to reporters for the duration of his career and only a couple of photos exists of him on the internet. Being a public figure and having just a couple of photos of yourself on the internet is quite remarkable these days, don’t you agree?

By keeping a low profile he has created an aura of mystery to Maison Martin Margiela. This also echos in the branding- for the first ten years they had no labels sewn on the garments. Martin explained that the reason was that it wasn’t just him designing the garment but the whole team was involved. Only in the last 10 years the brand has started putting four stitches on the back of the unlined garments and accessories.

Margiela's label is four stitches at the back of the unlined garments

To follow the incognito philophy Margiela have their boutiques hidden away from the main streets and boulevards where their competitors are. This way the customer has to look for them and go out of their way to find Margiela.

The stores are plain white and the only sign outside is their numeric trademark with ranges from 0-23 that each stands for a line of wardrobes for men, women, accessories, sunglasses etc. The buildings are chosen based on their historic relevance and very little modification to the interior is made to sustain its original integrity. The retail spaces have extensive use of mirrors and white colour that is the signature to their brand.

Margiela stores are hidden away from the main streets and can be recognised by the 0-23 sign

Margiela's staff always wear white robes that identifies them as part of the same team

Back in 1989 when the Maison started doing runway shows it was quite scandalous as they didn’t have a seating chart and thus ignoring the hierarchy of fashion where VIP’s sit in the front row. With MMM it was on the first come first serve basis. To continue the brands values of incognito the models walking down the runway have masks to cover their faces.

Following the brands philosophy even models walking the runway remain nameless

The invitations to the fashion shows have also been very bizarre and very true to the brand.

Even fashion show invitations don't luck the creativity

The brand never had any advertisements in any magazines or billboards. They introduced their first advert in 2010 with thier first fragrance, and yet stayed true to their manifesto and didn’t have a celebrity backing their product and let the product speak for itself.

Advert for their first fragrance. True to form the Maison named their first fragrance 'untitled'

Margiela’s brand has consistency throughout everything they do. For them it is important to have their own voice in every aspect of the product and service. It is truly fascinating how without any print advertising the brand has grown in its size and reach. They open shops around the world and are adding homeware and perfumery to their long list of collections.

Using pull strategy rather than push like Prada or Marc Jacobs with their billboards and magazine ads, Margiela hasn’t advertised and grew their cult following for their brand by originality and quality of the garments and incognito mystery.