Alright, so I’ve been meaning to share this for a while. It’s about a “practice session” I went through, trying to nail something specific. The client, or let’s just say the brief, kept mentioning this idea: “Jessica Collins Sexy.” Yeah, you heard that right. And lemme tell ya, it sounded a lot more straightforward than it turned out to be.
So, I got to work. Fired up my setup, cleared my desk, and really tried to get into the zone. The goal was to produce something that screamed “Jessica Collins Sexy.” But what did that even mean? That was the million-dollar question. I started by thinking about lighting. Dragged out all my lamps, played with softboxes, reflectors, the whole nine yards. Spent a good few hours just on that. Moved things around, adjusted intensities, squinted at my test shots. Was this “sexy” yet? Honestly, I had no clue.
Then I moved on to the composition, the angles. Tried high shots, low shots, close-ups, wider views. Shifted the subject, tilted it, rotated it. Each time, I’d step back and think, “Is this the ‘Jessica Collins’ part? Or is this the ‘sexy’ part?” It felt like shooting in the dark, literally and figuratively sometimes. The feedback I was getting, or the internal monologue, was just a loop of “not quite.”
This Whole Thing Kinda Reminded Me…
You know, this whole wild goose chase for “Jessica Collins Sexy” really threw me back to an old job I had. That’s where I really learned my lesson about these vague, artsy-fartsy buzzwords people throw around. Let me tell you about it.
I was working for this company, pretty big place, or so it seemed. We were on this massive project, super high stakes, everyone was stressed. My manager at the time, oh boy, he was obsessed with making everything “pop” and have “pizzazz.” His version of “sexy,” I guess. He’d come over, look at my work, and just say, “Needs more pizzazz!” What on earth is pizzazz in a spreadsheet, right? But that was the kind of direction we got.
So, I busted my tail on that project. Late nights, takeout food, the classic grind. I kept trying to deliver that “pizzazz.” I tweaked designs, re-wrote copy, made endless revisions based on this vague idea. Then, out of nowhere, the whole project got axed. Upper management stuff. All that work, all that “pizzazz,” just gone. Poof.
And the worst part? My manager, instead of, you know, being a decent human, kinda implied that maybe if my part had more of that magic “pizzazz,” things might’ve been different. Can you believe the nerve? After I practically lived in the office trying to figure out what he even wanted!
I was so done after that. I actually quit not long after. Took some time off, did some soul-searching. Realized I couldn’t work like that, chasing ghosts and undefined adjectives. It’s just a recipe for burnout and making stuff nobody really understands or wants.
So, back to this “Jessica Collins Sexy” practice. After a few days of banging my head against the wall, I just stopped. I told them, “Look, I need something more concrete. What exactly are we aiming for here?” Because otherwise, it’s just me wasting time and you not getting what you think you want.
It’s way better to build something solid, something clear, even if it doesn’t have some fancy, made-up “sexy” label. That’s my takeaway. That’s the practice that stuck. Funny thing is, I heard that old manager is still at it, probably still asking folks for “pizzazz.” And I bet they’re still wondering what the heck he means, just like I was. Some things never change, huh?
