Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Animator Indonesia Ikut Garap Film Tintin

Dia menggarap adegan paling banyak, 70 shot.

RABU, 14 DESEMBER 2011, 13:38 WIB

Denny Armandhanu, Indrani Putri

The Adventures of Tintin : The Secret of the Unicorn (us.movie.tintin.com)

VIVAnews - Film animasi 'Adventures of Tintin: Secret of The Unicorn' menuai sukses besar setelah ditayangkan di berbagai negara. Siapa sangka, salah satu animator yang ikut membidani film ini ternyata seorang wanita asal Indonesia.

Wanita bernama Rini Sugianto ini mengaku, kecintaannya pada Tintin membuatnya rela meninggalkan rumahnya di California untuk pindah ke Selandia Baru begitu mendapat tawaran. "Sayagrew up dengan Tintin, sewaktu masih kecil baca Tintin terus. Akhirnya saya tak bisa menolak dan pindah ke sini tahun kemarin," kata animator WETA Digital Selandia Baru ini, seperti diberitakanVoice of America pekan lalu.

Dari beberapa animator yang terlibat dalam proses produksi, Rini adalah animator yang menggarap adegan paling banyak, sejumlah 70 shot. Sebuah pengalaman yang menyenangkan buat Rini, yang baru kali pertama terlibat dalam penggarapan film layar lebar Hollywood.

Walaupun Tintin disutradari oleh Steven Spielberg, Rini mengaku belum pernah sekalipun bertatap muka dengan sutradara kondang itu. “Seminggu sekali, ada director review lewat video conference. Jadi melihatnya hanya dari video saja,” kata pemegang gelar Master dari Academy of Arts di San Francisco, California.

Walau bukan penikmat film, namun Rini berujar orangtuanya bangga menyaksikan nama putri mereka muncul di akhir film sekaliber Tintin. Selama ini, orangtuanya memang mendukung penuh dirinya dalam karir dan kehidupan.

“Mereka mendukung sewaktu saya sekolah dan waktu saya ngambil keputusan untuk sekolah lagi di bidang animasi, dan orang tua saya waktu itu sama sekali tak mengerti animasi itu apa. Tapi, mereka percaya kalau pilihan Rini akan membuat Rini bahagia. Mereka mendukung penuh mulai dari bayar sekolah sampai mencari pekerjaan,” ceritanya.

Saat ini, Rini sedang menggarap animasi untuk film Hollywood lain, The Avengers. Ia berpesan bagi animator lain di Indonesia untuk tidak pernah putus asa dalam menggapai cita-cita karena lama-lama akan terbuka peluang jika mau terus belajar. (eh)

• VIVAnews

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Could Modern Anti-Psychotic and Antidepressant Medications Steal a Society's Passion for the Arts?

By Don V Standeford

Would modern mental health medicines have robbed us of our greatest works of literature had they existed hundreds of years in the past? This thought causes a chill to travel up the spine of most literature lovers. You get this feeling that all of history exists on a long thread that extends from our lives at this moment to five-thousand years ago. One small mess-up could snap that thread, kicking us back into the stone-age.
On the surface this thought seems logical. Take, for example, Walt Whitman. That remarkable poet lived his whole life at the very edge of a precipice. From that high point he could view whole worlds and shout back to us in poetic verse the wonders he saw. That same strange communication with nature showed itself elsewhere in his family. It unfortunately spiraled out of control in his brother, taking him past that breach that separates the sane from the insane. Walt Whitman's brother had to be locked up in a special room of the house to keep him from hurting himself or others.
So what if you take Walt Whitman and give him an anti-psychotic? Maybe he sits by the window all day and internalize nature's wondrous beauty but never lifts his hand to pick up a pen. He may be more interested in keeping track of his finances or cultivating friendships. He may even set his mind on developing connections with people in high places who could give him a hand up into high society and big business. He works hard to get rich then disappears from history, only to reappear here and there as a drone. Is his famous book of poems, 'Leaves of Grass,' ever written? These verses never had a chance to be formed except in his mind. Thank modern medicine. Now it has punctured a hole into history.
So is the theory proven? Surely Mother Nature can put up more of a fight than that. Perhaps she can fight back through this scientific principle called 'displacement.' We see displacement at work in nature on a daily basis though we may not recognize what is at work behind the scenes. Ever wonder what happened at your place of employment after you quit and moved on to another company? You might have thought you were irreplaceable, but chances are they found another competent worker to fill your position. This principle of displacement is at work everywhere. You get up to refill your plate at Thanksgiving and another relative is there to steal your seat. If you were to be incinerated, a rush of air would quickly fill the ridiculously small vacuum you left behind.
So maybe Walt Whitman wasn't around to write 'Leaves of Grass.' But say he feels sorry for his brother and makes an extra trip to the pharmacy to fill a prescription for the poor guy. Excited about the new status of his mental health, he's ready to heal everyone. Or maybe he just doesn't want to be saddled down with a crazy brother that can't take care of even his own basic needs. So he starts popping these wonderful anti-psychotic pills into his brother's babbling and foaming lips each night before he goes to sleep.
The anti-psychotic pills normalize Walt Whitman so he doesn't write poetry. Now he is just another cell in the anonymous wall of humankind. Walt's brother is far sicker than Walt and can't normalize from the pills completely. He does normalize enough to be let loose from his prison. This once insane man, who we will call 'Walt Whitman II,' is apt to still be sick, but not near as sick as he has been his whole life.
So the original Walt goes on his merry way, happy to live a peaceful and normal existence. His brother though shaves off his toe-length beard while he draws little pictures on his foggy mirror. He also jots down little observations that fill him with curiosity. He picks up one of his brother's notebooks, dusts it off, and starts to record his unique view of nature in a rambling and friendly literary voice.
So Walt Whitman II steps into Walt Whitman I's shoes. Walt Whitman I just disappears into oblivion. He's more concerned with his job, house and significant other than etching poetry onto the word pressed leaves of his diary. Bingo! This is cause-effect watching its own back. History and the integrity of literature are saved.

Why Is It Important to Understand the Retail Marketing Merchandising Definition?

By Joshua See

What is the retail marketing merchandising definition and why is it important for every professional retailer to be familiar with it? Understanding the concepts of retail marketing and retail merchandising is vital to ensure the success of any retail business since it involves not only choosing the right types of products to sell but also how to promote them to your customers.
Retail merchandising involves the whole process of conducting retail sales, starting from choosing which products will appear on your store's shelves, deciding how best to market these to consumers as well as pricing decisions. Retail marketing, on the other hand, focuses only on how best to reach the target customers in order to interest them in buying your products and can involve processes such as product promotion.
Once you have a clear idea of what is the retail marketing merchandising definition, you can start applying your understanding of these concepts to create specific plans to achieve your retail goals. For example, you can draw up a merchandising plan by first doing a study of what products are available on the market that may be appropriate to be sold in your store and then establishing relationships with the suppliers of these products to get the most favorable price based on the volume of goods you will buy. Once you have arranged a regular supply of products to sell, you will have to determine the unit price you will sell them for that will ensure that your store makes a profit. There are a number of ways of setting unit prices, including adding a certain percentage above the unit acquisition price to looking at the demand for the product vs. the supply in the immediate area and setting the price accordingly.
Once you have determined the unit selling price and have the products on your shelves, it is time to promote them to your customers. This can involve moves such as initially offering the product at a lower price as an incentive for people to try it out, setting up attractive displays in the stores to make people aware of the new product and its benefits and favorable placement within the store. An example is if the product may be placed near the checkout counters so that people would impulsively add it to their purchases as they are checking out. All of these plans are an important part of the concrete application of the retail marketing merchandising definition in a real-world retail setting.

You must learn more about Online Marketing and other top ways of developing your Personal Marketing Strategies in order to benefit from the understanding of Retail Marketing Merchandising Definition.

Retail Point Of Sale Systems Allow Absolute Control Over Sales And Inventory

By Sarah Shore

Setting up a retail business, be it a single store or a multitude of them, needs proper operations and management to make it work. This means setting up a system that will make the management tasks easier for both the owner and the employees. Two of the most demanding tasks in any type of business involve keeping track of the sales and inventory.
Traditionally, store owners tasked their employees to daily monitor the sales made and counter check the rest of the inventory left on the shelves and storeroom. Most times there was difficulty in the monitoring. Getting the numbers balanced is a difficult thing to do, especially when there are sales that have not been entered or the number of items sold does not correspond with money in the register. Sweating it out is no longer an option. The best thing to get the operations run smoothly and efficiently is to invest in software that will make easy work of this issue.
Automated Sales and Inventory Tracking
Today, the most efficient retail store, no matter if the store sells pink or green widgets, is one that uses an automated system. Usually the software is installed into the current system that the store uses. This system is then linked with all of the other important systems in the store, like the cash register.
Every time a customer lines up to pay for their items, the machine will automatically register the number of items sold and automatically calculate the inventory. This means that all throughout the day, the machine continuously keeps track of both the sales and the inventory tasks. All the management team has to do now is to eye-ball the items left on the shelves and storage to find out if the numbers balance out.
Automated Tracking Means Less Pilferage
One of the worst offenses in a retail shop is pilferage. This can be easily done if there is no automated system to rely on. For one thing, it takes a lot of man hours to keep track of all of the sales and inventory. The delay in the manual tracking will allow more and more individuals to pilfer what is on store. With the automated system, the tracking is instantaneous and the man hours spent on the tracking can be dropped to as much as 70%. This is great savings and will result to a more efficient work space. This will also result to instantly have information if the numbers do not add up.
Innovation Technology And The Internet
For the store owners who have more than one store, this system can also be of full use. Using a software that can handle multiple stores and internet tracking, the store owner does not have to be physically present in their stores to track the sales and inventory. In fact, they do not even have to be in the same country for the internet will make it easy for them to track their stores. All they need to do in click on the specified option, key in their password and they immediately gain access to their individual store records, on real time. The internet has made the lives of store owners and managers more flexible, giving more time to focus on the marketing of their stores to attract more customers.
This system is also highly efficient for the online store or multiple stores. All the web owner has to do is click on the system and they track their online stores and their respective sales and inventory tasks. At the push of the button, they can see for themselves what is going on in terms of sales. With a click of the button, they can immediately identify if they need to order in more supplies to keep their inventory up. This makes the operations and management of the stores efficient and smooth like a well-oiled machine. When looking to invest into a retail point of sale software, it would not matter if it deals with a single shop EPOS or a multi site EPOS, what is important is using the right tools and knowing how to use them.

Documentary Budgeting Basics: Three Easy Steps For Creating Your Documentary Budget

By Faith Fuller

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Creating a documentary budget is great way to think through every aspect of your film. Even though you may be eager to get started shooting your documentary right away, creating a budget can often be an enlightening experience, revealing factors that may otherwise slip under the radar. A budget forces you to think through every detail and can save you the agony of an unexpected surprise down the road.
In addition to being a great tool for the filmmaker, a documentary budget is essential if you hope to raise money for your film. A budget is usually a must-have item along with your documentary proposal when pitching your documentary idea to potential funders or supporters. A documentary budget provides an important snapshot of how you plan to shoot your film, the locations where filming will take place, how many people are involved in the project, what kind of equipment you're using and your distribution plan among other things.
Whereas your documentary proposal describes the story and vision for how your documentary will look on screen, the budget is your nuts and bolts plan behind the scenes.
Here are the three primary steps in creating a documentary budget:

Research - This is THE most important aspect of creating your budget. Without research, you have a blank slate. This is where you need to make phone calls, search the internet and ask for advice. You'll need to decide such things as what kind of insurance (if any) you need, how much a van rental will cost in the city you'll be shooting, how much your cameraman charges for three days of work, what's the cost of renting a lighting kit, what does the animation guy charge, will you need to pay copyright fees for stock footage, etc.

Build Your Budget - It's highly recommended that you use a spreadsheet program such as Excel or get your hands on a documentary budgeting template. You can certainly jot down your budget items using a plain text document, but this is not a professional (or efficient) way to do a budget. Having a spreadsheet with formulas allows you to make changes to individual items and it automatically updates the totals for the whole budget. As you conduct your research, begin inputting the various budget items including crew salaries, production equipment rental, stock footage fees, administrative costs, etc. Input everything you can think of!

Refine Your Budget - Once you've created your budget, you will surely be shocked by the final total cost. At this point, you will need to refine your budget to come up with a realistic final cost. Ask yourself the amount of money you realistically believe you can raise for your project? If you think you can raise $10,000 and your budget came out to $250,000, then you will need to make some hard decisions. Is there anything in your budget that is not an absolutely necessity? Or is there a way to get some items donated?

Creating your documentary budget is not a one-time event. The budget will need to be constantly updated and modified as you go.
One item you'll want to include in your budget is a contingency (usually 8-10% of your total budget). This is especially helpful if you're new to budgeting. A contingency provides a buffer in case items in your budget end up costing more than you expected.
In summary, if you are pitching your documentary idea to potential funders and trying to raise money for your film, you will more than likely need a detailed budget. It's absolutely critical that you create a budget that is as realistic and accurate as possible. Since many of your funders will be business-minded individuals, they will know if you fudged on your numbers. So do your research and put together the best possible budget that you can. As the filmmaker, you are probably eager to start shooting and making your film, but taking the time to think through every detail of your budget will pay off in the end.

Growth Strategies for 2012 and Beyond

By Janet Boulter

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Now is the time to develop (or update) your strategic growth plan. While nobody has a crystal ball, positioning your company to be flexible and ready to capitalize on strategic opportunities, while growing your primary business sector is the key to succeeding in 2012 and beyond. The two most important strategies are flexibility and adaptability. In order to create both, consider the following suggestions:
• Focus on your company's vision and mission. Are your company's growth projections in alignment with your vision and mission? Do your leadership team and your employees understand your organization's commitment to realizing the goals? If you are not 100% confident, re-energize your team to get focused and get back on track.
• Review your company's core values and perform an integration analysis. Are your business practices in alignment with your company's values? Does your company live those values with your customers, employees and vendors? If yes, celebrate and if no, work on getting on track quickly.
• Develop several business scenarios that could be realized during the next three years. Focus primarily on the economy, globalization, technology, workforce and financing. Use these scenarios during your strategic planning sessions.
• Create a strategic plan (with realistic assessments) of where your company is and where you want your company to be in the next three years. Include strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in all primary facets of your organization. Consider getting a wide variety of feedback and input from various audiences. Review the feedback, decide which you want to integrate, what you will put on the shelf and discard the ones that don't work for your organization.
• Re-assess your company's goals against your strategic plan and create quarterly milestones to achieve those goals. Primarily focus on financials, operations, performance, employee engagement and customer retention.
• Perform a competitive analysis, looking at traditional and upcoming competitors as well as possible disruptive threats. Unlike traditional advisors, we advocate using your competitor analysis more from an industry perspective rather than copying or stealing from your competitors.
• Commit to innovating your product and services. Target a few key areas to improve and be sure there is measurable value in your improvements. Changing for the sake of changing without realized benefits will only derail your plan and de-motivate your employees and your customers. What can each person/group/profit center do to "stretch" beyond the norm? Create an action plan, measure the results and celebrate your accomplishments. Then commit to tackling the next area of be improved and developed.
• Create specific action plans, develop metrics and implement accountability processes to strengthen your weaknesses, bridge the gaps, manage and capitalize on the risks, and take advantage of the opportunities and strengths that both your company and the economy offer!
We are all learning to live in and succeed in this new world order. Concentrate on how you can organize your staff and your operations, to be energized and responsive to the fast-paced opportunities as they arise (or you create them).
Remember, the key to capitalizing on opportunities is to be prepared, the more planning, the more preparation the greater your company's chance of success. Start planning now for how your company is going to grow and succeed!

As business advisors, Center Consulting Group specializes in working with businesses and organizations focused on improving their business practices. Proven results include increasing profits, reducing employee turnover, increasing client retention, and improving quality and productivity through strategic initiatives. Services offered: consulting, training, seminars, and keynote speeches.

The Art of Brand Equity Management: Slow and Steady Wins the Race

By Craig D Johnson

Organizations that are looking to make a perceptual change through a rebrand initiative, but are concerned about throwing the baby out with the bath water (loosing current brand equity or loyal customers in the process), can successfully manage their brand equity by embarking on a slow and gradual rebranding process. Consumers are oftentimes confused and alienated by sudden changes in a brand. Slowly introducing a new or modified brand, however, gives the consumer time to understand the changes while at the same recognizing the familiar aspects of the original brand that they were loyal to in the first place. Whether it's a merger or rebrand, preserving positive brand equity is a key factor in a successful change of brand perception. Applying effective equity management is a lengthy and at times laborious process, but two companies in particular, Xfinity and Apple, have mastered that process and provide a clear example of the effectiveness of gradual change.
In terms of a rebrand initiative, Comcast's transition to Xfinity provides a great case study of how gradual change can take a well known brand and effectively turn it into an entirely new one. While this transition is not fully resolved just yet, they have done a fantastic job with taking a brand with a great deal of name recognition and transitioning it to a previously unknown new name. We all know the less than stellar customer service reputation Comcast is known for, so they created "Xfinity" as a premium product that would eventual envelop the parent name to bypass that negative perception in the marketplace. They have masterfully and slowly made us comfortable with seeing Xfinity on their vans, repair tech's shirt, and even the homepage URL with each calculated rollout phase.
While Comcast's rebrand seeks to change a negative perception, Apple's gradual rebrand sought to expand consumer's perception of the company from just a computer company to that of an innovative technology company. The initiative led Apple to drop the term "Computers" from their company name and simply become "Apple". In addition to their new single word name, Apple also transitioned its logo from the traditional rainbow apple to that of more modern silver. Since the rebrand, they've successfully moved into the portable music player, smart phone, and tablet categories, now accounting for the majority of the company's revenue.
Whenever an organization embarks on a rebranding initiative, it would do well to remember that the most effective strategy is one that brings about change slowly and deliberately. Changing a logo or brand quickly will often result in nothing but confusion. Slowing changing a logo over several months or years or combining an old and new brand name for a while before dropping the old one is without a doubt the most effective method of ensuring that consumers understand and respond appropriately to the change. Great brands are not built overnight and neither are successful rebrands. Great things do indeed take time and companies should not be approaching the process as a sprint. After all, slow and steady usually wins the race.

About the author:
Craig Johnson is the chief strategist and co-founder of Matchstic, a premier brand identity house. His Atlanta branding agency helps organizations create passionate brands that are memorable, relevant, and lasting. Specializing in brand development through strategy, positioning, business & product naming and brand identity services, Matchstic's brand architects forge positive change and accomplish business objectives through creative thinking and smart design.

A Brand Agency Needs Core Competencies in Multiple Media

By Charles Elena

A Brand Agency aims to develop a brand in-line with the brand strategy. The brand creative (graphic devices, key headlines, color and imagery) need to be consistent in execution for the strategy to take effect, to achieve this, an agency needs skill sets across online and print media.
If your company is sending out clean, consistent messages through multiple forms of media, the chances of engaging a customer through clear brand messaging is much greater.
Charles Elena Design is a creative multi-disciplined agency with expertise in both online and print media. Boasting a well-rounded team of brand strategists, corporate identity designers, web developers and designers and email marketers, Charles Elena has helped many Australian and International brands to achieve corporate goals through consistency of design.
The Method
As a multi-disciplined agency Charles Elena realizes that not every brand is the same. Our brand strategy experts carefully analyze past campaigns, customer and market data before building a brand architecture that takes into account the core message of your brand. Once the core message is developed, our strategy experts will then work on:
• Brand position in the market
• Current identity analysis (visual audit)
• Brand personality and tone
The master brand strategy
For companies with multiple products or services various master strategies can be utilized. This involves creating an overarching "master" brand look and feel, with sub-brands that have a unified "family" look in relation to the master brand. Our brand strategists work closely with creative corporate identity designers to ensure the message and display are consistent with business objectives.
Consistency of design
Achieving consistency of design amongst multiple advertising mediums can be a challenge when using different agencies for each media type. Luckily, Charles Elena Design is a multi-disciplined agency with a well-rounded team with expertise in both online and print media, including:
• Web design
• Web development
• Graphic design
• Email Campaign Management
• Banner ad and landing page creation
• Newspaper and magazine advertising
• Flyers and newsletters
• Annual reports
• SEO and SEM
• Internal templates and letters
• Copy-writing and editing
• Graphic Design Studio
In today's global marketplace, having a consistent and wide spread presence is rewarding. A company's ability to create positive and indelible impressions of its brand is critical for its survival. 'What does not meet the eyes doesn't get sold' and this is why you should choose a brand management company with a proven work record to establish your brand with our expert brand strategist.

Charles Elena Design has its domain expertise in developing brand strategy for start up companies, enterprises and corporate. We create lasting brand impressions for our client company with consistent brand campaigns. View our work samples on http://www.charleselena.com.au/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Charles_Elena

A Question of Art and the Human Brain

By Juliette Traversen

In some way art has been an almost essential part of our culture since our long distant ancestors drew the very first shapes, from the moment the first cave drawings of people and animals were etched onto rock as long as 35,000 thousand years ago. And a question we should be asking ourselves is what exactly is the reason we all visit art galleries and museums? Well it turns out that this love affair with art, is in fact an affair not complete removed from love itself.
Some people would admit that they buy art simply because enjoy it. Well believe it or not, it has now been proven. Consistent with research conducted recently taking a look at brain activity utilizing a MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scanner, people have the same amount of gratification from thinking about an item of art as they do from taking a look at someone they love.
Many individuals might acknowledge they buy art because they really like it. Well the truth is, this has actually been proven. As outlined by a the latest study investigating brain processes using an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scanner, men and women feel the same amounts of joy from looking at a piece of fine art as they do from thinking about another person they love.
The analysis was completed in the UK, with a lot of people working together. Contributors were randomly picked, but had little previous knowledge of art, thus bypassing a bias in preference of a specific style or whether a special artist is in style or otherwise.
The research workers identified the circulation of blood in people's brains at the same time they looked over thirty distinct paintings, and were surprised to observe a notable increase in the circulation of blood in the brain in its happiness / reward centers, pretty much instantly.
It is proof that backs up people when they say they 'love' looking at artwork, now there is a research-based study to compliment it. So there you have it, art is proven to make you feel like you're in love, which in turn is good for your quality of life. So why not put money into some very nice art to decorate your house, and recognize that you are also experiencing the advantages of receiving a manageable brain boost daily? As the saying goes, cash can't buy you true love, but it can buy you art, and that is clinically not a incredibly long way away!
For the benefit of anyone that wants to buy art, there are lots of places, for example a gallery or a local art fair. If you do not like the idea of leaving your house to shop for art, there are plenty of great options that allow you to buy art online.
Several large online galleries and marketplaces sell art online, and offer work by hundreds of artists with thousands of pieces to choose from, all of which you can browse from the comfort of home. Buying art online also allows offers the additional benefit that you can buy art direct from the artist, which saves the significant commissions a traditional gallery will charge.
But the all important thing to remember above all else is to choose a piece you really love, and then anytime you look at it, you will reap the rewards! In doing this you will be setting yourself up for a rewarding experience buying art.

Would you be interested in learning more about buying art online or selling art online? Artweb.net offers benefits for both buyers and artists including 0% commissions on all sales and lots of tools to make it easier to buy art or sell art online than ever before!

Nightclub Business Plans For Entrepreneurs

By Branislav Kirilov

Having the very best nightclub business plan is an integral part of making sure that your new nightclub is a success. It is actually among the initial duties you need to do just before you start off preparing anything else. Nightclubs can be quite profitable. Having said that, like restaurants, tons of them go down each and every day due to whether incomplete nightclub business plans or no strategy whatsoever. The greatest mistake one can make is thinking that you do not need a strategy to open up a new nightclub. Individuals will not just happen pouring in when the doorways open. Even if they do, that is no guarantee that the nightclub would be a success.
The initial thing you need to take into account when compiling the proper nightclub business plan is to remember that it is easy to be a part of everything. It is possible to plan the way the bar will be run, it is possible to plan how the dance floor will be laid out, and it is possible to even plan where the lights will go and how they will shine. Not only that, but you can incorporate the DJs you employ and their equipment into the nightclub business plan as well. If you intend to offer food, the objectives can involve provisions for the kitchen too. The objectives can also consist of hiring somebody else to do all of these things. Delegating duties is solely up to you.
Naturally, there exist also some other things to take into account when writing up the nightclub business plans. For instance, you will have to consider how you intend to run the nightclub. Having said that, you do not need to concentrate solely on basic operations. Quite the contrary, you need to take into account how the nightclub will run on daily basis. Your objectives also need to incorporate what kind of equipment you will require - for each aspect of the club. Bar accessories, lighting, the DJ gear, and so on: all of this needs to be considered before you ever open the doorways. On top of that, the objectives need to comprise the kind of music you intend to play as well. Are you heading to have a rock and roll club, a techno club, an emo club, a trance club? Do you intend to do a mix of new music or do you want to concentrate on one distinct genre?
Briefly, the nightclub business plans need to comprise everything. You even need to determine whether you wish people to get their drinks solely from the bar or whether you intend to have waiters and waitresses. In other words, preparing a nightclub includes extreme detail. If you remember that, then you are one step nearer to success.

East-West Relations: Early Cultural Shocks - Part 1

By Raja A Ratnam

Cross-cultural shocks, especially those unexpected, can leave unwanted imprints in both international relations and in personal social relations. The following narrative highlights the nature of some of the causes, and the efforts by certain Western nations to obtain an eco-political foothold in independent Asian nations.
Way back in 1949, when the dragons blew smoke over the land (well, not quite), and the grandparents of today's youth had just reached adulthood, Kim was studying at a coaching college, preparing for university. One day, Kim's class was asked to write a few lines about their heritage. The intent was a little cross-cultural sensitisation. Asian students had suddenly appeared in White Australia, which had hitherto successfully avoided contamination by coloured people, especially the feared 'yellow hordes' to the North.
The next day, Kim's contribution included the following: his people had been civilised for more than 5,000 years, 'long before the white man came down from the trees.' One can only guess how that story went down. At the end of the class, the kindly lady teacher explained to Kim that, while what he said might be correct, it was not a nice thing to say. Kim's response was that he had indeed been taught his manners; that he would never say anything improper. But he could not see why he could not write what was a historical fact.
What Kim had displayed was pride in his ancestry, not prejudice against others. It gave him the confidence needed to deal with people who seemed unduly sensitive to colour on human skin. What the white host-nation people may not have been aware of was that Asians had generally viewed colonial whites (the only white people they had ever come across) as 'upstarts' (a term expressed privately by their tribal elders).
Yet, these young Asians had arrived in Australia willing to accept white people in their own terrain as fellow humans. That was because they had generally been taught not to be prejudiced against the British peoples as a whole while they remained anti-colonial.
An important consideration is whether the Asians represented a cultural shock to white Australians by behaving not only with indifferent confidence, but also (occasionally) with an aura of comfortable superiority (which could be intuited by only the more sensitive people).
Pride in their cultural heritage bonded these newly-arrived Asians, mainly because their diverse ethnic origins and associated cultural practices, faiths, religions and metaphysical beliefs were subsumed under the historically durable set of human values described as 'Asian values.' Reference to Asian values in white company is akin to waving a red flag at a bull. Many Australians of yesteryear, with their felt superiority arising from a colonial arrogance inherited by inference, were nonplussed by these new arrivals behaving atypically; that is, not as expected. After all, their politicians and priests, and the proselytisers in the media of populist prejudice, had conditioned them against these inferior Asians, with their alleged 'unspeakable habits', strange foods, and peculiar gods.
Yet, these 'Asian values' were only traditional global societal values. In more recent times, however, 'Asian values' became adopted by certain Asian leaders as 'star wars' retaliatory weaponry in a clash of cultures. They saw the attempted imposition of Western democracy and 'human rights' as little more than neo-colonialism in disguise. They were seeking cultural, capitalistic and political independence from the West. This clash of cultures is not to be confused with the more recent conflict of civilisations, euphemistically described as the War on Terror by the 'neocons' ruling the Western world today.
The felt superiority of the official Australians has been replaced by something called human rights. Whilst these rights have been defined in international law, the more powerful signatories to the law do not have an adequately defensible record of having applied these rights to their own indigenes, or to countries within their spheres of influence.
Australia has increasingly sought to join Asia eco-politically in recent decades, while heroically mindful of its historical and cultural differences from the Asian nations. Many of these may have much to learn from Australia and the rest of the Ultra-West. In turn, Western nations may now learn to understand Asian peoples and their cultures, as well as their determination to remain essentially Asian.