U Mobile TV commercial Malaysia.

Fintan, my eight year old son, is presently in a TV commercial for U Mobile, the telecommunications provider, in Malaysia.

Fintan had a great time on the TV shoot particularly because the requirements of the shoot, were physical challenges, and he likes those. As you can see, from the film linked here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umby_auvzns

Fintan had to dive bomb into a swimming pool and swim underwater. This, of course, required many takes to get it “just right” from the Director’s point of view. It was interesting to note Fintan’s unflagging enthusiasm, as he did take after take; underwater swim, after underwater swim. It seems to me, that he would be up for any physical challenge, on film, given a chance – he just enjoyed it so much.

If you observe carefully, you can see Tiarnan, five, in the shot, as well – though he is seen only fleetingly. There was much more footage than they eventually used. Indeed, there was enough footage of the boys at play in and around the pool, for the ad to be about them, alone.

This is Fintan’s first TV commercial, though he has been on film, before, in documentaries. I did not know, until I saw him at work, how much or whether he would enjoy it – but it was clear that he did. Thanks to Reservoir Productions for giving Fintan the chance to have a good day putting together a commercial.

Apparently, the commercial is running on all channels in Malaysia. Our contract stipulates a two year period, in which the U mobile commercial may run – so it might be around for some time to come.

Well done Fintan.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

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Record Breakers Singapore TV Show

Yesterday, we had an unusual surprise for my father.

We were staying at the Bintan Lagoon Resort - which is a rather pleasant beach side resort on the Indonesian Island of Bintan. All was fine with it - barring the fact that they seem to have acquired an excessive love of money.

We sat my father in front of the TV at lunchtime on the day of our departure, having arranged a late checkout to do so.

Onto the screen came a show of no apparent relevance. It was the Record Breakers - Singapore Edition, TV show - a sort of localized Guiness Book of World Records TV programme. On the screen were two teams from different schools competing against each other, against a themed backdrop of Singaporean or World Records. The skills of the students were matched against known record breakers.

The first record was the "First 360 degree water ski facility in Singapore" - not much of a record, but fun. The children had to use the ski facility, to the best of their ability. The second record was for the most frog jumps in a minute. Again, the children had to test their ability against this, by doing frog jumps for a minute (though they didn't do real ones).

My father sat through this, perhaps a little disinterested. But then something strange happened. Our son, Ainan, appeared on the TV screen. He was there as the record breaker for the youngest O level holder (they incidentally mentioned him to be the youngest science teacher known, too - starting at six).

Ainan had designed a challenge for the children. It was a chemical structural design. It was very elegant - but required a lot of spatial perception from the competitors, for them to divine what it actually was. The task was simple: they had to view the structure for a limited time, then reconstruct it, using polystyrene balls and satay sticks. It seems like a simple enough task - but it was far from being so. Though the show only covered the segment in a few minutes, the actual contestants took perhaps half an hour or more, to finish. The difficulty arose in being able to understand what they were seeing. Ainan's structure was inherently beautiful, but also a bit mystifying, since, if you did not truly understand the inherent form, you could misperceive it as something else - which is what they did. They built what they saw, and not what was actually there.

To help them along, Ainan commented on their work, telling them exactly where they were going wrong. To do so, he had to analzye their structure, and note its disparities from the original, and tell them where the flaws were and what they were. This was not an easy task since many balls and many sticks were involved and the structures they built were not only wrong, but quite complex. Yet, Ainan was able to see through their work and relate it to where they should be.

Ainan's guidance did the trick - and though they had floundered for perhaps half an hour, after his feedback, one team began to home in on the true design. They were the Malay team.

The teams were to ask Ainan to judge their structures when they thought they had succeeded. The Malay team was the first to do so and called him over. After a brief glance at their work, he announced that their design had won. The Malay team were the winners. The other team was from the Australian International School. They tried hard - but the true nature of the structure eluded them, for too long.

It was an odd experience to see Ainan on television. He was softly spoken throughout and looked a little heavier on screen, than he does in reality. (He is really very slim - so it was unsettling to note that his face looked more rounded on tv: how much fatter would a fat person look, then, if this is what tv did to Ainan's face?!)

I think Ainan did well on his tv appearance. He was composed, and not nervous. He spoke clearly, and succinctly - and was patient throughout the filming (he sat quietly to himself between takes, attracting the puzzled question from a production team member of: "Is he always this quiet?").

Most interesting of all, however, was my father's reaction. I think he was rather proud to see his grandson acknowledged in this way.

I am happy that the timing of the broadcast coincided with my father's visit so that he got to see it - and that Western Indonesia carries Singaporean television.

Our thanks to Thum and the entire production team of Record Breakers - Singapore Edition, for thinking to include Ainan as one of their record breakers. He really enjoyed the experience - and I think learnt something new from it. After all, working on camera is a whole new set of skills in itself - and Ainan got a chance to experience that.

It also allowed us, of course, to surprise my father in a very unusual way.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and one month, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and seven months, and Tiarnan, two years exactly, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Fast food and young children

Do all children instinctively love fast food? Is the marketing to young children universally successful?

You would think so, superficially. Fast food restaurants choose bright, garish colours that seem to appeal to children. The adverts are often fun and fast paced, for limited attention spans. The food is sugary, fatty and laced with flavour enhancers (I once read that a particular fast food from a Big Name fast food restaurant had 22 flavour enhancers of various kinds in it. Ouch.) The food is, in short, designed to be as addictive as possible.

Yesterday, Tiarnan, 22 months, was watching TV. A Big Name fast food chain advertisement came on - promoting the usual range of palatable, but unhealthy foods.

Our toddler son waited until the ad was over then said: "Urgh!", stuck his tongue out, and said, "Not nice!".

Well, it is back to the marketing department with that one, I think. There is one toddler in the world, at least, who is unconvinced by the attempts to entice him to eat junk.

I wonder how many other toddlers out there react similarly?

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and no months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and five months, and Tiarnan, twenty-two months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Tale of a Zebra Print

A month ago, Tiarnan, then nineteen months, was looking through some pictures of zoo animals. Tiarnan is rather fond of animals and nature, in general, and has been able to name zoo animals since quite young - though he had not gone to a zoo, until recently.

He got to one animal: a picture of a zebra and held it up suddenly, saying: "Zebra...Bagus!". Now, "bagus" is Malay for good, but it is also something else. It is a cultural reference. You see there is a series of tv advertisements, concerning milk, which features black and white dairy cows. At the end of each ad there is heard the cry of "Bagus!" - so as to say how good the milk is. They are quite funny advertisements and make for good tv for children.

What struck me, however, was how the language and references of a tv advertisement, had crept into the speech of Tiarnan, at such a young age. Clearly, he had linked the cows and the zebra, owing to their similar colouration - even though he knows that they are separate animals, and through this association, he had decided to use the language of the tv advertisement, too. This is proof that he remembers the context of the word he was using: he recalls where he heard it used and in what way it was used. Thus, his knowledge is not stored without reference to its surroundings - but embedded in the context in which he learnt it. This shows that his memory is rich. It should be noted that he would have known the word, "bagus" already, from general usage and observation - but here he had deliberately chosen to make a cultural reference, when referring to the zebra in the same context as the black and white dairy cow, from the tv advertisement.

This, of course, points to another issue. Young children can and do absorb the contents of TV shows and advertisements - so it is ever wise to monitor what they see. If my nineteen month old child can make cultural references after watching tv advertisements, so could others. Those little eyes see all, those little ears hear all - and those little minds remember it, too!

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and ten months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and three months, and Tiarnan, twenty months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)