For the social action unit I was involved in 2 productions. Firstly I was involved in a video called "Educating Grandad" in which I wrote the script and produced the majority of the paperwork and secondly I produced video aimed at young people encouraging them to use their vote to make the difference that they wanted to see. This video was titled "Vote"
"Educating Grandad" was created so that we could enter the "equality and diversity" competition which was ran by our college Stockton Riverside. Although I was not on set for this production I did contribute hugely to its production by helping to come up with the idea and also writing the script. During the brainstorming faze I was the person with the initial idea to have a family sat around a table conducting some kind of activity. The group thought back to experiences that they might of had where someone has said something slightly racist and politically incorrect and most of the group could remember there grandparents saying things that were a bit off and that is when we decided that the person who was going to be educated was grandad. In I our group production folder you will be able to find things such as mind maps and research that everyone in the group has contributed to.
I would say that my individual contribution to the group on this project was very important and useful as without me we would not have the same final product as we do now. The idea and script may have gone down a very different road as I wanted to keep piece very light hearted and entertaining as I believe that that is the best way to make someone realise they are wrong. Calling someone stupid and aggressively telling them what they should think doesn't work in my opinion and that is why I kept it light and used statistics to make the video educational and provide anyone watching with entrainment as well as knowledge.
The video was a huge success as we won the competition and received a huge amount of positive feedback. The video was also featured on the college VLE and social media outlets. Many people were very impressed with what we had managed to create as it was so much better than all other entries.
In conclusion the finished product was perfect for its purpose as we won the competition that it was created for and it also gave Ufilms a lot of publicity in the process. We aimed our video at all ages and I think that what we created was very suitable for this as we used actors that spanned across a wide age range and received feed back from lots of different individuals as well. The message that we wanted to put across was very clear as the script was well written and checked over by multiple members of the team. The piece was very impactful from a narrative point of view as we showed a characters progression from being misinformed to being educated and from a technical stand point some lovey shots and editing was used.
If I was going to do this again I would probably cast the piece differently. Although the cast did a brilliant job I think that it would be much better if we used a real old person instead of a middle aged person with make up on. I think that this would make the overall quality of the piece much higher and would also make it more authentic. I would also probably choose a different ethnic actor as it wasn't quite the effect that we wanted to have. Someone who is visibly more ethnic would have fit the role a little better however the actress that we used still did a great job and fit the part.
During the production of "Vote" the crew rotated jobs so that everyone got the chance to do all jobs. I acted as boom operator and Camera op as well as being in the video its self speaking to the camera and addressing the audience. The idea of "Vote" was very simple. We wanted to encourage as many people as possible to use there vote to make a change in our country.
This video was also very successful as it was shown at a talk in college with the then Labour candidate and now Stockton South MP Dr Paul Williams. We had some great feed back on this video with Dr Paul himself saying how much he liked and thought that we had done a great job trying to encourage people to vote.
In conclusion the video was very successful and was once again perfect in fulfilling its purpose and reaching the target audience of young people. By being in the video ourselves it was much easier for us to address the target audience as we were just saying things that we would want to hear. The message was extremely clear due to the simplicity of the video. Everything from the statistics to the title screamed one message, Vote.
From a technical stand point the video was very simple yet professional in its execution which is exactly what we were going for. Our original intent was to try and persuade young people to vote for reasons that mattered to them and not everyone else and I think that this video expressed that perfectly.
If I was to do this again I would definitely consider interviewing a much wider range of individuals rather than just students from our college. I think that by interviewing a wider range of people we will be able to gain more of an understanding to what people think about voting. I would also like to ask people who don't vote exactly why that is and try to provide them with information to try and change their minds
Another thing that I would do is conduct surveys to gather our own information instead of using stats that we have found online that may not be fully accurate. This way we know that what we are telling people is true and is more suitable for our area.
No comments:
Post a Comment