For my final video project, I created a PSA (Public Service Announcement) to support the Animal Rights PNW Facebook page that promotes advocacy for all animals as sentient beings.
As a part of my “Know Your Audience” theme for this course, I used persuasive language and video to support and tell the story that would appeal to the audience. My target audience consisting of holiday shoppers, moms, and dads, the general public, who care about consuming healthy products that are harvested responsibly and humanely.
I began my video production process with the brainstorming session that helped me arrive at the message I was trying to relay to my audience. The goal was to make the audience think before they buy the products and only purchase responsible, humanely harvested products. I used Animal Rights PNW hashtag #RaiseYourPaws as a common theme to connect this project with the Facebook page.
I wrote the script using generic storyboard template (see below). Using my iPhone’s Voice Memo app I recorded the script several times to provide alternative versions for editing, then I transferred the audio file to my computer and imported the asset into the Adobe Premiere project.
Storyboard (click to view large image):
Once my assets were imported to Adobe Premiere, I created a timeline and laid the voice over track to get a general idea of how long my video would be. Once I knew my TRT (total running time), my next step was to begin considering the video footage needed to compose a supporting video track for my PSA.
Following that I captured the footage of the father and son shopping, I re-purposed several graphics for the Animal Rights PNW Facebook page and collected a few copyright-free materials from the internet.
The video is divided into several sequences. I began my narrative by establishing the time and place of the video. The opening sequence is the introduction of the holiday season using holiday ornaments and video footage to identify the time of year. As a part of the long campaign, this video is just a seasonal PSA to be aired only during the holidays.
Per suggestions of my peers, my draft video had a couple of issues with competing for audio tracks and rough transitions.
First, I adjusted my voice over the track not to be overpowered by the theme tracks. If the main narration is not heard well, the video is not effective and the message is lost. As my theme in this course, I chose “know your audience” it is important to be attentive and to respect the audience by providing clear narration, supporting video footage and sequenced video track that all together contribute to the story.
To show the change between the happy and the sad parts of the video I used different theme tracks. In the final version, I adjusted the tracks by a couple of seconds at the beginning of the conflict intro and at the beginning of the resolution intro to reflect the narration and create a better transition.
The second suggestion to my video was the lack of video transitions. To provide a smoother connection between the shots in the sequence I used dip-to-white between the sequences. I also added more b-roll footage to cover the static shots for clearer and more vibrant aesthetics.
In an attempt to appeal to the general audience, I used a few additional royalty-free shots that I mixed with the static images. I also created a sequence of father and son to go shopping for groceries. After establishing a holiday theme I show the father and son go shopping. Then my narrative shifts to animals and how they provide for humans, keeping our tummies full, our bodies warm and our beds snuggly.
Followed by the sequence that talked about animals and how they provide for humans I introduced conflict. The narration raised the question of what do animals all have in common. And the answer was the negative aspects of human cruelty. By switching video to black and white and switching the audio track to a sad somber theme, I visualize and try to convey to my audience the pain and suffering that goes on every day when animals are grown and harvested for consumption by ever increasing the market.
The video attempted to generate tension by first talking about the animals and how they support us, keep us warm and comfortable, whereas in return we, as consumers payback with cruelty, pain, and suffering.
The resolution was introduced as father and son were picking up groceries at the store, the narration talks about buying the responsibly grown and harvested products that are made with respect to animals and cruelty-free. In real life, this may seem to be difficult to do, but not impossible. This relates to the main topic for Animal Rights PNW Facebook page that calls for awareness and action against cruelty to animals.
The call to action, at the end of the video, asked to shop responsibly followed by a graphic to like and share the page Animal Rights PNW and help to raise awareness for all animal rights.