Innovation as Communication - Getting people to register to vote
Research:
For our research we initially looked into the main reason why young people don't vote. We found that it was sheer laziness that people couldn't actually be bothered. As a group we all found key information that helped build a clear image of the reason why people don't vote.
For our primary research me and Aasia created a public questionnaire asking the public six key questions:
secondary Research:
From these results we had a clear understanding of why the 18-24 population don't vote and why. These results helped inform our response to the brief because with both Primary and Secondary research data we would be able to directly target our primary audience (18-24) they helped us decide how to construct our ideas.
Initial Ideas:
For our initial ideas we all came up with our own ideas for how we could tackle this problem. MY idea was the app. The reason for making a voting app was because it made everyones lives easier. It took out the element of needing to make time to go to a polling station. Thus eliminating the laziness aspect that we found in our research. People would be able to just download the app, register, make their vote and be done with it. It simplifies the whole process down and once register and polling stations open you could log back in using you fingerprint recognition to then place your vote. Keeping your vote and everyone else's secure.
However our creative directors liked the ATV machine idea better. However they got use to rethink our ideas and come back to them after lunch.
REFINED IDEAS:
This is what we did. We reinvented our cash machine idea made initially by Rosie and then developed on by Anne. We came up with a lot more engaging ideas. My second idea was the randomly placed telephone boxes all over London and to get complete strangers talking to one another about politics. The boxes would shout out aspects of the different party manifestos and general political trash about the election and the phone would ring. I took inspiration from when i went to Glastonbury, they had random phones all over the festival site and complete strangers would end up having a conversation at different ends of the festival.
However our directors decided on pushing the Cash Machine concept forward. This idea included the idea of frustration when taking money out but the machine dose not respond and does the opposite. It's the idea of the frustration felt when someone doesn't vote and others make the decisions for you because you haven't used your vote and don't vote.
FINAL IDEAs:
Development of final outcome:
To create our kick starter campaign we set out delegating job tasks up. Our team leader was Rosie because it was from her idea that we had a final concept. Our sub team leader was Allister.
what everyone did:
Allister: Made the graph animation, and featured in the filming for the video
Anne: Made the (first) Cash Machine vector and filmed the reciept scene with Alister. She also wrote the script and helped record the voice overs and features as a voice over (german)
Rosie: Made the cash machine logo and helped film for the video and features in the video
Aasia: Filmed multiple scenes of the video and helped make the primary questionnaire
Adila: Filmed shots and featured in shots within the video, also contributed to making the map
Elliot: Made the story board, and the animatic to help with timing and shot placements. He also directed most of the shots featured in the video.
How i contributed to the project:
I helped make the questionnaire as it was my idea to find our primary research. I also helped with the second step of the story board. I added the voice over notes and made a copy of it for myself so I new what to edit and place where. Making sure each voice over had a place within the video and how it would fit with the visual aids. I also helped with the timings of the storyboard because by doing so I knew how to edit the final video. This was because I was editing the final video putting all the footage, animation and various text together. I also made the second cash machine vectors due to a last minute adjustment in shot angles and choice change.
Animatic storyboard:
I used Elliott's aniamtic storyboard to help with timings and video placement.
These guys didn't join our group until everything was already made basically and it was a week before deadline. We had already planned what we were doing and divided tasks up. To help i got them to:
Ruben: Made a poster for our concept and his typography from the poster features at the end of the video. He also contributed to the creation of the London map featured in the video.
Nico: Made the landscape vectors. However as a team we decided visually they did not work as we wanted them to. I had the idea of animating the buildings to pop up out of the map however it didn't look how we wanted it to look. So we took it out. However the concept was there. These are his vectors:
Making the Final Video:
When making the final video I had to keep to the storyboard made. However I added in my own creative direction as I chose the music for the video (copy-write free), The background colour, text and shots used as I felt they visually conveyed what the story board said. We had a lot of footage to use, however I felt if we had put too much in, the message would not have been as clear. I found whilst editing the shots that on reflection we needed a tripod for some scenes as they were 'shaky'.
However I simply placed the logo, visuals and voice over together in harmony with a little background music. I dipped the background music to allow the voice overs to be heard clearly. I also enhanced the voice levels to make them more prominent. You can see this in the screenshot below with the key frames. There were some issues with sound to begin with as I could not understand why the sound levels were not going up. I found I needed to make a subtle key frame change thats not noticeable in the overall video to make the sound more specific and controlled in the desired areas of high a low volume. I also made the pointers that appear on the map in illustrator. because of the decision to change the landmark vectors. The footage given to me from everyone else had to be shortened and cut to the desired length and so had the voice overs. Ideally I would have edited the video footage in premier however because of the animated elements within the video I had to make it in after effects.
During the final editing stage, I didn't know if I would have enough time to create a mock up of the 'Frustrating Cash Machine' and animate it. I asked Anne if she could make one, this was to make sure we would hit our deadline on time. Which she did. However, during this task I learned that communication is crucial in a group as to get the desired outcome you in-vision as a creative director you need to be clear to someone else what they are making for you. Which in fact I was not. I did not give Anne clear direction which resulted in a clip that was not long enough or at the right angle for the video and didn't work. I made an animation then realising the illustrations would be inconsistent. To overcome this issue I had to replace the original illustration, by Anne which was done at the very last minute. I also did not have the original after effects file to re-edit, so I needed to correct my mistake by making a whole new clip (due to the time scale).
On reflection, I think we should have made these kind's of decisions together, this is because by leaving it to the last minute quick decisions had to be made by me. However updates of the edits were shared within the group to allow for feedback and input. So its a lesson learned.
As you can see below my version of the cash machine, as I needed to make it as a last minute input. After talking to Xavi to discuss the first cut of the video he gave feedback about including the mockup shot of the ATM within the video.
LITTLE FLAG ILLUSTRATIONS for selecting a language.
Final outcome:
Summary:
To summarise the project, I think the final video works well in targeting our given issue to combat - How to get young people to vote because of our research, and our execution in using the research to help create the insight for the video. We all came together with our various parts and created a very well constructed outcome. It gets the point across and does so in a fun and creative way. Yes, we had a few issues but they were easily rectified and resolved. Two people within our group did contribute but not as much due to there late arrival and only in for one lesson to discuss and make the video. However, overall, everyone contributed which lead to a great outcome thats engaging and combating a relevant issue within society and was received well with great feed back on social media.