CAMPAIGN (Part 3)

The one thing that's on my mind right now is the presentations! We all had to show the police our campaigns and so a lot of running around and preparations were taking place before hand!

For Gemma and I, we didn't have too much preparations to do - we had completed our presentation last week! All we had to do was learn our lines off by heart and iron our t-shirts. Once everything was ready to go off to the library (presentation location) we took our posters and began to rehearse our lines. We got changed into our shirts and made sure that we had all our posters and PowerPoint ready. We set up everything and then found that we had to go and collect the Police from reception! There were 6 of them, which was more than we'd dreamed we'd present to! Once they were settled in the library, we had done our presentation.
I think it went relatively smoothly, and i really hope they liked it!

Now all i need to do is evaluate and there we have it, Campaign 2010 is over.
It's been an amazing experience, I've loved every minute of it - working with Gemma has been great, we are a very good team.
I can't wait to see what the police say, and whether they take us on. Of course as we are only school pupils i wouldn't be surprised if nothing happened; at least we got to present to them, and hopefully haven't wasted their valuable time!

A few weeks ago, we had just started the editing in one of the rooms with macs! Once we had got used to the complicated software, we were able to complete the majority of the adverts for both of us. Two weekends ago, we managed to film the car crash scene! We had decided not to do the walking on glass scene because in the end it's just too dangerous, and our time was running out! Once we had the chance to edit again, we added in the car crash scene, alongside the many sound effects we needed. For example, when I fall off the bridge, we need me to make a sound hitting the ground! Of course this sound effect has to be carefully monitored because we can't have it sonding cartoon- like when we need it to make a big impact on people! We finally finished our adverts, and now just need them to be burnt to discs to make it easier for us to do our evaluations. My favourite part of the filming has to have been the car crash scene - we had Gemma's mum drive us to the road outside school at about 8 o'clock at night, (so that it was dark) and we filmed the whole thing backwards. The reason we did this was because it was too dangerous and very pressurising for Gemma's mum to drive up to us and brake on time! We did everything in reverse; looking scared in front of the car, car reverses, we turn, walk backwards. Sounds really strange, but actually, it works really well - we have reversed it and sped it up on editing so it's all the right way round!
We had taken the pictures for the posters the same night as filming the car crash, and so we just needed to edit those! We have to keep updating our books every time a new poster is done, but it's working well.
We decided to create merchandise for our campaign, and they products we decided on were phone socks, glasses and T-shirts. The phone socks would come in the form of a tiny hoodie, with only the police contact details on the back, no pictures, just the basic design, which works - less is more. The glasses would have the words relating to the deaths in our 'You Lose...Reality/Judgement/Life selection and interestingly would have your life written on the bottom to make an effect on you when you have finished your drink! The t-shirts would have You lose... on the front and then the words Reality/Judgement, etc on the sleeves, and then your fe? on the back, along with the police contact details
Last week, we completed our podcast! We recorded it in a proffesional studio, with a professional microphone and sound editor! It was really good fun, and we used different voices to be the different types of deaths I said about in the last blog. (reality, control, judgement, etc.) Myself and Gemma did the main bits though, not leaving the police details out! It's important that people always recognise that the police are definately involved in the campaign, and that it's for a good cause!
This week, we mounted our posters on foam board, after having printed them out on A3 paper so they look really professional, and people can have a good, clear view! I love the way they have turned out, it makes everything seem so worth it! The time and effort put into the editing of the posters has really payed off.
Another thing we have also completed this week is our preparation for the presentation to the police! It's so nerve-wracking! I'm incredibly nervous already - the PSCO Michelle Trussel is coming in, along with other important officers - Iforget names but Iknow from our teacher, Miss Long, that they are ones to impress! Even our headteacher is coming to watch - 11.30pm, 23rd March. I better not bite my nails!
Our books are nearly complete, we just need to finish analysing some of the posters and then check everything through!

One last thing - our merchandise has all been sorted! The glasses are brilliant - they have silver writing and personally i think that makes a really good effect because it's not too bright and distracting.
The phone socks look really good - just like a hoodie! But unfortunately, we never found a way to get the police details printed properly on the back, so we chose to not use the idea in the end.
The last thing was the t - shirt. We had two made, and they were done specific to our design! They look amazing, just perfect! They make a strong effect, and work so well.

On the whole, I think both myself and Gemma, after having looked back at our campaign, are finding it hard to see it come to an end, and have really enjoyed every aspect of it. I can't wait to see everything come together in next week's presentation to the police - it will make it all so worth it!

CAMPAIGN (PART 1)

The project we are now working on is called CAMPAIGN. We must produce a TV advert, Radio Podcast and Posters, which will be funded by the Hertfordshire police to be sent to schools all around Hertfordshire.
It's really exciting!

We were first briefed by our local PCSO, Michelle Trussel about the many anti- social behaviours there are committed today. They went from simply littering, to producing graffiti and binge drinking in general, aswell as underage. It was really interesting to find out what the police did, for example how much you had to have drunk and what evidence they needed to give you a pink slip, which is a warning.

For Gemma and I's project, we decided we would focus on drinking. We had to come up with a lot of ideas - nothing was working! We suddenly started clicking and bouncing off each other, one thing led on and before you know it we had a huge campaign ready to go! We decided that our adverts (one each) would feature us and show the same day over again, but with different deaths caused by drinking. The posters would be like this aswell, along with the slogan to match. For example, when the girl is balancing on a bridge with a drink in her hand, the line says: "You Lose Reality" and the slogan for the whole thing is "Wouldn't You Rather Lose Your Keys?"
We did a survey to find out which slogan worked best, because some people didn't quite get the keys slogan. We changed it to "Wouldn't You Rather Lose Your Drinking Habit?" and asked a lot of people which one they preferred. In the end, 85% of the people we had asked thought the keys slogan was more effective, because of it's simplicity.

The lines for each of the death scenarios are:

You Lose...

• Respect
• Dignity
• Reality
• Control
• Judgement
• Common Sense
• Awareness
• Reactions
• LIFE

They are all linked with different deaths, and so the advert will portray those. Both myself and Gemma will be doing 4 of these, and then both of us will finish with the same ending, a car accident, and losing our LIFE. We thought this would be more sensible than having a long advert which would possibly exceed the time limit of 3 minutes, and also perhaps have less impact. The scenarios we have created are relatively disturbing, for our age, and we felt that was important, because teens don't find it easy to listen any more! For example, there is rape, which yes, isn't a death, but is very unpleasant. This will surely be a very difficult thing for people to want to happen to them or anyone they know, and is crucial to our campaign.

We went out one day in school to do some photography practice, using beer cans as props! We filmed the weekend after that - 8 out of 10 deaths of the advert are complete. The only two left to do are the car crash and the walking on glass bit. The car crash needs a driver and the walking on glass needs a lot of caution.

The first of our posters is now complete, after font analysis and poster designs! I can't wait to complete the rest. With my photography eye and Gemma's photoshop skills, we work as a fantastic team! We shall today work on our editing, posters and checking our books are up to date, aswell as starting to pull together our podcast!

Gotta go!