Conversations
Chat with Hannah (My Sister)
On Sunday while chatting with my little sister I brought up my current frustrations with trying to figure out how to best get my message to the target audience in a way they will engage with. She told me that she thinks the best way would definitely be video, and that the video should be shown on social media. She believes we are living in a digital-run age and that most people would be able to be reached by a video (on television and social media) - especially if that video went viral. She referenced the 'Dumb ways to die' campaign video, which I did know of but had completely slipped my mind in terms of how it could relate to my project, and how it used humour to gain the interest of the audience. We talked about how amazingly well that campaign gathered attention so that, even though it was about train station safety in a specific place in Australia, people all over the world and people who didn't even commute by train wanted to watch it and share it. We believe it was definitely the comedy aspect, and also probably the cute animation and the catchy jingle.
We think that it would be an interesting idea to have one main, long video that could also be broken up into shorter clips (I'm not sure whether or not 'Dumb ways to die' can be) for display on different social platforms. This would work with my idea of conveying different stories/scenarios. Hannah had the fascinating idea that maybe to impact the tourist section of my audience the video could be shown on incoming flights into New Zealand. Lastly, she wasn't sure whether live action or animation was a better technique but she did observe that if I chose to do live action I could attach Go Pros to horses and horse riders!
Chat with Celia
I reached out to my peers on the 'VCD 400' Facebook page to see if anyone wanted to meet up for a chat about our major projects. Celia McAlpine responded and we met up on Tuesday at lunchtime. I talked to her about my troubles deciding what medium to use to convey my message and she thought that a video campaign would be a good idea. I told her how I had been thinking about the campaign 'Dumb ways to die' and how it went viral and spread it's message far further than intended because people responded so well to the catchy, humorous video. She agreed that the unintended effectiveness of that campaign was the beauty of it.
She thinks that I need to create something that people want to interact with/see even if they don’t care about or like animals (specifically horses). She believes that if people hear that somethings ‘cool’, ‘funny’, ‘cute’ etc they will want to watch it, even if it’s just to not be left out of a trend/something viral. The audience will absorb the message even if they didn't chose to/know they are. She also thinks that I wouldn’t have to stick primarily to video, that I could bring in other materials to support the campaign if I wanted to. For some reason people respond well to videos - do people like watching/listening more than looking/reading?
If I do definitely decide to go with video she thinks I should decide on the emotion I'm going for before deciding whether to use live action or animation. Does the message of an animation depend on what the semiotic meaning of the cartoon horse is? Do people still react/empathise the same way with a cartoon horse than they might with a real, live horse? She reminded me that if I do chose to do animation there is a vast array of visual styles that might all convey a slightly different tone.
This chat was very helpful as it was great to get an opinion on what medium would work best for my idea from someone who doesn't know me, so isn't skewed by ideas of what sort of work I've done before or where my strengths might lie etc. It was also good to talk to someone completely new to my topic as she could approach it without any preconceived notions.
Chat with Mum
In my weekly catch up with my mum I asked her for her help/opinion on what design medium she thinks would work best for my project. I told her about my video campaign idea and she thinks that that would work a lot better than my publication idea. She believes animation would be a much more successful route within the video idea as; 1. it would be very hard to get horses to 'act' how I needed them to for the narrative if I chose live action (we don't want to go around intentionally frightening horses!), and 2. she thinks people are more likely to stop and watch an animation as they scroll down their newsfeed etc than stop and watch a video with a live action horse if they don't particularly care for horses. In her opinion, often cartoon can work better than live action when the subject is animals as it is less prolific/the media is less saturated with it - think of the thousands of cute cat videos on the internet that all blur together with no stand outs and then think of ‘Simon’s Cat’ and how well-loved it is.
In terms of crafting a video she thinks that it would be best to keep it short (1.30 minutes?) as people don’t want to watch something the whole way through when they think it is going to take too much of their time. She also thinks if I definitely choose animation I should keep it simple so that the message doesn’t get lost in an overwhelming art style. Lastly, she reminded me in terms of the message that I don’t want to say people have been "dumb" or horrible before this, you just want to say that they can improve from now on now that they have a better understanding/are more educated/are more empathetic.
Chat with Lauren
I caught up with my friend Lauren in class this week and told her about my idea for producing an animation. We talked about how it will be important to choose the right visual style that will engage the audience but also something that might be achievable for me (with my very limited animation skills). She told me to look up character rigging as that will help me produce easily moveable characters. She feels animation is definitely the right direction rather than a book to reach the audience that I am targeting.
On Sunday while chatting with my little sister I brought up my current frustrations with trying to figure out how to best get my message to the target audience in a way they will engage with. She told me that she thinks the best way would definitely be video, and that the video should be shown on social media. She believes we are living in a digital-run age and that most people would be able to be reached by a video (on television and social media) - especially if that video went viral. She referenced the 'Dumb ways to die' campaign video, which I did know of but had completely slipped my mind in terms of how it could relate to my project, and how it used humour to gain the interest of the audience. We talked about how amazingly well that campaign gathered attention so that, even though it was about train station safety in a specific place in Australia, people all over the world and people who didn't even commute by train wanted to watch it and share it. We believe it was definitely the comedy aspect, and also probably the cute animation and the catchy jingle.
We think that it would be an interesting idea to have one main, long video that could also be broken up into shorter clips (I'm not sure whether or not 'Dumb ways to die' can be) for display on different social platforms. This would work with my idea of conveying different stories/scenarios. Hannah had the fascinating idea that maybe to impact the tourist section of my audience the video could be shown on incoming flights into New Zealand. Lastly, she wasn't sure whether live action or animation was a better technique but she did observe that if I chose to do live action I could attach Go Pros to horses and horse riders!
Chat with Celia
I reached out to my peers on the 'VCD 400' Facebook page to see if anyone wanted to meet up for a chat about our major projects. Celia McAlpine responded and we met up on Tuesday at lunchtime. I talked to her about my troubles deciding what medium to use to convey my message and she thought that a video campaign would be a good idea. I told her how I had been thinking about the campaign 'Dumb ways to die' and how it went viral and spread it's message far further than intended because people responded so well to the catchy, humorous video. She agreed that the unintended effectiveness of that campaign was the beauty of it.
She thinks that I need to create something that people want to interact with/see even if they don’t care about or like animals (specifically horses). She believes that if people hear that somethings ‘cool’, ‘funny’, ‘cute’ etc they will want to watch it, even if it’s just to not be left out of a trend/something viral. The audience will absorb the message even if they didn't chose to/know they are. She also thinks that I wouldn’t have to stick primarily to video, that I could bring in other materials to support the campaign if I wanted to. For some reason people respond well to videos - do people like watching/listening more than looking/reading?
If I do definitely decide to go with video she thinks I should decide on the emotion I'm going for before deciding whether to use live action or animation. Does the message of an animation depend on what the semiotic meaning of the cartoon horse is? Do people still react/empathise the same way with a cartoon horse than they might with a real, live horse? She reminded me that if I do chose to do animation there is a vast array of visual styles that might all convey a slightly different tone.
This chat was very helpful as it was great to get an opinion on what medium would work best for my idea from someone who doesn't know me, so isn't skewed by ideas of what sort of work I've done before or where my strengths might lie etc. It was also good to talk to someone completely new to my topic as she could approach it without any preconceived notions.
Chat with Mum
In my weekly catch up with my mum I asked her for her help/opinion on what design medium she thinks would work best for my project. I told her about my video campaign idea and she thinks that that would work a lot better than my publication idea. She believes animation would be a much more successful route within the video idea as; 1. it would be very hard to get horses to 'act' how I needed them to for the narrative if I chose live action (we don't want to go around intentionally frightening horses!), and 2. she thinks people are more likely to stop and watch an animation as they scroll down their newsfeed etc than stop and watch a video with a live action horse if they don't particularly care for horses. In her opinion, often cartoon can work better than live action when the subject is animals as it is less prolific/the media is less saturated with it - think of the thousands of cute cat videos on the internet that all blur together with no stand outs and then think of ‘Simon’s Cat’ and how well-loved it is.
In terms of crafting a video she thinks that it would be best to keep it short (1.30 minutes?) as people don’t want to watch something the whole way through when they think it is going to take too much of their time. She also thinks if I definitely choose animation I should keep it simple so that the message doesn’t get lost in an overwhelming art style. Lastly, she reminded me in terms of the message that I don’t want to say people have been "dumb" or horrible before this, you just want to say that they can improve from now on now that they have a better understanding/are more educated/are more empathetic.
Chat with Lauren
I caught up with my friend Lauren in class this week and told her about my idea for producing an animation. We talked about how it will be important to choose the right visual style that will engage the audience but also something that might be achievable for me (with my very limited animation skills). She told me to look up character rigging as that will help me produce easily moveable characters. She feels animation is definitely the right direction rather than a book to reach the audience that I am targeting.