Choosing our Viral Video idea - November 2010

Just to recap, at the last Advisory group we came up with 6 video ideas for how we could raise awareness and challenge the big problem of the negative portrayal of children and young people in the national media.

What we needed to do this time was to go over all our ideas and pick two to develop. With such a good range of ideas to start with, this was going to be hard to do. All the ideas were put up on the wall and the members went around in two groups to evaluate each idea and then decide on the idea they wanted to develop. Here are their thoughts on each idea:

Idea 1

The film is in black and white and the scene is in kitchen with people dancing and laughing (silent). Then the title “What’s wrong with this picture?” The next scene is in colour with hip-hop in the background in what looks like a different room, bottles of beer lying around. The next title is “What’s wrong with this picture?” the final text reads “Nothing it’s the same party - It’s easy to be negative about young people” What we learn: the point is of the film is to show how differently you can represent young people in positive and negative ways using the same situation

pros

• having fun is not always bad
• treat others as you'd like to be treated
• young people can make mistakes
• simple
• single location
• not many effects
• interesting idea
• cheap

cons

• permission for house, and who's house
• filming space
• cast
• health and safety
• budget
• hard to film based on time constraints
• litter
• no sound
• black and white may be misinterpreted by younger audience
• high maintenance

Idea 2

An adult talking about how different and innocent it was in their time to their grandson, compared to the things young people do today. The video then shows a young person getting up to normal stuff and doing all the things that the adult said young people shouldn’t do. It then becomes obvious that the young person is actually the granddad many years ago. What we learn: It’s easy to forget what it’s like to be a child.

pros

• comparison between young and older person
• playing with generation gap
• shows moral issues
• engaging to audience

cons

• child knows lines
• too much talking
• hard to get permission
• getting a granddad
• needs specific place
• could become confusion
• idea needs development
• lots of scene
• confusing
• hard to grasp

Idea 3

It opens on a shot of the Earth and then suddenly zooms into a car park. There are two people in the car park with hoodies passing something to each other (it looks dodgy! The audience thinks it might be drugs). A mother and child walk past and look scared. The people take their hoodies of to reveal well dressed adults. The final shot says “This is what it’s like to be stereotyped by adults, would you like to be stereotyped by teens? What we learn: That stereotyping is easy and lazy and gives a false impression.

pro's

• easy to film
• good concept
• like the idea
• shows media interpretation

cons

• satellite world shot
• no conclusion, what were they doing in hoodies
• scene
• different effects

Idea 4

There are a gang of boys beside a building site and a single person is walking up to them, he passes them looking very nervous. The gang start shouting at him ‘Oi mate’, the man keeps walking faster, then you hear a ‘Watch out’ from the gang, something falls from the building and lands on the man. The title then reads “87 % of young people feel safer when with a group of friends”

What we learn: That perhaps young people don’t hang around in groups just to intimidate, but they like to feel safe as well, and the vast majority of young people in gangs are not out to cause trouble.

pros

• good concept
• could edit around the object falling so it's easier to shoot
• simple, educational
• uses our own statistics

cons

• building site could be tricky
• filmed on public space
• expensive
• slang
• stereotypical

Idea 5

There is a line of terraced houses. In the next shot a group of young people wearing hoodies are whispering ‘hurry up’ to each other and are trying to get into the house (no lights are on), are they breaking in? They finally get into the house and start to move through the rooms. There is a shot looking outside of the lounge window and an old woman walks past, the keys rattle in the door and it opens (you can see the silhouette of an old woman in the open doorway). Suddenly the lights go on and you here ‘surprise!!!!!’ and you can now see that the young boys were just planning a surprise party for the old woman. What we learn: Don’t prejudge what young people are up to, in the vast majority off cases it is positive things!

Pro's

• location easy
• filming quality doesn’t have to be good
• easy to understand
• stops fear for old people
• causes suspense
• need to have a party!

Cons

• props
• sound could be tricky
• where do we find the grandma
• finding a house
• time sync hard
• shot at night tricky
• complicated scene

Idea 6

Close up on a boy with a hoodie, the camera zooms back and there are a group of them there looking shifty. There’s a shot of someone handling a gun, and suddenly ‘BANG!” The boys start running to the camera, the camera swings around and you see that they are actually running a race. The final shot is of young people on a podium collecting their medals. What we learn: Don’t prejudge, just look at all the positive things that young people do.

pros

• shows positive side of young people
• might not need to film peoples faces
• promote a charity on the hoodie
• shows suspense
• change of mood
• costumes could be thought provoking
• short
• shows a different impression of young people
• challenges judgements

cons

•  gang running towards camera is unrealistic
• getting a crowd of people might be difficult
• filming skills needed to speed shots
• where do we get a gun, how easy and how safe
• need to get permission for the sports location
• health a safety Limitations of making a video

Now, naturally we don’t have the budget or technology of Hollywood, so we had to come up with the limitations we would encounter whilst making our own video, here’s what we came up with:

• Finding actors
• Getting good sound
• Time limitations for us meeting up
• Background interruptions
• Learning a script
• Cost
• Permissions for filming in public
• Health and safety
• Keeping time – logistics
• Permission for people in the film
• Editing
• Organisation
• Hesitation

The two chosen and developed ideas

Once the two groups had picked their preferred ideas, they then had to spend about 40 minutes looking at the limitations list and the pro’s and con’s and refining and developing the idea into something we could make. The two ideas chosen were idea 3 and idea 6.

IDEA 3

The Camera zooms in on a group of boys sitting on a park bench or perhaps a play area. The scene attempts not to provoke any negative or positive stereotypes in this shot. The boys look up and see a mother pushing a pram, the mother looks back at them, the camera now cuts to the mothers perspective in a new split screen and the boys now have their hoods up and are looking shifty, they could be passing something between them, is it drugs or perhaps a weapon of some kind? The boys look back. Into scene then comes another boy. The shot of the gang shows them as they were in the first scene, no hoodies, just sitting around. The camera then takes the perspective of the boy in a further split screen as he is walking past them, one of the boys calls out and the camera turns to them, the boys are all smiling and welcoming him over, and the object could be something harmless like a tennis ball and their hoodies are in fact sporting tops.

The premise: That we all interpret a scene differently based on our experiences, and negative media stereotyping can contribute and exaggerate experiences.

Tag line. A recent survey by Young NCB found that 90% (check stats) of young people hang around in groups because they feel safer that way, don't let the media tell you any different.

IDEA 6

Opens on a wide shot, it's in super slow motion of a group of hoodies walking towards the camera. The next shot is of a hand holding a gun, and one of the hoodies turns towards it with a panicky look on their face. The gun is raised, the look of the hooded person looks even more scared, the gun fires. The camera spins round full speed as all the hooded teenagers dash off down a 100 metres sprint course, all the hooded tops are now seen to be charity fundraising tops. The next scene is shot from the back where they are on a podium

The premise: The video plays around with audience pre-conceptions but ultimately shows it to be an innocent scene depicting the positive things that young people do.

Tag Line: Well....what did you think was going on? or more importantly why? 99% of young people spend their time doing positive things for society, don't let negative media stereotyping tell you any different.

What next?

The BBC are going to help Young NCB produce a video based on Idea 6. This will be taking place in July. Please contact Geraldine for more information glowe@ncb.org.uk 020 7833 6830