Your goal is to create a professional public service announcement (PSA) for an actual group, agency or organization of your choice. You will need to contact the agency to find out what their particular needs are and who they are trying to reach (taget audience). You need to work with a real person- this is part of the chalenge of this exercise. The finished length should fit exactly into a 30 or 60 second time block. (29.5 & 59.5 seconds are ideal) We will produce the PSAs in lab over a period of two weeks.
Initially you will submit a proposal, describing your organization, contact person, the PSA's objective, and your production approach or strategy. Be sure to to talk to your client agency's contact person to determine their needs. (This is an important part of the learning process.) Outline the scope of the production. Be sure to tell them that the PSAs will be given to CATS (Bloomington's Community Access TV Station). If they'd like to air the PSAs on Insight or campus cable, they will need to contact those organizations. They can also retain a copy for their archives or future use.
Here's a sample PSA proposal:
Client organization: Monroe County Animal Shelter.
Contact: Jim Lang, Executive Director MCAS
Objective: After watching the PSA, viewers will want to come down to the shelter and adopt a pet.
Target audience: Bloomington & Monroe County residents
Production Design: This 60-second PSA will feature an on-camera spokesman from the shelter and B-roll of pets who need homes. During the production Jim Lang will appear on-camera talking about the pets in need of loving homes. We'll go to digital still pictures of the animals and close with a graphic providing the phone number and location.
Production notes: I will visit the animal shelter next week with my digital still camera and take pictures of pets in need of homes. I'll then transfer these images into the WriteDeko CG one week before my production.
You may procede with your production only after your AI or instructor approves your proposal.
Before you produce your PSA you'll need to turn in pre-production materials which include:
On the day of your production you should have
You will produce your 30 or 60 second PSA within your scheduled time block. Be sure to bring in a DV tape if you want to record a copy for your reel.
You may use cameras from the production lab with Ron Osgood's permission. (osgoodr@indiana.edu 855-5096)
It is strongly recommended that you base your production around a 30 or 60 second cut of music from the production lab. You, your talent or your narrator should practice reading the copy out loud over the cut of music to make sure it fits into the given time contraints. Also try visualizing the timing of camera shots, transitions and graphics over the piece of music. The more time and effort you spend in pre-production, the better your piece will be.
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