slings & arrows

Consider yourself warned. I’d like to note that the version Kristina saw was far far far less depressing than the four versions I’d made before it! But it’s great to have friends whose feedback you can trust so I enlisted Kristina as official previewer. Now I’ve exported the final version and it’s sitting in my “films” folder ready for Saturday.

I think this is the first year I’ve been ready for p4a in such good time, normally I’m editing frantically up until five minutes before I have to upload it.

How are your Project for Awesome videos going?

Hmm, here are my tips:

1. Be specific. That is, choose a specific charity or specific cause, preferably one you feel strongly about for a specific reason. For example, one of my earliest p4a vids was for The Whaleman Foundation and the Save the Whales Again campaign because I was shocked by Japanese whaling practices. The specificity might also have to do with the solution, e.g. I also supported onewater in a p4a video because I thought the playpumps bought with proceeds from buying a bottle of onewater were a clever and fun way to bring water to communities, giving younger members of the community a thing to play on that also serves an essential social function. Being as specific as possible will help you to…
2. Be as clear and confident as you can. If you sound a bit confused or doubtful about whatever it is you’re talking about, your audience will pick up on that. Don’t stress out about it but I do think it’s important to both understand and believe what you are saying!
3. If you’re having trouble coming up with or choosing between charities, give the lesser known charities a chance: sometimes they are the ones who take the most innovative and creative steps and sometimes they can need the most support. There are some really great charities out there, as no doubt we’ll see for the fourth (is that right?) year running this weekend — from last year, Film Aid sticks out as an original, interesting and effective charity I first heard about through Molly’s p4a video on Rocketboom.
4. Give yourself time to research the charity you decide on. Look at current campaigns, any research they, the WHO or whoever else have published on how many people are affected by the problem they are trying to solve (again, be specific). If they have a page with information about how you can help, do they have any non-monetary donation suggestions? Kristina made a Save the Children video last year in which she spoke about the importance of warm hats for newborn babies and the hat-knitting campaign Save ran. Do they have a breakdown of where their money goes or of, say, how a £30 donation can help someone?
5. Keep it fairly short! I know this sounds impossible after I’ve said “DO ALL THE RESEARCH” but pick the most important information and find a way of presenting it that’s true to yourself (i.e. it can equally be highly edited and all in one take). I’d say keeping it under three minutes is a good aim — this year I believe my video is about 1m45s.
6. If you can get in touch with anyone from the organisation to ask questions or even for a little video interview within the video, that’s great, but if you can’t that’s totally fine as well — their website will probably have all of the information you need.
7. Start making it today or tomorrow so you can finish it, step away from it, sleep on it and look back at it with fresh eyes. Or ask your friends to preview it (IRL or via mediafire or whatever) to make sure you’re being as clear as can be.
8. Both in the video if possible and in the description bar put the name of the charity, their website and how you can help/donate. Also put the name of the charity in the title of your video!
9. Once you have uploaded your video at 12 noon EST on Saturday 17th December, watch, comment and thumbs up other people’s p4a videos like mad. I’ve invited Marion, Lex and Kayley over for a p4a party and we are going to drink mulled wine, eat mince pies and watch hundreds of videos.

I hope this was helpful, I’m sure projectforawesome.com has some really helpful suggestions (and of course, thumbnails)! Although I have been on Tumblr on my phone for the past 20 minutes instead of reading Salvage the Bones, it’s okay as this is for charity. That is my reasoning and I’m sticking to it. Feel free to leave further p4a questions in my /ask if you like.

I really really cannot thank you enough.