PSA VIDEO PRODUCTIONSESSION 1: PRE-PRODUCTION

Sean Cordes

Justin Georges

Malpass Library Instruction 2012

http://wiu.libguides.com/psaworkshop

Purpose of the lesson

Whether you have experience with viewing PSA’s and creating them, this lesson will discuss the function of PSA’s and how they have helped to raise awareness on different topics

After review of this lesson, you will be able to:• Recognize the elements and purpose of PSAs• Recognize how to identify key scenes and characters • Recognize how to outline a PSA • Recall the storyboarding process• Recall the script writing process

PSA Definition• PSAs are messages in the public interest disseminated by the

media without charge, with the objective of raising awareness, changing public attitudes and behavior towards a social issue.

• Public service announcements, or PSA's, are short messages produced on film, videotape, DVD, CD, audiotape, or as a computer file and given to radio and television stations.

• The most common topics of PSAs are health and safety• A typical PSA is part of a public awareness campaign to inform or

educate the public about an issue such as obesity or compulsive gambling. The range of possible topics has expanded over time.

• It was much harder before to get message out, but now its much easier with YouTube to self publish a PSA.

• PSA’s are often controversial or about controversial issues

The PSA Design Process

What steps go into making a PSA video?

goo.gl/4yAh7These are the parts of the PSA design process:

• Select a PSA topic • Determine goal of PSA • Determine target audience• Identify key scenes and characters • Outline the PSA • Storyboard• Write Script • Audio Production• Video production• Post-production• Share a video via the web• Produce a video DVD

What do you know already?

Lets work in groups

Think about what types of PSA’s you’ve seen in the past. Select one that interests your group and why?

Use example PSA’s from LibGuide

Present PSA to the class

Are you ready to start planning your PSA video?

This part of the lesson will help you identify elements of video pre-production including:

• Determine what your subject is• Determining the goal• Determining the target audience• Outlining • Scripting • Assigning roles• Practicing the script

Determining the Subject & Goal

• What issue are you speaking about?• Have a group discussion about what issues are important to you

• Ask yourself reflecting questions: • What do you want it to accomplish? Once you know the goal, then you can figure out how the PSA can achieve it.

• Why is this important?

Determining the Target Audience

• Who is this aimed at?• What type of people are you hoping to reach through your PSA?

• This will help you focus in both your desired media outlets, and also upon your PSA content.

• How will this message help them?

Goal and Target Audience Example

Texting and Driving Prevention

Goal: Convey the message that texting while driving isn’t multitasking, it’s essentially driving blind.

Target audience: This campaign targets young adult drivers with a focus on texting and driving prevention. Young adults live in a connected world where multitasking is the norm. This manifests in the car where they recognize texting and driving is dangerous, but do it anyway.

Some more tips• Questions to think about when determining goal:

• Your first question must be, “Is this message important enough to broadcast?”

• Your second question must be, “Is this message relevant to the broadcast audience?”

• Deliver one core message• Use clarity-communicate well• Decide how controversial you want to be• Keep it simple

Lets work in groups on the subject, goal and target audience worksheet located in LibGuides

Refer to “Step 1: Subject-Roots and Shoots”

Planning the outline

• Choose points to focus on. • Identify key scenes and characters• Don't overload the viewer with too many different messages.

• Make it interesting-Use a catch phrase and hooks• Discuss with your group how you would like to produce your videos. • People speaking about the subject, a skit, or record

voices to be played with images and video.

• Get an idea of what media will need created

Writing the outline• Not word-for-word narration, but only the summary content

of the narration. • Decide location or setting• Decide style: Interview, Documentary, Man-on-the-street,

Flashback, Talk Show, News, Training, Advertisement, Infomercial

• Decide tone: Humorous, Serious, Light-hearted, Matter-of-fact, Sad, Mad

• Keep the length in mind! Can you do everything in 30 secs? 60 secs?

Write Outline-group activity use outline worksheet in LibguideOrganize your notes (see Roots and Shots Step 4)

Gather Information• Pull information from sources that address the leading

questions.• Keep track of sources• .org, .edu, .gov sites can be very useful• Example [your term here] site:org• Check your facts. It's extremely important for your PSA to

be accurate. • Is the information up to date?

Lets work on gathering some informationRefer to “Step 2: Notes-Roots & Shoots”

Write Script• Create a 30-60 second script of the spoken dialog • Can write 2-column script-see example

• Use Real language• Don’t have to have a lot of dialogue• Only narrator dialogue?• Use Emotion• Make it personally relatable• Practice Script prior to next session

• Assign Voice and acting roles

Refer to “Step 5: Script-Roots & Shoots”

Length of PSA 10 seconds 15 seconds 20 seconds 30 seconds

Number of Words 20-25 words 30-35 words 40-50 words 60-75 words

Storyboard if necessary• Create a sequence of drawings and directions that

represent your PSA topic• Shot log-what type of shot

needed

Things to think about for next time

Gather Media• Need a completed script• Identify images, video and music to be included in video

(royalty free? write down sources)• Get an idea of what media will need created

• Make a shot list what shots will be taken• Medium range, long range, etc

• Bring flash drive• Checklist and additional resources (Step 6: Roots and

Shoots)• We’ll start video development process (iMovie, etc)