Recycling PSA
The project that I submitted to the 2016 emagine festival
was a recycling PSA. It originated from a group stop motion project that I did
with Zac Schuh, Alan Seidl, Decoder and Adam Oskvig. Before I detail the PSA, I
will describe the original project so there can be some context. The original
concept was that the main character (played by Adam) would continuously attempt
to throw away a piece of trash, but he is unable to because the trash bin keeps
moving out of the way. The idea was then pitched to the group that the project
could be easily converted to a PSA. Once we decided to go forward with that
idea, I took over the full responsibility of the project because everyone else
in the group had other emagine projects that they were more passionate about.
The
first thing we did to convert it to a PSA was to shot an extra scene that would
be added to the end of the PSA which depicts Adam giving up trying to throw
away the paper in the trash and instead recycles the paper. This scene was key
to the message of the PSA, which is to encourage people to recycle.
I then put
the main portion of the video in black and white except for the recycling bin,
which is in full color. The reason for the effect is to convey the message that
not recycling is like living in black and white and recycling is the morally
correct thing to do. I also used a shock wave special effect on the recycling
bin for when Adam puts the paper in the bin. When this effect happens, the
scene transitions from being in black and white to full color. The idea was to
show that Adam recycling the paper restored the world to a state of being
healthy and flourishing with color. One of the main challenges of making the
PSA was finding music that fit the tone that we wanted to set. We wanted a tone
of slight sadness, redemption, and intensity. We ultimately had to use two
different songs to achieve those tones because we couldn’t find one single song
that conveyed all of those tones.
Another challenge for me was cutting scenes
of the original project in order to fit the PSA. Originally, Adam’s attempts to
throw away the trash is more drawn out and detailed. I made the tough decision
to cut this sequence down to just 2 shots of Adam being dragged because unlike
the original project, the purpose of the PSA was not to show Adam being
comically tormented by the trash can. The purpose was to convey the message of
recycling and I felt that the extended clips of Adam being dragged around did
not add to this message.
Overall, I thought that all ideas and effort that I
and the rest of the group put into our project came together and resulted in a
very high quality PSA video and I believe it has a great chance to win a pixel
at emagine.
