Mini Project: Zero Hero Challenge Competition

Note:

*This mini project has given me an idea as to how sound has to be match with the visuals in certain ways; in order to convey certain moods and relevance to the plot of the story. It can prove useful for designing the sound in my final project.*

As a side project, I entered the Zero Hero Challenge; a competition put on by Birmingham City Council. The brief was to create a video no longer than 2 minutes proposing an action plan to encourage students to be more aware of waste. This is part of the council's aim to make Birmingham a zero waste to landfill city by 2035.  

My Idea is called "WasteWatch". When planning this, I first tried to think of ways in which students would engage in a plan set up by the council. I started with the idea that students do a lot on social media in the present day and so the idea proposal would have to involve a social media element. Then I thought about how people upload selfies online and share them. I thought to use this as the base of the action plan.

In the end, my idea was to have the council position specialised recycle bins called "WasteWatch Points" all around the city; for example a plastic WasteWatch Point or glass, metal, cardboard etc. Students can then go to one and take a selfie recycling the waste that can be recycled at said WasteWatch Point. They then upload the picture onto social media with the #WasteWatch. In turn, they can be given a chance to be put into a random prize draw of WasteWatch selfies.

By doing this, it makes more students aware of waste in the city and provides an incentive for them go out and recycle at WasteWatch Points.

The story  in my short video involves a photography student that is trying to take pictures of sites around Birmingham. However, every time he tries to take a picture, a photobomber gets in the way; these photobombers are bits of waste trying to get their picture taken above everything else. When the photographer finds no safe place to take a picture, he happens to find a WasteWatch Point and decides to this time deliberately take a picture of waste; right before he recycles it. In the end, he can take his pictures without any unexpected photobombs.

When making the video, I decided to use the technique of photo montage as it requires fewer frames to tell a wider story. I took pictures of certain areas around Birmingham to use as the backdrop scenes to the story. For the character, I had a friend take pictures of me posing in certain ways to image movement in still frames. I then put the pictures into Photoshop and traced over my body shape and features and then added colour.

I chose my colour pallet to make the photographer have affinity with the green in the background images, and contrast to the colours of the waste. This was to show the importance of the environment and how waste does not fit in with it at all, it only damages it.

Edited version of submitted video to competition.