Environmental Marine Advertisement

I have recently joined Archipelagos on a 24 week placement, after graduating last year in Media Production, majoring in Broadcast Journalism (TV).

The first task I have been asked to undertake by Archipelagos is to make an environmental TV advertisement. There are four to be made ideally, between me and another person. We have decided to work individually – making two ads each – though we will work closely in terms of constructively critisising each others’ work and assisting with filming (and whenever needed). The ad I am starting with is on the marine environment in general.

Stage One
This is such a huge topic it would be impossible to communicate any aspect efficiently within the time frame of the ad (less than 2 minutes). Therefore I started researching generally and divided this into what I thought the 5 main issues were which have sub issues within themselves. Although the researchers at Archipelagos know many of the problems I was told to still do my own research as the wider the perspective the better – and eventually more accurate. The five topics I catagorised my research into were:

Shipping – Wrong routes, general pollution, anchoring/ mooring/ abrasion by ship hulls, coastal damage and damage caused by accidents, ship waste handling.

Fishing boats – Exploitation of resources, unwanted by-catch/ trapped animals returned dead to the sea (protected species), fishing techniques, general pollution, small scale fishing.
Pleasure boats – Anchoring /mooring, general pollution, accidents

Military – Pollution (general & noise)

Land-based pollution – Marine effected land pollution (e.g. illegal tip leakage)
An issue to be emphasized throughout is poor local and governmental management as these are the middle men needed to make the change possible – the connection between public will and progress.

(The issues of noise pollution and contamination of alien species from other seas were left out as these are more obscure and big topics on their own, which may need to be looked at in more depth – making whole ads or short documentaries by themselves.)

Stage 2
After this decision I had to think of a way to communicate the message in a way people would firstly listen to and secondly remember.

There are so many scientific facts which can be added but this will most likely confuse or bore people within the short time frame. For the desired effect and response the audience needs to engage emotionally with the issues. Therefore I have come up with a basic structure and style for an ad. There are three variations of this basic model but because all the shots will be the same this can be decided as late as editing stages.

The agreed upon model is for the ad to start like a tourist ad, with all the stereotypical features of this genre so the audience feel a false sense of security. Then, maintaining a happy and relaxed narration the images will become more disturbing, creating a sense of irony and a contrast between negative and positive which will hopefully give impact. The theme throughout all the good and bad images will be “come to beautiful Greece/ your guaranteed to get more than you bargained for…in beautiful Greece” (or words to that effect).
Then if people want more details the web address will be at the end for them to look up.
The next stage is storyboarding and filming the planned shots.
Feel free to contact me for more details of the effects mentioned on the marine environment – or for questions on video journalism.

http://workjournal.archipelago.gr/?p=668