Project Direction: Video to Zine Pivot
Finding the best ways to package and present our research
In the week leading up to Spring Break, we met a few times as a group to discuss the project direction for the second half of the semester.
We got useful feedback out of the round robin critique. We were particularly excited about the responses that we got from our classmates on their use of Instagram. Their comments were quirky, relatable, humorous, and honest. After class, we spent some time discussing how we wanted to approach the next part of the project. We knew we needed to move away from conducting any more research for the time being. We needed to start making artifacts, whether that be in a physical or digital manner.
Using Video to Raise Awareness
While brainstorming deliverable ideas, I came across an interesting Op-Docs video shared by the New York Times titled, “How Birth Control Made Me Four Different People.” The style and tone of the video is attention-grabbing. The narrator speaks about the physical and emotional challenges she has endured since she was put on birth control at an early age.
The video raises awareness about a serious issue in a thought-provoking way. The message doesn’t become fully clear to the viewer until the very end. We liked the idea of creating a video to inform our audience about the ways that Instagram can either work to help or harm people’s well-being. On the board, we listed out the different topics we cared to address in the video:
We didn’t get much farther than this step in planning out the video. We didn’t have enough time to meet again to storyboard, write a script, etc. We figured we would do most of that after coming back from Spring Break. So we all left with the impression that in the next eight weeks or so, we would make a video to raise awareness about our research question in a similar format to the one we saw produced by the The New York Times.
Inspired by Adbusters
While visiting Seattle for spring break, I came across an Adbusters magazine in a convenience store. The focus of the magazine issue is all about Facebook and its negative influences on society. The messages and visuals are presented in a very aggressive tone. I brought back the magazine to show to the team. We admired the bold design of the magazine and liked how it left a lasting impression on us after first glance. After looking through the magazine a few times, we debated whether or not we should stick to making a video as our final deliverable.
In the end, we chose to go with designing a magazine instead. The content would be similar to that of the video outline (ex: social comparison, positive and negative influences, etc). We liked that we’d be able to incorporate a lot more of the research within the magazine spreads. We also agreed that we’d take on a much stronger stance on the issue like the way that Adbusters did.
