Arts Process Journal: Entry #1

This term, we are studying PSAs. What is a PSA? Simply put, PSA is an abbreviation for "Public Service Announcement". PSAs can be classified as an advertisement, although its purpose is completely different than an ordinary advertisement. PSAs are advertisements that are made to convey information for the public good, they usually promote positive behavioral change. Advertisements about not drinking and driving, anti-bullying, or anti-drugs are some examples of common PSAs. The first PSAs were broadcasted in WW2 by the UK and US, most of those PSAs were made to help war efforts. Now war is seen as a negative thing nowadays, but back then enlisting yourself into the army was seen as patriotic and helpful to the country.

"This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs" The most recognized PSA on anti-drugs is a short clip of an egg getting fried with that message.

In class, me and my group did initial research on PSAs, we looked for examples of PSAs and we came across one which we liked. The PSA is called "It Can Wait", interestingly, this PSA was made by a Youtube channel called "Random at Best". The PSA's main purpose is to stop people from texting and driving, although it does so in a unique manner which we came to like. Most PSAs are short, snappy, straight to the point, but this PSA overextends a scenario which could have ended in a simple manner. The PSA initially builds up our emotions, making us "hooked" with the story, but then it suddenly ends the story ironically and hilariously links the whole thing to a message asking us to stop texting & driving.

We really liked how the PSA used narrative and plot as a way to make itself interesting. We decided to create a PSA in the style of "It Can Wait", where there is a whole thought-out story and not just a straight-forward message like most common PSAs. In this project I took the role of director and cameraman at the same time, and my groupmates Nikolas and Sebastian are the actors, although they will help in post-production. After sending in the proposal to Ibu Lis and thinking up an outline script, I began working on the storyboard.

The first Storyboard I drew up for the PSA

As everything is still in the initial stages, I didn't make a lot of changes to the storyboard. In fact, we pulled off the shots in this storyboard relatively easily. For the sake of organization, I decided to divide the storyboard into three sequences. The first one (above) is when Seb gets bullied, the second one is when Seb starts learning to defend himself, and the third one is when Seb becomes the bully himself with the martial arts skill he learned.

Storyboard for the second sequence

So far, we have finished all the shots for sequence one, and we are finishing up the second sequence. Currently, we are faced with a problem for the second sequence, shots 3A and 3B needs to be shot at Emerald so we are still trying to figure the schedule for that. Lastly, I still have to draw up the storyboard for the third sequence. I'm thinking of using similar shots from the first sequence, only this time, the positions are switched.