WHY A.B.C?

The reason Ive chosen A.B.C as my craft of campaign is because I'm referring to my own thought transition towards the attitudes of illegal downloading. As Ive said, educating myself through research has made me more conscientious of my personal involvement in illegal downloading and given me the opinion that I want to support industries/artists that inspire me.

So I link the alphabet(A.B.C) with learning. Learning to THINK about what effect illegal downloading has.

I guess its easier for anyone who hopes to have a career in a industry vulnerable to piracy to think respectively about the effect it has on their future.

It'd be interesting to know if anyone else with this brief have gone through any changes in attitude.

REVISED SCRIPT AND STORYBOARD

Here is a revised script and storyboard for the 1#CLIENT BRIEF - 'A.B.C OF INTERNET PIRACY'

I shown my original script to a someone and they thought it'd be a shame to not include B. and C. in the animation. It was a good point and I thought in presentation I could (hypothetically) attempt to secure additional commissions by offering to produce animations for subsequent letters of the alphabet. But soon realised that including animations for A.B.&C. would better wrap up my concept overall.

REVISED 'A.B.C. OF INTERNET PIRACY' SCRIPT

OK, so this is the A.B.C. of Internet piracy.

It starts with our resident mascot piracy ape, who sells illegal ‘rips’ of the new ‘TRANZMORPHERBOTS 4’ movie.

Ape starts with A, but I want to tell you about A as in Audience.
Most rips you get are filmed from inside the cinema so expect to watch the back of their heads, watch them go off to the toilet, chat and even fart!

B, stands for Blurry, which describes the video quality.
Especially in dark parts of the film, where following the movie is almost impossible.

C, stands for Copyright and breaching this is illegal.
How would you like a poor copy of you going round acting antisocial and you getting the blame?

So don’t sell yourself short
Invest in your passions
Do original.

#1 CLIENT BRIEF - POSSIBLE APE...

Here are a few designs for the pirated DVD selling 'APE' in my animation. I was going making him into an unsavoury character. Like what an APE would be like if he lived Doncaster... i joke.

1# CLIENT BRIEF - NEW VIEWS...

As a self confessed user of Peer2Peer, Ive found my self turning towards the benefits of buying original material. When I compare 'pirated' material with the original, I find that with original products your experience has been designed to the detail of your optimal viewing experience. Something that is not converted over into pirated material. I know this based on my own personal experience and know people who don't buy 'dodgy copies' because they want to know what they're getting. Basically you are missing out on content by going 'pirate'.

This has nudged me towards promoting a different message in my ad campaign, giving the negatives of the 'service' in hope to promote original media.

I started (again) by brainstorming key words that are associated with using Peer2Peer.

Looking at all the words/phrases this generated made me think of an ad campaign that 'spelled' out the cons of pirate material. I come up with an 'A.B.C. of Internet piracy' which would obviously start with A... and list in a narrative form the negatives of using pirated media.

Below is a draft script as example...

OK, SO THIS IS THE A.B.C OF INTERNET PIRACY

O, THERE WAS A RHYME THERE.
IT WAS TOTALLY UNINTENTIONAL...
HONEST I'M NOT HERE TO RAP.

YES, RIGHT, WE'LL START WITH A.
A, IS FOR APE AND THIS COULD BE YOU BUYING A RIP OF THE NEW 'TRANZMORPHERBOTS 4' MOVIE OFF SAID APE.

THE APE WILL USE THE CASH TO BUY SCRATCH CARDS AND/OR FAGS.
THE APE WILL GET A NASTY COUGH FROM ALL THE FAGS.

A. IS ALSO FOR AUDIENCE.
'YOUR' DVD WAS PROBABLY FILMED WITH A CAMCORDER IN A CINEMA
SO EXPECT TO WATCH PAYING CUSTOMERS EAT POPCORN, GO OFF TO THE TOILET, CHAT OR FART.

A. COULD ALSO BE FOR AUDIO WHICH IS LIKELY TO BE TERRIBLE.
LIKE LISTENING TO IT WITH A GOLDFISH OVER YOUR HEAD AND CRABS LIVING IN YOUR EARS.

SO, COME ON, DON'T SELL YOURSELF SHORT.
INVEST IN YOUR PASSIONS.
DO ORIGINAL.

below is a draft storyboard that would go alongside the script.

BRAIN STORMIN

These ideas are for the #1CLIENT BRIEF. Where I'll be producing a 20 second animation as part of a campaign against the illegal use of peer2peer software.

As with just about every project its good to do an initial brainstorm. POW!

Considering the research I had done so far I found myself leaning toward the 'Shaming of the Pirate' IE; holding live interviews with self confessing Internet Pirates, getting their view on why they download. In hope that I would be able to reconstruct their visual image with a super imposed 'animal with a bad image' (see pink above). I imagine the outcome to have a similar impact as 'Creature Comforts'.
The idea would be an attempt to make a dowloader seem to be 'of shame-full character'.
By changing them into a animal like a pig, vulture or rat MAY affect the image of those particular views. LONG SHOT!

With the one above you can see how the interviewer may ask questions that oppose the interviewees argument to put them on the spot.


I don't know why I put a rats head on the interviewers head, probably getting carried away with putting animal heads onto of peoples heads. whatever...

This one is extreme, I know. But I did find out that without peer2peer software Pedo's have a hard time distributing 'material'... so, this could be used (MAYBE) to illustrate a super-negative use of illegal downloading.

With that I'm thinking that some dark humour may push this into the attention of my intended audience. Me. When I think of good 'public information films' (PIF) I remember work produced for the 'TALK TO FRANK' drug awareness campaign.

DRUGS ARE TAKING OVER YOUR LIFE

I like this because the songs jolliness doesn't suit the subject or visuals. I also like how the message 'Drugs are taking over your life' isn't revealed until the end, making the viewer pay attention for a punchline.

PABLO

This one is brilliant! and expresses perfectly the use of dark humour to hit a message home. It has all the shock values of a typical PIF but is told with a comical narrative. Helped along by PeepShows David Mitchell and 'coked up' editing.

(more here - http://www.youtube.com/user/FRANKCocaine#p/u/3/AkcbAvtLFk4)

MESS WITH YOUR MIND

Love this the most for some strange reason... PEOPLE I KNOW... who may be partial to the use of said substance say they relate with the 'smoker' in this video. However, they all say it makes no difference to their views or practises.

...all stuff to think about...

#1 CLIENT BRIEF SUMMARY

The brief is to produce a 20second animation as part of a campaign by ‘The Copyright Protection Agency’ to warn users about the dangers/laws of illegally downloading media from the internet. The targets are specifically users who download illegally using Peer2Peer software.
P2P is an application that allows users to share specific files and folders with other P2P users. The software was designed for innocent usage but nowadays the files ‘shared’ are copyrighted media like MP3’s, video, software etc.

As you can imagine consumers that only consume and neglect to put anything back have a detrimental effect on whatever industry they are stealing from. Yes, I said it, stealing! The Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America recently stated that piracy costs the industry around $250 billion a year and in the UK nearly £500 million! (A piss in the ocean in comparison) The comparison is reflective to the level of action America’s government have taken on the issue. They have set up agencies to tackle internet piracy. One that has proved most successful is The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

“On September 8, 2003, the recording industry sued 261 American music fans for sharing songs on peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing networks, kicking off an unprecedented legal campaign against its own customers. The recording industry has now filed, settled, or threatened legal actions against well over 28,000 individuals, and there is no end in sight. While the strategy of forcing ordinary music fans to pay thousands of dollars to avoid even bigger RIAA-member lawsuits is itself troubling, many innocent individuals are also being caught in the crossfire.”

http://www.eff.org/riaa-v-people

But what is Britain’s answer to tackle internet piracy? Well there have been rumours circulating about illegal downloader’s being tracked to their Internet service providers (ISP) and the ISP being responsible for taking action against the illegal downloader with ‘punishments’ like slowing your bandwidth or cutting you off totally.

“Business Secretary Lord Mandelson is calling for tougher penalties for illegal downloader’s, including fining the parents of children caught illegally file swapping and calls for Ofcom to track and warn the owners of computers being used in illegal downloading activities. Those that continue to offend would have their internet access slowed or blocked, while some could face fines of up to £50,000.”

www.cio.co.uk/news/121419/lord-mandelson-demands-internet-piracy-crackdown/

Well, shit, man, better stop illegally downloading things! I feel a total hypocrite attempting to discourage illegal downloads. I’m going to be totally honest. I have and probably will continue to download media, illegally. You do too… don’t lie.
Ive realised that ‘I’ am my target audience I need to aim towards. Not only do I understand and practise P2P software I can also aim my message towards “what would change MY attitude on illegally downloading?”

Its a very hard argument to defend. "You, person, spend money on that thing you can get for free. Go on, go to town, into HMV, shuffle around, spend £13 a DVD, watch it, probably feel a little ripped off then put it in your collection for someone to then borrow and you never see again."

Dont get me wrong I do buy originals, normally films Ive already seen, ones that I know I'll like. I dont think it makes sense to buy things you dont know if your going to like.

There be howlers out there...

The first is always the scariest...

...as I said.