AFRIDAC | Summer Youth Advocacy Club
How can you drive social change by using video?
African Development and Advocacy Centre (AFRIDAC) hosted a 5 day advocacy event in Hackney, London. As part of this event, we were asked to deliver a 3 day workshop around using video as an advocacy tool. This is something we have been tasked with in the past, but never on this scale - 3 days felt like a luxury! We tried to pack in as much knowledge as possible into the 3 days, whilst ensuring that the workshops remained engaging, with practical tasks throughout to give the young people hands on experience.
We decided to structure our time into 3 stages of video production, including the planning, the shooting, and the editing. We feel that each stage is extremely important to understand, as they work in tandem to create a powerful end product. This meant that each day was unique and we were able to cover a big chunk of the entire filmmaking process.
DAY 1 | Pre-Production
We started the workshops with going through the ways in which film can be used in advocacy - we have quite a bit of experience with this as a lot of the projects we work on focus on really important issues. We’ve worked on films around domestic abuse, baby loss, mental health, safe spaces and many more (check them out here), and we feel really strongly about the projects we get involved in. We also wanted to find out what was important to each individual attending the workshops. We think it’s amazing that they took the time out of their Summer holidays to attend something like this, it shows so much initiative, so we wanted to make sure that we focused on topics important to them.
Creating a film is often a team effort, and there are quite a few plates to spin during production. With people working in groups, it was important to make sure everyone had a part to play, so as well as making sure everyone was part of every single step, we also wanted people to take accountability for different roles throughout the process, including producing, camera operating, sound and editing.
We spent the first day refining ideas, practical demonstrations and group discussions. We moved through pre-production by supplying a number of resources to guide the group through the process. Not only is this something that we do with our projects, it also means the young people could take these resources home, and have a guide going forward if they wanted to undertake another video project themselves.
DAY 2 | Shooting
In this instance, we decided to stick to shooting on phones, as we understand that this is often the more accessible option and you can create some really impactful work with this medium. AFRIDAC consulted with us before the workshops to ensure they could provide the correct resources so that everyone was able to play a part in making their campaign films come to life. We advised on the types of kits you can purchase for a number of different phones, including Android and Apple, just to be ready for any eventuality, as well as microphones and accessories. This meant that all the participants needed to bring was their enthusiasm! During practical demonstrations, we ensured everyone was comfortable with the kit supplied to them, and did some practice before going out into Hackney to tackle the shooting portion of the workshops.
This was the day everything started to come together. The planning we did the day before was a handy tool to guide everyone and made sure they stayed on track, and you could really feel the energy pick up once everyone received their kit - everyone seemed really eager to get shooting! The amazing thing was that each group had very unique ideas, so each approach was super different. We had a social media campaign film being made, where the group went out with mics and interviewed members of the public on the spot. An awareness film around mental health which needed a proper interview set up and staged supporting footage, and a film which focused on homelessness which planned to use VoiceOver and stock footage. It was also exciting for us to see these projects start coming to life.
DAY 3 | Editing
Editing can be a very complicated and overwhelming task. Structuring how to guide everyone through this took quite some thinking on our end. We wanted to show everyone the possibilities of editing, guide them through the process, but also give them the creative freedom to experiment and play around with all the tools at their disposal, as we feel that is the best way to learn! We came up with an approach that encompassed all of those things, and we managed to fit everything into a day, which in all honesty, we weren’t sure was possible! At the end of the day, we had 3 films we watched as a group, and we were absolutely blown away by the quality of work produced during the 3 days. The storytelling and execution was genuinely impressive, especially considering people came into this with no prior experience of filmmaking. We could really feel that each topic was really important to the groups (which is arguably the most important component).
