IDM Assignment 1 Creative Journal by McMillan, Lauren - mcmly009

Week 1 ~ Initial Thoughts

mcmly009 — 2023-03-02 00:14:23 UTC

After todays session, I am excited to begin this assessment and topic in general. Whilst I haven't done anything assignment wise like this this before, I use mind-mapping frequently and am eager to put my previous experience with this creative aspect into use. I don't have any major ideas for the assignment thus far, but have a few smaller ideas that I am keen to develop further.

80 Ideas

mcmly009 — 2023-03-02 00:30:33 UTC

1. Go Go Boots
2. Period Poverty
3. Cross-stitch - making 'grandma' activities cool again
4. YACCA youth environment group
5. Lactose intolerance help-line
6. Temporary tattoos with left and right listed on them for your wrists for help with directions when driving
7. Disco party in a box
8. Pregnancy test that provides you with the astrological signs of the baby
9. Lot thirteen wine - family business
10. Soda that changes flavour as you drink it
11. App for people with autoimmune issues to track symptoms
12. Fictional 70's style clothing brand
13. A hangover pack that is delivered right to your door
14. Campaign to encourage clothes swapping/ op shopping over purchasing new items
15. A website that turns your 'holiday inspo' Pinterest board into a real trip
16. Fictional film/tv show
17. Site for people in the local film industry to connect with one another, borrow equipment & find locations
18. Candles that are scented to match the essence of songs
19. Promotion of a new kind of skincare
20. Awareness of the dangers of drinking and driving
21. Melanoma/skin cancer awareness
22. Promotion of a fictional radio station (Triple J vibes but more 70's style music)
23. Fictional vinyl record store
24. Capybara Cafe (like the cat cafe but keeping with the latest tik tok trend)
25. Website that tells you how to dress like your favourite tv & film characters
26. A social networking site that helps you find concert buddies
27. A website that ranks how gluten-free friendly places are and lists the friendly food options that they provide
28. Awareness of fossil fuels
29. Awareness of coral bleaching
30. A backpack with a big enough pocket for the huge 'Frank Green' water bottles
31. Fictional clothing brand that makes merch for Aussie bands
32. Makeup brand inspired by film colour palettes (eg Wes Anderson)
33. An online course about manifestation
34. 'Drugs by drone' - prescription medicines delivered to your home
35. A 'dating app' style site that matches you with an adoptable rescue dog
36. Alarm clock to remind you of when to water your indoor plants
37. App to scan your plants and diagnose them with plant diseases & solutions
38. A pantry scanner to scan the items you remove from your pantry to be automatically added to your shopping list
39. Grocery shopping app that sorts your list into the section/aisle that each item is located in
40. App for pet health reminders eg vet & grooming appointments
41. International women's day campaign
42. Balls that squeak at a frequency that dogs can hear, but humans can't
43. A fictional winery/cellar door
44. A form of AI that simplifies uni readings into dot points
45. An app that tracks your favourite brands/products and notifies you of any discounts associated with them
46. Promo for a fictional bands tour
47. A book swap shop (exchange a book for a book instead of purchasing a new one)
48. Homelessness Awareness
49. Mental health awareness
50. Pool/water safety video
51. Importance of knowing basic first aid
52. An app similar to BeReal except you share what movie/TV show you're watching when it goes off
53. A new kind of herbal tea
54. A pharmacy app that houses a list of your medications, stores all of your e-scripts, provides info leaflets on the medicines that you're taking etc
55. A customisable tablet that contains all of the vitamins/minerals that each individual requires
56. A fictional store that specialises in customised dungarees/overalls
57. An app that contains up-to-date & reliable info about health conditions
58. An app that scans the current tv show/movie that you're watching and tells you who the actors are and what other productions they've been in
59. Makeup brush stand that cleans them for you
60. A sun shade installed in your car that simply pulls out and connects to the other side
61. A gardening app that you can track what you've planted & when & provides info about what you should be doing to look after them and when
62. Rotating earring stand
63. A fictional new children's toy
64. A fictional new children's tv series
65. Beauty at lot thirteen (family business)
66. A body scan that diagnoses any disease
67. An organic herbicide that works just as well as the chemical ones
68. The benefits of seeing an exercise physiologist
69. Endometriosis/PCOS Awareness
70. An app that could diagnose car issues just by plugging it into your car
71. An app that converts normal recipes into gluten-free recipes
72. An app to scan plants that you like when out and about and it tells you where to buy one, where & when to plant it and how to look after it
73. Dashcams that can send footage of incidents/bad driving to the police
74. Breathalyser built into your phone
75. A fictional new reality TV show
76. An automatic tyre changer/repairer
77. Dog thoughts into a human voice converter
78. Tote bag with built-in sections for uni students
79. Fictional new dating app that pairs you based on films you enjoy
80. Automatic recipe generator based on what you've got in your fridge

Selected Message

mcmly009 — 2023-03-15 07:15:48 UTC

The message that I have decided to promote is period poverty and raising awareness/donations about this issue.

Annotated Bibliography

mcmly009 — 2023-03-15 07:16:14 UTC

Sources
Knight, R 2020, Reducing Period Poverty In Australia, The Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies, Queensland University of Technology, viewed 9 March 2023,
This report explored the reasons behind the occurrence of period poverty in Australia and the effects that it has on those experiencing it. This report also paid particular attention to approaches that should be explored to combat this issue, whether by the government, organisations (Eg Share the dignity vending machines) or the general population. This source was useful as it allowed me to gain a better understanding of the wider impacts that experiencing period poverty itself has on school-aged women, in addition to how the stigma surrounding this issue affects them also. The exploration of strategies that could be undertaken to reduce period poverty within this report was also important to my campaign as it has opened my eyes to multiple new ways in which I could also approach this issue.

Connolly, H 2021, Menstruation Matters: The impact of menstruation on wellbeing, participation and school attendance, South Australian Commissioner for Children and Young People, viewed 9 March 2023,
This report by the South Australian commissioner for children and young people explored the issue of period poverty in relation to South Australians aged between 7 and 22. A particularly shocking fact that I found from this source was that 1 in 4 children and young people reported experiencing problems getting period products when they needed them. From this source, I was able to gain greater insight into how this issue affects my local population, which is very helpful as I want to make my promotional video as relevant to my local audience as possible to maximise the emotional impact of the promotional video.

Piwowarski, M 2018, 'Neuromarketing Tools in Studies on Models of Social Issue Advertising Impact on Recipients', in K Nermend & M Łatuszyńska (eds), Problems, Methods and Tools in Experimental and Behavioral Economics, Springer, Cham, pp. 99-111, Springer Link
This research article explores the effectiveness of multi-step advertising models (such as the AIDA model) in achieving their desired objectives in relation to social campaigns. I found this source very interesting as it displayed the correlations between people's interest, memorisation and emotion across a social campaign video and demonstrated which areas of the video were most critical to each of these areas (eg, participants memorisation peaked near the end of the video where the call to action would be). This research is critical to my video as I am also exploring a social issue and it is important to hit the right beats in the video in correlation with the audience's levels of interest, memorisation and emotion to ensure that I maintain their attention throughout.

Videos
August 2022, Loopholes Cereal: Part of an Unbalanced Society, video, YouTube, 12 March, viewed 10 March 2023, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICKmw8_9m4Y>
This promo video by period care company August is for a fake company, Loopholes, which is a cereal brand that comes with sanitary products. Thus, as it is a food item, it would be eligible for the SNAP program in America that provides support for people to purchase food items, which would then allow people to purchase food & sanitary products instead of having to choose between the two. I like this advertisement as it is fun, upbeat, modern & catchy whilst still maintaining a serious undertone and spreading information about period poverty. Whilst I love this approach, my video will differ from this one by maintaining a more serious approach throughout.

Hey Girls UK 2021, #SeeingRed Campaign Video - Hey Girls, video, YouTube, 5 May, viewed 10 March 2023,
This campaign video takes on an angry approach to period poverty and covers multiple aspects of the issue; lack of affordability, stigma, bullying and also from a trans person's perspective. I liked this video as it encapsulates a sense of female rage (which in itself has been a growing trend in the media in recent times), approaches the issue from multiple perspectives and has a strong call to action with the use of the hashtag, #SeeingRed. Although, I did find that their use of flashing imagery was perhaps a bit overpowering in some sections. My video will be similar in that I want to present an accurate representation of what experiencing a period is like in real life (particularly in showing blood and not using blue liquid in old period ads) but I think that I will approach the issue in a less angry manner.

The Period Purse 2020, PSA: Period Poverty ~ The Period Purse, video, YouTube, 13 May, viewed 11 March 2023,
This campaign video takes on a realistic approach that shows the stark difference between experiencing a period as someone that can afford sanitary products in comparison to someone that is experiencing period poverty, and the impact that having compassion over being judgemental can have. I like this realistic approach and am aiming for a similar approach of comparing experiences within my own promotional video.

Always 2022, Help Always #EndPeriodPoverty So No Period Holds Her Back, video, YouTube, 13 May, viewed 11 March 2023,
This video takes on an educational/statistical approach that educates its audience about period poverty and the work that the company (Always) has done to combat it. I liked the educational tone of this video and in particular, I really liked the use of statistics to express information as I believe that they are more efficient at targeting emotions than just a splurge of information alone. My own video will embrace an educational tone and will use statistics also, but perhaps not quite to the extent that this video has used them in.

Moov Studio 2020, Period Poverty Explainer Video, video, Vimeo, 24 December, viewed 3 April 2023,
This animated video takes on an educational approach that explores multiple perspectives and experiences with period poverty. I loved how they explained the effects of period poverty in a straight forward manner and how they explained the work that they are doing to combat this issue. Their explanation of their work made their call to action that much stronger and made for an overall enjoyable video. I would like to embrace this straight forward approach in my own video, however mine will differentiate from this one as it takes on a more emotional approach.

Target Audience Identification

mcmly009 — 2023-03-15 07:19:56 UTC

My chosen target audience is girls/women aged 12-17 that attend high school in Australia, and even more specifically South Australia. With this target audience in mind, it is important to consider their likes and dislikes so that the promotional message can be crafted with them in mind.
This is a group that uses a multitude of social media platforms every day (popular options include Snapchat, Instagram & Tik Tok) and interact with a multitude of content types, specifically memes, trends & videos. Short videos in particular are liked by this age group, which means that grabbing their attention and maintaining it throughout this longer 30-second video will be crucial to gaining their support for this cause.
This promotional message seeks to educate those in this age group that are unaware of this issue and provide support to those that have experienced or may experience period poverty.

De Bono's Thinking Hats Reflection

mcmly009 — 2023-03-23 00:06:39 UTC

Blue Hat: Process
In regard to the thinking/organisation required for the creation of my video, I need to consider the following:

The creation of a storyboard and finalising the content that I want present in my video
Finding actors to be in my video
Selecting a location to shoot my video in
What cinematography techniques do I want to employ in my video? Some research could be conducted here
What do I want my actors to wear in the video?
What colours do I want to be most prevalent in the video?
Organising when I can shoot my video
What music/dialogue/sound do I want in my video? What do I need to collect that on the day of shooting if required?

White Hat: Facts
Whilst I do feel fairly confident in my knowledge about the overarching issue of period poverty and who is affected by it, I could conduct further research into how it affects South Australians more specifically so that I have correct, precise and locally targeted information to present to my audience.

Red Hat: Feelings
The topic of period poverty has some strong emotions attached to it, particularly sadness (that people have to experience this), empathy (for those experiencing it) and anger (at the society that places women in this situation). I believe that these feelings carry across to my target audience also and are ones that I want to carry into my video. Although, I would also like my audience to feel hopeful at the end of the video that they can be a part of the movement to end period poverty.

Green Hat: Creativity
To expand my creativity in my promotional video, I would like to experiment with colour grading in particular as it is something that I have yet to explore and I believe that this is a good opportunity to do so. My call-to-action graphic also opens up an avenue to expand my creativity through experimenting with different graphic design or animation techniques.

Yellow Hat: Benefits
This video will have a positive impact by spreading awareness about period poverty and gaining support from the community towards this cause. Furthermore, by collecting donations from the audience, a direct impact can be made by the audience for this cause; which is beneficial not only for the cause itself, but for the audience as they will feel good from having contributed to the cause.

Black Hat: Cautions
One hesitation that I have with making this video is that whilst period poverty is an issue that primarily affects women, I have to be mindful of those that are non-binary or trans that may also be affected by this issue and how they are included in the scope of this issue.

AIDA Process

mcmly009 — 2023-03-23 00:09:12 UTC

Attention: I intend to grab my audience's attention by portraying a scenario that many people have been in; getting your period unexpectedly. I believe this scene will shock and intrigue people as it is rarely shown in the media or other advertisements and will therefore compel them to continue watching the video.

Interest: This video will capture the interest of young women aged 12-17 as it is a situation that most of them can relate to at some point in time. By portraying a relatable and identifiable experience, the interest of my target audience should be captured which will allow me to share this message with them uninterrupted.

Desire: The video will employ a narrative that follows a flow of relatable emotions experienced by the protagonist and the audience. The video will start off as relatable and more lighthearted as it appears to be just another representation of a relatable situation. The tone will become more stressed, upsetting and sad as the situation becomes tenser and the realism of this experience is exposed.

Action: After viewing the video, viewers should feel shocked and upset by the information they have been presented with and feel compelled to donate to the cause. This call to action will be solidified at the end of the video by using facts and an engaging graphic.

Video Treatment

mcmly009 — 2023-03-29 10:29:07 UTC

This promotional video will expose the harsh realities of period poverty to the wider population and compel them to donate to assist in ending the cause.

The video opens with one girl entering a bathroom with a handbag on her shoulder. She places the bag down and sits down on the toilet, when it comes to her attention that she has started her period. She swears under her breath and scrambles through her bag to find a sanitary item - she can not find anything. She then wraps toilet paper around her underwear and exits the bathroom. She searches for a free sanitary items container and finds that it is empty. Her facial expressions are becoming visibly more upset as the pressure builds for her to find a sanitary item - and quickly. The sound during this time is silent aside from those made by her movements.

She proceeds to go to the shops where she scrounges around in her bag to find only a few coins. She stands in the sanitary items aisle searching for a product that she can afford as images flash between the prices of the items, her upset facial expression and the coins in her hand. The sound during this time is a combination of her heavy breathing and the sounds of the shops around her - exacerbating her anxiety. The flashing stops and she is left standing there with the coins in her hand, a tear falls down her face as she is unable to afford any items. A sound similar to that of an ear ringing can be heard at this moment.

A voiceover begins on this image of the girl crying that states an emotive fact and continues to ask people to donate to end period poverty as the image fades into the call-to-action graphic.

Brands of inspiration

mcmly009 — 2023-03-29 10:29:26 UTC

The following three companies provided inspiration for me to pursue this topic and their social media pages in particular are providing inspiration for my promo video and website.
Taboo Period Products (Adelaide/Kaurna country-based company!)
August (Very popular on tik tok!)
Pelvic Pain Foundation (whilst not directly period poverty-related, I like their approach to social media and the overarching topic of menstruation in general)

Mind map & Reflection

mcmly009 — 2023-03-29 10:29:48 UTC

The mind map that I have created has confirmed that I want to continue with my approach to this message, but has opened my mind to other possibilities that I could explore within this approach. Whilst I want to continue with the target audience of 12-17 year old women, this mind map has allowed me to explore how I could better my approach to target this demographic, such as selecting an aesthetic that is more relatable to them. This mind map also helped me in honing in the genre/approach that I want to take in my video, as I want it to be educational and emotional without coming across as too angry or energetic on opposite ends of the spectrum.

Tone

mcmly009 — 2023-04-03 06:47:41 UTC

I believe that those in my target audience that are aware of this social issue already feel fairly upset and concerned about it prior to seeing my video. After seeing my video I want them to feel compassion towards those that are experiencing this issue but I also want them to feel upset enough to want to make a change.

I will need to clearly convey how stressful and upsetting it is to be affected by this issue to build tension and compassion within the audience.

The colours that best represent these emotions are dull, muted and sad such as beiges, greys and blues. I would also like to incorporate red into the video as I believe that exemplifies feelings of stress & anger alongside representing the colour of a period itself.

I believe that a serif font will be more effective at representing these emotions as they are more formal for the context of the promotional video whilst still allowing for additional elements of personality to shine through.

Fonts/Typography

mcmly009 — 2023-04-03 07:09:17 UTC

I decided to explore fonts that fit within the serif category on account of the fact that they look slightly more formal but can still be adjusted to include some personality so that it is still attractive to my target audience.

I explored multiple fonts on fonts.google.com and dafont.com and my top selections can be seen in the image above. I have selected the font 'TT Moons' from dafont.com (as circled above) to include in my final design as it looks strong and formal with an element of softness to it that I believe fits both my target audience and the social issue that I am exploring.

https://www.dafont.com/tt-moons-2.font?text=P+is+for+Period&back=theme

Colour Palette

mcmly009 — 2023-04-03 07:31:18 UTC

Colour psychology can be an extremely powerful tool when applied correctly. For my promotional video and subsequent website, I want to represent this message in nature that exudes its importance and the passion that this 'company' has for it. The colour red symbolises passion, aggression, importance and youth and is also most distinctly related to the topic at hand. I also decided to go with a monochromatic colour palette to maintain synergy across the multiple aspects of my promotional video and website.

Period Poverty Advertisement

mcmly009 — 2023-04-03 08:46:03 UTC

Behance 2023, 'Period Poverty Advertisement Installation', Behance, Pinterest, viewed 30 March 2023,

Artistic representation of period poverty

mcmly009 — 2023-04-03 08:50:06 UTC

Broadview.org 2018, 'Artistic representation of period poverty', Broadview.org, Pinterest, viewed 30 March 2023,