Hand Delivering PSAs to Stations Adds Special Touch!

Hand delivered tapes to local tv stations in Los Angeles today! It was quite an experience driving to every station. I definitely got a feel for the corporate personality of each network. I even got a chance to explain the WRHAP PSA campaign to the station reps who came to the front desk to accept the package in-person. Hopefully, the personal touch of hand delivering the tape packages, with a poster and a few postcards helps our campaign stand out to managers and gets the spots airtime.

Building passes for local tv stations

Next we're scheduling a meeting with the charity to give them the the official DVD of the campaign, plus campaign postcards to remind stations to air the PSAs before each important HIV/AIDS awareness day!

Gearing up for distribution with Google Maps

So the task of sending spots to local stations, while seemingly straightforward, has been a bit daunting for me. Primarily because we'd like to do more than just send them by mail. Shipping every spot to a station where managers likely receive dozens everyday is not the best way to stand out.

We spent a great deal of time developing eye-catching packaging and I wanted to hand deliver each one and ideally have a scheduled meeting with each manager to explain the campaign, make a connection and gain their support. With over a dozen stations, a full-time job and only a few weeks left, I've accepted that this may not be realistic.

Using Google Maps, I was able to plot the TV stations and create a visual aid to help determine which stations to make personal visits to and which stations to just mail in the spots.

Google map of local TV stations in Los Angeles

Kudos to our Creative Team!

Volunteering as the department head for a PSA is not easy. It's a test of maximizing creativity with minimal resources and all our volunteer creative team passed with flying colors. There was a little hand wringing here and there, but everyone made it happen. A special kudos to our creative team for their support!

Production Team

Elizabeth Bayne is the Director and Co-Writer. A recent film grad from Art Center College of Design, she studied public health at Yale University and worked as a research fellow on the U.S. EPA public outreach campaigns for childhood asthma and radon awareness, before pursuing her MFA in film.

Montana Mann is our Writer. A fellow student at Art Center College of Design, Montana is a filmmaker and advocacy worker with PROTECT, a children's rights organization. Being half-Iranian, Montana feels strongly about women’s rights in Iran and organized a group to publicize the issue via protests and by releasing viral videos filmed by activists in Iran.

Clora Ferguson is our Producer. She recently finished UCLA's Producer's Program while working full time as a middle school teacher and assistant producing on multiple short films and web series. Inspired by her students, Clora's dream is to produce full time and use film to tell their stories.

Sandra Valde is our Cinematographer. She's a graduate from the American Film Institute (AFI), where she currently teaches classes and has become a much in demand Director of Photography on many independent film projects. She is currently in production for her 10th feature film!

Elise Om is our Wardrobe Stylist. A recent graduate from Art Center College of Design, Elise majored in product design and developed her own clothing line while in school. Our PSA is her first production.

Lawrence Kim is our Production Designer. A graduate from the American Film Institute (AFI), Lawrence also trained as an architect during an international fellowship to the prestigious Architectural Association School of Architecture in London.

WRHAP HIV PSA launches online March 10th!

This Sunday is National Women & Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day!

It's also the day we're launching our HIV awareness PSA Campaign on behalf of local non-profit, Whittier Rio Hondo AIDS Project (wrhap.org). Please share this important message with the women and girls in your life. Let them know you care and remind them to be smart and know their status.

"Sharing" HIV PSA Campaign from WRHAP.ORG

80% of women diagnosed with HIV are in a relationship and many don't perceive themselves to be at risk. Be smart, know your status and remove the blindfold!

See the 30 and 15 seconds spots in English and Spanish here:
https://vimeo.com/channels/wrhaphivpsa

The BetaSPs are here!

Just received the BetaSP dub tapes that we'll be distributing to stations this month!

After much searching, we were able to identify a distribution company willing to give us a generous discount to print and encode our PSA tapes.

Now we can track each time the PSAs air on local stations!

As you can see, we've picked the official (unofficial) slogan for the campaign...the look and slogan was inspired by our campaign's graphic designer, Angie, who we recruited to create a unique look for our branding. Customized branding helps PSA campaigns stand out to station managers and increases recall among audiences. We also have custom packaging designed around the campaign's branding that we'll unveil next week. Stay tuned!

4 Hours Left...for the Campaign Fundraiser!

Exciting news! We're 70% funded with just 4 hours left in the campaign. Thank you to everyone for your support!

This has been an amazing experience and I appreciate knowing I have such wonderful folks behind me. Keep an eye out for updates on the campaign rollout after the fundraiser ends today here at: INDIEGOGO.COM/WRHAP

Color Correction Results for 35mm PSA

Here are the results from our color correction session with the wonderful Damian at CO3:

I really appreciated the time, effort and patience they put into our little PSA. It was my first color correction session at a post-production company, let alone one as big a deal as Company 3, but they made me feel comfortable and very welcome as I proceeded to use up nearly each and every minute allotted for our two hour session. See how it compares to our initial vision in the last post.

Thanks Damian!

LESS THAN 5 DAYS LEFT in our fundraiser, don't miss your chance to back a great cause: INDIEGOGO.COM/WRHAP

Color Correction Tests in Photoshop

To prepare for our color correction session for the PSA last week, our DP, Sandra, did the following color correction tests in Photoshop to screenshots from our footage. See how she added some contrast to let the whites go white and blacks go black and saturated the image so the reds stand out, but not so much that the skin tones get too red. She also brightened the overall picture to add a bit of punch to the scene:

She wasn't in town for the color correction session and I was a little nervous going on my own. It was my first time color correcting and my first time at a post-production house and I wanted to get it right. She prepped me with the following common sense tips on what to watch out for:

1) Be sure that everything matches from shot to shot
2) Check that all the actors skin tones look normal
3) Keep the whites white and the reds red
4) Be consistent with the lighting
5) And finally -- Don't worry about trying to talk to them in their terms, just tell them what you want in your own words and they should be able to figure it out from there.

Worked like a charm. Thanks Sandra!

Support the campaign at: INDIEGOGO.COM/WRHAP 
Only 8 days left!!!

How to Get Your PSA on the Air!

If you work in social marketing or health outreach, you probably know how challenging it is to get a public service announcement (PSA) on the air. The very nature of a PSA is that you don't pay for advertising time on television or radio, because as a public service - it's free. Unfortunately this has often relegated many PSAs to the nether regions of late night or early morning between the hours of 1 to 5AM, when most of our target audience is asleep.

To make sure our PSA gets aired during prime viewing hours during important HIV testing awareness days we are pulling all the stops to grab station managers' attention and to track the number of times each PSA is aired. We're raising funds and support via Indiegogo.com at: INDIEGOGO.COM/WRHAP

We're just $755 and 12 days away from reaching our goal, please help us make a difference in our community by supporting our fundraiser :)

Check out our instagram pics from our expanded online presence at tumbler and instagram !!!