Dollar for a Drink

Here's what Josh had to say....

Style:
Overall, we were primarily deliberating over whether to use Rob Alvey's pencil stop motion style or Kristen Mark's chalk stop motion style. I really liked Kristen's idea, but in the end the concept was not practical for our needs (we couldn't fit me in the film fluently). In the end, I chose a fusion of Rob's and A.J.'s style pitches — thus, it will basically be animated pencil sketches. If you took a look at the "Story of Stuff" videos, that is about what I'm looking for, except it looks a bit more sketch-like, if that makes sense. There will be no animated "pencil" to see, and the lines themselves won't appear physical (as if they were drawn on paper). Basically, I want a hybrid between smooth/glossy computer lines and rough/rouged straight pencil sketches.

Presentation:
Here, there are two main ideas to consider. One is the general strategy behind the promo (what's its feel?), and secondly, how I will interact with the animations. Starting with the second aspect first (I know, novel, right?) I came up with the idea that I, on green screen, will appear briefly at the beginning of the promo in physical form. After a quick into (basically, something along the lines of, "Did you know that...") I will actually hop into the animation and become an animated character. This does two things: one, it relieves the stress of my interacting with the animation on green screen, as Scott and I kept bumping into fluidity issues with that route (especially with stop motion, it felt awkward). Secondly, along the lines of what A.J. was suggesting, this gives us a great outlet for humor, as you guys will be able to do funny things with/to me. I will follow all stats throughout the promo and will interact with them in some way. At the end, I will pop back out of the animation, resume physical form, and wrap up with a personal call to action from the audience. In terms of my "style" We'll need to have me wear whatever it is I'll be wearing in front of the green screen; I have a hunch this will be bluejeans/t-shirt or bluejeans/my favorite sweatshirt (which is black and white striped on the arms, solid black body). It's hooded, btw.

Considering the general strategy behind the promo, I liked Christina Gooch's pitch the best. That is, reworking the stats so that they cater specifically to today's youth. This is key. You want a kid to be able to watch this and say, "Wow, I can really relate to that!" as opposed to simply see a number on a white screen that doesn't mean anything to him. In addition, I liked A.J.'s "humorous" idea, but at the same time this video is not intended to be entertaining by any stretch of the imagination. It should be engaging, yes, but explicitly laugh-out-loud funny? No. (you can have some in there, yes, but there is a fine line to walk here between serious and humorous — remember what our topic is and the gravity of it! I do not what this video to come across as making light of the situation.) That said, I want me interacting with most all of the stats in some way, so you'll have to get creative with how to get me from one stat to the next fluently. In case you haven't noticed, a big word I keep using is fluidity. The entire film must flow and look like it's one big, comprehensive whole, otherwise people won't buy it.

So now that you have the style and presentation, on to the individual stats. I've pasted everything I sent to you a few weeks ago, and posted my thoughts/choices after each stat. Stats with an ✩ beside them hold highest priority, so be sure to focus on them first and leave the ✩-less stats alone until the end (should you have time for them)

Individual Stats Presentation:

✩ The World's population count is 7 billion, but 1 billion lack access to clean water
- Kristen Mark's globe graphic, with 1/7 getting sliced out is my favorite. But instead of "erasing" them, perhaps combine this with Rob's idea of filling up the screen with people, except they are just inside the globe, and have the people in the "slice" get partitioned out according to who's going to die from the lack of water (Rob suggested a red water drop) — you could even have me inside the crowd, and trying to avoid the redness. Another idea of using me (animated me) would be to have seven people lined up, with me being one of them, and three die in some way (fall over, evaporate, etc.) and I try to avoid this (I would look rather insecure as my friends evaporate). Bot technics could be used: the globe and row of seven people, with whatever happens to the globe corresponds to the row of people. Get creative.

● An estimated 2.6 billion people lack access to improved sanitation
- Simply tie this one into the first one, making more of my "friends" evaporate or slicing out more of the globe.

✩ Approximately every 18 seconds a child dies / 4,900 per day, 1.8 million per year / 11 Boeing airplanes
- One thing I was surprised at in your pitches was the lack of the use of crashing jumbo jets to represent this stat; I was sure someone was going to have 11 jets smashing to bits. That said, I liked Kristen's "clock" graphic very much, with the numbers "echoing" off as the hand turns around. You could do the calendar idea, with 4,900 per day on one page, then flipping really fast to end the year and show 1.8 billion. I'm torn between Christina's idea of equating this number to the number of students in New York City, almost twice, and the idea of the jets crashing. The problem with the New York idea is that it would be potent primarily to New York City residents; remember that this promo needs to be world-oriented, so some people might not have a reference point for the city. The crashing plane concept, however, is something pretty much anyone can relate to. I'll let you decide, but just know that I lean towards using the planes in some way. (*cough cough*)

Also the animations must be in 1440 x 1080 and make their drawings/animations with transparency/alpha so their is no background.