26th February: Video content meeting

Jeanie and Harvena came down for lunch with me at the Saatchi & Saatchi building today to start working on what will be my internship project.

We had already decided that a manageable project will be to create video content to supplement the modules that Harvena is writing. The meeting was more to discuss timeframes and how we would go about doing it.

I will need to know what format to produce the videos in. I don't really know what formats are available, but we do need to decide where the content will eventually end up. Putting the videos on YouTube opens them up to the public and YouthLaw has less control over quality and the amount of content that can be stored. The other option is to store the videos on the SharePoint site, this means YouthLaw has more control over who sees the videos, the quality of the videos and how long each video can be. We will need to ensure that this video functionality will be available in the website that is being developed.

Speaking of website development (and this is outside of my internship project), Jeanie isn't sure who will be designing the site yet. I hope some decisions are made around this soon as it could impact on timeframes.

We discussed "A fair hearing". A fair hearing was a video that was created in the 90's about a Board of Trustees meeting to discuss a student's behaviour. It ran for 20 minutes and provided information about advocacy under the Education Act. It will give me a good idea of the sort of stuff that has been done before and what YouthLaw may want for the new project. I've now got a copy of the VHS and will take a look at it soon.

We talked about how the final website will look. Harvena explained that each module will be divided into a number of sessions. At the end of each module, there will be an assessment that the user must pass before going on to the next module.

Harvena showed me the video brief that she had created for the modules she wants video content in. She explained that there are two ways to go about creating video content:

1) Lots of different scenarios to illustrate different areas of the law, e.g. a stand-down, a suspension, an expulsion etc. This would lack "a story", but each video would be very relevant to each module.
2) An ongoing storyline, where a main character progresses through different areas of the law (e.g. a real bad student who gets stood-down, then suspended, then excluded etc).

We discussed both ways and it became apparent that the ongoing storyline would be the best option as we would only need the one actor (and their parents / teachers etc). Harvena is going to update the video brief to reflect this and resend through to me.

Harvena needs video content for the following modules:

• Gross misconduct (Education Act advocacy)
• Continual disobedience (Education Act advocacy)
• Youth justice (Youth Justice Act)
• Possibly also a special needs section. However, concerns were raised that parents might not be willing to allow their kids to be filmed and so photos might have to be used instead. Personally, I see this as no obstacle and Red is willing to try and find actors to fill the parts required

Jeanie also asked if I could produce some video content (2-3 clips) for her module

• Natural justice (and how it applies to everyday life)

We identified some requirements for the videos

• Produced in a format that will integrate easily into the rest of the content (website text)
  
• Produced in a style that can be easily cloned (so that additional video content can be added later)
• Clips should be no longer than 3 minutes each
• Clips will need to be viewed and accepted by YouthLaw as well as a select group of National Youthworkers Network pilot testers
• Clips should be funny and entertaining where appropriate (e.g. a joke cracker student / or a hard case principal)
• Clips should be fairly generic so as to be appropriate even if the law goes through minor changes, but not too generic so as to lose value or be boring
• There was an additional request to create a module on how to create your own videos in similar format (this could be made available to selected people who are interested in expanding the content of the site)

We finally discussed timeframes

• The modules need to be completed (written) by 30th April, but Harvena expects to complete them earlier (approx end of March)
• The video content needs to be completed by 30th June

The entire PLEAS project will be completed after pilot testing and national roll out by 31/08/2009.