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THE PSA PROCESS Depending on the rapidity of client approvals, a PSA campaign can take between two and six months from the signing of the contract to the first air date. Results take place over a period of months, since PSAs have a much longer shelf life than news releases. Brainstorming. Everything from to packaging design, marketing strategies. Length: thirty seconds is usual, but many also offer 60 second, and shorter 20, 15 and 10 second versions to give broadcasters flexibility. Draft Scripts. The ideas become more refined. Storyboards and revisions. The images carry an important part of the information, emotion, and persuasion in a PSA. Reading the words alone only gives you part of the picture, often masking problems or possibilities when the visuals are taken into account. Final Script. Final in the sense of guiding the design, casting, Casting. A critical part of the process. Many of the battles to reach the audience are won or lost here. We often take several days to find the two or three actors who will bring our stories to life. Packaging Design / Accompanying Print Materials. Storyboards. Scripts. Press Releases. Letters from sponsors or others who might persuade programmers to air spots. Animatics. Often these can include the voices of actors from casting, drawings from the storyboard, and music, helping people get a very clear idea of what the finished spot will look like, and what its impact will be. Focus Group Testing. This can include just scripts and storyboards, animatics, packaging and / or print materials. It can be carried out as part of the research phases to learn about attitudes regarding the subject, in pre-production when one or more script ideas have been developed, or after production (when it is very expensive to go back and re-shoot). Pre-Production. Booking of crew, studios, etc. The logistics of complex film or video and audio equipment. Props, set design, costumes, etc. Production. With meticulous planning, the best equipment, and the most experienced and talented people, things usually go just like you thought. On the other hand for good or ill, sometimes things surprise you. The trick is to deal with minor inconveniences (the film jams in the camera, a hurricane hits, a cast member becomes ill, the power goes off), and be open when good things arrive unbidden (a great performance, a wonderful gesture, a prop or shift of light that makes a whole new impression). Editing. Much more than a mere assembly, editing will include color correction, different graphic styles for written information on the screen, experimenting with alternative music and different narrators or wordings for the narrator. A good editor with a strong visual and musical sense can make a big difference, though he/she can seldom rescue a mediocre script or performance. Dubbing. Most stations prefer Betacam, but some prefer one inch, DVC Pro, or 3/4 inch. Includes Sigma encoding on video dubs to allow electronic tracking. CD is the standard for audio for radio, but some stations still want audio cassettes. Marketing. Intelligent, friendly, well-informed marketers who understand the issues, a knowledge of TV programming, patience ("he just stepped away from his desk"), will make programmers beg to air your spots. Distribution. Mailing is the preferred method, in contrast to Video and Audio News Releases which are fed by satellite. As the quality of audio and video on the internet improve, this will become another important way to distribute PSAs. Address packages to Public Service Announcement director. Follow up calls will turn up obsolete addresses, changed in personnel, packages lost in the mail. Tracking and Reporting. We often call programmers to find out what they thought of the PSAs including relevance, quality, suggestions. The report can be a simple report of numbers, or an elaborate breakdown with sophisticated demographics. Qualitative surveys can also make a significant contribution to understanding the performance of the campaign. |
      
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