The National Road Safety Foundation, my client, has been creating materials to talk to young people about safe driving behavior for more than 55 years. It began with literature and a film about drinking and driving, and it evolved into videos, supported by Powerpoints, literature and lesson plans covering topics ranging from speed and aggressive driving to drowsy driving and, more recently, distracted driving.
The programs are solid and they’ve been used in thousands of classrooms nationwide, as well as in presentations in communities by police, healthcare people and young people themselves through groups like SADD.
For many years, the programs were conceived by us, a group of adults working with our filmmaker. Except for young people we used as actors, there was little if any youth involvement in developing programs that were aimed primarily at teens.
That began to change several years ago when we were thinking of creating a video about distracted driving. We knew what the message should be – don’t talk on the phone or text while driving – but we weren’t sure how to frame the message so it would connect with young people. Should we focus on gloom & doom – the tragic results of a distracted driving crash? Should we tell real-life stories? What about things like music or humor? (Yes, humor, even for a serious subject.)
We pulled together a focus group and spoke with teens to see what kept them awake and interested, what motivated them hear and listen to our message, what bored them and what turned them off totally. Our video “Generation tXt” proved popular and it’s still in use.
We then took it to the next step, to engage young people in actually creating the messaging and the videos. We’ve been doing a series of contests where we invite teens to submit a script, storyboards or a written treatment describing a 30-second video (a TV public service announcement) on various safe driving issues and our producer works with them to film the public service message.
Sometimes we also go directly to schools to work with students to create videos. Earlier this year, we wanted to do another student-driven video, and I pushed to go to my alma mater, Mount Vernon High School. We met with the TV Production teacher, Steven Galazzo, and he was excited to give his kids a chance to work with us and our Emmy Award-winning director Alan Weiss, who produces the nationally-syndicated weekly show “Teen Kids News.”
After a couple of meetings with the class, a theme was selected and a script developed. The idea was to talk about drinking and driving and the importance of not giving in to peer pressure. Kids were selected to act in the piece, and other students served as extras, a student director and videographer.
I spent last Thursday at Mount Vernon High School, watching some great kids as they rehearsed and then did take after take until we got the footage we needed. After a full day, the kids cheered when the student director, Stephan Johnson, a senior who conceived the spot with fellow seniors Jayda Pickett and Jannah Sharpe, called out “It’s a wrap!”
The video will be edited down to a 30-second spot that will air on 160 TV stations on “Teen Kids News” and also on other stations around the country when we distribute it for broadcast.
When the piece is ready for air, I’ll post it here.
I’m happy I was able to bring a this project to my old school and I hope the young people involved learned something while having fun.
at right, from The Journal News