Waste not, want not. For the last few weeks, it’s been nothing but paper, plastic, aluminum and glass here at Studio B with our latest instructional video project for Recology, (previously NorCal Waste Systems), Northern California’s refuse and waste management system. These guys are industry leaders and were one of the first urban recycling centers in the nation. They recently implemented composting and single-stream recycling, and needed a series of training videos to effectively educate the public and prospective clients on how it all works – What goes in which color bin? What is recyclable and what is compostable? How do you get rid of old cell phones and dead batteries? Where does that greasy pizza box go?
As with most instructional videos, the subject matter had real potential for a snooze-fest, so the challenge was to maintain viewers’ interest while effectively training them. We thought it was a perfect opportunity to employ a playful first person POV visual style using hands on a green screen, paper cutouts (arts and crafts style), lots of graphics and animation. We let the VO light and conversational to keep the audience engaged without diminishing the importance of each instruction. In the end we produced five entertaining and educational training videos without getting too complicated. Keep it simple stupid.
P.S. All paper cutouts and plastics used in the making of these videos were properly disposed of.