MDGfive.com: Innovative Use of Video for Advocacy
Have you ever wanted to create a short video for advocacy, but don’t have the editing skills? A new creative platform from Adobe is closing this gap. Using Flash-based technology, the Adobe Premiere Express video remixer enables users to edit video online and add audio, transitions and special effects without having to download any special software. The video remix produced can then be published to a custom online community where users can view and share favorites.
The video remixer platform is the cornerstone of a new campaign striving to raise awareness about UN Millennium Development Goal 5. MDG 5 has two targets:
- Reduce by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio.
- Achieve, by 2015, universal access to reproductive health.
While there has been some gains made in reducing maternal death and improving access to safe and effective contraception, progress remains uneven and improving maternal health continues to lag behind other goals.
MDGFive.com was launched in mid-September ahead of the UN MDG Summit by Emmy-winning filmmaker Lisa Russell and Grammy-winning singer Maya Azucena. They co-founded MDGFive.com in an effort “to utilize [the co-founders'] collective networks, in both the creative and humanitarian worlds, on an artistic project that helps bring attention and resources to the important and inspiring movement to improve maternal health.” The goal of the campaign is to harness the power of social media to increase community engagement in the fight to improve maternal health and reach MDG 5 by 2015.
Using the “video remixer” platform (see the screenshot below), the site’s visitors can create short video messages about maternal health using a combination of video clips, still images, spoken word, music, transitions and effects. The site's library of music tracks, spoken word, film and photos were supplied by renowned mixed media artists from South Africa, Sri Lanka, Honduras, Brazil, Thailand, Pakistan and other countries.
The resulting product is a unique video message that can then be published and shared with other community members and their own networks. The hope is that the pool of videos will encourage local and global dialogue around maternal health. While the video platform is just one component of a larger campaign, but it is definitely its most unique tool.
It's unclear how much it costs to use Adobe's technology on a campaign site, and it very well may be prohibitively expensive for smaller grassroots campaigns. But will larger advocacy campaigns begin using this technology? Is this the future of video for advocacy?
