Whilst reaching the ending stages of my research period, an exciting opportunity arose involving Snapchat and Cumbria Police. Cumbria Police offered me and some of the students a chance to takeover their newly activated Snapchat account and I jumped at the opportunity. With CSE (Child Sexual Exploitation) Week coming up, we had to produce a script and story that could be portrayed throughout Monday - Friday of that week. The week before CSE week, we conducted a meeting for the story we were going to produce to get an idea of what we were going to create. We had a range of ideas like actually making a professional made short film out of this with real direction and camera techniques. We wanted to keep this project simple and not over complicate it because it didn't need that. All we wanted to do was get a message across in a cool and unique way that would attract a younger or unfamiliar audience. It was definitely the Snapchat element that put that across to me because since the message is generally towards young people, what better location to get that across than using a social network where the majority of it's audience is young people. We wanted to take advantage of the communication aspect of Snapchat and how people form a bond on it especially through stories and even 1-on-1 interactions. We decided then to produce a story about a couple called Brad and Beth (played by Brad Mattinson and Bethany Mason) and it explores the concept of sexting and a crippled relationship. We wanted to take an approach that this wasn't the Snapchat account for Cumbria Cop's, it was a Snapchat account associated with Beth and Brad. That Beth and Brad communicate to the audience in the same way they would in their Snapchat accounts to their audience. We though this would be an interesting and creative way of expressing our message but it would also be a complicated one that'll prove to be hard to get across clearly to the viewer. We spent an afternoon brainstorming ideas and arcs that made the story great and by the next day, we constructed this script: To complete this was pretty challenging. We not only had to complete it for a certain audience but also for a certain story format, the Snapchat stories. It limited us in terms of only being able to record 10 seconds or less per scene so timing and detail were very important in the flow and simplicity of the story and characters. We spent the first two days of the story introducing the characters so the audience can get a glimpse of their life and personality like what a lot of Snapchat stories are intended to do. After the first two days, we would spent half a week evolving the story at hand and creating the conflict and so the primary plot point is truly in affect. We really liked the idea based around interaction as well. The Screenshot Question is a common tool used on Snapchat to engage and survey your audiences opinions and beliefs. We integrated this with the topic of sending nudes. Would you send them? Would you ask? It's interesting to see how people think of these questions not with a description but with a simple Yes or No. We sent to the Cumbria Police Department to see if they are happy and accepting of the script. We originally had the subplot of Brad flirting with Beth's friends but because they didn't want us to divert too much away from the initial purpose of the story, they scrapped that subplot. They also removed the language used so it doesn't give the police too negative of a reputation on social media. I personally saw the swearing as a realistic, mature touch to the story but it wasn't a necessity. We were given the "Go Ahead" by the Police and we started. Throughout the whole process, it went really smoothly. We needed to often be reminded of what Snap to do on what day and time. I offered that I take charge of their Instagram channel. They had created one also for this process but they weren't really massively diligent towards their Instagram account. I suggested the idea that Instagram could be used as a Behind The Scenes platform to add more interactivity and lose some restriction with the whole film. They approved of the idea and I was leading the behind the scenes area for this project which I loved doing. What I loved most was probably the opportunity to have a different interaction with the audience. I thought it would be an exceptional thing to capture what happens behind the Snapchats not only because behind the scenes featurettes are interesting but we rarely see glimpses of how professional Snapchats are taken for their audience. We often forget that there is a camera there and that sometimes, much planning goes into the 10 seconds of information and entertainment. The worst part of the whole thing was organisation. We had a lot of times where we didn't know what snap to do at what hour and we often had to use tricks into thinking Brad and Beth were together when really they couldn't get together to actually do the snaps so we had to improvise. The last was especially stressful because of everyone being at work and it was the final day so the climax had to be right. Callum, our promotional photographer, had to pretend to be Brad's mate in the story who contributed to the sexual acts because we had no one else to do it at the time. We had a lot of organisation with this but it was also definitely the area we were most lacking in. I have to say that I am really happy with the feedback that we all received and the reception we got. It was very positive which I didn't expect on a total scale. The experience was quite rewarding and I can know say I took over the Snapchat account of Cumbria Police and I did it legally. The videos below are of the Short Film of the Snapchat Takeover which I co-wrote and edited and the second video is of the documentary I scarcely took part in.
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March 2017
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