Convergence Media Teamwork - Producing Content

As I mentioned in a previous post, as a group we divided all of the tasks that need to be done. So today I began designing an app that will be available with content and information about animal cruelty as well as links to other platforms and fun stuff too!
From last week we have decided to go down the positive route when talking about animal cruelty. We are going to focus on all of the positive things that organisations do to help these animals. So we want to enforce the positivity of animal shelters and the donation of money to these places.

I decided this week to design 4 fun characters that we can use throughout all of our platforms to maybe engage a younger audience and to also make the content more fun! So here is are the 4 characters I intend to make on Photoshop and implement throughout our transmedia work:

The characters will give tips and information throughout our campaign and will be the face of the advertisements and other content that we will create. I hand drawn these characters so I am going to scan them in and make them nice clean characters using Photoshop. If we have time as well I would love to make some short animations with them but we will see!

Our aim for the campaign is to encourage people to report animal abuse, to donate money to these amazing organisations such as RSPCA and to learn more about the cause. This is a simple aim and so we want our platforms to all corrospond with each other, flow together and be relatable.

After this morning lecture we decided to have a productive afternoon so we headed out to the RSPCA and Dogs Trust that were local to us. I live near by the RSPCA in Halewood so we went to this first. Here are a few photographs that I took with my phone whilst we were there.

 I found the experience a real eye opener because they take in as many cats and dogs as possible, which was a very large amount. The are rehabilitated and you can adopt them for a certain fee depending on the breed. They are very looked after and seem to have fun barking and playing, even when they do have a cone around there neck like that poor cat! But I think the RSPCA do a wonderful job there and I can't wait to make a short film with the footage we collected.

Next we visited the Dogs Trust in Huyton which isn't far at all from the RSPCA, here are a few photographs from there.

 Now the Dogs Trust was totally different to the RSPCA but just as postive. It was like a haven for dogs, each cage was huge and they all had things to play with. By the looks of things Dogs Trust receive a lot more funding that the RSPCA do which is a shame but at the same time the place was really something special. They have boards next to each cage explaining who the dog is and they even get fan mail from local children and sponsers. It was so nice to see the dogs being looked after like that.

My Reflection
Well today was a really productive day and was fun too! We got to visit these two amazing places and even speak to some of the workers there. I found both places very positive and it gives you an insight in to what these organisation do for the animals. They are really important in our society because unfortunately some dogs are abandoned and abused. They all seem to find a new home through these places, however, and so this is what we need to focus on for the campaign. We now have some content to use so we better get started on some film work and also putting these photographs on the website and blog that we have started!

You Learn Something New Everyday
I am a massive animal lover, and I would love to volunteer at somewhere like the Dogs Trust or RSPCA because animals need as much love as humans do. I've learned this from having a dog and he is my best friend and will never take him for granted!

Speak Soon!