What is a PSA?
A PSA is a video created to raise awareness or educate the public on an issue. Its goal is to change public attitudes and behaviors relating to the issue. Watch the videos below to see some examples. You will be creating a 30-40 second PSA on a financial literacy topic you learned about this quarter.
A PSA is a video created to raise awareness or educate the public on an issue. Its goal is to change public attitudes and behaviors relating to the issue. Watch the videos below to see some examples. You will be creating a 30-40 second PSA on a financial literacy topic you learned about this quarter.
PSA Planning Steps
1. Choose your topic. Pick a subject that is important to you, as well as one you can visualize. Keep your focus narrow and to the point. More than one idea confuses your audience, so have one main idea per PSA.
2. Time for some research - you need to know your stuff! Try to get the most current and up to date facts on your topic. Statistics and references can add to a PSA. You want to be convincing and accurate.
3. Consider your audience. Are you targeting parents, teens, teachers or some other social group? Consider your target audience's needs, preferences, as well as the things that might turn them off. They are the ones you want to rally to action. The action suggested by the PSA can be almost anything. It can be spelled out or implied in your PSA, just make sure that message is clear.
4. Grab your audience's attention. You might use visual effects, an emotional response, humor, or surprise to catch your target audience. Be careful, however, of using scare tactics. Attention getters are needed, but they must be carefully selected. For example, when filming a PSA about controlling anger, a glass-framed picture of a family can be shattered on camera. This was dramatic, but not melodramatic. Staging a scene between two angry people to convey the same idea is more difficult to do effectively.
5. Create a script and keep your script to a few simple statements. A 30-second PSA will typically require about 5 to 7 concise assertions. Highlight the major and minor points that you want to make. Be sure the information presented in the PSA is based on up-to-date, accurate research, findings and/or data.
6. Storyboard your script.
7. Film your footage and edit your PSA.
Source:
Bell, Jaclyn. “How to Create the Perfect Public Service Announcement.” Center for Digital Education, 8 Jan. 2019, www.govtech.com/education/news/How-to-Create-the-Perfect-Public-Service-Announcement.html.
2. Time for some research - you need to know your stuff! Try to get the most current and up to date facts on your topic. Statistics and references can add to a PSA. You want to be convincing and accurate.
3. Consider your audience. Are you targeting parents, teens, teachers or some other social group? Consider your target audience's needs, preferences, as well as the things that might turn them off. They are the ones you want to rally to action. The action suggested by the PSA can be almost anything. It can be spelled out or implied in your PSA, just make sure that message is clear.
4. Grab your audience's attention. You might use visual effects, an emotional response, humor, or surprise to catch your target audience. Be careful, however, of using scare tactics. Attention getters are needed, but they must be carefully selected. For example, when filming a PSA about controlling anger, a glass-framed picture of a family can be shattered on camera. This was dramatic, but not melodramatic. Staging a scene between two angry people to convey the same idea is more difficult to do effectively.
5. Create a script and keep your script to a few simple statements. A 30-second PSA will typically require about 5 to 7 concise assertions. Highlight the major and minor points that you want to make. Be sure the information presented in the PSA is based on up-to-date, accurate research, findings and/or data.
6. Storyboard your script.
7. Film your footage and edit your PSA.
Source:
Bell, Jaclyn. “How to Create the Perfect Public Service Announcement.” Center for Digital Education, 8 Jan. 2019, www.govtech.com/education/news/How-to-Create-the-Perfect-Public-Service-Announcement.html.
Sample PSAs
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Copyright-Friendly Photo Collections
Pexels - A large collection of beautiful photos that have all been released into the public domain so that they can be freely used for any purpose.
Sample Credit - City streets photo: pexels.com
Pixnio - This site includes over 3,000 photos sorted by category (e.g., animals, landscapes, vehicles) for easy browsing. Sample Credit - Money photo: pixnio.com
Unsplash - Over a million, beautiful, high-resolution and copyright-friendly images to choose and reuse.
Sample Credit - House photo by Photographer's Name on Unsplash (Each photo has the photographer's name listed for you to copy.)
Sample Credit - City streets photo: pexels.com
Pixnio - This site includes over 3,000 photos sorted by category (e.g., animals, landscapes, vehicles) for easy browsing. Sample Credit - Money photo: pixnio.com
Unsplash - Over a million, beautiful, high-resolution and copyright-friendly images to choose and reuse.
Sample Credit - House photo by Photographer's Name on Unsplash (Each photo has the photographer's name listed for you to copy.)
Copyright-Friendly Videos
Pexels Videos - Videos that may be freely used for any purpose.
Sample Credit - Traffic video: videos.pexels.com
Sample Credit - Traffic video: videos.pexels.com
Copyright-Friendly Music
Incompetech - Search here for a wide variety of Creative Commons-licensed music that you are free to use as long as you credit the artist. This is easy to do because the proper citation is provided for you to copy and paste into your credits section.
Bensound - Another great collection of Creative Commons-licensed music. You should credit Bensound and provide a link, for example,
"Music: http://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music or "Music: Song title - Bensound.com".
Purple Planet - The free collection of music is organized into 20 different mood categories at the top of the homepage. (The collection lower on the page is not free to use but requires the payment of licensing fees.) Your credit should read "Music: http://www.purple -planet.com".
Bensound - Another great collection of Creative Commons-licensed music. You should credit Bensound and provide a link, for example,
"Music: http://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music or "Music: Song title - Bensound.com".
Purple Planet - The free collection of music is organized into 20 different mood categories at the top of the homepage. (The collection lower on the page is not free to use but requires the payment of licensing fees.) Your credit should read "Music: http://www.purple -planet.com".
Copyright-Friendly Sound Effects
Freesound - A large collection of sounds that is easy to search. Once you have a results page, you can limit the results to different license types. If you choose Creative Commons 0, then your credit can simply be Sound effects: freesound.org. Any other license type will require you to provide attribution. Find more details here.
To Assemble Your PSA
Once you have finished your storyboard, created your credits slide or page, and rehearsed your scenes, you are ready to film and assemble your PSA.
You will film in front of a green screen using an iPad.
1. Have any background music and sound effects chosen and ready to play so that they can be recorded along with the narration when you film.
2. Be sure you either videotape or take one or more photos of your credits so they can appear at the end of the PSA.
3. Download your background images and photos onto the iPad. They will be saved in the camera roll.
4. Record your video using the iPad camera app. If you need to trim or edit your video, watch the video below.
5. Open the Do Ink green screen app and create a new project. Your background images/videos will become the bottom layer and your iPad video will be the middle layer. (Top layer will remain empty.)
More detailed instructions on using the Do Ink app can be found by watching the Do Ink Tutorials below.
6. Your completed PSA video can be saved in the iPad camera roll.
7. Share your completed video by airdropping it to Ms. Benson or Ms. Herrmann.
If you want, you can import your video into iMovie to do additional editing before you share it.
You will film in front of a green screen using an iPad.
1. Have any background music and sound effects chosen and ready to play so that they can be recorded along with the narration when you film.
2. Be sure you either videotape or take one or more photos of your credits so they can appear at the end of the PSA.
3. Download your background images and photos onto the iPad. They will be saved in the camera roll.
4. Record your video using the iPad camera app. If you need to trim or edit your video, watch the video below.
5. Open the Do Ink green screen app and create a new project. Your background images/videos will become the bottom layer and your iPad video will be the middle layer. (Top layer will remain empty.)
More detailed instructions on using the Do Ink app can be found by watching the Do Ink Tutorials below.
6. Your completed PSA video can be saved in the iPad camera roll.
7. Share your completed video by airdropping it to Ms. Benson or Ms. Herrmann.
If you want, you can import your video into iMovie to do additional editing before you share it.
Sample Credit Slides
Do Ink Tutorials
Trim Videos in the Photos App on the iPad