Interviews anchor public education videos
When it comes to public education efforts, video is a powerful tool to tell your story. As you develop a game plan for producing videos, it’s important to know what your audience cares about and how the videos will be used.
Setting goals for your public education video
In the case of Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), their goals were to:
- Address the impact of climate change on residents’ outdoor recreational pursuits
- Encourage people to talk about climate change in the context of their outdoor interests and the impact on our fish and wildlife populations
Identifying spokespeople to interview for your video
We partnered with the agency to identify and interview climate change experts as well as people who represent an array of recreational interests, including hunters and anglers, to speak to a wildlife-appreciating public. By developing questions in advance, we were able share them with interviewees so they could come prepared. There were general questions for each of the interviewees to gather different perspectives on the same topics, as well as custom questions related to their specific outdoor activities.
Conducting video interviews
We interviewed a climate scientist and representatives from WDFW who explained how record-breaking temperatures, droughts, and rising sea levels are causing changes to our landscape. And we interviewed hunters, anglers, and birdwatchers who spoke to how climate change was affecting fish and wildlife populations, resulting in some shortened seasons and more restrictive regulations.
Hunter & angler
Outdoor enthusiast
Climate scientist
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
Managing logistics for video
We worked hand in hand with the WDFW to coordinate logistics, including identifying shoot locations, dates, and times and used an online transcription service to help identify the best sound bites from each interview and weave them into a compelling narrative. Locations were selected to portray various parts of the state, so that people across the state could relate to the scenery. One of the locations was selected to show the impact of wildfires.
Creating impact with interview-style public education videos
One common thread in the interviews was to capture each person’s hopes and desires to ensure healthy and abundant fish and wildlife populations for future generations. This supported the goal of not only educating the public about the climate change problems we’re facing, but also inspiring them to support solutions.
The result? A series of longer form videos for use at events and meetings, as well as shorter-form videos to serve as online and social ads that led people to website landing pages to learn more.
