Hampshire Fire and Rescue Services approached us to make a series of social media/web films about the dangers young drivers face when they go out on the road.  To get a safety message across to the target audience of 15 – 20 year olds is a huge challenge, but one we all felt was so important.

Screen Shot 2016-08-02 at 11.29.51  Screen Shot 2016-08-02 at 11.28.55The campaign was essentially through social media so the films had to be very short to be posted on Facebook and You Tube – and we also did further cut down teaser versions for Instagram see all four films here  http://www.hantsfire.gov.uk/keeping-safe/road-safety/friendsdrivesafe/

All our actors were young 17 – 20 year old drama students who also related closely to storylines. Many commenting that they knew of young people, school friends etc who had been killed or seriously injured in car accidents.The client wanted to target pre-drivers so 15,16 year olds up to the age of 20/25  to try to get some basic messages across about speed, distraction, drink/drugs and seatbelt – we knew what the messages were but how to put this over in a way that wouldn’t  ‘switch off’ young people was the key.

There had been some recent tragedies in our local region – and with the death of two young female passengers HFRS felt it was time to get the message out there.

We decided to use ‘selfies’ as our chosen style Screen Shot 2016-08-02 at 11.23.43

and we used a range of social media graphics to make the ‘posts’ look as authentic as possible. We also recruited writer/director Ian D Fleming who has directed a large number of Hollyoaks episodes and worked with Disney – he is very used to working with young actors, and a young target audience.  Ian’s energy was amazing and kept us all going. We made 4 films and shot everything over one intensive week. This mean we had to set up roadside memorials for 4 separate scenes – it was a very sad reminder, if we needed any, what a difficult and important subject this is.

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