PSA propssal

The social issue my public service announcement will be talking about is censorship. It is my firm belief that some censorship is ok for many different reasons. However, i think that censorship sometimes goes too far and causes the censoring of vital information in the process, things that may seem inappropriate or obscene in retrospect but are in fact critical in doing things like raising awareness about a deadly disease or informing the world of issues that can be far more grave and devastating. I'm not just talking about small things like "bleeping" bad words on TV or violent video games but the kind of censorship that can ultimately end people's careers or keep us ignorant of a fact that could cause harm to our society or the world if is not revealed to us in detail.

This PSA is meant for everyone's eyes but i would consider my target audience to be anyone who is currently unaware of too much censorship and anyone who man make fruitful attempts at solving this issue. people like congressmen, for example. at the same time though, i would want the rest of the population to see my psa because even if they may not be able to make a "fruitful effort" there is still a chance that they will agree with me and my message and in doing so will promote my commercials message through word of my mouth which will in theory, convince others in believing the same thing, even those who might have previously believed the opposite of what my commercial promotes.

so far most of my research currently comes from two sites which i have deemed reliable source of information regarding censorship. the first is ( http://www.azete.com/view/18288 ) although i admit i dont agree with certain points the anonymous author made, because i feel that s/he described some of the necessary uses of censorship as negative things, but s/he makes good points about too much censorship. In on of these well made points s/he talks about a book Stevie wonder wrote about about aids prevention but was pulled off store shelves, deemed too explicit. The second is ( http://www.slate.com/id/2102499/ ) an article
by Linda Callanan on slate magazines official website. In her article, Linda describes how censorship can be dangerous in certain times. The article was written in 2004 when the terror alert was on yellow but she says that because of censorship "We know we're supposed to be on guard, but against what, we're not sure because more specific information is often withheld."

my two ideas for commercials are as follows:

first the first one will be a man in a business suit with a magic TV remote which he uses to wipe things he feels should be censored, form existence. however in doing so he creates a far greater problem which he simply censors. the ast scene is of the man pushing the button and censoring his mistake.


the second idea will depict a gay couple. it would start with a man sitting idly by in a public place. then it is reveal he was waiting for his partner all long. his partner tells him that he wont be able to go where they originally planned to because of some urgent business that came up. understanding he bids his lover farewell with an "i love you" and just as he is about to kiss him he stops midway only to notice that there was a woman where his lover was just standing. the woman smiles and replies "i love you too." the last scene is a close of of the man's shocked and confused face.

both of these commercials will be followed by a narrator stating a fact about censorship that is relevant to the commercials story.

if i am allowed to i would like to make the commecials animated. i think that my style of drawing, which depicts "cute" characters, will greatly reinforce the impact of the commercials because of the contradiction between the cute characters between serious theme that is presented to the viewer. however if i am not allowed to make them animated (if it HAS to be live action) i would try to make it stand out by utilizing camera angles that make the situations seem as though it isnt as impacting as it actually is.

the first commercial will be only one shot but it will be a shot that reveals everything at once. idealy the man will on top of a building using his remote so the shot will be and over the shoulder shot of him looking down revealing every part of the busy city below.

the second commercial will use about 6 diferent shots at maximum, however the shots will be as zoomed in as possible. the most zoomed in would be a close up shot and the least zoomed in will be a mid shot. the shot will be, the man sitting on a bench, the lover coming towards him greeting him from a distance the man can be seen on the side of the shot, a shot of them hugging then the man who just arrived explaining he cant stay, a shot of the man about to kiss the guy, a shot of the woman, and finally a shot of the camera slowly zooming in to the mans shocked face.

two more posts will follow including the scripts and sketches of each commercial.