The Story of Electronics

Yesterday in History and Theory of Documentary (yes I know I'm an idiot for taking it) we watched an interesting video that was animation combined with a live action talking head called "The Story of Electronics" (its about 8 minutes long but not that much of a drag)

What I really liked about this video, other than it being extremely experimental and going right over my head, is that it was very down to earth without being in your face about the problems here on earth.  The animation of the pollution, land fills and consumerism allows the big ideas to be digested by very different people.  Rather than making viewers uncomfortable with pictures of these horrific things, the video gently speaks about them with images that depict the problem in such a way that allows the viewer to understand it as a problem rather than a stomach ache.  We as humans need to start working on solutions to these problems, and we are not going to do so if we feel lectured or afraid when we speak about them; this video is a wonderful stepping stool to the point where we can effectively work on them.

The Story of Stuff

The Story of Stuff is an environmental movement that educates people on the issues through animated shorts. The short movies are about things such as drinking bottled water vs tap or what happens to electronics after we throw them away. They range from about 8 minutes to 20 minutes and are entirely animated (with the exception of the narrator). Since these videos are a little long and the topic doesn't necessarily grab the audience's attention, I think the animation keeps you more focused and interested in what they are trying to say. They are overly simplistic, from the information to the animations, which is helpful for people because it presents the problem in a comprehensive way.

The animations were made using photoshop and flash but I think something similar could be made using after effects, but it might have a less cartoonish feel to it.

Freerange was the company that produces the films and in their case study, they show how they created the simple design and applied to everything related to the project. So the concept of The Story of Stuff is now recognizable by the sketch design and animation.