Applied - Narrative + Idea exploration

I began thinking of some ideas for how my campaign animation will pan out.

My first idea was one highlighting to "Bring light to Syria" which is part of the #WithSyria campaign which Oxfam are supporting.

Inspired by the #WithSyria campaign animation where a balloon is used as a metaphor for hope, In this idea a green light orb floats around to represent Oxfam bringing hope (green being Oxfams logo colour) and therefore bringing "light" to some peoples lives within Syria. In this idea It is evident I have been inspired by Marie Curies campaign ad, how the Marie Curie nurses are represented as light orbs to "bring light in the darkest hours". The narrative in this idea surrounds showing some refugees going about their day of hardship; For example a boy collecting water, and then being welcomed by a green orb that will bring light to their dark world.


My second Idea campaigns about the good Oxfam do as an All-round charity, not just the refugee crisis. Showing Climate change, water aid and crisis help. A continous animation with effective transformations through each scene;

For example a boy carrying water, he falls and the water turns into a flood where a woman and child are trapped in it (to show the effects of global warming on communities) Then the water turns into smoke to symbolise a bomb explosion to show the crisis aid Oxfam offer.


My other idea revolved around bringing to life some childrens drawings.

As an experiment I got a 7 year old child to draw what he thought was a Syrian refugee. I gave him my whole pencil case, he could use any colour and any medium he wanted.

This is what he drew;

He stuck to felt tip pens and pencil as his medium. The syrian refugee is in robes that look ruined and torn and his emotion is sad. He is surrounded by flames, his house has burnt down and is destroyed and a plane is in the sky dropping more bombs. I was quite happy that this child was aware of the crisis being bad, with him drawing the refugee sad and all the houses around him destroyed. Obviously he doesn't get the full picture, and he doesn't need to at his age, its just good he understands its negativity.

With him drawing such an emotional image, he even questioned me "why doesn't it just stop? What are the fighting for?" His naivity and innocence really shone out and it was actually really beautiful to see, how colourful their world must be. But also very upsetting to me to try answer in the most sensitive way possible...

For this idea I would make his drawings come alive using After Effects 2D rigging, and tell a narrative of a real life child refugee story.

However as of yet, I have been unable to find a written account story by a child, there are videos which have only snippets of what they have experienced. For example there are many here;

Which are very upsetting and it exposes the trauma these children have been through.

I would need a voice over from one of these children, however they all speak arabic and using an english child seems wrong and not very sensitive and subtitles would distract away from my visuals.  So it looks like this idea will not work. But still, I am blogging about it to show my primary research into testing this idea out by getting a child to draw their interpretation.