During the past two weeks things have definitely shifted slightly. I knew the shift had taken place when I found myself questioning some of the things I was asked to do, as well as not just taking at face value the suggestions/advice I was given or instructed to do. I think this is a good thing since it means I am getting more confident in my role here. It was also inevitable that, as a former teacher, once I felt comfortable in an environment, I would start to think critically about it. I felt as if i was getting into my groove and able to make more decisions for myself.
This was particularly true when it came to making decisions about design. I was all for pushing the grums design in new directions in roder to evolve and grow, however, I get the distinct feeling that my supervisor is very against this. This could be due to a lack of trust in me and my abilities (I am an intern, and just starting out, after all) or a lack of willingness to part from what has tried and tested to work, and therefore feels comfortable. Making changes is always scary so I do appreciate that.
I guess I can best explain this with an example. This one relates to my Learning Goal #3 – working with Reels on Instagram. I started trying to work with Reels, though I don’t think I have been that successful so far. The first one I made was good and it as put up on their Instagram account:
Then this past week, Rasmus mentioned that he wanted to put out some content asking users to offer themsleves as testers for their products. A while ago they had posted some content on Instagram in a bid to recruit testers. It was a lead image and text, plus 4 slides of text on a black background as shown below:
In my opinion, such a plain post did little to attract users, or indeed, implore them to want to participate as a tester. I also discussed with Rasmus and Simon about the idea of rewards for the testers. In my view, one free product did not really seem worth the effort that they were asking the user to put in (i.e. use the product on a regular basis and create photo content to how the results.)
Therefore I thought this was a good opportunity to transfer this concept to a Reel instead. I set about trying to create something eye catching that would entice people to become testers. These were my first attempts.
In my version of the Reel (the 1st video above) I added a dark filter to the background photos to try and give it a vintage look. I also used a bright green colour for the moving banner behind the main text in an attempt to draw more attention to it. I also used the text ‘Hell yeah!’ as a way to appear less formal in the tone of voice and be casual and enthusiastic about becoming a tester. The video on the right is the updated version after I had some discussions with Rasmus about it. He did not like the dark filters at all, and wanted the green colour of the banner to be the same colour as the green used on the grums product labels. He also wasn’t over the moon with the ‘Hell yeah!’ text as it may have been a bit too far from the grums tone of voice but he reluctantly decided to go ahead with it. That said, it was decided not to be used on their account.
Apart from these Reels, I also continued working on Learning Goal #5: I want to learn how to use specific effects in Adobe After Effects in the creation of a storytelling video. I am happy to report that I was able to achieve this goal. I used a number of different functions within After Effects including filters, playing around with speed, layers, cropping and background noise removal to create a video for the Kickstarter campaign. I also dived into editing music and audio clips in Adobe Audition. I am very pleased with the result, as are Rasmus and Simon, since the final video is uploaded to the Kickstarter campaign which was launched last Friday (see selected content for full video)
I am excited to see how the kickstarter fares, as well as be able to start working on my Learning Goal #2: I want to learn how to execute, maintain and evaluate a campaign for grums as the campaign continues into the month of March!