PrEP Resource
Increasing HIV Prevention Awareness in the African, Caribbean and Black Communities
Deliverables: Animated Video Series and Content Campaign
Client: The African and Caribbean Council on HIV/AIDS in Ontario (ACCHO)
The Challenge
The African and Caribbean Council on HIV/AIDS in Ontario (ACCHO) provides strategic leadership in response to HIV/AIDS in Ontario's African, Caribbean and Black (ACB) communities. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (or PrEP) is a medicine taken to prevent HIV. As part of their Capacity Building program, ACCHO developed a PrEP Resource.
Our Goal
Our goal was to transform the Resource into a series of animated social media videos and content campaign to increase awareness of PrEP within Ontario's ACB communities. The videos were also to act as a fun, accessible and educational tool that can be easily referred to by ACCHO's frontline strategy workers, their social media viewers and the general public.
Script Edits
Characters
Episodes
Recording Sessions
Our Approach
Our first step after receiving the brief was to bring in an experienced production partner who had previously worked on projects that represented African, Caribbean and Black (ACB) populations in race, ethnicity and culture. We aligned with Maku Productions, a Toronto-based media studio that focuses on video and animation productions. With our production partner briefed on the deliverables of the project, it was also important for us to have a basic understanding of PrEP as an aide in HIV prevention, particularly in Ontario's Black communities. For that, the client provided us with ample content in addition to online research during our environmental analysis.
Concept & Script Development
Our production partners Maku Productions led the charge in story concept and script development. It was important to develop a story narrative that represented Black Ontarians in their everyday lives. What are scenarios that bring Black people together to engage with each other? Each story also had to provide information about PrEP in a way that was not preachy or scary, but conversational. As part of the deliverables, we also needed to ensure each video was aimed at a specific audience within the community. We paired each audience with a scenario and collaboratively worked through the dialogue in each script. The characters and how they interacted with each other needed to be authentic.
The series is broken down into three episodes
• Episode 1: The Restaurant — MSM (men who have sex with men)
• Episode 2: The Barbershop — Heterosexual Men
• Episode 3: The Park — Cisgender Women
Style Frames & Characters
Style frames are fleshed out drawings of a few scenes from each video. These images aren’t animated but are detailed representations of how we wanted the video's to look before animation began. We knew the Black community would need to see themselves in these video episodes and we wanted to represent a spectrum of Black Canadians. Illustrators at Maku Productions created fully rounded and lifelike characters to resonate with the audience and make them invested in the story. Everything from background scenes to character designs including complexion, hair, and style of dress were established during this phase.
Voice Recording
Before the animation, the voice recording with the actors was done first and cut into an edit. The voice recordings were the first time the client heard each story come to life. Words in a script don't always seamlessly translate into spoken dialogue, so each voice recording was crossed-reference so that accuracy and integrity of information was maintained. We also needed to manage the timing of each story. The intention of each video was to be part of a social media content campaign, so keeping each episode under 60 seconds was a crucial component of the deliverables.
Animation Production
Once each video’s style was established, scenes were illustrated, and voice recordings were completed, production began at Maku Productions studio. The production phase is when the team brings the whole story to life frame by frame through motion graphics and animation. During this final phase text overlay, sub-titles, background music and sound effects were also mixed in.
Client Collaboration
With clients as partners, we helped ACCHO further support their audience and business goals by transforming their PrEP Resource toolkit into an animated video series and content campaign. In collaboration with Maku Productions, we achieved our goal of increasing HIV prevention awareness in Ontario's African, Caribbean and Black (ACB) communities.
