TL;DR
- Is video a force for social good? If the answer is “yes,” then how can we do more than use the content to push for change in our screen-centric world? Telly Awards Managing Director Amanda Needham has some thoughts.
- Learn more about the Telly Awards and Green the Bid and their respective missions.
Amanda Needham explains how video is essentially “endemic” to 21st century society, meaning “video is societal change because it mirrors all the things that we see on a daily basis.”
Specifically, the Telly Awards managing director says, “if you’re choosing to center certain voices or diversity or themes. It really is a pretty powerful medium through which to have conversations about the kind of values we want to have as a society and where we want to go.”
So how can we use content to push for change in our screen-centric world?
Making the Choices
“A deeper way to look at it is that how video is made and the intentionality behind what we put on screen also has an effect,” Needham explains.
That means considering “where you put your money, and who you hire on your crews, and where you source from.”
While some people may see these considerations as constraints, Needham disagrees. For her, this level of intentionality means that “going forward, we end up having better stories in general.”
People who have made this kind of content, she observes, “have done it in really interesting, progressive, forward ways. And a lot of the content on the screen is also talking about stories that matter.
“So our interpretation and our understanding of social change in this space is all the all the touch points that go into making content and and kind of proving to people that you can make incredible work, and to be intentional about the choices you make with your money and your crews.
“It’s also about the broader sort of ability for people to think holistically about social impact work when they’re making it, regardless of the type of work they’re making.”
Needham will bring this perspective to NAB Show New York on Wednesday, October 25 at 4 p.m., where the Telly Awards will host a curated film screening and discussion in partnership with Green the Bid and sponsored by Storj.
She hopes attendees will leave both events thinking “about sustainability and social impact as a lens through which you see all things.”
“Our post-screening discussion is going to talk about what it takes to make film in the social impact space, behind the camera, in post, in production and then also on screen.
“So the content isn’t necessarily going to be like ‘how to save the trees.’ It’s going to be all the amazing work that is happening,” Needham concludes.
