Video is a powerful medium for circulating ideas, visions and discussions that frame and challenge social, political and environmental issues.
Increased access to production equipment and new distribution platforms has created opportunities for engagement, advocacy and social change by enabling more people to tell and share their own stories with wider audiences.
EngageMedia, together with the Video4Change Network, saw a need to gather tips, tools, approaches and resources to guide effective use of film and video for social change in this rapidly changing world.
What does the toolkit focus on?
The Video for Change Impact Toolkit helps maximise and evaluate social impact. It is not a comprehensive guide to making video, so it doesn’t cover things like shooting, editing, or crowdsourcing (visit the Video4Change website for practical videomaking guides).
It will help you explore a wide range of ways to create impact throughout your production, emphasising the process as much as the product. It will also explore threats and opportunities facing social movements working in human rights and progressive social change.
We focus on the use of short form, low budget videomaking, maximising engagement and participation in communities with varying technological capacities.
A Video for Change approach to Impact
The toolkit is grounded in the Video for Change ethos, which suggests that advancing positive social change does not only arise from creating a product or working toward a single end goal, but should be part of the process all along the way. We believe lasting change comes from communities themselves. Video for Change advocates a holistic approach that considers all activities and their capacity to create impact, rather than focusing on just the effect of watching the video. We believe that initiatives should measure themselves for unintented and negative impacts, as well as strive for positive ones.
The chapters on Video for Change and Values and Methods provide more on this approach.
Chapters and Cycles
- What is Impact and What is Video for Change — explore social change goals
- Values and Methods — contemplates ethics and processes of Video for Change
- Research and Planning — how to plan and engage before you begin filming
- Capacity Building — building skills and knowledge of affected community(ies)
- Filming and Production — impact potential throughout the filming process
- Outreach, Distribution and Engagement — how to develop and reach audiences
- Evaluation — measuring and assessing impact throughout the process
Each element of the toolkit uses one of the following cyclical processes:
- Design — designing your impact strategies
- Evaluate — measuring your impact along the way
- Potential Impacts — predicting what kinds of impact you might make
- Design — designing your impact strategies
- Evaluate— measuring your impact along the way
Each Evaluate section lists some specific indicators you could measure, and links you to the Evaluation section. We encourage you to evaluate throughout the process, not just at the end. These checkpoints help you monitor your process and understand what is and isn’t working, allowing you to adjust accordingly.
…How to use the Toolkit