Orienteering/Videos

 PRODUCTION SCHEDULE  - is a google calendar



This project is to produce a series of online, self coaching resources to increase engagement and retention in the sport of orienteering, especially in Australia, and to research their effectiveness in that goal. The project is to be completed by the end of 2011.

Background


Orienteering is a sport which requires at least rudimentary competence in how to read a map, use a compass and using these to navigate from point to point.

The person who is contemplating trying orienteering and doing it regularly has a number of fears. Some examples are:


 * Not knowing what to do on arriving at an event to register & compete
 * What the map will look like and whether he or she will be able to understand the colours and symbols
 * Fear of asking questions and being seen as foolish
 * Fear of what will happen if lacking experience in using a compass
 * Fear of getting lost if a navigation error occurs
 * Fear of coming last or being very slow compared with other participants
 * Concerns about safety in forest areas

Extensive feedback from beginners is that if they have those fears, try an event and have a bad experience then they will never come again and they will also tend to comment on the bad experience with friends. While having one or two mentors at every event helps, there will always not be enough to cater for all beginners, nor will many beginners seek help.

Other feedback is that many people from fun running, adventure racing, mountain biking and other sports encounter a flier or website publicity link about orienteering but do not pursue either exposure or engagement because of insufficient information about how orienteering events are conducted and what they need to do to participate competently.

Membership figures show that around 20% of members (or close to 2,000 orienteers) do not renew their memberships each year. Most of those are beginners and a big factor is insufficient enjoyment through lack of skills.



Apart from increased face to face help and tips in magazine articles, a high priority solution is to provide online resources in the form of ‘how to do it’ videos and training guides, and to know the effectiveness of the campaign.

Project aims

 * Allow beginners to reduce their fears and give themselves some rudimentary skills to allow their first few events to be positive experiences
 * Build up skills as further engagement occurs
 * Provide teachers keen to start an orienteering program in their schools with a resource
 * Provide level 1 coaches with a resource to share with beginners they are coaching
 * Provide scout and guide leaders with a resource to show their troops what orienteering is about before they bring the troops to participate in club orienteering events
 * Understand the effectiveness of this approach to building understanding and engagement with orienteering in Australia

Focus and Target
As part of the project, Orienteering Australia (OA; through a reference group) will provide further clarification on the focus of the videos as well as the target audiences. It is appreciated that it may not be possible to target all audiences that may be attracted to the sport, but some synergies are liekly, and these should be taken advantage of.

Initial draft ideas of potential targets (from OA) included:
 * non-orienteers surfing the web and seeing what is involved in orienteering before trying it out
 * non-orienteers seeking what is involved before doing their first event
 * beginners who have started and want to learn more
 * adventure racers, rogainers, scouts who have some navigation experience
 * family member participants who want to try doing courses on their own
 * regular orienteers in one discipline (eg. street & park orienteering) looking for information on doing other disciplines (eg. sprint, bush or MTBO)
 * coaches teaching beginners
 * teachers in schools
 * outdoor ed teachers, personal trainers etc
 * corporate bodies looking for activities for work bonding sessions etc

Treatment


How to do:
 * 1) bush orienteering
 * 2) park and street orienteering
 * 3) sprint orienteering
 * 4) mountain bike orienteering

These self coaching resources would be available on Wikipedia, Youtube, Orienteering websites, and on CDs for state associations, coaches, clubs and beginners needing offline use. The user–friendly format will overcome difficulties currently being experienced in converting one-off attendance to ongoing engagement.

Following is an initial idea for treatment, evolving to script, to demonstrate and generate further ideas.
 * Treatment ideas

Each video celebrates the scenery, activity and excitement, social aspects and equipment for orienteering. Therefore location is important, aiming for the most dramatic landscape cinematography that can be achieved. Imagine misty early mornings over forests. Low sun on granite cliff lines. Running water through grass lands. Wildflowers. Wildlife. Activity and excitement is captured by rapid editing of close up running shoes through mud, long shots of fence jumping, mid shots of map studying, close up of face eating energy food, long shots of set up and pack up, sponsor flags. Social aspects include team planning, before and after event BBQs, arrivals at venues, planning and committee meetings, and online communications. Equipment is an opportunity for product placement advertising revenue, as well as promoting DIY innovation. Close ups of kit, demonstrations of innovative use of kit, close ups and explanations for specific types of kit.

Soundtrack should be free for reuse so as not to compromise the objective to license the end work as Creative Commons Attribution. Score should be an instrumental mix of electronic, acoustic and voice. The music should be contemporary popular, up beat, with a slight conceptual edge - but within conservative limits so as to maintain accessibility to a diverse audience, particularly in age group. Avoid iconic sounds or samples, so as to not risk stereotyping the subject or content. Interviews must be well recorded, using wireless lapel and/or boom as much as possible.

Each video is no longer than 1 minute, with minimum title and credit time, and each linking into the next with signature elements that give consistency to the viewing experience. These videos need to be able to be watched separately, or in consecutive order and reordering. Consider the possibility of interactive video, with viewer decision points in each video that link in the next.

These videos will be loaded to Youtube, Internet Archive and Wikimedia Commons, for the widest possible application and reuse across the Internet. Copyright licensing will use Creative Commons Attribution, ensuring wide reuse such as in schools, without putting a management burden on Orienteering Australia.

Research project
Running along side the development of the videos, is a research project aimed at informing and evaluating the development
 * Conduct a review of similar projects to try and establish a production schedule that will be most effective.
 * Monitor and eveluate the production process.
 * Monitor and report on the effectiveness of the campaign.

Budget


The funding requirement in 2011 would be $19,600, with the University providing an additional $12,400 of in-kind support.

Timeline
Easter: Orienteering Australia to further define foci and target audiences. Review and comment on proposal at current stage. (this was completed end of May)

August: UC and OA to sign an MOU and contracts

September: Contract a Producer, Director and Orienteering expert as production management team.

September: Evaluate existing data and conduct a literature review to determine a best approach in the use of video for the aims of this project

September: Conduct a survey with target groups to understand their needs and expectations for the project and use the results to cross check the data and literature review

October: Convene treatment and script brainstorming meeting, facilitated with key ideas captured and even rough cut to video.

October: Script writing and story boarding. Contract Camera and Sound.

October: Report on production observations

October: Schedule and scout shooting venues

October: Report on production observations

November: Filming

November: Report on production observations

November - December: Editing

December: Report on production observations

January Publishing

January: Report on production observations

March - April Evaluate the effectiveness of the video campaign by collecting usage data, and conducting surveys with target groups