Often unaddressed, addiction and substance use are difficult realities that affect many communities and, unfortunately, they’ve only increased in recent years.
In view of this harsh reality, Wake County set out to spread awareness for the rising problem within its own community and share how members of their community can help.
The biggest hurdle to the healing of communities and the recovery of individuals is the stigma that keeps people from talking about the issue. This is precisely what we set out to address as we created this video.
The Wake County team came to us with an initial script and a detailed understanding of the problem from their long-term efforts to fight this issue. We met with them to understand their initial vision and messaging and to find out how we should best discuss this topic.
Naturally, the tone was extremely important to this client.
Since fighting stigma was the biggest priority, the tone needed to be honest and educational while remaining hopeful, empathetic and compassionate.
The main message communicated that recovery is for everyone – every face, every family and every community. To emphasize this, the creative direction also included themes of authenticity, diversity, hope, sincerity and opportunity.
We wanted people to leave the video believing that recovery is possible and that there are so many people supporting recovery in their community and beyond.
In order to make the piece feel hopeful we focused on positive visuals and grounded sound design.
The introduction of the video featured the open streets of Raleigh to establish that these stories take place within Wake County and to create a tangible setting in the viewer’s mind.
Since this video is focused on people, the visuals feature people’s faces in particular, representing the human connection.
This is why each person has a ‘hero shot’ of their faces as you begin hearing them speak through a voice-over. This was meant to be a sincere way to grab their viewers’ attention as they anticipate the individual’s message and perspective. You can see many of these below:
We combined the voiceover and hero shots with b-roll of each person enjoying life and activities with loved ones.
In many cases we used afternoon light from the sun to backlight our subjects, providing lens flares for a warm, authentic feel.
Ultimately, the end result was a positive, yet moving, piece that is both informative and inspiring. We hope it will reduce the stigma in our community, move people to their own journey of recovery and inspire others to help support recovery however they can.
