Public Awareness Campaign Videos
We’re so lucky to have great trails and nature areas in Northern Colorado and a lot of that is due to the amazing work of the Larimer County Department of Natural Resources (LCDNR).
Thanks to local grant funding, the LCDNR Communications team brought on videographer Joyce and Darrell Dickens from UPTRN and myself to create a three-part video series for their website and social media.
Working with my client through a discovery call, I better understood what they were hoping to accomplish — to increase awareness of dog owners to the proper hiking behaviors on the trail, such as making sure dogs are leashed and picking up and packing out their poop while hiking. Complaints about dogs’ behaviors on the trails is common amongst hikers and walkers so it was important to get the messaging right.
The team wanted a fun, engaging video series that got the messages across in non-shaming, educational ways. The idea was to create the videos from a dog’s point of view.
The adorable pup, Otis.
Photo credit: LCDNR.
And boy, was there a cute dog star to feature:
Otis the St. Bernard!
Collaborating with creative genius, Rebecca Gilmore of Gilchek Creative, on the concepts and idea creation was a treat. I then evolved our ideas into unique scripts and storyboards for the three videos. Once they were reviewed by the client, we made minor changes and then we were set to go!
Shortly after the video shoot, the video editing began. Two different cameras — a GoPro that was strapped to Otis’s back with a special harness and a regular video camera — followed the pup and his owner on the trail.
The two cameras were essential to creating two different perspectives — the dog’s point of view and an outsiders’ view. It also meant there were two video types to color correct so they flowed together somewhat seamlessly.
I enhanced the fun by sourcing the perfect background music and sound effects to fit each of the three videos’ themes specifically. Also, different motion graphic templates, fonts, and speed ramping accelerated the narrative or allowed for more time to process the information.
I color graded the footage using Premiere Pro, worked through various iterations of voiceover (the final voiceover for Otis is an AI-generated voiceover from Capcut and the female narrator is an AI-generated voiceover created in Adobe Express with an add-on). Many viewers will recognize the voice for Otis as a funny voice used often on social media.
The three videos were finished in late fall 2024 to prepare for the major release push in March 2025 in conjunction with the start of the hiking season in Colorado.