Time for action

[Speicher]

Ooops, didn't realise there was an "official" title for it, I just put something to try and describe what it was (must really go back and read the whole thread properly it seems!! ). Sorry!

OOps time for me to apologise. I do not think there is an "official" title yet. "Plenty of Room" was the first one on the drawing board, as it were.

Magnatom will correct me if I am wrong, but I think people would be happy to consider other suggestions.

 

[magnatom]

OOps time for me to apologise. I do not think there is an "official" title yet. "Plenty of Room" was the first one on the drawing board, as it were.

Magnatom will correct me if I am wrong, but I think people would be happy to consider other suggestions.

Oh yes, the more suggestions the better. There are no toes to step on here. I started the thread, I am trying to push it along a bit, but I certainly don't have all of the answers/skills etc. No-one can do everything! So the more ideas the better, although we will need to focus fairly soon.

 

[CopperBrompton]

Thanks for doing that, Sharky - it helps to make the general concept a bit more real. And yes, getting things into 30 seconds is a real skill - it's why a lot of famous movie directors like doing ads, because it's a great challenge.

'Plenty of room' was merely my suggestion, but I have no ego invested in it. If we do decide to use it, making the oo into cycle wheels is a great idea.

 

[classic33]

Classic33, that's excellent news!

If you don't want to reveal the details of the company in public you could always PM me the details so I know who might be on board.

Got in touch with a local company, they have lorries all over the country. So I just thought about trying to get them on our side. Other replies awaited.

 

[Arch]

I thought Sh4rkey's film was excellent. If you want more time on the stills, just cut one of the previous plenty of room shots. 30 seconds, done well, will be far more effective than a minute, which will just get dull. It's like editing writing, you are most effective when you pare it right down.

I don't think you need much more time on the stills, either. I know I've seen them before, but it's pretty obvious what it is, and the imagination is a powerful thing.

When I was a kid, we were shown a rail safety film, a kid crossing a track slipped and got his shoelace caught so that his foot was on the track, train coming. Cut to kid at home, looking sad, his Mum lifting him off a sofa, camera pans down to where his foot should be. It stopped before it reached any shot that would have actually shown a stump, but we all knew exactly what we would have seen, and I've not forgotten that film to this day.

 

[Speicher]

I know a couple of people have made the point that Plenty of Room is a little detached from the issue, i.e. it doesn't make you think of cyclists and HGVs. Speicher made the point to me via PM that we could possibly make the oo in room bicycle wheels, and have a bike above it.

I also wondered if you could somehow make the M look like an HGV, so that as part of the slogan you could have a bike approaching an HGV (if you had a question mark after that it could be the HGV cab).

Again, I stray into areas that I have no skills in (any graphic artists out there?) and yes some may think this is a daft idea, but it is just an idea....what do you think?

'Plenty of room' was merely my suggestion, but I have no ego invested in it. If we do decide to use it, making the oo into cycle wheels is a great idea.

Thank you for saying that. I was too shy to mention it directly on the forum without some feedback. I was also thinking along the lines of "plenty" being in/on the trailer of the HGV and "of" being the cab. But I am not very good at drawing.

 

[sheddy]

my minor niggle is that when I see plentyofroom, I read it as - plenty o froom
(the irish lady racing driver?)

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

I used the "plenty of room" as the text between the sequences (which need proper footage btw, obviously some which includes an HGV!) because it fitted nicely with the aim of the message...

I put the "Be patient, not a patient" as a sort of overall "tagline" to try and get the message across that saving a couple of seconds by undertaking just isn't worth the risk... "plenty of room" as an overall tagline didn't seem to fit somehow... does that make any sense?

 

[ttcycle]

hello again!

Not seen the vid Sh4rky made - don't know when I'll get a chance -hahah! Great initiative though in getting something together.

Have some interesting feedback from my journalist mate who works for one of the broadsheets - for this campaign to be possibly taken up by national media a press release needs to be written up and she said that she would give me a hand with writing it up for best impact - she agreed it was a great idea- said I would take it back here for you guys.

Here are some of my thoughts:

It's been in the news/public media recently- we need to move quickly with the spirit of reportage and get into the slot before the ideas become stale. Therefore we need to focus up the ideas and aims, have a name/contact webpage for the campaign and decide how we want to proceed with it solidly before we can do anything strong and decided.

I gave her the ideas about the ad- viral spreading, guerilla stickering of buses, flyering bikes and stands, linking with HGV community, talking to people etc and linking with national media all of which she said were good ideas. Shall we carry them all forward? Any more ideas to add to the slate? Plus, may also be useful to link with CTC/other cycling bodies working on this for larger body of people.

CotterPin - you have any contacts in CTC?
Was it Scouser that said he had media contacts too? I know there was mention of someone knowing the PR for TfL - any feedback guys?

I suppose at some point we'll all need to get together - what's the best location for this - might be useful to know where everyone's based so we can be fair about it..maybe also look at areas in the country that we could get someone doing some actions/campaigning too.

Well that's my feedback for the day....back to work but it's that FRIDAY feeling

 

[Jake]

*pops back in again as been busy*
so whats the brief update on where things are at the moment?

 

[Speicher]

Jake, pleased to see you back. A quick summary just for you.

Working on Ben's excellent idea I have thrown together a quick (30 sec) video cobbled from bits of my 2 days commuting with a camera (I know, such a huge resource of film to work with!!)...

One thing I have to say is that it's damned difficult to work within 30 seconds!!

The Bus needs to be replaced by some relevant HGV footage, and the other stuff doesn't accurately reflect the ideas Ben suggested (left hand lane with traffic on right, right hand lane with traffic on left etc.) but it gives an idea of how it might work/look and some clue as to how easy or hard it may be to get the 'correct' footage.

I find it easier to work with something 'real' rather than paper with words.

So, may I present a "3C Group" (Cycle Chat Campaigners Group) draft production of the HGV Awareness/Undertake -> Undertakers/"Be patient, not a patient" message.

Here.

I used the "plenty of room" as the text between the sequences (which need proper footage btw, obviously some which includes an HGV!) because it fitted nicely with the aim of the message...

I put the "Be patient, not a patient" as a sort of overall "tagline" to try and get the message across that saving a couple of seconds by undertaking just isn't worth the risk... "plenty of room" as an overall tagline didn't seem to fit somehow... does that make any sense?

The above quotes should help. For more detail go back about four or five pages. I think we are at the stage of thinking about a website. You and GordyFaeEdinburgh have very kindly offered to construct a website.

There have been more discussions about the title of the Campaign as well, but that is difficult to summarise.

 

[Bman]

Wow. This has moved on a lot in the last few days.

Great first draft at the video SharkyBloke. I agree with Arch on that you dont need too long to grasp the severity of the accident stills. One thing I would say though:

I'm not sure if the public will relate the camera footage with a cyclist. We should probably have one or two of the video clips shot from a 3rd person to show a cyclist with helmet cam in a fitting situation.

 

[Speicher]

My thoughts are that it is difficult to fit all this into 30 seconds. I realise that today people's attention span may be short, but could the video be longer? Or make different versions according to where they will be shown.

I keep thinking of the FAST clip about recognising someone having a stroke and taking action, that is quite long isn't it? Magnatom - have you seen that campaign?

 

[Jake]

Thanks, been out most nights and up early most days ( and at work i'm watching Le Tour. Nice to see my specialized in it, although most crashes have involved riders coming off them lol

video is good, punchy and gets to the point. no messing around. Maybe slightly longer for youtube/cinema audiences, but IF it was to run as a TV then it has to be short. Not sure where the footage filmed from the lorry drivers POV would be included, if at all.

Seems like you know what your doing with the video editing, (which is a shame, as better at that then the web stuff lol) My grahpic design skills are pretty poor, but i can bang a site together as long as there is guidence on how people want it to look, layout, colours etc etc.

Is there an accompanying poster too?

(MB rider at work had a go at taxi driver on monday after the taxi force the girl off her bike and onto the pavement. Gold star to the MB)

 

[CotterPin]

hello again!
...
I gave her the ideas about the ad- viral spreading, guerilla stickering of buses, flyering bikes and stands, linking with HGV community, talking to people etc and linking with national media all of which she said were good ideas. Shall we carry them all forward? Any more ideas to add to the slate? Plus, may also be useful to link with CTC/other cycling bodies working on this for larger body of people.

CotterPin - you have any contacts in CTC?
...
Well that's my feedback for the day....back to work but it's that FRIDAY feeling

Thanks for comprehensive update (which I have snipped a little so I can focus on the bits I need to respond to)

Well, I must admit I am still very keen on leafleting cyclists at junctions, so would be happy to work on that as per my earlier posting, if people felt it a good idea.

My contacts are with the LCC (one of whom posted on this thread earlier). I can have a word with them. I know vaguely some folks in the CTC but others might be better placed to talk with them.