FIRST Public Service Announcement

[dlavery]

A brand new Public Service Announcement (PSA) has been produced for FIRST by Paul Lazarus, and is currently being distributed. Paul is the well-known Hollywood director that has worked with the Championship Chairman's Award winning teams for the past several years to produce a short film about each CA team. The new PSA, which is planned for distribution around the country, has just been posted on YouTube. Featuring a very special guest, it can be viewed at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kl2PpP2YnbQ

Enjoy!

-dave

[IndySam]

wasn't he on stage tonight?



All kidding aside, this is great. Will we be able to get a higher quality version to distribute?

[falconmaster]

Its awesome!!!

We want to see if we can get it into movie theaters during previews here in Phoenix!

[Tetraman]

I have seen similar commercials at the theaters where I live, and I get excited and poke my friends when FIRST stuff comes on.

Soon, FIRST will take over the world! And we'll do it with famous people endorsements!

(get Mike Rowe next.)

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Originally Posted by falconmaster

Its awesome!!!

We want to see if we can get it into movie theaters during previews here in Phoenix!

I, too, want to see this in the local theaters.
Can we get a copy to distribute to the theaters? How does distribution of PSAs work?

[ebarker]

Originally Posted by Daniel_LaFleur

I, too, want to see this in the local theaters.
Can we get a copy to distribute to the theaters? How does distribution of PSAs work?

If you want to get it in the theatre you will need to get several things done.

1st - get a bag of money

2nd - acquire a 720px1280 mpeg version, assuming FIRST will provide it and give broadcast clearance.

3rd - contact your local representative of National CineMedia (for Regal and AMC ) to negotiate an ad rate. www.ncm.com

They have room to negotiate and offer special pricing for non-profit educational purposes.

Both the non-profit and commercial television PSA's you should be able to run for no cost.

The ad should run in the 'feature pre-roll' which is the stuff before the movie starts. Typically it runs a variety of 15, 30, and 60 seconds ads. The next block is upcoming movie trailers, then the movie starts.

The PSA is a little short at 51 seconds but that is perfect because you can go to 'post' and add a 5 or 6 second frame with a local link for people in your region to go to.

For example look at the last frame of this

There is a substantially good chance of getting airing on you local commercial TV if your team makes a good pitch.

And a great chance of airing on local non-commercial outlets.

[Jon236]

This is the PSA that FIRST Israel did last year....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNK84vJSglo

here is the translation of the Hebrew..

Yaheli Weiss - Deveopment Manager, Weissman Institute
Omer Lavi - Famous Software Engineer
Liron Gurvitz - Networking Start Up
If we only give them a chance....
FIRST ISRAEL - providing tools towards science and technology for youth
Robotics Competition
March 24-25, Nokia Hall, Yad Eliahu

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Originally Posted by ebarker

1st - get a bag of money

2nd - acquire a 720px1280 mpeg version, assuming FIRST will provide it and give broadcast clearance.

3rd - contact your local representative of National CineMedia (for Regal and AMC ) to negotiate an ad rate. www.ncm.com

For #1 and #3 -- I know the local theater owners who would donate the ad time (in the local theater) for free.

As for #2 -- Who could I contact and what would the requirements on my side be?

[ebarker]

Originally Posted by Daniel_LaFleur

For #1 and #3 -- I know the local theater owners who would donate the ad time (in the local theater) for free.

As for #2 -- Who could I contact and what would the requirements on my side be?

Free theatre time is great.

I hesitate to put the contact info on a public forum here lest FIRST get overrun with the same question a thousand times.

I'll contact the media person there and ask if they can post the hi-quality video on the FIRST site and put a link up on the communications resource page. I should have an answer within 24 hours.

Ed

[ebarker]

Originally Posted by ebarker

I'll contact the media person there and ask if they can post the hi-quality video on the FIRST site and put a link up on the communications resource page. I should have an answer within 24 hours.

I've been talking to the proper folks and here is the deal. As Dave mentioned before it will be distributed around the country. And it is my understanding that FIRST is working on making available a high quality broadcast version that teams and regions can take and tack on "local action content".

There is plenty of time to add the "local action" and still have it fit in a 60 second broadcast PSA slot. Something like www.my-local-regional-information-hub.com or whatever.

When that day comes we can help teams get the tag added to the end.

So please 'stand by'.....

[Jessica Boucher]

Grounds for a "FIRST effect"? It worked for Will Smith...

[smurfgirl]

I really like this new PSA... and not just because there is footage with me and my team in it. I hope I'll see it publicly often!

[Beth Sweet]

Any chance this means Keanu Reeves is joining FIRST???