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What is
Your Pride?
by
Julia Zanin de Paula
INTRO
AUTHENTIC PRIDE
Hello!
As a proud member of the LGBTQIA+ community, I'm so thankful that a world giant like Walmart is considering people like me to direct this piece. It is a big step up for the community and a sure way to represent pride the right way.
Being LGBTQIA+ is limitless, it is allowing us to challenge what society tells us to be. The crusade for the right to be proud and to be whatever we want is far from ending and each move advances the cause. Each ally counts, especially when an advocate as big and influential as Walmart provides LGBTQAI+ voices with a platform to be seen, heard, and talk louder.
With smart, positive, forward-moving strategies and the best people by our side, we can go into this journey with Walmart together and represent the authentic pride.
The queer movement is joyous, positive, intelligent, diverse, fun, colorful, and so powerful. Building their voice and providing an outlet for them to share their pride and queerness is my priority with this project.
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our methodology
For this campaign, the strategy is to get the best and most authentic voice out of Walmart associates and transport them to a strong visual piece that reflects their true pride. To make this an authentic experience, our content will go beyond interviews to engage in a conversation about each other's pride.
Our method will be to pre-interview each of our selected associates prior to filming, to become familiar with and build upon their stories and points of view, in order to create guided talking points for our interviews. To pair what their core values are with their true selves, we will plan to shoot in their individual real-life workspaces.
Showing them comfortable in their work will show how comfortable they are with their own body and identity while collaborating with Walmart.
We will repeat the interview in person and deepen the conversations. In addition to the filmed interviews, we will shoot b-roll to help create mini-profile films of each participant. In this way, we'll avoid a "cookie cutter" approach, and instead really showcase their individuality, which is so important to illustrate the diversity. In essence, we'll highlight THEIR Pride!
THE STRUCTURE
This is an example of casual conversation interviews mixed with doc-style footage and metaphorical shots. I'd love to integrate the authenticity of our subject's life into this type of strucutre.
THE CONVERSATION
These are the ideal sound bites we will get from conversations with our Walmart associates. I believe the best approach is to both plan appropriate questions AND to go off script and let them truly and comfortably open up about queerness and pride.
PROFILE
AUTHENTIC SELVES
Mixed with our sound bites and casual interview conversation, we will capture the day-to-day life of the Walmart associates, apart from sensory shots and metaphorical portraits. Using appropriate Walmart locations, we want to capture their authentic selves. We will also capture personal objects and photos, to dig in on our character's personalities.
ASSOCIATES
We are so lucky to have 3 amazing associates with amazing and diverse stories. The objective here is to capture them as the unique individuals they are. During the interviews, letting their comfort shine through is a must. We will be interviewing MIA, ISHMAEL and PONO.
Mia, our North Carolina associate, has touched many LGBTQIA+ associates after she, a trans woman, ascended as manager. We will be capturing a solo interview and conversations with 2 employees she inspired to come out. Apart from that, following her around her day-to-day activities will give us material to portray her as her best comfortable self at Walmart.
With Ishmael (Georgia) we will be focusing on his role in HR and how his pride inspires others around him at Walmart. As a vocal gay man, he has a great relationship with his manhood and feels comfortable educating others about "being their authentic selves" and respecting others' authentic selves.
With Pono (Utah), we will be focusing on his Hawaiian heritage and how supportive his family has always been with his sexuality. After moving to Utah, a more conservative state, he was afraid he wouldn't be as openly accepted, but found at Walmart a place he could express himself freely.
MOOD
LOOK & FEEL
I believe we should bring visual diversity to this film to complement the diversity of the subjects with a mix of digital cameras and analog film cameras. The interview will be shot with digital cameras.
For their day-to-day doc-style capture, apart from some digital scenes, we will be shooting on 16mm film. Analog Film has a beautiful and magical quality to it and, metaphorically speaking, it ties perfectly to our central themes. Light that transforms into an image through chemical and physical changes is captured on celluloid.
Film is also inherently intimate and we will be able to achieve magical, real, and beautifully authentic moments with film's imperfections and rawness. Every light leak, hair in the gate or grain just adds to our story of genuine pride and queerness.
This is branded content I shot for Polaroid and BFC on 16mm film. It perfectly captured the relationship between these two women while having fun moments. Shooting on film is also quicker and lighter, we will be able to cover more ground and more variety.
MIX AND MATCH
Here is an example of the mix between digital and film. It brings a whole new level of diversity into the content. With different aspect ratios and creative choices, textures and colors, the piece feels much richer and original.
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01
Social media
Strategy
The vertical strategy is our front and center. We will be shooting thinking not only on a vertical aspect ratio, but in what will feel organic and true for social media.
We'll be shooting horizontally, and framing both for 16:9 and 9:16 in case this content needs to be repurposed for a longer version.
The content will fit like a glove into TikTok, Instagram, and other social media platforms. The LGBTQIA+ community is heavily involved in social media, it has become their platform for social change, and activism, apart from a tool to show who they are with no fear.
These pieces have to speak to them.
The tone of our content is a conversation about queerness, pride, and what it means to be LGBTQIA+. We need to make sure it doesn't feel corporate and let their voices shine through Walmart, giving them a wide audience, a loud voice, and a big platform for their uniqueness.
Walmart will be the stage, not only the brand behind the video. It is important to mention that they are Walmart associates, but letting them shine through their life outside of Walmart is very important for the success of these pieces on social media.
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02
The Interview
For the interview, we are planning on incorporating the colors of the flag into the background. Our content needs to have solid saturated colors to bring out all the fun and beauty of being LGBTQIA+. We will use solid photo backdrops on the colors of the pride flag that incorporate the different spectrums of our associates. We can also add their specific flag of what they identify as to the shots and production design.
Once our interview is over, we can move to shooting the associates in their own individual spaces. We will capture b-roll and social-media authentic doc-style footage that adds to what they spoke about in front of camera.
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03
Embodying
LGBTQIA+
How will we make this resonate with the queer community and feel authentic for Walmart? This content is so important not only to give the associates a voice and platform but to bring more allies to the cause and information to Walmart clients.
We need to be vulnerable, and authentic, and show them as they are, as humans that only want respect and a chance to be whomever they want to be. It's important that these pieces feel organic and respectful, and that they shine new light for people that are uninformed and away from the pride movement. Awareness and information can change the world.
NOW WHAT?
wHAT A MAGICAL OPPORTUNITY TO GIVE VOICE TO THE LGBTQIA+ COMMUNITY THROUGH A GIANT LIKE WALMART. I'M SURE WE WILL FIND THE BEST WAY TO transform THE ASSOCIATE'S VOICE AND POINT OF VIEW INTO SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL, ORGANIC AND IMPORTANT together.
THANK
YOU
Let's get started!
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