For the third year in a row, NATFIZ "Krastyo Sarafov" is partnering with #Change the Picture - Philip Morris Bulgaria's information campaign, which raises the alarm about the problem of environmental pollution with improperly disposed cigarette butts and provokes responsible consumer behavior. For another year, the talented second-year students in the faculty of “Screen Arts” under the watchful eye and professionalism of their teachers, they created a new series of short but very impactful videos that have garnered over half a million views on the TikTok social network.< /a>
Screening of the videos at the Burgas International Film Festival
Nine teams of second-year students in directing, cinematography, dramaturgy, editing, sound and production present in a provocative and impactful way their view of the problem of environmental pollution with improperly disposed cigarette butts, making an appeal for socially responsible behavior. You can see the latest series of creative videos of young artists at Special Projects - Change the Picture (promenikartinkata.bg).
We talk to the professors from NATFIZ, who “change the picture” together with his students - Assoc. Rositsa Ilieva, one of the main teachers in the module on “Film and television editing“ in the department of “Audiovisual production“ in the faculty of “Screen Arts” in NATFIZ, Chief Assistant Dr. Hristo Bonev, lecturer in the specialty "Film and TV Production"; in NATFIZ and Vera Mutafchiyska, teacher of drama at the Academy.
How do you rate this collaboration and what is behind a successful partnership in your opinion?
Photo: Vera Mutafchiyska, NATFIZ
Vera Mutafchiyska: The main reason for this success is the nature of the #Promenikartinka campaign itself, which aims to provoke public attention to an important environmental problem and call for responsible consumer behavior. The fight against pollution with improperly disposed cigarette filters and other waste is an eco cause that is very close to the cold, as well as to NATFIZ as an institution. And nowadays, when environmental pollution is a hot topic, protecting it is definitely worth the energy, thought and effort.
General Assistant Dr. Hristo Bonev: The collaboration with #PromeniKartinkata is extremely useful for the education of students from the Faculty of "Screen Arts" in NATFIZ, as it places them in a real environment, with real partners and a wide audience. Thus, they manage to make a smooth transition from the purely academic environment in which they have worked until now to professional practice. Behind the successful partnership lies above all mutual trust, which was built in the first year together with Philip Morris Bulgaria on the #ChangeTheImage campaign.
Doc. Rositsa Ilieva: When there is compatibility of ideas, tolerance, respect, creative freedom, understanding and good will to successfully achieve a common goal, an atmosphere of cooperation and deep trust is established, which is extremely important for a long-term partnership in the future . This happened with the project #ChangeThePicture in partnership with NATFIZ.
Screening of the OPEN BUZLUDZA 2024 festival videos
How does the students study in the module "Television advertising"? in NATFIZ and how the project dedicated to the campaign #PromeniKartinka helps students to put into practice what they have learned?
Photo: Chief Asst. Dr. Hristo Bonev, NATFIZ
Chief Asst. Dr. Hristo Bonev: Students first study dramaturgy theory and the direction of a TV commercial, and then move on to the exercises, with each team of director, cameraman, editor, sound engineer, designer and producer creating two commercials, one of which is social. The project, dedicated to the #ChangeThePicture campaign, gives students the opportunity to work on an important environmental cause that they recognize as their own, and this encourages them to put their heart and soul into their video works.
Vera Mutafchiyska: This is a great opportunity for students to express themselves, through which they can provoke their talent and work on a real, socially relevant campaign. In addition, the direct collaboration with the business is very valuable for the learners, because later, if they start working in the advertising world, the experience gained from this project would be very useful for them to realize themselves as professionals.
Assoc. Rositsa Ilieva: For each of the short video works, the entire specific path of the production process had to be followed in partnership with the partners – from writing and developing the script and getting ready to shoot in the lead-up week to the implementation week where they had one day for photography, one day for editing and one day for sound for each of the commercials to presenting the finished videos to the respective partner and their discussion and acceptance.
In the case of #ChangeThePicture, the fact that the students were very motivated by recognizing the messages of the campaign, as well as by the fact that Philip Morris Bulgaria voted their trust and provided them with the opportunity to generate, develop and implement their creative ideas, promoting their video works at a number of cultural festivals and events in the country, including film festivals. This strengthened the interest of the students, made the learning process much easier and pleasant, provoking their imagination and creativity and building in them not only knowledge, but also faith in their own capabilities.
How has the project evolved over the years and what change do you see in
the work process of the students on the impactful videos compared to the previous editions?
Vera Mutafchiyska: The gallery of videos created over the years is impressive, and anyone who touches it can find a favorite impactful video to join the cause of protecting the environment from pollution improperly discarded faces.
This year was my debut as an advertising drama teacher and luckily for me the students, sixteen in total – nine future directors and seven playwrights, were extremely alert, intelligent and interesting.
What I tried to convey to them were the basic concepts of creating an ad as a result of my seventeen years of experience as an advertiser in advertising agencies and internal marketing departments of companies. Together with the work of the colleagues from the other modules, I think it turned out great videos in different genres, some of them for the first time such as crime comedy, TV quiz, rap video, popular science film. In addition to my opinion as a teacher, I also add the wide response of the videos on social networks of NATFIZ, which reached more than 500 thousand views in total.
Chief Asst. Dr. Hristo Bonev: The project is developing very successfully and the videos from the previous years reached a large audience, not only in Bulgaria. Students know that the videos they make will not only be shown in their exam, but will be broadcast at a range of events and cultural festivals and will be available online and in the media. This makes them ambitious and they strive every year to exceed what they did in previous years.
Photo: Assoc. Rositsa Ilieva, NATFIZ
Assoc. Rositsa Ilieva: Each following year, the preparation, development, organization and implementation improved. The extremely short deadlines for the realization of the videos laid down in the study schedule of the second year, as well as the fact that each subsequent batch of students makes social ads for the first time in their lives and in partnership with a real partner and must comply with his professional requirements and standards, make the project quite challenging, tense and interesting.
As you know, every new academic year the students are different, but they work under the guidance of a team of teachers who manage to establish and improve the way of conducting work so that the challenge for the respective new batch of students is minimized from the point of view of training, organization and implementation of the relevant project.
The material is published with the support of Philip Morris Bulgaria