Aware

Aware is a 3 part narrative-based series aimed at reducing drug and alcohol-related harm in Aotearoa, in collaboration from the NZ Drug Foundation.

Aware seeks to change the narrative of how youth and young adults have been educated about drug use and harm reduction in Aotearoa. The world that we have grown into is different from that of our parents, where “Just say no” was the accepted message. The proliferation of technology and a rapidly changing culture has caused a collision of conflicting information about drugs in young people's lives.

This project

Through our project, we want to start a conversation around educating safe substance use rather than avoiding a rapidly snowballing problem. We plan to create 3 short-form narrative episodes for a safe drug/alcohol awareness campaign (90 - 120 seconds.) Our shorts will be fast-paced to cover a dense narrative in a punchy and effective manner. Each episode will have two endings, the first with the shock of what went wrong and the second showing what would happen in an ideal world. We will do this differently in each episode in a cinematic style to avoid cheesy clichés.

The purpose

We believe NZ's youth and young adults deserve an updated message that aligns with the reality of drug use in Aotearoa. We believe that we are the right team to take this on, as we fit the demographic that we are trying to target. We know what will work to engage and have an impact on youth/young adults as we are young adults ourselves.

We have all seen drug/alcohol harm-related incidents unfold around us, all of which could have been avoided with more readily available information. We have experienced the negative effects of socially acceptable drug abuse, and we intend on reducing this by changing the narrative of drug information campaigns.

Aware has the potential to have positive impacts in the real world with close collaboration and guidance from the NZ Drug Foundation, giving our work the potential to be showcased through their outlets.

The episodes

Episode 1 - Demonstrates the dangers of adulterated drugs without accessible drug testing and highlights the uncertainty of where your drugs come from.

Episode 2 - Highlights the risks of New Zealand’s excessive youth drinking culture.

Episode 3 - Contrasting the effects of drinking alcohol and smoking weed, highlighting the potential for excessive consumption of both drugs.

Each episode is different from the next, while carrying through our theme of safe use. The style of the videos will be fast-paced, punchy, visually captivating, high production quality, and heavy use of sound design to create effective and engaging shorts.

Our Crew

Ben Cushman - Director

Flynn Grey - Cinematographer

Lachie Clark - Editor/1st Assistant Camera

Izaak Beever - VFX Lead/Gaffer

Ben Irving - Sound/Art Department

We are a crew of talented, like-minded, and hard-working individuals with strong passions and ambitions for Aware. With a lot of heart and effort, we have put the hard yards in to ensure the success of this project.

Why we need you

Aware is a big dream of ours and we want it to be a huge success. With funding, we can ensure that Aware can be the best possible. All the money raised through this Boosted campaign will go towards paying our actors, feeding our crew, travel costs, props for the art department and general equipment.

While our projected budget is $3000, we have decided to aim a little lower to help ensure we meet our target, we will chip in the rest ourselves.

Thank you!

From the crew behind Aware