The Challenge

The UVA Darden School business communication class was tasked with producing a video that describes and explains the components of the growing national debt in the United States. The goal was to simplify a complex topic and make the content accessible and interesting for a general audience of 18 - 28 year olds. This is a group that is under-represented in the public discussion because they tend to be apathetic about voting for their political representatives. There was an added intent of making the film compelling enough to encourage those young viewers to become engaged in the political process.

The Solution

Paladin Media Group worked with students from the Darden School of Business to develop the script which included a historical perspective, information germane to the components that make up the national debt, and statistics that paint a bleak picture based on the current direction of debt growth. Using a 2D animation style that included characters representing the citizen demographic, we developed motion graphics to illustrate statistics and text on screen to convey information in a compelling way. A narrator read the script and original music was scored to tie-together the components of the finished ten minute video.

The Results

The "National Debt Project" was posted on the Darden website and on YouTube. The video was promoted via social media including Facebook and Twitter. It was subsequently shared by numerous individuals and organizations. It was picked up by Virginia Senator Mark Warner and shared on his social media accounts. To date the "National Debt Project" video has had more than 35,000 views.