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Film of the week: Mass Construction

Fundraising | Niki May Young | 24 Aug 2012

With 75 million girls out of education worldwide, Plan UK has quite a job to encourage a change ahead of the International Day of the Girl. Niki May Young critiques the charity's filmic efforts.

'Girl power' has gone through many incarnations throughout the generations, be it Joan of Arc, the Suffragettes or the 1990's pop sensation that was somewhat perversely awarded a come-back at the closing Olympic Ceremony this August.

Plan UK's latest film, Mass Construction, embodies all of the spirit of 'girl power', but in a much grittier way than any Spice Girls song ever could. A prelude to the upcoming International Day of the Girl, the film seeks to encourage support for girls' education, in the face of 75 million girls currently out of school worldwide, by illustrating the extreme force with which girls can elicit good in our society. It's something that the very name 'Mass Construction' summons to a tee as, let's face it, a kinda cool play on words.

The visual effects are spectacular, transforming the concept of mass construction into reality by evoking all the brutality of weaponry, but with a twist - the beauty of creation. Upon a surreal baron planet a young African girl crashes from the sky. As she straightens her poise a shard-laden explosion ripples from her site of impact, transforming the landscape in its wake into one of widespread infrastructure and finally, a fully developed world. "Winning the war on poverty starts with educating girls", reads the concluding message.

The concept and its execution are not just gritty and intense, but clever and purposeful. They're the result of a collaborative effort between Plan's director of communications Leigh Daynes, head of communications Imogen Wilson, senior planner Josh Bullmore and client service director Gary Simmons who co-created and developed the concept with creative agency Leo Burnett. 

The agency, which has worked with corporate brands such as the BBC, Coca-Cola, Co-operative Group, Homebase, Innocent, Kellogg, McDonald’s and Procter & Gamble, offered all of its time and expertise for free. The shoot costs, however, were covered by Plan, totalling £34,000. But for a charity with an income of over £56m, this represents just 0.06 per cent of its takings.

Speaking of the experience of working with Leo Burnett, head of communications, Imogen Wilson said: "Leo Burnett London have been a genuine pleasure to work with and are very collaborative in their approach. They understand our communication challenges and are supportive of our work with and for the world’s poorest girls."

She also revealed that, "They are developing another project with us on a pro-bono basis, which is due to launch in late November, and will be supporting our activities on 11th October, which is the first ever UN International Day of the Girl. The UN introduced this day after a long campaign by Plan International."

The first film launched yesterday, GCSE results day, at the Hackney Picturehouse cinema in London and will air on CNN later this month as part of the global campaign. At 60-seconds it is at perfect viral length. It's beautiful visuals and strength of message will add to its capacity for social sharing - I'm going to add it to my Facebook and Twitter myself. So I'd say there's a good chance it's going to satisfy its purpose of spreading awareness.

Not every charity has the kudos and 'ka-ching' to produce a film of this calibre, but if you've got it, flaunt it I say. 

Directory: Plan UK