Fwd: video leafleting

[Guest guest]

Victor Tsou <vytsou wrote:

On Friday afternoon, Miranda and I leafleted at the 16th Street BART

station in San Francisco’s Mission District. In just over an hour, we handed out

300 copies of Why Vegan and 100 copies of Even If You Like Meat to the rush hour

traffic. In retrospect, it would have been helpful to have also carried Porque

Vegetariano for the heavily Latino/Latina population.

 

After dinner, Miranda strapped on our 7” portable DVD player and we showed

factory farm/slaughterhouse footage as we walked the streets. I walked behind

Miranda, handing out EIYLM to interested viewers. In a short time, we handed out

all 50 copies we had remaining. We found a very receptive audience in the

Mission; many people were shocked by the footage and wanted more information. I

like video leafleting because people can avert their gaze from the screen, but

they cannot ignore the audio. For example, we followed one group and eventually

one member of the group turned around, watched the video and asked for more

information. People came up to us already interested in finding out more

information, having watched and responded to the footage.

 

On Saturday night, we crossed the Bay Bridge again and went video leafleting in

the Castro. This was a tougher audience; many people ignored us completely. But

there were many highlights. We aimed the screen towards restaurants and many of

the patrons watched as they ate dinner. I would go into the restaurants and give

them an EIYLM. One man even came out of a restaurant and ran down a block to get

more information from us. Another woman watched the video from a distance. When

I approached her and invited her to watch the video up close, she came and

watched for at least 10 minutes, obviously affected by the footage. We ran into

two separate groups where a person in the group would tell me, “This person

needs a pamphlet.” The video is an incredible testimonial, but equally powerful

are the passionate impromptu speeches of friends. We also came across a group of

older women. They watched the video for a short time, then one woman asked for a

pamphlet,

saying “I need one of those.” A number of people mentioned having received a

copy already downtown on Market St.

 

If you’re interested in doing video leafleting of your own: our video setup is

very simple. We purchased a Coby 7” tablet portable DVD player. It comes with a

rig for attaching it to a seat rest. When the straps are extended fully, the rig

may be worn by a person with a small frame. (If you have a larger frame, you may

be able to find an extension strap at a store like REI.) Then we put a DVD in

the player, set it to loop and off we went. The DVD player runs off a

rechargeable battery, so there is no need for a separate power supply. This

particular model has a powerful speaker, which is helpful in attracting

attention and maximizing the impact of the video.

 

The portable DVD player was a little over $100 from Amazon:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Coby-TF-DVD7050-Portable-Tablet-Style-Player/dp/B0009TQB00

 

And you can pop in your favorite video to show people. This portable player is

pretty good; the volume can be turned up pretty high and it comes with its own

rig so we didn't need to make anything to strap it on. It is really cheap and

portable, especially compared to the old style gigantic body screens that people

have been using in the past. As I said, people watching the video responded very

favorably. This is one of the best tools for activism I've ever used.

 

Victor

 

 

 

 

 

oneSearch: Finally, mobile search that gives answers, not web links.