#TurnItAround

We’re working on a great new project, and we’re hoping you can help by making a super quick cellphone video. It’s very simple and should only take a couple of minutes.

We’re trying to get people to “turn it around” — literally turning the phone around to focus on something outside themselves — something fun, cool, or meaningful — a video un-selfie. We’ve made a few videos ourselves and now we’re asking some of our friends to try.

Would you be willing to make a quick 15 to 20 second video? Show us what matters to you. These videos can show something beautiful, something unusual… The idea is to show, in a short video, something that is meaningful to you.

The instructions are below. They’re simple — and include a couple of examples, so you can see what we’re talking about.

We just started posting the very first #TurnItAround videos, and we’re hoping that folks like you will join us in trying to make social media a little less selfie-centered.

Thanks!

Fritz and Stephen

#TurnItAround instructions:

• Point the camera at yourself and say, “My name is [your name] and this is what I see when I turn it around.”
• Turn the camera around and point it at something fun, cool, or meaningful to you.
• Describe what you’re pointing at and say what you think is cool about it or why it’s important to you.
• That’s it!

Don’t worry — simple and short is great. We’ve found that simply saying just a few words after you turn the camera around that explain why this matters to you makes this a video that’s fun to watch.

Then you can post the video online, cutting and pasting this text as the description of your video — and put in the names of a few friends — tag them to nominate them to create their own #TurnItAround videos:

Here’s a different sort of selfie! This is what I see when I #TurnItAround. Bob, Ashley, David: What matters to you? I nominate you to #TurnItAround.

We can’t wait to see what you make!

Here are some examples, if you’re curious:

Fritz’s gardens in Japan

Stephen’s Maya Angelou quotation

Leah’s magnetic poetry

Tips:
 

• Pick something that means something to you – your first baseball glove, a quote on a wall you’ve always liked, a beautiful view…
• When you describe it, say something about why it’s meaningful to you. What memories are associated with it and who was a part of them?
• Look around for:
  • the things you would save first if your house was on fire
  • the places that were important to you growing up
  • new projects you’re in the middle of right now
  • the cute, quirky, beautiful people and pets that are part of your life
  • something seemingly ordinary that has a surprising story
• Keep it quick — just enough to show what you see when you turn it around and explain why it’s important to you.
• If you can, set the video sharing settings to “Public” to share it with as many people as possible.

 
 
Thanks!!!