The Department of Immigration and Citizenship established a high definition (HD) and standard definition (SD) broadcast production capacity within the National Communications Branch (NatComms) in 2006. Production and Design (PD) section was established within the branch to provide a wide range of services to the department, ranging from, but not limited to: graphic design, commercial digital photography, television production, electronic media monitoring, multi-media production and audio production.
The broadcast product that PD produces for the department is widely used throughout the agency for: education and training, media distribution, television shows (such as Channel Seven’s Logie Award winning, Border Security), corporate videos and general marketing. With so much material being produced for internal audiences and targeted external users, it became clear there were great stories to be told to a wider audience – through YouTube.
The broadcast producers working in NatComms research, produce, shoot and edit most of the product seen on our first YouTube channel, ImmiTV.
ImmiTV
With more than 26-million processed border crossings in to Australia during 2008-2009, there is no shortage of stories to tell. The success stories, those of human interest and activities of the department on YouTube’s ImmiTV channel only begin to touch the wide range of services, global activities and success stories of the department.
ImmiTV launched on YouTube in 2008. On this site visitors find a wide variety of produced videos, broken in to five subsections:
- Coming to Australia
- Living in Australia
- About the department,
- Education resources, and
- Celebrating 65 years 1945-2010
In time, the business scope of ImmiTV will be slightly modified to align with DIAC’s wider on-line strategies. The playlist (on ImmiTV) will also include a ‘how to’ section where a range of services and self-help tips will be explained by DIAC staff. Based on a 60-90 second format, ‘how to’ is designed to value add to — and eventually replace — two dimensional fact sheets on subjects such as: applying for a visa, what types of visas to use, citizenship and other key DIAC services and programs.
There is also the potential to use ImmiTV as a recruitment resource with a ‘current jobs at DIAC and general recruitment’ section also being investigated. As agencies look to save on recruitment advertising, the idea of offering a value-add resource to the on-line recruitment market — where many recruitment opportunities are now advertised as the only way to apply for positions advertised — makes sense to give recruitment an added dimension via direct contact video and audio. Current jobs can be profiled and supported with ‘how to apply’ resources with applicants then driven back to the ‘recruitment’ section on the main DIAC website.
NO To People Smuggling
This is the second department YouTube channel and was designed to provide Australian Government agencies combating people smuggling ventures with ‘real estate’ to park their video content on the issue.
Because of the specific intention to use the site as a whole-of-government anti-people smuggling video repository, the site is not branded as a DIAC site.
Designed as an on-line communications resource aimed at the diaspora communities in Australia, messages on changes to asylum laws, dramatised first-person accounts from survivors of a people smuggling venture and safety messages are housed on this channel. The video product is offered in English and supported by a range of language translations and subtitles in: Sinhalese, Tamil, Farsi, Dari, Arabic and Pashto.
Due to the strong messaging required in product like this, it was decided to keep this product separate to the ImmiTV site which was originally established to showcase Australia, citizenship, the department and the role/history the agency has played since being established in 1945.
http://www.youtube.com/notopeoplesmuggling
Established by
Department of Immigration and Citizenship
Started on
2008
Outcomes
ImmiTV has been promoted through the main DIAC website via direct links. The direct address to ImmiTV is also printed on all department press releases – as is the link to the department’s on-line newsroom.
On 7 June, 2010, a media release was issued that not only flagged the second year of ImmiTV, but also showcased the dramatic increase in on-line traffic to the site. The release generated a number of stories in national and local press as well as several trade publications for IT and migration.
When the NO To People Smuggling launched on YouTube, a press release was distributed explaining what the channel was designed for.
15 Jun 2010
YouTube is proving a successful tool to reach asylum seekers’ families and friends in Australia to highlight the grim realities and risks in engaging with people smugglers.
The channel, No to People Smuggling, is an important tool in the Australian Government’s efforts to discourage asylum seekers from making the dangerous trip to Australia by boat.
www.youtube.com/user/notopeoplesmuggling
“No to People Smuggling aims to raise awareness and educate communities within Australia about the dangers and uncertainties of using people smugglers,” a Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) spokesman said.
“No to People Smuggling allows people to watch and hear detailed accounts taken from those who have risked their lives and those of their families to undertake the treacherous journey to Australia.
“The stories detail the grave dangers faced on the open seas in small and often unseaworthy boats, with no guarantee of reaching Australia or being granted asylum,” the spokesman said. “Communities in Australia can share these stories with friends and relatives overseas at risk of engaging with people smugglers.”
The tragic and unnecessary loss of five lives at sea on an Australian-bound vessel in May this year was a grim reminder of the realities of making the dangerous trip to Australia at the hands of people smugglers.
The government has suspended processing Sri Lankan claims for three months and claims from Afghan asylum seekers for six months.
The changing circumstances in these countries means it is likely that more asylum claims from these countries will be refused.
There are safe and lawful visa options for people wanting to resettle in Australia, including sponsorship by relatives already here. Those who pursue a lawful settlement option are following the right path and not needlessly risking their lives.
“Asylum seekers will only be granted the right to live in Australia if they are genuinely in need of protection – seeking a better life and more opportunities is not grounds to be granted asylum.”
This is DIAC’s second foray into using YouTube to communicate with its stakeholders, after the success of its ImmiTV channel (www.youtube.com/ImmiTV) launched two years ago.
The channel is home to a number of products (in English and in-language) with strong messaging around asylum claims and changes to asylum laws in Australia. One particular product, ‘Left behind’, is a 30-second safety message highlighting the perils of travel to Australia by sea at the hands of a people smuggler.
Crikey produced a story on the channel after an advocacy group saw ‘Left Behind’ on the channel. Several mainstream media outlets including the ABC’s Insiders program also picked up on the story with an immediate knock-on viral effect on channel views. A product that had barely a handful of views jumped to several thousand in a day after the Crikey story ran on-line in the West Australian (the total hits to that embedded video were not linked to YouTube and could not be recorded), as well as on ABC Insiders, SBS on-line and The Australian.
The story of the No to People Smuggling channel was also picked up by ethnic Australian media. This coverage provided the No to People Smuggling channel with direct exposure to both the diaspora community in Australia, as well as some overseas communities with strong Australian links. Product from the No to People Smuggling channel is also embedded in www.australia-asylum.com
Addition details or information
In our dealings with DIAC IT Services, we could clearly see that any product – video, audio or still images – that we wanted post had the potential to receive a lot of traffic. So as not to jeopardise our eVisa portals, we made a calculated decision to keep all of our innovation separate to the main site. This includes the on-line newsroom and of course, ImmiTV.
The graphic design team was able to re-skin ImmiTV on YouTube so it reflected the department’s established corporate colour palette and ‘look and feel’. A number of active points were embedded in to the ImmiTV site allowing visitors to click on the coat of arms and be driven to the main immi.gov.au website. Visitors are also able to click-through to immi.gov.au via links in the embedded video product.
Click-through also works vice-versa from the main immi.gov.au site to YouTube – essentially allowing a visitor to remain within a ‘loop of influence’ on-line between the two sites.
DIAC’s in-house production capability up until 2009 produced its own fortnightly, then monthly news program, Our People. This 10-minute program covered DIAC stories from all over Australia and overseas. Our People was compiled by the PD team in conjunction with DIAC’s state-based public affairs staff and was webcast out of National Office to our Australian based staff and sent to overseas posts on CD-ROM. We hit approximately 55% of our 7500 staff in the first 24-hours of release. The format was studio-based intros, field produced stories including reporter and talent (a typical bulletin had 4-5 SOT packages and 2-3 LVO/RVOs). The majority of YouTube material on ImmiTV was originally produced for Our People and has been modified for a YouTube audience.
In order to provide DIAC with the capability to share its story internally among 7500 staff and externally with the rest of the world via YouTube, the PD team equipped itself so as to provide production tasks in-house. The PD team operates within dynamic production environment, comprising:
2 x HD post production suites.
Edit-1 is the main suite and also comprises master control (MCR) and vision switching (connected to a small TV studio).
Edit-2 is both a copy of edit-1 (minus vision switching) but also houses our sound proofed audio booth. Both edit suites – and production work areas – are linked via an XSAN infrastructure over fibre-optic.
To ensure DIAC can handle -- ingest and distribute -- from/on a wide range of broadcast formats, edit suites are equipped with:
• 2 x Sony PDW-F75 XD(HD) player/recorder
• 2 x Sony PDW-R1 XD(SD) portable player/recorder
• 2 x Sony PDW-U1 XD portable player/recorder
• 1 x Sony HVR-M25P HDV portable player/recorder
• 1 x Sony J-30SDI multi-format video tape recorder
• 1 x Sony DVW-M2000P Digital-Betacam video tape recorder
• 2 x JVC-HD50E HDV portable player/recorder
1 x mini-television studio equipped with floor to ceiling chroma key screen
1 x outside broadcast capability (5-channel vision switcher/audio/record and playback) 4:3/16:9 flight-ready mobile control console: DataVideo MS800
2 x full mobile FinalCut Pro HD field kits, including portable XD-player/recorder decks
5 x offsite FinalCut Pro HD suites (Power Mac G5, 2 x 30" HD-LCDs – dual core units with full Adobe Creative and FCP-HD installed)
4 x XD-HD camera kits, 2 of the XD-HD cameras carry both HD wide and HD telephoto lens kits
1 x Sony HD lipstick camera and HD recorder
Full lighting fleet ranging from (for each camera) Dedo, Lowell, Caselight, Litepanel and Joker kits (with field power)
1 x AstroScope (US Military spec) night vision lens adaptor with IR LitePanel support
2 x Sony EFP sound recordist kits
1 x Dolly (track) and jib
2 x studio camera portapeds (OB)
3 x Camera mounted and 2 x 'Presidential' type autocues
1 x live-event audio desk - 60 channel audio control/mixer
8 x concert speakers - wireless controlled
1 x mobile microwave link for live cross/audio/video feed transmission
This is only the 'main' production toolkit - it is all supported by a wide array of (not included on this list) camera/lighting/audio and studio support equipment, filter kits, field monitors etc.
The production team within PD comprises three broadcast producers (all from
the television industry) and two (commercial/broadcast) graphic designers.
The PD team also specialise in digital photography and operates:
2 x Elinchrom (3 x studio/strobe) kits with power cell field batteries (2 x
per kit)
3 x Canon EOS 1D-III digital SLRs, each kit is equipped with:
- 17-40mm L-Series
- 24-105mm L-Series
- 70-200mm L-Series
- 400mm L-Series
1 x Canon 600mm L-Series
2 x Apple Power Mac with PhotoShop CS3
1 x Portable studio background/backdrops and supports, and;
10 x Canon PowerShot SX1IS - deployed throughout Australia and used by
state-based public affairs staff
Categories
Topics: Business, Communication, Community, and Culture.
Types: Gov 2.0.
Jurisdictions: Federal.