South Africa, brace yourselves for an app that could finally see that illegal dumping site outside your house cleaned up.
Smart Citizen is the brainchild of Intervate, a South African software development company who have devised a tool that allows city officials and the public to interact in a meaningful way. Craig Heckrath, head of Products at Intervate explains the app, and the making of its teaser trailer.
“I love my city, but I dream of making it better,” says voice over artist Thuli Mdletshe in the online video. “I dream of a city that’s interconnected, a city that talks to me about things that affect my block, my street, my home. I dream of a city that senses and fixes problems, a city without bureaucracy but rather accountability. A city that cares about my time and saves me money. I love my city, and I’m going to make it better.”
This is the premise behind Smart Citizen, which enables bi-directional engagement between city service providers and citizens. “Smart Citizen uses the singular most ubiquitous piece of technology that most citizens have – a smart phone, to connect people with their city and the city to its people to help improve the environment, service levels and customer satisfaction,” explains Heckrath.
Intervate kept most of the making of the video internally. On the one hand, this was a result of budget and time constraints but also because the team had a clear vision, which is eloquently expressed in the ad’s voiceover, as spoken by Mdletshe and written by Heckrath. All video editing and animation was done by Rozanne Day, UX Designer at Intervate. Day and Heckrath conceptualised the ad with storyboard and copy.Flash Forward Productions was responsible for the shooting of the Smart Citizen App teaser trailer. “The client opted to go for our budget option,” explains Ryan Peimer, director and producer at Flash Forward. “Therefore we used a Sony NX5 HD Camera Kit as they were putting most of their time and money into post production which they were doing in house. Hence, as a SAMA award winning director, I decided to shoot and direct it myself with the limitations at hand, in order to get the highest possible production value out of a minuscule budget.”
The exceptions were the city skyline shots, which are stock footage and the field agent scene that was shot by Heckrath and Day. In this scene, the actor, Xolani, is an Intervate programmer. Developing an app to connect the city with its dwellers is work Intervate knows well, creating a commercial is something new. “Making the video was a challenge,” says Heckrath. “We have never made a video like that, internally from storyboard to completion.” They drew on internal expertise of Day’s design, Heckrath’s experience with sound editing and Marc Fletcher’s marketing intuition.
The ad was shot in Sandton and Midrand on 9 September 2016. The music was purchased and edited to pulse with the video. The audio was recorded using Logix ProX with the Izotope Alloy (EQ and Compression) and Perception 120 condenser microphone.
It was then edited in Adobe Illustrator, aftereffects and Premier Pro. It was aired on YouTube on 7 October and is available on the Smart Citizen website. The app is being rolled out city by city, with Joburg and Eskom currently in progress. The first city app will be available for the public in early 2017. Intervate is currently creating a subtitled version, which will be shown in airports across South Africa.
