By Jojo Dance and Hazel Welsh
The Object Challenge was run at the Engineering&IT fair by the Basecamp team who help students improve their enterprise and entrepreneurial skills. Students were given one week to come up with a creative idea to add value to a split pin (traditionally used to hold paper together) and upload a 90 second video of their idea to YouTube.
Trying to come up with an idea that would give value to a split pin was a challenge. All our initial ideas were very obvious and weren’t creative enough to stand out. We struggled for some time trying to come up with a way to use/manipulate the item and then potentially ‘sell’ the item in the short video. But we found these ideas very limiting. So, we decided to try and think outside of the box to come up with a winning idea. After some thought, we realised that the presentation would be taking place on Halloween, so we decided to go with a Halloween themed object. This way we could have some fun with the concept, whilst also giving the split pin some added spiritual value.
Once we had decided on an initial concept, the fun really began with creating the video. We were able to play around with sound effects, spooky video clips and dramatic titles. Although we did have the basic concept down at this point, we weren’t quite sure how to incorporate this into the actual form the split pin would take. It needed to be interesting enough to gain votes in the competition, but practical enough to be reasonably believable (within the context of the video). And that’s when we came up with the idea of fashioning the split pin into different forms of jewellery. We went with a ring and a necklace, with the split pin (or “amulet”) containing good omens and protecting against the evil spirits which come out of the woodwork on Halloween.
To add value to the split pin, we had to establish a problem which could be solved by the use of this item. The problem that we went with was that the presence of evil spirits is (apparently) more abundant on Halloween and are thus more likely to have a negative impact on people’s lives. Introduce the split pin amulet, designed to solve all your Halloween problems.
We made the presentation video using our very limited technical skills, with some help from iMovie, compiling videos, images, sound effects and music along with text that helped us to sell our product to the audience. We’d both really recommend taking part in the object challenge, or any of the other competitions going on during Start-up Week. It really encouraged us to think outside of the box and get creative, whilst also having some laughs.
Check out the winning video here