A decision has been made

I've been thinking things over for a week now, asking my friends and family for their opinions, and I think that I am going to change my final project from the thesis on marketing religion to creating a viral public awareness campaign for AFHR UK.

Doing the exercise about "Is it worth asking the question?" started to push me towards the awareness campaign idea more, because it has much stronger answers to the question of "who" it is for and also its relevance to my future career. Ultimately I am considering two career paths (and in this day and age it's likely I'll get to do both!) Plan A is to work as a film director, of features and television drama. And in acknowledgment of the fact that Plan A will be difficult and might never happen, Plan B is to work in communications for the not-for-profit sector, particularly an advocacy group. A project where I create a campaign for a worthwhile cause, and research the effectiveness of such campaigns and how they have succeeded in the past, will benefit both Plan A and B!

Another factor that has contributed to my decision is that the marketing Christianity idea was supposed to be for a doco, and I think it would make a better doco than it would thesis. However, to make the documentary to the standard that I would want requires some kind of funding. The plan was to shoot some observational footage, so that it's not just talking heads, and that means shooting hours and hours of tape and hiring a decent cinematographer and sound recordist so that you don't miss any crucial event and/or line. We would also have to spend a week in Sydney observing World Youth Day and to make the interviews look decent we need to hire lights and ideally also have a crew that knows what they're doing (I'm not a DOP!) We have pitched the film to the ABC (twice! Don't ask...), SBS and the FFC. There are no more funding options (because Film Vic and AFC require a free-to-air broadcaster attached).

Also in relation to the above point, because I've been working on the idea for 18 months I'm not confident that I will still be passionate and excited about it by the end of this year. Frankly, I could write a thesis about it tomorrow, but I want this year to involve me going on a journey and discovering new ideas. I already know what I think the answer to my thesis question is, so what's the point of asking it?

I'll write my new abstract tomorrow.