So, Herman and Janez, ready for the Oscar?

I promised myself that if I saw well produced (if not necessarily viral!) EU videos I would post them on my blog, not to be accused of always being too critical or polemical… well, here are two examples. The first video was produced recently by the Council (main protagonist: Herman van Rompuy, but don’t let this scare you!), describing the frantic preparations ahead of and during a European Council Summit in Brussels (brief positive parenthesis: the fact that the video talks about the March Council summit and that it has been posted on Youtube at the beginning of May is not bad; well, coming from television news, it seems an eternity but for a documentary, not bad at all).

The other comes out of the Commission (main, and only protagonist – if you exclude some ducks-: Janez Potočnik, but same as above!)and it was the opening video at this year’s Green Week conference on water issues. Well done (a bit too long the Summit one, but with a good pace), clear message, relatively entertaining (and I say relatively as a disclaimer, as they are obviously not made for entertainment but for information purposes). They both convey the importance of what is being described but in a light way, light in terms of visuals (Green week),or in term of script (Summit).

I was told one evening that the Commission has been trying to assess the number of videos that it has produced over the years and they are still counting. Well, maybe fewer but good ones such as these would be a responsible and effective strategy from now on.

Virginia Mucchi

The videos:

Van Rompuy: EU Summit backstage – take a look behind the decisions

Potocnik: Welcoming message from Commissioner Janez Potočnik