“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” --Henry Ford

“The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.” --Phil Jackso

“Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.” --Helen Keller

This is the final quest for Sndbox Summer Camp chosen by us. We are:
@mountainjewel – Homesteading Quest, USA
@maverickinvictus – Travel, Philippines
@iamjadeline – Philosophy Quest, Malaysia
@vadimlasca – Filmmaking Quest, Venezuela
@artizm – Photography, Turkey
@whatamidoing – Sociology Quest
@travelgirl – Food, Australia
@rubencress – Photography, the Netherlands (stepped down halfway)
@dmcamera – Photography, USA (stepped down from the project)
@catalincernat – Writing, Romania (stepped down from the project)

This is also our group post showing the proposal and the evolution of the project’s plan. Since we do not have an account under this project, the payout of this post will be distributed among team members.

INTRODUCTION: THE SCENARIO & THE PROBLEM

Living in this technological & hyper-connected society, people love social media platforms. Here, we create, connect, and share our lives. It’s in our genes to connect & social media platforms expedite and incentivize this process.

There are so many social networking platforms and apps to explore, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, Whatsapp, LinkedIn, Snapchat, YouTube, Reddit, and many more.

These social networking platforms and apps enable relationships to begin and grow (and sometimes end) without even a real handshake or face-to-face meeting. Not only do they create relationships, some are used for blogging or vlogging to promote themselves or to advertise their business/career online!

Here’s the thing, if you were told that you could earn money (in the form of cryptocurrency) by engaging on social media platforms, would you be interested? Why not? It is always good to earn extra, and especially in cryptocurrency.

However, many are not sure about cryptocurrency. They think it may be “fake money” and we have a long way to go in educating the masses in these regards. In the end, they may not give it a chance and they’ll miss the opportunity to become educated about cryptocurrency, let alone STEEM.

And what about blockchain? Despite its reliability and its superior data architecture, it can only be understood by people who take time to read and research. Usually, blockchain is complex and complicated to non-technical users. Hence, people stick to other user-friendly social networking platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter where most of their social network already resides. People are willing to spend hours there even without any monetary reward.

Question is - how are we going to promote STEEM to people who do not have time to read about cryptocurrency and blockchain? How are we able to reach out to all different people’s groups and interests; be it doctors, teachers, artist, journalists, bloggers, vloggers, speakers, podcasters, housewives or the elderly and the young? How are we going to tell them about the wonders of Steem blockchain without further confusing them?

Here is the deal.

WHO ARE WE?

We, LIFEofSTEEM aims to fill this gap. We are a powerful and inspirational force promoting the Steem blockchain through magnetic videos and educating the next generations of Steem users via written tutorials and videos (and using Discord for FAQ, feedbacks, workshops, discussion and brainstorming if needed). We aim to not just reach the technical-people, but the non-technical people as well.

We are a group of select individuals from around the world with various expertise and a diverse set of skills. Together we stand at the juncture of the old paradigms to harold the arrival of a radical and transformative new technology that is the STEEM blockchain. Here we act as gatekeepers translating the STEEM ecosystem making it accessible and easily understood so that everyone can have a chance to do what they love, and at the same earn some STEEM and/or SBD.

WHAT IS OUR MISSION?

Our mission is to promote the STEEM blockchain on a global scale by making this new and often complex technology accessible to everyone.

LIFEofSTEEM clarifies key components of STEEM by highlighting the potential of abundance of this new technology, and the propensity for individuals to get rewarded by doing what you love and sharing it. It is our mission to create an online hub where we educate and inspire those who are willing to put in hard work, and to activate those who invest in the technology and contribute their part to the growth of STEEM ecosystem.

WHAT IS OUR VISION AND FUTURE IMPLEMENTATION?

By now it is clear that we aim to promote the STEEM blockchain on a global scale. But our mission doesn’t stop there. We aim to retain users by educating, inspiring and engaging them via their native languages through a multimedia approach. We want to keep them active so they eventually become hard core users in any of STEEM applications that they love (Steemit.com, D.Tube, etc.) Essentially, we hope to share the potential and power of Steem blockchain so effectively that they become promonents of the same mission and vision.

For this vision to materialise, we will implement a few plans. This is just the beginning and we are positive as we move along that there will be more creative and effective ways.

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Videos

1. Promotional Videos

This is to kick start our mission and vision. By creating 10-15 second videos using the idea of “I + Verb” we will cover the interests of many in order to get their attention and prompt their desire. These videos will be widely and vigorously shared in various social network platforms, especially Facebook, Instagram and Twitter (and others as we see the needs).

Two ways of shooting this includes a Backshot of a person doing the action or a real Steemian doing it with their face shown, Steem Name on the lower right hand side which further embeds a correlation and connection with a real Steemian.

For example (with the “Do you” questions which are utilized in our promotional posters):

The few posters we have designed:

• Write - person with a laptop, in a brightly lit room, typing away with markdowns, with tags: #writing, #fiction, #poetry floating above on the center - Do you like to write?

• I Paint - Traditional artist painting in a room: #art, #creativity, - Do you like to paint?

• I Sing - Artist performing with a guitar/piano/ violin: #music #openmic - Do you like to sing?

• I Capture - Photographer taking a macro shot: #photography #macro #nature - Do you like to take photos?

• I Travel - Travel blogger visiting an exotic & beautiful place: #travel #nature #walkwithme - Do you like to Travel?

• I Eat - Food blogger sharing delicious and attractive food: #foodphotography #review #food - Do you like to eat?

• I Garden - Homesteaders and gardeners planting food or working with tools on a build: #homesteading #gardening #alternativelife - Do you homestead?

• I Craft - DIY project in the works: #craftworks #DIY #howto #tutorial - Do you like crafting?

• I Think - philosophers, psychologists or scientists sharing their thoughts: #philosophy, #psychology, #education, #information, #science - Do you like to learn? Do you like science?

• I Film - videographers on a shoot or vloggers making a daily video: #video, #film, #vlog #dlive #dtube - Do you like creating films or vlogging?

• I Compose - a musician in front of editing software, laying tracks: #openmic, #dtube, #dsound, #music, #originalmusic - Do you create music?

• I Play - Gamers livestreaming through Dlive: #gaming #livestream #dlive - Do you play games?

• I Dance - Dancers moving beautifully: #dance #music - Do you dance?

• I Code - developers with coding in front adding knowledge to Utopian.io site: #utopian-io #code #blockchain #development - Do you code? / Do you develop?

• I Crypto - trader looking at candlestick graph: #cryptocurrency, #token, #steem, #blockchain - Do you like Crytocurrency?

• I Invest - Someone researching SMTs and investing fiat in exchange for Steem: #invest #SMT #business #steem - Do you plan to invest in this radical vision?

• I Care - Charities sharing wealth worldwide: #charity, #familyprotection #upfundme - Do you care? Do you care for other people?

• I Receive - Recipients of charities: #humanity #thegoodnews - Did you receive help? Are you grateful?

Altogether there will be 18 videos, 10 sec each, ending with the slogan - “Share what you love, Get paid, Join Steem”.
These videos will be released to the various poopular social networks to ensure a decent amount of viewers.

Additionally, we will also create 2 more videos, each 1 minute long combining 9 of the “I + verb” clips. The clips will quickly cycle through and end with the slogan. These 2 longer videos will enhance the effectiveness of the 10 second videos, bring cohesion and attract a wider audience while demonstrating the diversity on Steem blockchain.

2. Life of Steem's Commercial Video

This will be the core video that goes along side with our promotional videos to further penetrate into the hearts and minds and souls of our viewers by creating even more attention (awareness), interest and desire and finally a call to action to join STEEM.

Concept
Freedom is a term that we increasingly ask for. It is a concept that, as new technologies arrive and the big corporations threaten to
dominate our lives, we demand more and more.

STEEM blockchain is an example of the opposite. It is the perfect way to fit technological advancements with modern needs, incorporating the freedom, independence and happiness that up-and-coming generations demand with social networking desires.

This video will show people from different parts of the world in reflective moments going about
their daily activities, starting with their work days. During these moments, doubts and questions come to the surface, but through these emotions and considering the achievements and expectations of the future, we are reminded to continue fighting for our goals.

In the process of the piece we will watch two types of situations. In one, our protagonists (one at a time) go about their daily activities in their respective cities. In these creative interviews with shots of them talking to the camera, they discuss how their lives have improved and how they’ve become more independent since they joined STEEM blockchain.

The idea is to be able to transmit a concept of security and stability concerning where we are
going with this technology and the power of the blockchain, which is one of the elements that usually keeps people on the sidelines. This feeling of security regarding the blockchain, and even of thriving economically, is what will inspire us to invite others to join.

Director’s Vision
This campaign will be very intimate. The idea is to capture real elements of everyday life through moments where we usually question ourselves. Whether in the supermarket, while going to work or cooking dinner, our own voice always is with us.

The answer to these questions will not be mental responses, but will be conveyed emotionally through the images of the interviews that each one of our protagonists will have on camera. In this way, they will share messages of hope by conveying how Steem has benefited their lives.

The whole video is based on the viewers’ identification with the protagonists and showing real life people, like us, with problems like ours, and demonstrating their creative solutions to these problems and unique achievements.

Additionally, once the viewer’s identification with our message has been acheived, we will subtly raise, through the interviews themselves, the general concept of the campaign: Share what you love, get paid, join Steem. This will be done in an indirect manner as an idea and not spoken by the protagonists.

Narrative Treatment
This audiovisual will capture specific moments in the evolution of an activity that is being carried out or by all of our protagonists. It will be the “in-between” moments of preparation, impulse, and reflection just before an activity begins. For example, we’ll never watch a person baking bread, instead, we’ll watch the person putting on the apron cleaning the work area…

The voice-over will tell us that despite the difficulties of the path ahead and reasons to quit, we should always look ahead into the future, and that each person, after gaining this perspective, becomes more free, happy, and independent.

The audio of each scene will consist of a voiceover of the protagonist that we are following. They will be seen on camera talking for the interview, in one of the places we have chosen (office, house, street, cafe, etc) talking positively about the improvements in his or her life. These images will always go hand in hand with inspiring music.

Aesthetic Treatment
If possible, most of the documentary images will be filmed with telephoto lenses and open diaphragms to get a limited focal length, which will allow us to have a very selective focus for each highlighted character. This will alternate with wide lenses in order to show the cities where each scene unfolds. Through this we seek to create a sense of intimacy and closeness with the viewer.

The interviews will be filmed in medium and closed shots, in order to show atmosphere and the expressions of our protagonists.

If we work with low range cameras or without lenses, we will play with the shot values to achieve this same effect.

The camera in hand will be a key element to transmit this idea of closeness and intimacy.

The following videos are references to narrative, colors, photography and camera movements that we want to achieve in the spot.

AESTHETIC TREATMENT

NARRATIVE TREATMENT

NARRATIVE TREATMENT

Filming Process
The ideal scenario is to have DSLR cameras for the realization of the videos in each of the cities.

These will be shot without major technical complications or lighting. The concept and documentary vision need to be reinforced through this style. However, although we propose to work with the camera in hand, we must record subtle, controlled movements that do not disturb the harmony of the images.

The interviews, instead, will be made on a tripod, not necessarily professional, but one that can distinguish the planes from the rest of the visual aesthetics of the piece.

The general setting of the cameras will be coordinated as the equipment is selected in each place, however, it will always be filmed at 24 fps to unify the criteria of image texture and movement.

If it is not possible to have cameras of this format, it will be acceptable to work with cell phones, as long as they have good quality cameras in HD (at least 1920x1080).

The audio should be recorded with microphones, cleanly, avoiding work with direct sound to the camera.

Casting and Locations
The protagonists will be real people who have had positive experiences through the Blockchain, people who can credibly convey to others the benefits of sharing stories on the
platform and the gains (personal and economic) they have had.

In the same way, it will be filmed in each real location, sets will not be mounted to simulate
environments.

Music
Original music will be made for the commercial.

The music will be an element that will accompany the image, in a subtle way, without much orchestration. It will basically constitute a piano and environmental sounds that do not interfere with the reflection and depth of the voices. At the end of the spot, the music will grow and give us an atmosphere of hope and triumph.

Edition and Graphics
The editing of the audiovisual must go harmoniously with the music, without becoming a music video. There will be a smooth and harmonious assembly, practically invisible to the eye, that will convey the melancholic and finally triumphant style of each scene.

No special VFX or transitions will be used. The spot must be sufficiently narrative so that the actions themselves tell the story.

Each interviewee will have an insert with their name, steemit username (if they have one), and the city where they live.

The other graphic element that the piece will have will be at the closing with the graphic image of the campaign shown through a simple animation in 2D paired with the links to websites with more information.

3. Interview Videos

A series of 1-2 minute videos showcasing interviews with Steemians talking about how their lives have changed thanks to Steemit (and DTube, DLive, etc) and cryptocurrency, STEEM in particular. These can serve as advertisements for both Steem blockchain and STEEM cryptocurrency.

Each video can have slightly different questions and we can educate a variety of users from different countries, backgrounds and expertise. We aim to find whales and minnows alike who feel their life has changed after this new discovery. Although Steem is not without flaws, its benefits certainly outweigh the imperfections.

Real life stories from active Steemians via live interviews makes Steem even more attractive and enticing. The interviews will obviously touch on financial benefits of being on Steem but also the community and creative aspects. The first series of videos could be for social media off Steemit. The second series of videos could be targeting those new users that we onboard once they are on Steemit. Eventually we can help advertise small, specific and positive initiatives like the Dailysneak Curation, where anyone can create a curation post, or even some of the smaller side projects of Sndbox.

So far we aim to have 5 interview videos with more to come in the future. The 5 interviewees whom we select will be from diverse backgrounds and each will cover different topics of interest in 1-2 minutes. They are:

• A person whose life was significantly changed.

• A minnow on being new and some of the important things he.she learned.

• A community leader on the importance of communities (For e.g. A leader from @sndbox or from @promo-mentors).

• A Curator like PoeticSnake talk about content.

• A witness to let him/her talk about what witnesses do and why they’re important to the platform’s success and furtherance.

_{All the above are subjected to change if needed, as SMTs come out and other changes are made on the Steem blockchain}

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Contest and Incentives

Who doesn’t love contests that comes with incentives and rewards? By hosting contests, we can have fun and share earnings, while enhancing contribution to @LifeofSteem promotional efforts.

Take for instance a contest that rewards users for posting high quality content in various social media platforms that are off Steem blockchain. We can do these contest a few times. Users will pick their favorite Steemit articles (not written by themselves) and post them on Facebook, Twitter, etc and link their Facebook link in the comments of the contest post. We can choose the winners based on the quality of the article they chose and the amount of attention it got.

Ideas for contests to promote Steem are unending. Any contests hosted by us will be published at many other popular social networks to get STEEM into the limelight. We can even recruit outsiders to participate. We might even be able to find some high profile social media people to help us with this, such as Lee Camp, David Packman, Max Keiser, Boxmining, Jerry Banfield and Derrick Broze are all on Steemit and have significant followings on Facebook and Youtube.

We also can host video contests asking Steemians to answer the question: “How Steem changed my life” and then spread the vlogs to popular social networks.

A contest where we make a post with questions and invite Steemians to send in their video responses while rewarding the best entries.

We can also use Steemtipper for Twitter in order to incentivize people to read a Steemit post and provide their reaction in Twitter. We can also reward random comments each day.

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Educational Posts

These are not meant to be a series of writing tutorials like what are already present all over the Steemit platform. However, these will consist of non-comprehensive and simple basic guidelines posts for new users. It’s important to equip new users with basic know-how so that they do not quickly get disappointed when they see posts at the trending page amount to few hundreds SBD and theirs only earns a few pennies or less than 1 SBD.

As we widely promote Steem on various social media platforms, we want new users to have a place to come initially to feel comfortable and confident with the entire ecosystem. Therefore, there will be educational posts that orient them and also referrals to the detailed communities which educate and engage members long term.

For example, we will gather many useful resource links for new users, especially tutorials or guidelines. Below are a few tutorials made specifically to welcome new users.

https://steemit.com/welcometosteemit/@mountainjewel/bvjaxz3f

https://steemit.com/welcometosteemit/@surfermarly/the-revised-american-dream-is-called-the-new-world-and-you-can-find-it-on-steemit-com

https://steemit.com/welcometosteemit/@maverickinvictus/what-is-steemit-or-a-place-to-unlock-the-most-awesome-you

https://steemit.com/welcometosteemit/@davemccoy/the-party-is-just-getting-started-welcome-to-steemit-everyone

Undeniably, some users get interested about Steem not because of blogging. They may be interested in Steem due to the promo video of “I sing” or “I dance” or “I capture”. Because Steemit is the first and most widely used application on Steem blockchain, users will be directed to Steemit for signing up. We definitely do not want them to feel that they have been brought into a La La Land, stumbling upon many posts with lengthy paragraphs. Therefore, guidelines on all of the Steem applications are very important.

Our goal with educational posts is to assist in maintaining a higher retention rate of Steemians.

So far, what we have in mind for our account’s posting timeline and topics are as follows:

• Intro Post with Mission and Vision

• Member Introduction

• Knowledgebase Post 1 - All Steem Applications

• Video of Vad, Promotion Video

• Knowledgebase Post 2 - Communities

• Video of Interview of with a Community leader

• Knowledgebase Post 3 - Economy and Technical Aspects of Steem and Blockchain

• Video Interview with a Witness

• Knowledgebase on Markdowns

• Video Interview of a Minnow and How They Came to Steem

• Stories of Amazing Things on Steemit

• Video Interview of @iamjadeline Receiving Ample Funds for Her Son’s Medical Needs (tentative)

• Explaination of SMT with Video of Ned

Again, all these posts will be shared on other social media platforms upon which we’ve also opened accounts and gained followings.

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Collaboration with Other Projects, Communities and Initiatives

Because Steem is built upon 'Proof of Brain’and community incentives, it is of the utmost importance that we teach new users about the significance of communities. We are all the outcome of community support and real engagement. We’re stronger together and succeed in communities!

Therefore, we want to be the funnel to channel users to appropriate communities, projects and/or initiatives. We can channel those who do videos to Dlive, Dtube and SpeakFreely.TV communities. Those who joined Steem due to charity can join Project NGO, so and so forth.

Just as much as people get satisfaction due to the attention they receive on other social media platforms, they too can get equal attention and words of appreciation when they engage in communities. And there is more - they get SBD and/or Steem too. When people get together, they also inspire each other to “Steem on”, whether it is in Steemit or Steepshot, Dlive or Dsound, we aim to see users onboard and continue to surf on the waves of the Steem ecosystem

BUDGET

There will be no budget needed for making short videos.

A Budget will be needed for sponsored ads in Facebook, Instragram and prizes, because we want the videos to go viral and hit very high numbers of viewers.

Therefore, for the 100 SBD budget:

• Half will be allocated to sponsored ads at Facebook and Instagram

• 30 SBD for Steemtipper campaign

• 20 SBD for prizes on the winning video entries of the contest, “How Steem has changed my life”.

Our Team

• Leader: @mountainjewel
• Editor: @mountainjewel
• Promotional Videos: @maverickinvictus
• Commercial Videos: @vadimlasca
• Designer: @artizm
• Advertising & Brainstorming: @travelgirl
• Write up & formatting of the post: @iamjadeline
• Input & Brainstorming: @rubencress, @whatamidoing, @maverickinvictus, @mountainjewel
• Concept for the project: everyone in the Mystery Project 2

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Thank you @sndbox, @voronoi, @hansikhouse, @anomadsoul and @guyfawkes4-20 for this Mystery Project 2 that enables us as a team to really come together, put our thinking caps on and even dream about Steem blockchain in ways that have led us to this ‘business plan’. We truly appreciate all the further guidance and advice as we know we have a lot to learn from @sndbox.

Thank you for your time and effort in all the Sndbox Summer Camp Final Quest Projects.

Join us @steemitbloggers _{Animation By @zord189}