Why?
Why make a video? Because everyone likes video content, and you want to get a point across, right? Ultimately the goal is to reduce the influence of money in politics!
Politicians know about the power of video. And if they see people posting videos about the money they take from special interests, they’re going to get nervous. They don’t want voters to pay attention. So perhaps they will dial back on the amount they take. And they should. The video can carry that message loud and clear.
At least, that’s the hope of the Top Takers team. We are trying to give ordinary voters like us a tool that we can all use to communicate directly with politicians running for office. And also with other voters, who hopefully will create and post their own videos, and start a landslide of opinion that can lead to change. (Yes, we know it’s a long shot.)
Lastly, creating and posting a video is fun, it’s something we can do right now, and it may do some good. What’s not to like?
How?
How can you, a voter, create a video with the Top Takers app?
A video about a Member of Congress
After tapping “Next” on the first page and reviewing some disclosures, you’ll start by selecting a US State to see its two sitting Senators. Then you can select a Representative by searching or browsing a list of districts im the state. You can search by district number, zipcode, or an address.
When you select a Senator or Representative you progress to a page from which you can launch the animated presentation. To create a video of the animation you first turn on Screen Recording on your phone. The animation runs for about 2 minutes. Once it’s done you can stop recording.
Phones vary in how you turn on screen recording. Start with Apple’s guide for iPhones, or Google’s guide for Android. There’s also a Samsung guide for Galaxy Android phones.
In all cases the video will appear in the phone’s Photos app, where you can do any necessary editing. With Top Takers version 4.1.1 we’ve made it easier to achieve the 16:9 aspect ratio that is typically required by videos uploaded to social media platforms, because the animated content now fits into that space. The Photos apps include tools to crop the video to this aspect ratio. There are faint guidelines on the video to guide the crop.
Finally: Share on Social Media
With your video you have a powerful tool for both getting the attention of a candidate’s campaign and motivating your friends and followers to speak up as well.
We hope you will help to get the word out by sharing a video widely on social media!
Thank you from the Top Takers team for using the Top Takers app.