Often if I’m in a meeting with a client discussing the content and messages of their video/animation/website and they are adding more and more things to the list they would like their project to communicate and do. I think to myself ... this is all going a bit Robocop 3.
Robocop is cyborg, part human, part machine, a super cop. He first hit the world in 1987 in the American science fiction action film directed by Paul Verhoeven.
Robocop 1 was brilliant and shocking, even Robocop 2 had its moments but Robocop 3 was rubbish, a piece of made for TV junk.
But Robocop 3 has an important message for people making videos/ films and animations ... if you want something to work don’t stuff it full of messages.
In the first two films Robocop has 3 prime directives. These are 1. “Serve the public trust”, 2. “Protect the innocent” and 3 “Uphold the law” *. The 3 directives give Robocop nice clear idea of what he should be doing in any given situation.
In Robocop 3, Robocop is severely damaged to a point of near total destruction. The authorities manage to rebuild him but there are calls that he should be given new directives. “Robocop is too violent, he needs to be softer more human” say the bleeding heart lefties. So a bunch of phycologists, social workers and community activists are drafted in and they load him up with hundreds of new directives “be nice to animals, remember the whole person, etc”. Its all a wonderful satire on the “Health and Safety gone mad” culture.
So following being reprogrammed when Robocop is back on the street in a crime situation that he doesn’t know what to do, instead of having three nice clear directives he is paralyzed by hundreds of rules. As a result criminals get away and Robocop is held up for public ridicule.
I think this is a useful analogy to be applied to designing communications. Think Robocop 1 not 3. Don’t shoe horn in to many messages as you will just end up paralyzing your video/ animation, if you can focus on three. If your viewer can watch a video of yours and remember three clear things well then thats a success. Less is indeed more.
There is a happy ending to Robocop 3. The human spirit/cop part of Robocop is so strong that it takes over and he manages to reset himself by plugging himself into the mains and frying his circuits. Free of the hundreds of directives Robocop can again slaughter, maim and quip his way to a fairer, happier and more just world. Nice.
* There is a secret 4 prime directive inserted by Robocop’s evil corporate owners but Robocop sorts that out towards the end of the film with a partially brutal piece of HR management.
