WHY PLAN? If you aren’t a lawyer or an investigator, you might be wondering why you should learn about collection planning and why, as an activist, you too may want to use this tool? There are a number of worthy reasons. Strategy Citizens and human rights defenders may find themselves in spontaneous situations, where they have to act immediately and there is no time to plan what footage would be most valuable. However, there are a number of other situations when planning is possible, for example, in advance of a planned protest or to show widespread human rights abuses. Collection planning can help you strategically assess what footage or images will support the case you are trying to prove or the story you are trying to tell. Keep in mind that the more complicated the case or the story, the more need there is to create and implement a Collection Plan that lays our a clear roadmap to build a case. REASON 2 Security Filming for human rights is dangerous. Those who do it take great personal risks. Planning will help you determine whether or not it’s worth risking your personal safety and the safety of others to capture footage. REASON 3 Efficiency It takes time and money to collect video footage, so before you begin filming or requesting footage from others, it is important to consider why you need the video evidence and how it will be used. There are many good reasons to film, but the collection planning process will help ensure your filming efforts are targeted, efficient and useful. Planning also helps ensure you won’t: • Miss opportunities to collect revealing footage that you need; and • Duplicate efforts by collecting the same footage that others have already filmed. REASON 4 Enhance Communications, Education & Trust Activists often wonder why the footage they risk their lives to collect is not as useful as it could be to lawyers. Lawyers often wonder why activists aren’t capturing footage that is more helpful to their cases. The Collection Plan serves as a tool that activists, lawyers or non-governmental organizations can use to communicate with each other. It shows activists what lawyers need and why they need it. In turn, it builds trust so the next time a lawyer asks an activist to film something that appears to be random – a communications tower, a public speech, the broken lock on the entrance to the hospital – the activist will have a better understanding of why the lawyer is making this request. REASON 5 Strenghthen Cases A good plan will undoubtedly strengthen your documentation and, in turn, enhance your case and your credibility. 79 VIDEO AS EVIDENCE: COLLECTION PLAN V 1.0 FILMING REASON 1