Lifesaver - how to save lives with interactive film | Martin Percy | TEDxTUHHSalon

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. Lifesaver is an idea for a better way to teach emergency skills like CPR, using interactive film. It's a free, award-winning site and app, available now from www.life-saver.org.uk. Martin Percy, its writer/director, tells the story of Lifesaver - and shows how to use its approach to tell life-saving stories of your own.

Hello.

(Laughter)

So - if I had a really
had a heart attack...

how many of you are confident
that you would know what to do

to save my life?

Put your hands up if you are.

Okay, so some, some - but many of you
are not confident at all.

And to be honest,
you're right to be worried.

Because today, about 1000 people
will die in Europe alone

from cardiac arrest and choking.

And about the same number
in the United States.

And many more, all around the world.

Now many of those victims could be saved

if the people around them
knew simple emergency skills.

Now wouldn't it be great

if we had a better way to teach
those emergency skills?

Maybe we could use the internet to do it.

Maybe we could do something like this...

(Video) Narrator: Lifesaver
is an experiment in a whole new way

to teach emergency skills.

It's a movie you play like a game.

It throws you into three situations
where someone will be dead in 10 minutes

unless you do the right thing.

You learn by doing.

Do it wrong - and see the consequences.

Man: Call for an ambulance!
Woman: Okay!

Narrator: Do it right - and sense
the thrill of saving a life.

Woman 1: Isn't that the ambulance?

Shouldn't we just wait
for the ambulance people to arrive?

Woman 2: No, no, he can't wait.
Machine voice: Shock delivered.

Woman 1: Jake, come on wake up!
Wake up!

Man: Did it work? Did it work?

Woman 2: Guys please!
Machine voice: Start CPR.

Woman 1: Do something!
Woman 2: I'm going to start CPR again.

Woman 1: What do we do?

Martin Percy: "Do something!"
"What we do?"

Words like that are being said

hundreds of times,
all around the world, today.

So, what might be wrong
with the current way

of teaching people how to do CPR?

I found out way back in 2004.

Now this is not a picture of me - ok?

But it was this kind of course.

Little plastic dummy.

One teacher for about ten people.

Tea and biscuits.

All very nice and relaxed.

Now after the course,
I got talking to the teacher

who was an ambulance guy.

And he said that this form of teaching
has got some fundamental problems.

It's small scale.
One teacher - ten people.

So it's always going to be
very difficult to get to a situation

where hundreds of thousands
or millions of people know this stuff.

It's expensive - because it's small scale.

And it's inconvenient.

Very often people who want to do
one of these courses can't find a course.

It's forgettable.

People generally find that they forget

what they've learned
on one of these courses

after about 6 months.

They don't forget completely.

But they forget to the extent

that if a crisis really happens,
they don't actually step forward and help.

Because they don't have the confidence.

But then the final problem
was in a sense the most challenging.

It's unrealistic.

What the ambulance guy said

is that if you are trying to save a friend
of yours or a family member

who's having a heart attack or choking

it will quite possibly be
the most terrifying moment of your life.

There will be screaming.
There will be shouting.

There will be blood.
There will be panic.

It will not be at all nice or polite.

And this form of training
just doesn't prepare you for that.

All of this leads to something called
the bystander effect.

And that comes in two horrible flavors.

There's the untrained bystander.

So those are people
who've never done a CPR course.

They have no idea
how to save someone who's choking.

If there's a crisis,
they just have no idea what to do.

And so of course they can't help.

Now that's bad enough.

But what's worse
is the trained bystanders.

So those people who have done
a course - and this happens all the time -

they have done a course.

But when they see a real crisis,
they're just completely frozen.

Because it's so different

from what they've seen before
that they just can't help.

And so they don't do anything.

And so people die as a result.

So - this is clearly something
which could use a better idea.

So I thought - why don't we take video
and put it together with interactivity.

We can make it realistic.

So the videos will be very gritty,

lots of screaming, lots of shouting,
lots of panic.

It'll be interactive.

So you can't just sit back and watch
the video and let it flow over you.

You'll have to do things
all the way through to make things happen.

It will be a complement
to existing training.

No-one on the Lifesaver project

thinks that you should not do
a traditional training course.

If you can get on a traditional course
- terrific! Do it!

But if you've done a course

and you've kind of forgotten
and you want a refresher

or if you can't get on one
of the traditional courses

or if you just want more realism -
then there will be this for you.

It'll be convenient
- because it'll be online the whole time.

And we'll make it free.

But of course that means
we need to get funding.

So, this is 2004.

I thought, you know - an interactive film
to save people's lives.

Who is not going to want to fund that
- right?!

(Laughter)
Okay so - cut to 2011.

After seven years, I'd managed to raise
half the money.

By that stage

I was working with a company called UNIT9
and we had managed to get 50%

of the funding we needed
from a UK government agency called

the Technology Strategy Board.

So we needed to find the other 50%.

But we had twelve months
so we weren't worried.

We went to the biggest
first aid charity in the UK

and had some great meetings with them.

And they came back with their feedback
which was

- no.

But we still had eight months
by that stage.

So we still weren't worried.

We went to a big UK medical charity.

Had some great meetings again.

And they came back with their feedback,
which was - no.

So by this stage we started to panic.

And we went to everyone we could think of.

We went to tiny charities like
the Resuscitation Council UK.

And they came back
with their feedback which was

- Yes.

So Dr Jasmeet Soar, Dr Andy Lockey
and Sarah Mitchell

were the three decision makers
at the Resuscitation Council UK

who finally decided to give us
the rest of the money we needed

two days before the deadline.

If they hadn't said yes
Lifesaver would never have happened.

It was that close.

Okay so Lifesaver was completed.

It's three films.

In two of the films, you save someone
who's had a heart attack.

In one of the films,
you save someone who's choking.

And we throw you right in at the deep end.

So let's look at the first choice
that you come across in the first film.

(Video) Woman 1: I don't think
he's mucking around. Jake, come on.

Jake come on, open your eyes.
Come on.

Man: Should we call someone?
Woman: I don't - I don't know.

Can you hear me? Open your eyes!

Why does he keep doing that
with his mouth?

Narrator: Let's say this is you.

You're not a first aid expert.
What do you do now?

MP: So here we have the bystander choice.

So you have to positively get involved.
Now this choice.

We're in a pedestrian environment.

There's no cars.

Do we do the health and safety thing?

Check for any risks?
Or do you just go and save the guy?

So - check for danger? Hands up.

Run to him now? Hands up.

Thank you madam.
Let's try run to him now.

Oh, and we get hit by a bicycle.
(Laughter)

So that happens very often

if you're ever in that situation,
madam. It's fine.

She's enthusiastic,
that's the important thing.

If you're ever in that situation.

Very often, people get injured
because they're so anxious to help.

Lifesaver is available in three versions.

There's one for computer.

And two for tablet and smartphone.

For tablet and smartphone

you move your device up and down
two times a second.

If you're on iPhone
this is what you're seeing.

So you're getting very accurate feedback

on are you really doing it
at the right speed.

So it's a nice tactile way
of learning CPR.

So, guidelines for doing
good talks tend to say

no more than about two words per slide.

Lifesaver's been out for more than a year.

How's it done?

So this is the worst slide
you're going to see all evening.

These are the prizes that it's picked up.

It won a Webby.
It was nominated for a BAFTA.

It won 4 golds in the UK
e-learning awards.

And no other project had ever won
more than two golds.

Which was, you know, nice.

Lots of Twitter support.

A woman in the UK spontaneously
set up a competition for her friends

with a 20 pound prize.

It was a quiz about Lifesaver
to get her friends to do Lifesaver.

So I thought great!

Because I knew all the answers
to the quiz.

So I thought I could score
twenty pounds really easily.

But she said it would be cheating,
so she wouldn't let me.

We've had very kind remarks.

"Most powerful game experience of my life.

Lifesaver. Immersed? Viscerally."

One question that often
bugs internet people is

"Can a website make you cry?"

Lifesaver answers this quite convincingly.

For example: "This is the most
amazing interactive site.

Really emotional and effective.
It made me cry at the end."

And there are many other
tweets and emails like that.

We had a great bonus,

which is the star of film three,
Daisy Ridley,

was recently cast in Star Wars.

Reputedly as the daughter
of Han Solo and Princess Leia.

Now with Daisy I almost didn't cast her
- because she was so beautiful.

You know - we wanted, like,
normal-looking people. (Laughter)

But she was so good at acting
I thought, oh - don't have any choice.

So she was absolutely fantastic
and of course she's brought in

lots of new viewers.

That footage I should say
has never been seen before.

It's not actually in the final film,

so that's the only time
it's ever been viewed.

Okay, so that's all fine -
but it's all a bit anecdotal, right?

Give me some proof.

A doctor did heart rate tests
on someone watching two typical CPR films.

Now, CPR films, like CPR training

tend to be very nice and polite
and a little bit dull.

And you can see here

that the heart rate never gets above
87 beats per minute,

watching these CPR films.

Lifesaver, by contrast, the heart rate
gets up to 105 beats per minute.

And that's the desktop version,
where you're just pressing buttons.

So one question I often get asked
by film people is,

"Yeah, yeah, yeah
- but does the interactivity

actually make a difference?

Couldn't you just show regular video

with people screaming and shouting
and wouldn't that be good enough?"

Well, again the data shows that
the interactivity does make a difference.

Without interaction the heart rate
never gets above 83 beats per minute.

Because what's happening
is that the interaction

is making you feel this is your problem.

You're the one who has to save
this person.

And so it becomes much more
emotionally involving.

Much more gripping.

South Bristol Community Hospital
in England

did tests with a random selection
of members of the public.

They found that confidence in doing CPR

rose from 37% before Lifesaver
to 74% after.

And 100% of the people they tested

said they were much more likely
to help out in a real emergency.

Okay, now Lifesaver is an idea.

And it's an idea that can be applied
to all sorts of crises.

We naturally want to do
Lifesaver for Germany

for the United States, for China.

We also want to do

12 most common emergencies:
everything from drowning to car crash.

We want to do one about
women's personal safety.

We want to do one
about what to do in an earthquake.

And so on.

So lots of great potential
for this approach, for this idea.

How many of these projects
are currently funded?

How many are currently underway?

Not one single Lifesaver project
is currently underway.

We went back to the first aid charities.

Back to the medical charities.
Absolutely no interest.

What's the reason?
Well, it's obvious right?

I suck.
Clearly I suck at marketing.

And I'm just hopeless
at getting these things underway.

Who could do a better job?

You could.

It's not that difficult to make
a film like Lifesaver.

It's not that different
from making a regular video.

There are just six secrets
that we need to look at.

And then you can make your own.
It's not that hard.

It's something you do.

Lifesaver or a Lifesaver-type film

is not a film that tells a story
where someone has a heart attack.

Lifesaver is where you save
somebody who's had a heart attack.

It's not a Choose Your Own Adventure
story with lots of different endings.

It's a film with one ending -
where you save the victim.

To get there,
you have to fight lots of battles.

If you lose, then the victim dies,
you go back a bit, you try again.

But at the end, you will save the victim.

You need an interactive film director.

Lots of interactive films fail dreadfully.

And one common reason
is they just get a regular director

who just does the videos
and then walks away.

The videos are thrown over a glass wall

to the interactive people,
who work on it separately.

And so the whole thing
just collapses horribly.

What you need is one person looking after
the concept, the script, the shoot,

the coding, the launch.

So the whole thing is nicely integrated.

You need an interactive production house.

Now the interactive production house
on Lifesaver was a company called UNIT9.

And Piero Frescobaldi,
the creative director

and Yates Buckley, the technical partner
did an absolutely fantastic job.

Along with the coders and designers.

And they made Lifesaver what it is.

Real people gives you real emotion.

Sometimes people say,

"Yeah - but why not make it
like a video game

with computer- generated imagery?"

You could. But of course then
you wouldn't have anything like

the same emotional connection that
comes from real people in real places.

And then finally,
don't make it interactive.

Unless you must.

Linear video is a fabulous medium.

You just want to tell a story?
Linear.

You just want to record a talk? Linear.
It's a beautiful medium.

But - if it's fundamental to your project
that the viewer must do something,

then interactivity added to video
is dynamite.

But handle it carefully
and only use it if you have to.

(Video) Paramedic: Okay guys thanks a lot,
we'll take it from here.

We're going to take over
the CPR in 3 - 2 - 1.

Woman1: Thank you so much.
Woman2: Oh, it's okay.

I just hope he's okay.
Man: Thank you so much.

Paramedic: Well done.
You did a brilliant job. Well done.

Woman 2: Thanks.

Narrator: Shock delivered.

MP: Lifesaver shows we can use
the Internet and interactive film

to teach emergency skills better.
And save lives.

Thank you.

(Applause)