Can my filmmaking/​songwriting skills be used more effectively in EA?

Hi everyone! It’s my first time posting here and I’m a little nervous because you all seem super smart, but here goes...

My name is Simon Panrucker. I work as a filmmaker sometimes, but mostly as a composer/​songwriter for cartoons—mainly on Cartoon Network. So far I’ve been contributing towards EA goals by earning to give—the royalties afforded to me by my music being played on television worldwide have meant I’ve been able to donate thousands of pounds each year to Give Well recommended charities.

But I’m wondering if I can have a more direct impact with these skills as well?

Recently I wrote a song and directed a short film for economist Kate Raworth to help get discussion going around ideas from a chapter in her book Doughnut Economics.

See here: https://​​youtu.be/​​Sx13E8-zUtA

This video was aimed at economics students so it’s pretty dense with information. NB I am a musician/​filmmaker, not an economist, so if you have any arguments with the content I suggest taking it up with Kate Raworth as I will only be able to shrug ;)

So far the video has had around 75k views over Twitter and Youtube.

More recently I bashed out a no-budget song and video for a local campaign to save a community hub in Bristol. It’s very rough and ready but it did the job at getting the word out:

https://​​www.facebook.com/​​SaveHamHouse/​​videos/​​2175108676078661/​​

This vid got shared 2000 times and amassed 123k views (although I don’t trust Facebook’s viewcount so take that with a pinch of salt).

I know these are quite modest numbers compared to a lot of online videos, but these are first forays into this type of filmmaking and there’s plenty of room to improve with practise.

SO I’M CURIOUS...

This seems like a potent way of disseminating information in an entertaining and shareable way, and I’m wondering if there may be opportunities to work directly with EA related organisations or individuals to share complicated ideas in a way that’s easier to ingest, or to promote certain charities highlighted by Give Well etc.

I was encouraged recently while listening to the 8000 Hours Podcast with Glen Weyl when he talked about the need for artists to get on board with Radical Xchange to help convey information and ideas. I’ve not heard that angle talked about before in the EA community and I found it quite heartening—hence this post! I’ll likely get in touch with Glen/​Radical Xchange when I’ve finished reading Radical Markets and understand the ideas a bit better.

However, I know people from EA have been reluctant to share ideas via reductive means like newspaper articles as it doesn’t convey the nuances and things get skewed. So I’m asking: do you think it’s worth me pursuing this avenue further? If it is, where do you think these skills could be applied most effectively?

Thanks for reading!

Simon

p.s. I wrote this out twice as a Question but I couldn’t find the drafts again so I’m posting it as a regular post. Hope that’s ok!