Students at two North Delta high schools claimed top honours in this year’s WorkSafeBC Student Safety Video Contest.
Participants were given the task of producing a two-minute-long original clip on the topic of “Staying Focused at Work” and encouraged to think of creative ways to get their message across using any style — drama, comedy, documentary, music video, stop-motion, animation or a mash-up.
Videos were judged on the impact of their safety message, original creative concept and technical execution, and teams from Sands and Delview secondary schools were chosen as winners from among a record 160 entries, taking home prizes in the Grade 11-12 category.
A group of 26 Sands students produced their winning entry, “Pay Attention,” working hard over seven days to develop the concept, write the script, hold auditions, direct photography and filming, manage the lighting and sound, and even create a movie poster and behind-the-scenes content supported by media arts, yearbook and social studies teacher Ryan Evans.
In a post on the Delta School District website, gaffer and make-up artist Ava said that with everyone focused on one project, “it felt different, it didn’t feel like an assignment.”
Storyboard artist, meanwhile, Lauren said it was “really cool to work together and discover everyone’s talents.”
Over at Delview, students Alex Toth, Jan Dunker and Steve Justinian Vargascz, support by science teacher Terri Thomas, spent two weeks working on their entry “Science for Citizens Safety at the Workplace” — two of the days in class and the remainder on their own time.
“We really appreciated the subject the project tackled.
“As our world gets busier, we get less focused on keeping ourselves safe in the workplace, and we enjoyed the opportunity to make a video that could be a fun way of reminding people to stay safe,” Toth, Dunker and Vargascz said in a post on the school district website.
“We also learned a lot about the whole process behind such a production. Collecting ideas, finding locations, costuming, shooting and finally editing gave us an exciting insight into the process of video production. We would also like to give our thanks to Mrs. Thomas who signed the class up and helped us find places to record when some prior plans started to fall through.”
Both the Sands and Delview teams took home prizes of $1,500 for their respective schools and $1,000 to split among team members.
“Pay Attention” was also chosen for a bonus prize, the Aspiring Filmmaker Award sponsored by the Actsafe Safety Association.
As winner of the award, the Sands team’s video will be presented at Actsafe’s Annual Safety Conference next spring, which will be attended by around 200 safety leaders for motion picture production companies, unions, performing arts venues and live event production companies.
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