Types of Student Video Contests
Students love competing in video contests. As a bonus for teachers, contests are great motivators for students to complete video assignments and learn about storytelling. As the contest host, you can set clear goals for what the contest will achieve – to build your program or support a worthy cause. The goal of a contest for high school students or independent learners should be to learn. That’s different than a film festival where the goal may be to give local filmmakers a platform or allow independent artists to shine.
Video contests come in several formats: broadcast news contests, where the students film a news package about a local business or person; film contests, where the students shoot short films; and editing contests, where students are provided with footage and create their own version of the cut. We even have PSA contests.
Aligning Goals with Contest Format and Rules
If you’re hosting a video contest for high school students, your goal is to teach them something. Emphasize providing feedback from the experienced judges—every student submission should receive written comments on ways to improve and what worked well. Judges should be industry experts and sympathetic to student learners, providing constructive feedback instead of teardowns of their work. Don’t use teachers from unrelated subjects like Math and English to give the notes. You want your students to hear from industry.
The contest should showcase as many student projects as possible. I recommend featuring a few “finalists” in several categories before showing a winner. Students need to see each other’s work to learn what it takes to make amazing videos—that’s the whole point of the contest. They need to know where the bar is to improve next year.
Make sure the contest rules align with your values. Want to teach your students about copyright? Don’t allow copyrighted music. Want to teach students about broadcast journalism? Require them to interview at least two subjects in any submitted project.
Give students time to do their best work. I advise against quick-turnaround contests like 24-hour film festivals, as they provide less learning value than week-long or month-long contests. Besides, you want your students’ end product to be something they can use in a portfolio to apply to college. That means they must put their best foot forward, and this contest is an opportunity for them. I advise that students get shown through the entire filmmaking process, providing the teacher with many opportunities to teach lessons. For example, your festival can require students to submit storyboards to the teacher and pitch ideas for the project before they get the green light to film.
Working with Sponsors
Consider reaching out to companies for sponsorship. Industry-relevant companies like EditStock or EditMentor love to sponsor contests because they gain marketing opportunities through product links and connections with teachers in your district. Sponsors provide a lot to your contest. College sponsors want to speak to your students. Product sponsors want to be in front of teachers.
You will need sponsors and organizations to grow your contest because they have an established network of schools and teachers and can multiply your outreach. Sponsors can help with planning, organization judging, and marketing, too. Consider sponsors as contest partners. Don’t approach sponsors only for money, as that is not a great motivator for them. Think about what’s in it for them besides a logo and link on your contest website.
Contest or Challenge?
While it’s tempting to make everything competitive—and students always want to know who ‘won’—sometimes a festival or challenge format works better than a traditional contest. You can set all the same rules and have all the same judging, but instead of making it about a winner, invite friends and family to view everyone’s work. Make it about showcasing the work of students.
Showcasing Student Work
I can’t stress this enough – if you want students to work hard, then make the outcome meaningful. Grades are not enough of a motivation. Give them a social and personal reason to work hard. Go to your local cinema and ask if you can reserve a screen and projectionist to screen student work. Pull out a red carpet for students to walk down. Rent a popcorn machine. Ask a college if you can use their auditorium for the award show. Get your local TV station to shoot a news package for the contest and show the winning projects on TV. Show your students that their work will be seen and matters, and they will be ready to create something extraordinary.
Making Your Video Contest a Success
Starting a video contest isn’t easy. There are a lot of details to consider: judging categories, submission platforms, building websites, and writing rules. If you don’t know where to start, speaking with someone who has put on a similar contest before is best. We recommend reaching out to either Chet Thomas, who creates contests for Skills USA, or Joe Humphrey, the Florida Scholastic Press Association contest coordinator, for guidance.
