15 Tips for Your Video Entry
Helpful tips on creating a successful video
- Pick the global challenge you are most excited about. It is much easier to come up with a good idea for your video if you are truly passionate about the message, and finding a solution.
- Read the Background Reading associated with your selected global challenge. It is important to have a solid understanding of the global challenge from multiple perspectives, and how it relates to human population growth.
- Do your research. The best videos use strong facts/statistics as supporting evidence from a variety of sources. Take a look at our Research Page for a few ideas of where to search for further information.
- Develop a solution. Winning solutions will be ideas that are creative, practical, and sustainable. Work through our Sustainable Solution Organizer for assistance formulating your solution.
- If you choose to use statistics, make them relevant by putting them in context. For example, stating that “the rate of species extinction is higher today than at any other time in human history” is not as impactful as “an estimated 140,000 species go extinct each year.”
- During your research you’ll come across a lot of interesting information but you must decipher what is most important to supporting your solution. For example, if your video argues that an increase in urban farming may be a solution to the lack of suitable farmland, then stating that “in the United States an acre of farmland is lost every minute” is not as useful to making your claim as “urban garden plots can be 15 times more productive than similar sized plots on rural farms.”
- Follow the writing process – brainstorm, plan, draft (storyboard, script), revise, edit, and produce a final product.
- Be clear and concise in your video – sixty seconds goes by quickly.
- If your video includes people talking, be sure they speak slowly and clearly so that viewers can understand. Make sure to enunciate your words. Have other people screen your video before you submit your entry to ensure your message can be heard and understood.
- Be creative. You can use video, skits, pictures, voice over, music, flip-books – the sky is the limit! Get your friends involved and collaborate to make an even better project.
- Choose an audience for your video. Target your solution to be relevant to them.
- Establish a tone for your video. If you want to be funny, use witty, clever puns to get your point across, but do not distract viewers from your overall message. Choose appropriate music to help guide your audience into the right mood.
- Try to keep positive, you are presenting a solution to a global challenge. Too much negativity can turn your audience off to the real message, and you want them to feel empowered.
- Make sure you follow all of the Rules and Guidelines, including length, content, and copyright rules. List all of the sources you used in the end credits.
- Have fun! This is a great opportunity to learn more about pressing global challenges regarding world population, and it should be a fun project for you and your friends.
Websites for Copyright Free Images and Music – Click here to find a several sites offering a wide range of free copyright-free and royalty-free images, music, and audio.