How To Enter

If you are between 12 and 18 years of age inclusive (must be under 19 as of March 21), you are eligible to enter the Racism. Stop It! National Video Competition. Produce a 60 to 90 second video that represents your team's thoughts on eliminating racial discrimination. Use your personal filmmaking style: experimental, narrative, animated, high-tech, or documentary. Whatever helps get your message across. You can feature as many people as you like in your video - include your whole school or members of your community if they have something to say about eliminating racial discrimination. However, your production team can consist of only five people! You and your team can get help, but it must be your own creative efforts.

You can enter the Racism. Stop It! National Video Competition by filling out the Entry form and sending it to the Racism. Stop It! National Video Competition Co-ordinator, c/o The Students Commission, 23 Isabella St., Toronto, ON M4Y 1M7, as indicated on the entry form.

Deadline

The entry deadline for the Racism. Stop It! National Video Competition is January 16, 2006. Videos must be postmarked by that date. For further information please call 1-888-77MULTI/1-888-776-8584.

How Do I Make A Video?

Format.
Your video should be shot and edited in VHS format on Mini-DV, DVD or VHS tape. If you've taped several takes, cue it up to the take you want to be judged.

To plan or not to plan
There are many ways to begin your video project, but the simplest is to ask yourself some questions. What's your story? How do you want to get your message across? Will you use interviews, music, comedy, dance or theatre? Sometimes it helps to have an outline, a plan of action with script and shot descriptions; but you may choose to work spontaneously. Whichever you choose, start your video with a commitment to end racial discrimination.

Using the camera
Before you press record, make sure you're using the viewfinder to compose the image you want. Watch out for distracting backgrounds, like trees or flag poles that look like they're growing out of your subject's head. Learn to use your auto-focus and manual focus for different situations, play with camera angles, vary your depth of field.

Get "In your face"
Close-ups can be very expressive. Go face-to-face, keep it interesting and try to vary your close-ups with some medium and long shots.

Let there be light
Natural light can be your best friend, especially at the beginning and end of the day in what cinematographers call the magic hour. If the light source is behind your subject, it makes most shots unusable. Sunny middays leave harsh shadows, and of course, overcast days have no shadow definition at all. However, if used effectively, both can offer interesting possibilities. The key is to experiment.

Sound F/X
Audio quality is very important. If your voice cracks because you are too close (too loud) to the microphone, or if you're too far away to be heard, your audio will be impossible to use. If you use music, use ONLY original music in your video (ie. music you and your team compose).

It's a wrap
Once you've made your point, end the shot or scene. Keep it tight - you have only 1 - 1 1/2 minutes. Special effects or clever transitions can take over and get in the way of your message. Keep it simple.

Ask The Producer (Frequently Asked Questions)

All the answers depend on your equipment, so please check the instructions to see what is recommended. It is best to test how you will make edits and add sound before you use your original production material.

1. How do you edit a video with a home video camera?

If you have only one or two edits, then you might be able to edit in camera. This means that you shoot your shots in the exact spot onto the physical tape in your camera. This method will give you clean edits (no glitches), but requires that you are organized, plan ahead, and know the length of your shots. If you have numerous edits, you can edit from your camera to a VHS. Hook up a provided cable from the video out on your camera to the video in on a VCR, and do the same with audio. You then cue up the shot you wish to lay down and record it to the VHS. At the end of each shot you pause or stop, cue up the next shot you wish to edit in, press record again and lay it down. Continue cuing up the shots and recording them onto the VHS until you have completed your assembly. Note: always try to minimize the number of times your picture is dubbed. Each time you dub from one element to another (i.e.original camera cassette to VHS or VHS to VHS) your product loses what is called a generation. Each time you go down a generation, your picture quality deteriorates. This is something you want to avoid unless you are using it for effect.

2. How do you lay on sound?

To add sound, it would be best if you had access to a sound mixer, which will allow you to retain your original production sound, add music, add voices by microphone and mix all the tracks together, adjusting the audio levels. If you do not have a sound mixer, where do you find one? Retail stores sell simple stereo sound mixers, sometimes high end VCRs have mixing and dubbing capabilities. Disk jockeys use sound mixers and might be willing to help, but I suggest that you start by first asking at your school if they have any sound mixing equipment. Another alternative to adding sound, might be to use two VCRs. This method requires that you have your music, or added sound effects on another VHS. By hooking up and using your camera and the extra VCR (with your additional sound), you record onto your master VHS in the other VCR. Note: If you use a VCR that is hi-fi, your sound quality will be better.

3. How do you spool from the small cassettes in the camera to a VHS?

Leave the small cassette in the camcorder, play the cassette and send the signals (picture and audio) via the provided cables to the VCR and record. You want to hook up the video out from your camera to the video in on your VCR, and hook up the audio out from your camera to the audio in on the VCR. (For more specific instructions, please check the instructions that came with your camera, or check with any retail store that sells the camera and they should be able to help you out.)