Eureka! Video Awards

The Eureka! Video Awards are an exciting addition to the Eureka! Trust STEM pathway. To enter the video awards contestants are required to produce a video up to five minutes in length that tells a story about how a scientific or technological idea is being, or could be applied in their community to increase its commercial, scientific or environmental wealth and well-being. Contestants can work in groups of up to three people in order to plan, shoot and edit their video. The Eureka! Video Awards are intended to engage students in communicating how science and technology is relevant to their local community through the use of digital technology.

Prizes are available as follows:

• Year Group Prizes

  • For the best video produced by students from year 5 and up to Year 8 - $500 to the student's school plus $500 for the participating students

  • For the best video produced by Year 9-10 students - $500 to the student's school plus $500 for the participating students

Below you can find a fantastic guide for creating your entry prepared by our friends at Execam.

You will be provided with a link to submit your video after you have registered. If you no longer have access to the link contact us at info@eureka.org.nz.

Entry Conditions

The Eureka! Video Awards are open to all students through to year 10.

Students may work in groups of up to 3 participants.

Videos submitted for this competition must not exceed 5 minutes in length.

Students must submit all work by the due date, including any required certifications from a teacher or parent.

All key roles in the creation of the video, including but not limited to research, script writing, story boarding, directing, editing and special effects, must be completed by students.

The closing credits of the video need to identify the name of the school or schools which the students attend and the name, role and year group of each participating student. 

A teacher or mentor from the contestant’s school is required to provide written certification to the organisers that the video was the exclusive work of the students whose names appear as participants.

In the event students use video content they have not created themselves (i.e. images and sound from secondary sources) they must:

• credit the images and sound to the external source

• provide written confirmation (email exchange or scanned letter) confirming they have approval from the original source to use the images and sound

• limit the use of external content to not more than 40% of total video length

Students may use presentation software to generate their videos

The final date for entries to be submitted is the 31st of August

Judging Criteria

Students will be assessed on:

• The clarity of the story line in the video

• The clarity of the explanation of the science and technology and the explanation of how it could be or is being applied to their local community

• The accuracy of the description of the science or technology

• Innovation and creativity of their approach to visual and audio presentation

Eligibility for NCEA Achievement Credits

Students may agree with their teachers to submit their finished mini-documentary for assessment under the NCEA Level 3 Achievement Standard 91495 Media Studies - Produce a media product to meet the requirements of a brief

Created in partnership with long time Eureka! sponsor Execam this Eureka! Video Awards Workshop will guide you through the process of planning, shooting, editing, exporting and uploading your video. If you need any help with any of the steps please don't hesitate to get in contact with using the form at the end of this tutorial. 

Shooting

Planning

Planning will be key to creating your video. The latest version of the criteria and requirements can be found here and the full event and competition rules can be found here.

Filming 

You don't need to buy lots of fancy equipment, to create a great Eureka! Video, use your imagination to come up with innovative ways to get the shot you need. For example, if your using a smartphone to film, instead of buying a tripod you can cut a slot out of a foam cup and use that to hold the camera to get a stable shot. If you need to film something while moving consider using a skateboard as a camera dolly and pull it along with a bungee cord or piece of elastic to make your shot nice and smooth.

Examples Techniques You Can Use to Create Your Video

Editing

Editing Tools

The types of devices that you have access to will effect the video editing software that you can use.

If you or your school pays for Adobe's creative products you may have access to Premier Pro which is a powerful piece of software available for Windows and MacOS computers. 

MacOS computers and iPads come free with iMovie.

Two free options for Windows computers are Lightworks, which markets itself as putting professional quality tools within reach of everyone, and VideoPad Video Editor, if you are looking for something a bit simpler.

If you are familiar with another video editing package, or if you find other software you prefer, feel free to use that instead.

Editing Tutorials

The tutorials linked below will help you get started with video editing in your software package. Search around on Google and YouTube to find more tutorials or if you are trying to do something specific.

• Adobe Premier Pro

• iMovie

• Lightworks

• VideoPad

Examples of Different Editing Techniques