A recent video contest in Los Angeles challenged students to capture the impact of budget cuts in their school – in one minute or less. The results were stunning.

Shooting and editing a video is no easy task. Just ask any news photographer or writer struggling with the transition to video and they’ll tell you how difficult it is. In one minute or less is even tougher.

Somehow these imaginative students managed to pull it off.

But how?

Simple.

Most stayed away from the usual talking head, television reports. Instead, they combined music, text and images to make their point. Their creativity ability is outstanding. The audio and video quality leaves something to be desired. But then again, they weren’t using professional equipment.

See the results here: http://galatzan.laschoolboard.org/results

I’m reasonably confident most of these young adults don’t watch television news. So they don’t know the “right” way to make a news video. Most research indicates they don’t even read a newspaper. But they do watch music videos, movies, commercials and the such like that send powerful messages without traditional interviews and stand-up news reporting.

Even when they conducted interviews, they’re short and crisp with opinions from multiple sources. And not one of them started with: “Hello my name is…” As a result, they produced refreshingly different videos that revealed their subjects’ feelings about the impending  budget cuts.

Within 20 years, this generation will be writing, producing and directing the news. Expect some major changes.

 

 

 

 

John Bonnar

John Bonnar is an independent journalist producing print, photo, video and audio stories about social justice issues in and around Toronto.