This is the second year Central Collegiate teacher Scott Wicker has had media students submit a video to the WorkSafe Youth Video Contest, and the duo took second place out of 42 entries from all over the province.
Lorez Cossette and Maddison Landrie, two Grade 12 students, put together their video for a communications media class, and are pleased to have done so well in the competition.
“It was lots of fun to do and it was interesting, getting to be like the camera people and the directors more than the actors, because normally we do everything for a video,” said Landrie.
“We're really proud of ourselves too, for the work that we put in,” said Cossette. “Getting that reward was pretty awesome for our video making, so I think it was a really good thing for us.”
Food safety was something they noticed hadn’t been addressed in past submissions, and also one that they could relate to personally, which is why they chose to focus their video submission on the topic.
Working with a local restaurant, the pair shot their video downtown in an actual workspace; WorkSafe representative Brad Compton noted that this was definitely one of the reasons the pair did so well.
“Entries were judged on their technical merit, adherence to safety regulations, creativity and overall safety message,” said Compton. “I can't think of a lot of videos that had that focus on food safety and public health, that kind of background or that kind of focus. So that was definitely a unique video and it was very well done, of course.”
The video contest has been running for several years, and Compton explained that the purpose is to make sure students are involved and thinking about safety — and of course, to spread their knowledge with their own creative spin.
“[The program] gets students involved and engaged in creating their own safety messages,” said Compton. “And they get to use this media or video that they create to help inform other young workers.”
The top three videos are awarded cash prizes each year; in second place, Cossette and Landrie received $750 for themselves, and $1,000 for their school. While the pair will be putting their cash into savings for future projects, Wicker said Central Collegiate will be investing in more equipment for the communications media program.
Cossette and Landrie enjoy filming outside of the classroom as well, and to be recognized for their skill is a great feeling for them.
“We hope that for future videos, like open projects on the side, that we can maybe put some of that [prize] money towards that as well,” said Cossette. “Because we do make our own videos, but sometimes it's hard to pay for all that kind of stuff that goes into it.”
“We've never been paid for making any of our videos before, so it's kind of nice to get rewarded for hard work that you've put in,” added Landrie. “We just want to thank all the teachers, too, that have helped us do all this sort of stuff and always given us the platform to create videos.”
The top scoring videos are available to watch on the WorkSafe Saskatchewan's website.
