2010-2011 Winners

Richard Oneslager, from Cherry Creek High School, didn’t have any film experience prior to creating his video PSA for the World of 7 Billion student contest.  But when his comparative governments teacher mentioned it to the class, he was interested enough to give it a try.  In the class, he was “learning about how countries were having natural resource crises” and decided to focus on one of the Earth’s most basic resources – water.  As for population pressures, Richard was somewhat aware, remembering that it came up during the Beijing Olympics, but admits it became much more clear while preparing his video.

The idea to have a fish tank with an ever-increasing number of fish came pretty easily, as did working with the music.  The hardest part, Richard recalled, was editing the footage to look exactly the way he wanted.  A visual learner himself, he thought it was important to make the images, text, and voice over come together as smoothly as possible for the most impact.

Richard isn’t sure what he’ll do with his cash prize but mentioned he’d “probably get my teacher a present.”  And though college plans are unclear, he is looking forward to his summer job at Geneva Glenn Summer Camp.  Richard is currently a member of NHS, speech and debate team, and his school’s community service organization.

Eleventh grader Cooper Vacheron, from Foxborough High School, is not new to film.  He is involved in the local cable station where he volunteers weekly and he’s also created videos for his high school jazz ensemble.  Cooper became interested in the World of 7 Billion video contest because of an environmentally conscious friend and, unlike some of the other video contests he looked into, he said that “this one had a theme I could be interested in.”  His decision to focus on water was fairly direct – it being a common household resource, he thought that it would be easiest to discuss in the short amount of time provided.

Dealing with the contest’s time constraint, 30 seconds, turned out to be the most challenging part of the video process for Cooper.  Even after making significant cuts, his video was only down to 45 seconds.  He worried he’d have to cut some of the offered solutions but in the end, found a way to keep the three he most wanted to include (shortening showers, filling the washing machine, and having a fuel efficient dishwasher).

In addition to film, Cooper is a talented musician and plays the trombone with several groups at Foxborough High.  As for what he wants to do after he graduates, he’s considering film school and thinks he may spend some of his prize money on items related to that craft like camera equipment.

Kristina Rathjen is a senior at Fairfax High School Academy and found out about the World of 7 Billion student contest from the teacher of her TV production class.  No newbie to filmmaking, she has created short narratives for college admissions, DVDs of graduations and ceremonies, and plenty of videos for class.  But while she was very aware of film production, her previous knowledge of population pressures was not as well rounded.  Though she did have experience discussing carbon footprints in science class, Kristina recalls that learning we were about to reach seven billion made her think “wow – that is a huge statistic and that really fascinated me.”  

When asked how she came up with the idea for her video, Kristina said that she worked backwards, first deciding on the image she wanted to use at the end of the PSA.  And interestingly enough, creating that footage was the most challenging part of the process for her, involving the use of a green screen, manipulating the sizes of the images, and layering them in a way to look realistic.  

Having been involved in theatre since she was in kindergarten, over the years she has done acting, editing, character casting, and even directing.  Her love of theatre is actually what led to her interest in filmmaking and she will continue to pursue this interest after graduation by attending NYU in the fall, majoring in film and production.

Kiana Wilson a senior at Kahuku High School, has grown up on the North Shore of the island of Oahu, Hawaii so it is no surprise that she chose water as the focus of her video PSA.  She made the decision, not only because water was the topic that she had the most background knowledge on, but also so she could “connect it to where I live.  Oahu is becoming overpopulated and maybe [with this video] I can find a way to help my own community.”  Kiana had some previous knowledge of population issues as well.  As a participant in policy debate last year, the topic was social welfare and she had several chances to learn about and discuss overpopulation.

The video she produced for the World of 7 Billion contest was not her first.  She has participated in the media category of the National History Day contest and is also a member of her school’s film club, helping to create a video every week that is shared with her classmates.  Kiana filmed all of the footage in her PSA but found it most difficult to stay within the 30 second time limit.

Kiana will graduate this May and plans to attend Brigham Young University in the fall.  She wants to major in political science but hopes to take a few classes on filmmaking if she can.  An avid dancer, Kiana has traveled as part of the promotional team of the Polynesian Cultural Center in Laie, HI.  With her team, she has performed hula and Tahitian dance in Japan, Australia, and the U.S. mainland.