The 2023-2024 World of 8 Billion student video contest is now closed. Winners will be announced on May 21, 2024!

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Winners

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2010-2011 Winners

Grades 11-12

Two Minutes Before Midnight

Kristina Rathjen

Fairfax High School, Fairfax, VA

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.

Two Minutes Before Midnight

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