Lancaster High School student wins national video contest
LANCASTER — Lancaster High School junior, Brodie Bosworth, recently won first place in the American Bankers Association Foundation’s ‘Lights, Camera, Save!’ national teen video contest.
The contest invites teenagers, ages 13-18, to create short videos about the importance of sound money management, Delainey McIlwain, a community relations coordinator at Park National Bank, said in an email. Park National Bank was one of 89 banks that hosted local ‘Lights, Camera, Save!’ competitions across the country.
After winning Park National Bank’s competition in Newark, Ohio, Bosworth’s 30-second video submission, “Money Tree,” advanced to represent the bank in the national competition.
Following two rounds of national judging and a round of public voting via Instagram, “Money Tree,” was selected as the first-place winner.
“Money Tree,” serves as a reminder that although money does not grow on trees, it can grow in a savings account when money is budgeted and saved correctly. Bosworth said the video’s message came to him while he brainstormed ideas he thought would appeal to a variety of people.
“I wanted to use something that's familiar to most people, and it just popped in my head out of nowhere—‘money doesn't grow on trees,’—that phrase that you hear as a kid,” Bosworth said. “I just thought, ‘how could I use that phrase and put it into a video?’ … and I went out to Rising Park and started taping money on trees.”
The contest was introduced to Bosworth as an assignment in his video production class at Lancaster High School. The class, part of Lancaster High School’s Broadcasting program, is taught by Scott Burke.
For at least 10 years, students in the video production class have participated in the competition; however, Bosworth is the first student from Lancaster High School to win first place in the national competition, Burke said.
Last year, a different Lancaster student won second place in the national competition and competed again this year. Bosworth, unlike some of his classmates, said he believed it was possible he could win despite lacking previous experience.
“Most kids didn't (participate) because we have a senior who won last year, so no one thought that they could beat him,” Bosworth said. “I thought I could (win), so I just went for it and I did.”
In his class, Burke teaches his students about the importance of telling a story when producing quality videos. Writing scripts, composing shots and finding the message are just a few of the key factors that play into video production, Burke said.
Unable to help students as they navigated their way through the production process, Burke made sure to tell students before they started about the importance of knowing your audience and making a good idea a creative one.
“Brodie really researched the idea about “money doesn't grow on trees,” Burke said. “He did that simple concept and then added some facts to it, and then got some really good visuals by putting money in the trees. I'm glad that (he) listened to that ‘good shots, good story, good message and your target audience’ (advice).”
After solidifying his topic, Bosworth said he watched YouTube videos to learn more about video editing processes. As a first-year video production student, Bosworth said the entire project was a learning experience.
Bosworth’s research and dedication to the project paid off when he was awarded $5,000 for his first-place win. He said he plans to use his award money, along with his personal savings, to buy a car this summer.
Despite the unlikeliness of winning first place in the national competition two years in a row, Bosworth said he intends to compete in the contest again next year.
“Next year it may be harder to win because they want new people to come in and win, but I'm still going to try,” Bosworth said. “I'm just going to have to come up with something even better than what I did this year.”
This article originally appeared on Lancaster Eagle-Gazette: Lancaster High School student wins national video contest
