A few days ago, I came across a National Geographic competition called Chasing Genius. You can submit ideas for Sustainability, Global Health, or Feeding 9 Billion. I decided to enter in the Sustainability category – it requires only a few paragraphs of descriptive text and a one-minute video. I had it on my to-do list for a few days (i.e., procrastinated) and then I wrote a rough script and made some PowerPoint slides. Next, I made a few trial videos while showing these slides on a laptop in front of the camera. Very amateurish, I know, but it was already stressing me out a lot to make a video that would be public and I didn’t want to have to learn video editing techniques to add to my stress.
In retrospect, I probably should have learned video editing, because by today I wasn’t happy with any version and I really just wanted to get the video over with. (It made me really appreciate actors’ skills.) When I give PowerPoint presentations I’m used to being able to waffle and basically make it up as I go along (with, of course, a rough plan for what I want to say) – I just click for the next slide and then comment on the image! But with a time limit of 60 seconds it was pretty hard to explain the concept of the Green Stars Project while showing slides. So, in the end I just talked – no slides – although I did have an illustrative oil painting in the background. Haha – how old-school can you get? (The painting was for a GSP logo.)
Anyhoo, I figured that since I’m submitting it to National Geographic, I should show it here too – because you mean more to me, dear readers, than any competition 🙂 And I uploaded it to YouTube too, while I was at it. Comments disabled on YouTube, of course – I’m not a total masochist! So, without further ado (that was more than enough ado already) – here it is:
PS: If you’re tempted to submit an entry for Chasing Genius, get going because the deadline is today!
The Green Stars Project 
Good for you for doing this, even when you felt you weren’t quite prepared, and maybe it wasn’t absolutely perfect. That shows some guts – and I’m sure you learned a lot in the process.
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A very clear, succinct description that makes a compelling case for the “green stars” project. I’m curious to know the outcome of the competition. 🙂
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Thank you! NatGeo contacted me a few days later to say the video was rejected. I eventually found out that their system thought it was too long (1 min 1 second) so I asked them to check the file properties (1 min exactly). They agreed that it was within limit but by then the deadline had passed!
So, It’ll be next year for me! You can see the winners here: http://www.natgeochasinggenius.com/
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Thank you so much for letting me know about the contest outcome. As a mother and grandmother, I am grateful to you for the work you are doing to raise public awareness about environmental issues.
I’m sorry to hear that your video was initially rejected, but what a wonderful opportunity to create an awesome 50-second presentation for next year. But why wait until then to share it? I am sure your project could gain many supporters and win other awards during the next. 🙂
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Thanks Carol! I appreciate the supportive thoughts. You’re right – I should look into more ways to spread the word. Do let me know if you think of any good ones 🙂
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