Submit a Film to Planet SciCast
Planet SciCast Awards 2009
Your mission, SciCasters, is to send us a Mini Movie that features science or engineering in some way. You might film a demonstration, an activity, an explanation, or feature the career of a working scientist. Your film should be…
- No longer than two minutes and thirty seconds in duration.
- Entertaining, not boring.
- Interesting, not boring.
- Imaginative, not boring.
- Entertaining, interesting and imaginative, but it doesn’t have to be slick, highly polished or ‘professional’.
- Entertaining, interesting and imaginative, but not so much that the demonstration/science stuff gets completely lost.
- Encouraging, enough to make others want to try your demonstration.
We nominate films into several Awards categories. We're not quite ready to announce the categories for 2009, but they'll be broadly similar to last year – Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Earth Sciences & Ecology; Engineering, Entertainment, and so on. You can see last year's list, with links to the winners in each category, here.
Make the best film you can, and we'll make sure it's considered in as many categories as possible.
Deadline
To be eligible for the 2009 Awards Ceremony, to be held in London next April, films must be received by 9th January 2009.
Films received after this date will be held over for the 2010 competition.
Notes
- The Physics category is slightly different. Please see the IOPs SciCast Physics Page for more information.
- If you're stuck for ideas, the SciCast Blog links to things that look appropriate and/or plain fun, as we find them around the web. Check it often, or subscribe to it so you see every new post there.
- We reserve the right not to publish films which contain music, still pictures, or video clips that aren't licensed; that we think might be unduly offensive; or that might put children or young people at particular risk of injury.
Non-Awards films?
If you have a film you'd like to contribute, but you don't think it's suitable for the Awards, of course we'd be delighted to host it. A whole bunch of organisations around the UK are planning to use SciCast to help publicise what they do, or to give an edge to staff training, or to extend the reach of projects they've run.
Drop us a line and tell us what you'd like to do, or submit your film through the normal entry process and leave a note that you'd like it published, but not entered for the Awards.
How to Enter
Finished your film? Ready to go? Here's the Entry Page
Frequently Asked Questions
Who are the Awards for?
Do I have to work in a team?
What do you mean by science or engineering demonstration?
Can my team send in more then one film?
Copyright - Can we use other people’s stuff in the film?
What format should our film be in?
What about if it takes ages to do, like a plant growing?
What about if someone sends in something really dangerous?
Should we put credits for ourselves on the movies?
Who’s judging these movies?
Prizes - What do I win?
Deadlines?
What if I want to send a film for you to show that doesn't meet the Award criteria?
Who are the Awards for?
The Awards are open to teams in the UK and the Republic of Ireland.
There is no age limit on teams. We expect that teams will mainly spring from schools, but teams of university or HE students would be welcome, teams of adults working in the science/engineering sector, families, basically anyone who would like to enter a film is welcome. The age of your team will be considered by the judges in their deliberations.
One restriction: amateur film makers only, please. If you're a professional film maker, however, we'd still be delighted to share your film: see above under 'Non-Awards films'.
Do I have to work in a team?
If this is your first film, our advice is that working in a team of up to about five people makes the process easier and more fun. However, there's no rule about this: if you're a creative loner type and want to do everything yourself, that's just fine; similarly, if you want to involve your entire school in a vast costume-drama epic (or anything else), good luck to you!
We won’t discriminate when it comes to judging your work.
What do you mean by 'science or engineering demonstration'?
We mean classroom or lab experiments, activities with a science or engineering focus, or practical demonstrations of some phenomenon or other. For example, anything you’ve read in the Little Book of Experiments or in the Planet Science Newsletter, or things you’ve done in school. If you’re a teacher or science communicator, demonstrations you’ve done in a lesson or show to introduce a topic, perhaps. Working scientists and engineers might pick some practical aspect that illustrates their work.
Demonstrations can be things that anyone can do on their kitchen table with absolute safety, to things that you could only ever see in a specialist laboratory like CERN. (Please note: if you’re from CERN, that you’ll have to write up your own experiment.)
There are lots of standard experiments and demonstrations, with websites and books full of them, but we'd particularly welcome new ideas.
SciCast Physics – the Physics category of the SciCast competition is generously supported by the Institute of Physics so if you have a physics film in mind you’ll want to read this page to see what they are looking for in winning physics films.
If you are wondering what a demonstration for Earth Science might be, please get in touch with the Earth Science Education Unit who have kindly agreed to help SciCast by offering just this sort of advice. Please contact the ESEU Administrator on 01782 584437, eseu@keele.ac.uk
Can my team enter more then one film?
Yes, you are welcome to send in more than one film, but you’ll need to go through the submission process for every film you send. We're working to make this quicker and easier.
Copyright - Can we use other people’s stuff in the film?
The safest answer is: 'no.' If it's not yours, we have to be sure that whoever took the picture/drew the diagram/wrote or performed the music/etc has given their permission for us to publish your film, for everyone, for free. So unless you're very certain – and we will check! – everything in your film should be yours.
We have a special page about using music that gives you some advice.
What format should our film be in?
For all sorts of reasons – including 'we haven't got around to it yet' – you'll need to post your film to SciCast. In an envelope. With a stamp. Retro.
However, this does mean that we can check all your paperwork is in order, and also that your film gets published in the highest quality possible. To do that, we need you to send your film to us at the highest quality you can manage.
- Ideally, if you've shot your film with a miniDV camera, put the finished version back onto a miniDV tape, and send us that. It'll look brilliant.
- Next best is export the film at high quality (typically DV-AVI or 'Full quality'). The resulting file should be up to about 600Mb in size, so it'll fit – just – on a CD-R. Burn that disc, and send it through.
- Confused? If you can make a DVD that plays in a normal DVD player, send us one of those. We can pull the film off and it'll still look mighty fine.
- Still reading? Burn your finished movie file to a CD, in whatever format you can manage, and we'll take it from there.
- We can, in theory, handle films sent on VHS tapes. But at the moment both our VHS players have tapes jammed in them, so... we'd prefer things on CD, DVD, or miniDV tape! If you absolutely have to send us a VHS, however, we'll set to with a screwdriver.
Any questions? scicast@nesta.org.uk
What about if it takes ages to do, like a plant growing?
It’s fine for your activity to take ages, but you must make sure your finished film is two minutes and thirty seconds or under, so you’d use your editing skill and possibly even time lapse techniques to capture what you’ve been doing.
What about if the demonstration in my film is really dangerous?
We want people to repeat the experiments on this site, but we also want them to be amazed and inspired. So we'd love to have your film, but be careful while you're making it. Think, particularly, about how your film might be interpreted by an unaccompanied seven year-old, visiting the site at home. Could they repeat your experiment straight after watching it? Would doing so put them at particular risk?
We reserve the right not to publish submitted films, and indeed there have been a few that after long and anguished discussions, we've decided we can't show.
If you'd like to discuss a particular film with us, before or after you make it, please drop us a line.
Should we put credits for ourselves on the movies?
You're welcome to, but:
- Time spent on credits counts towards your two minutes and 30 seconds!
- We think it's a bad idea to give your full name and school, particularly if you also appear in the film, so:
- We recommend crediting yourselves with a team name.
- If that's not enough for you, how about using just your first name?
- Out-takes and 'funnies' can, indeed, be very funny, but again: they count towards your time. So you need to decide if they're funny enough to earn their place in your film.
In the end, it's your film, and it's up to you. Teachers and parents might want to be consulted too.
Who’s judging these movies?
We're delighted to have a fantastic panel of judges.
Prizes - What do I win?
We haven't finally decided prizes for 2009 yet – we need to count the pennies and work out how much we can afford – but they should be similar to last year:
- £250 of Amazon vouchers, to divide up amongst your team however you please.
- A glittering team trophy, which looks particularly dashing on display in your school or office foyer.
- A personal medallion/paperweight/block thing. We're still not sure what these are called, but they're rather lovely, and very exclusive.
- The overall 'Best Film' winners walked away with a particularly grand trophy. Unfortunately, they walked away with it in several pieces, as it fell apart just before the ceremony. Rest assured that the 2009 Trophy Mark 2 will be more robust.
There are lots of pictures of the trophies – and the lucky winners and nominess – in our photo albums at Flickr.
Deadlines?
- Entry deadline for 2008-9: January 9th, 2009
- Awards Nominees announced: March 6th 2009, National Science & Engineering Week
- Glittering and glamourous Awards Ceremony, for Nominees: April 2009
- Entry deadline for 2009-10: early January 2010.