Local contest to bring students’ ideas to life
A local car dealership is reaching out to local school students through a contest that will test their creativity.
To give students a taste of the film industry, Truro Nissan is hosting the Hubtown Ad Challenge, a contest that gives students the opportunity to write, and possibly direct, a commercial for a local Colchester business.
Students will be able to submit a 60-second commercial idea for one of five local companies – Bike Monkey, G & G Computers, Stanfield’s, Masstown Market and Patterson Sales and Services.
“After the submissions come in, five proposals will be picked, one for each company,” said Erik Muckle, general manager of Truro Nissan.
“They will get a chance to direct the commercial they wrote, and will have access to an assistant director and camera crew. They will also be able to see how the commercial is edited, and will have access to an advisor who is a bit of a Canadian icon.”
The five finalists will be working with famed Canadian author and actor Jonathan Torrens, famously known for his work in ‘Trailer Park Boys,’ ‘TV with TV’s Jonathan Torrens’ and ‘Jonovision.’
“This is the type of initiative where everybody wins,” Torrens said about the contest.
“The local businesses get a commercial made for a reasonable cost, the junior director gets experience behind the camera and the community gets an exciting event to attend.”
Once the five commercials are shot and produced, they will be live broadcasted on the Hubtown Ad Challenge’s Facebook page, with each junior director being introduced beforehand.
From there, a winning commercial will be chosen and the creator will win a ‘Youtuber Package’ which includes a DSLR camera, a microphone and a few SD cards to help them kick off their video-making career.
“In my experience, kids have the best imaginations. I’m excited to see what crazy ideas they’ll come up with,” said Torrens.
The idea for the contest came up after Muckle and Truro Nissan began searching for a new media specialist, and found a lot of young creative talents were leaving the province in search of success elsewhere.
“The more of this kind of stuff we can do in our community the more we can inspire our youth,” said Muckle.
“We all lose when our talented youth take those talents elsewhere so as a business in this community it’s our duty to help show them that working in Truro and Colchester County and making their lives here can be a desirable option.”
The contest is open to students in Colchester County from grades six to 12, and submissions will be accepted from Friday, Oct. 20 to Sunday, Oct. 29 at 11:59 p.m. by emailing submit@hubtownadchallenge.ca .
The five finalists will be selected on Wednesday, Nov. 1, and commercial shooting will take place shortly after.
For more information, or to view the commercials after they are done, visit the Hubtown Ad Challenge Facebook page. ( https://www.facebook.com/HubtownAdChallenge )