IATEFL Video Competition 2024
Since the start of the school year, a group of second year students from Gimnazija Vič worked on a project involving making a video for the annual competition organised by IATEFL Slovenia.
The project involves writing a script which follows a strict set of rules laid down by the judging panel and then turning their words into a short film.
This year’s theme was linked to the importance of community with the expression, “All for one and one for all,” and students were given the suggestion to look towards the world of sport and the famous Olympic spirit. The final video had to take the format of an advertisement and it had to be under three minutes in length.
One of the important elements of this particular competition, which allows students to demonstrate their skills with the English language, is that they must include a set of ten specific words within their script. This year’s words were solidarity, well-being, unity, follow, consider, respect, humble, mutual, willingly, and undeniably.
The group spent a lot of time working with their mentors from the school’s English department, Blanka Klobučar and Tim Gallagher, coming up with script ideas and then working on the language side of things. Then, when it came to filming, all aspects had to be looked at in detail with everything from pronunciation to camera angles being under scrutiny from the team.
The combination of being able to display a good grasp of English while also being able to put both creative and technical skills on show was a positive thing for the students involved, as you can see from their short summaries about their work as part of the group:
Filip: This competition brought me a lot of new experiences including acting, editing, and creating graphic elements. Of course, it was not always easy, but I think the final product was worth the effort.
Ela: Finding band members was a little bit difficult but in the end it all worked out. Writing the music for the film was fun and we all had a great time performing it as well.
Kaja: Despite it being challenging sometimes when it came to turning ideas into something real, participating in this project as an author of the script and an actor was wonderful. We had lots of fun and we also learned a lot.
Zoja: In this competition, my focus was the more artistic side of the project. I created the logo for the team that was printed on the shirts and I also participated as one of the actors. This experience would most definitely be one of my favourite memories of my time at school so far.
Nina: Even though the filming process was quite stressful, we managed to create a video of which we’re all proud. It’s great that we have learned so many skills in the process as well.
We are delighted to say that the team was given a Gold Award for their video and were named as the joint-best entrants for all of Slovenia.
We would like to congratulate the members of the group on this excellent result and give special thanks to their mentors and all the others who helped behind the scenes.