By Kyle J. Gomes, member of the Interact Club of Hugh Boyd Secondary

Every year, my Interact club — located in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada — looks forward to creating a video for Rotary’s Interact Video Awards. Last year, our video (above) was selected as the Best Video, earning our club $500 to use toward our service projects. One project very close to our hearts is Operation Christmas Child, and we were able to ship even more gifts and necessities to children in need this year.

Making these videos has been an amazing motivator for our whole club. The best part in making a video is being able to see the real and tangible differences that we make with the projects we support. The other Interactors and I all agree that the experience gave us a perspective on our projects, and showed that although we may be only high school students, we are making a difference.

In creating our video, we always try to work with as many people as we can. We understand that our sponsor Rotarians have much more leadership experience than we do, and that there is a lot we can learn from them. Our teachers also have experience in this area, and they are able to help us as well. Without the strong backbone of Rotary, we would not be able to accomplish all the projects that we do.

Video tip: Have a cohesive plan
As a videographer, I can tell you that there are some essential things to watch out for when creating a video. The most important of these is the story: It is imperative that you have a cohesive plan for what you want in your video. We always start off creating a script with some absolutely outstanding writers. Once we have our plan outlined, we move on to storyboarding, to give everyone a feel of how we want the project to look as a whole. The story that you are trying to tell is the whole basis of the video, and the planning process should not be overlooked.

Video is an amazing medium for sharing our stories, and it allows us to look back and see all that we’ve accomplished and feel really proud of our work. We can see firsthand the change that we as Interactors are making every year!

I strongly encourage every Interact club to create a video for the Interact Video Awards. No matter how big or small your projects may seem, video is a fantastic way to show that we, as Interactors, are making a difference.

• Interact clubs can submit a video before 1 December.
• Watch videos from the 2014 Interact Video Awards finalists.
• Learn more about how Rotary supports young leaders through Interact.