Who can participate?
Teachers are welcome to encourage any junior high or high school students to make a video, either individually, in a small group, or as a class. All entrants and everyone appearing in the video must be at least 13 years old and parental consent forms must be filled out for everyone appearing in the video. Download the necessary video release form by clicking here. There must be one teacher named as the sponsor for each entry. Teachers may submit up to six entries per class.

What are the prizes?
One video will receive the Grand Prize: a bundle of products customized for the winning classroom, plus a year-long subscription (class set of 30 copies) to Upfront (a retail value of $575). Nine runners-up will each win a year-long subscription (class set of 30 copies) to Upfront. All 10 videos and their creators will be announced to the press, and the winning videos will be featured on the Scholastic Teens channel on YouTube and Upfront’s home page.

How will the videos be judged?

• Accuracy – Your facts about news events, names, places and dates must be accurate.
• Creativity – Be inventive with the direction, style and presentation of your video. 
• Persuasiveness – Make us understand why you chose your top ten news events of 2009 as the most important. 
• Length – Videos must be no longer than 3 minutes.

How do we enter?
Once the video is finished in one of the acceptable formats below, please print and fill out the official entry form, as well as signed releases for anyone appearing in the video. Download the entry form here and the video release form here.

Mail the video (in an acceptable format), completed entry form and signed releases to: UPFRONT Video Contest, 557 Broadway, #2010, New York, NY, 10012. Videos must be received by December 14, 2009.

NOTE: Teachers who are sponsoring more than one individual, group, or class are encouraged to mail all entries in one package, but please clearly label each specific video and corresponding entry forms and release forms.

Acceptable Video Formats:

• CD with a video file and one of the following extensions: .MOV / .WMV / .AVI / .DV / .MPEG2 / .MPEG4 / .M4V
• Burned onto DVD as a DVD movie
• Mini DV tape

When is the video due?
Entries must be received by December 14, 2009.

Things to consider as you create your video:

• What makes those stories newsworthy? 
• Why are they more newsworthy than other stories that happened this year?
• Are these stories local, national or international? Or a mix?
• What was the impact of these stories on teenagers?

Copyright Issues:
Entrants and video creators must observe and respect copyright laws. That means the video content must be completely original (i.e. nothing that someone else owns the copyright to, such as music, snippets of programs, or videos made by someone else). For example, just because you own the CD, doesn’t mean you own the copyright of the music on it.

Please be sure to read the official rules and download the necessary entry and release form. If you have any other questions, you can email us at upfrontcontest@scholastic.com.