How has access to high speed internet improved the local community? Any high school student having the answer to that question and interested in using video production skills to provide that answer might win a grand prize of $1500.

Those are the basic details for Triangle Communications’ Best of the West Video Contest. They invite Youtubers, budding cinematographers, those with an interest in creating commercials, or simply youth who find fascination while learning about the video production process to enter their video contest by the March 1 deadline.

The Best of the West Video Contest is open to high school students in the Triangle Communications service area. Those wishing to enter will create a video that showcases how access to high speed internet has improved their local community. Teams or individual contestants will have full creative direction as to the format produced, whether a documentary, commercial, vlog, or some other suitable format for conveying the topic.

Prizes will be awarded per entry, not per student, and the first-place production crew’s school will receive a $1,500 Technology in Education grant. Although entries can be class projects or the products of a single student’s creative ideas, students can only be involved in ONE entry. There is no limit to the number of students involved in a single production, however.

Once the video has been produced, it should be submitted using the form available online at https://www.itstriangle.com/education-support/best-of-the-west-video-contest. Entrants will be required to use a dropbox account so that judges can access each entry, and videos must comply with YouTube’s rules and regulations, which are also available on the entry site by way of a hyperlink. Videos entered in the contest will also be submitting to royalty-free publication rights.

The submission deadline is March 1, after which videos will be posted on the Triangle Communications website for public voting. Voting will end March 16, and winners will be announced on March 21.

First place prize will be $500, plus the winner’s school will receive a $1,500 Technology Grant. Second place will be awarded $200, and third place will take home $100.

Those seeking additional information or who have an interest in viewing the winning entries produced from last year’s topic addressing daily technology use should visit the itstriangle.com/best-of-the-west website.

In 2018, the first-place video was from Havre and was entitled “Virtually Home.” Second place honors went to “I’m Addicted to Technology,” an entry from Whitewater, and third place was awarded for “A Day in the Life” entered by Fossum Home School. Other entries came from Harlowton, Sweet Grass, Turner, and North Star.