Subscribe to our newsletter by emailStudent Video Contest Judges' Award Winner
We asked UCI students to use the word "favorite" in their sixth annual Student Video Contest entries while telling their stories about how the Libraries help them succeed. Six students submitted humorous and creative videos referring to the Libraries' services, people, spaces and more. Freshman Alesandra Valencia won for her video "UCI Library Commercial." Our judges gave Alesandra particularly high marks for her video's entertainment value and effectiveness in conveying the theme.
Alesandra highlights many of the known positives about our libraries: the books, the computers, the printers, and the study spaces. Her use of black and white underscores the sense of bleakness when personal equipment doesn't function; she transitions to color to highlight the reliable working equipment the UCI Libraries can provide, as well as our warm and comfortable study spaces and wealth of knowledge.
Alesandra also points out in her video some important features that may not immediately come to mind when thinking about libraries. Not to be missed in the video is the image of a desperate student jabbing an electrical prong into a floor, searching fruitlessly for an outlet. The UCI Libraries save the day with our charging stations. But the most humorous scenes in the video acknowledge that students need some shut-eye, and the Libraries can provide a wealth of comfortable-looking and not-so-comfortable looking spots to take a much-needed nap.
Alesandra says she entered the contest because "I just love making videos. I have been making videos since I was in the 6th grade, but never really uploaded them anywhere. I would just make videos for fun, and when I saw that there was a Video contest I couldn't resist." The concept took her about two days to develop, but even with the commercial concept, she says that "half of the video was just last minute thoughts or improvisation." In making the video, she learned about the cameras that the Libraries check out, and that Langson Library is open 24 hours during 10th and finals weeks.
Take a look at Alesandra's video here. In the second phase of judging, UCI students, faculty, and staff are now voting on their favorite video from the five remaining entries. The Audience Award winner will also be announced on this Libraries' website, and all of this year's video entries will be viewable.
For more information, please contact Cynthia Johnson, Head, Reference and the Grunigen Medical Library at cynthiaj@uci.edu or 949-824-0081 or Jeff Schneidewind, Emerging Technologies Research Specialist at jhschnei@uci.edu or 949-824-7099.