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Brookhaven Technical Students Get MADD; Win PSA Contest
Posted on May 24, 2012 Mothers Against Drunk Driving PSA Created by Teens for Teens  Eastern Suffolk BOCES students, William Banks and Erica Rojas from Southampton UFSD, collaborated on the winning PSA for Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD)
When Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) wanted to create a polarizing PSA to capture the attention of the teenage population about the dangers of underage drinking, they went to experts – other teens. Two digital film students from Eastern Suffolk BOCES’ Brookhaven Technical Center (BTC) in Bellport won the contest and now qualify to become finalists for a national MADD initiative. Those students are William Banks and Erica Rojas. Both are juniors at Southampton UFSD. Studies show that approximately 6,000 deaths each year result from underage drinking. MADD therefore challenged the teen community with a contest entitled, “Power of You(th),”to create a video aimed at their peers emphasizing this message. The 52-second video created by Williams and Rojas engages viewers immediately with its professional look, sound quality and slick special effects. The video features teens in a school environment, walking down halls and sitting in classrooms. As unnerving teen death-related statistics are displayed on screen, a number of students slowly dissolve and disappear from view, leaving viewers to realize they’ve been killed. Said Williams, “It makes sense that teens would be best at communicating a message like this to other teens. MADD was very smart when they designed this contest.” As a finalist, Williams and a guardian will be flown to Dallas, Texas in June to attend MADD’s National Teen Influencer Summit (MADD will only accommodate one teen/guardian per entry). Both students plan to continue studying film after high school and then work in the industry. In addition to landing a finalist’s spot with their PSA, the dream team has also joined forces with several other ESBOCES classmates to create a film that is currently being featured at the 7th Annual First Exposure Film Festival at the Cinema Arts Center in Huntington. Another film they created with classmates won “Best in Show” at the Long Island Media Arts Show at Five Towns College. To view the PSA Willams and Rojas created for MADD, click on the link below: http://youtube.com/watch?gl=US&hl=en_US&client=mv-rim&v=QUv59NctLTk |
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