Olelo community media’s 11th Annual Statewide Youth Xchange Video Competition empowers students to express their voices through videos on issues that concern youth.

Sophomores Sylvia Nguyen and Shannon Domingsil entered a video in the category of Traffic Safety, emphasizing the need to stop texting as pedestrians.

Nguyen said, “Our video was a traffic safety public service announcement (PSA), focusing on different tasks that would be difficult and dangerous if they were done blindfolded. Shannon and I paralleled this to texting while crossing the street to show how unsafe it is. I was shocked when I found out that Shannon and I were finalists because I hadn’t expected to win; we barely had any previous experience with filming and directing videos.” 

Technology coordinator and mentor, Randall Pong, said, “In order for them to create the video, they had to know how to correctly shoot the shots and try different ways to make it better. I had to make sure that they weren’t put in any danger while filming, especially in the last scene and they worked great together to edit the video. ”

Domingsil said, “We named our video ‘Blinded’ because you’re basically blinded by your phone. In our video, the blindfold represents the distractions we have. We don’t always realize how those distractions can contribute to pedestrian and car accidents. The message of the video is to make viewers think that if you wouldn’t ride a bike blindfolded or do things blindfolded, why would you want to be blinded by your phone when crossing the street? It just shows that being distracted by your phone is just as bad as being blindfolded while doing something dangerous.”

The awards ceremony is being held at the Ihilani resort on May 5.