Prerana Pai of the Delhi Private School in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates won an honorable mention award in the World of 7 Billion student video contest for her film “Time to Change.” She chose to connect population to the global challenge: “The world is in the midst of a sixth mass extinction.”

Prerana’s video has a lot of personality and a clear, concise script. Right from the start, she creates strong imagery of the earth’s beauty and longevity. She reminds us of our connection to the earth and its environment with references to “home” and being in “perfect balance” and even having natural balance restored following the five previous mass extinctions. From this foundation, the video builds to how humans have impacted the planet, including how exponential population growth has led to plant and animal species “vanishing at an alarming rate.” Returning to the idea of balance, an image of a scale balancing humans and other species spins out of control until “kaboom!” – we’ve gone too far.

An environmentalist and activist at heart, Prerana learned about the video contest while searching for environmental resources online. Having made posters and video relating to sustainability in the past, she thought the contest would be a great way to reach a larger audience with her message of conservation. Her previous film creations were for longer videos and she shared that fitting everything into a one-minute timeframe was challenging. She wrote and rewrote the script many times before she was happy and her hard work paid off.

Want to see the other top videos on this topic?
First Place – “What Will Happen to Us” by Katherine Selley and Catherine Knox
Second Place – “The Sixth Mass Extinction” by Michael Kuroda
Honorable Mention – “Sixth Mass Extinction” by Angel Nkwonta
Honorable Mention – “We Did This to Ourselves” by Elizabeth Hwang

Want to participate in a future contest?
Interested in staying informed about next year’s contest? Visit the contest website today and download our free lesson plan to guide you.