Local Teens Win State Video Competition

Congratulations are in order for Teen Advisory Board from the Post Road Library on being named a state-level winner of the Teen Video Competition in support of the Collaborative Summer Library Program (CSLP). The library will celebrate this achievement with a Red Carpet Screening Party on May 27 at 6:30 at the Post Road Library so the winners’ friends and family can view the video.

The CSLP competition is now in its fifth year and encourages teens to get involved with promoting summer reading programs at their local public libraries. This year’s contest focused on the slogan “Unmask” and required teens to create a short video to promote the summer reading program to their peers.

The idea for “Novel Masquerade” started during a Teen Advisory Board meeting and then teen volunteers kept the creative process flowing by developing the storyline, designing costumes, creating virtual sets with green screens, and filming sequences inside the Post Road Library.

“The whole creative effort, from the idea to storyboarding to filming and finally editing, took about 6 weeks,” says Vikki Doerr, the librarian who served as a liaison between the teens and the library during production.

Rahul Gurram, a sophomore at West Forsyth High School, directed the video. Julia Cleland, a freshman at West, served as camera operator and video editor. Audrey Nguyen was the props and costume director.

“All the video entries are short, but our teens quickly tell a story that grips the audience from the very beginning and takes them on a magical journey from the library stacks to a grand masquerade ballroom,” says Laura Bradley, Program Manager. “This video perfectly sums up what our summer reading program is designed to do: encourage readers of all ages to open a book and embark on a journey with the characters inside.”

Teens from 26 states entered the competition and the winners were recently announced at the CSLP Annual Meeting in Newport, Rhode Island. A selection of winning videos will be shown at the Red Carpet Screening Party. All winning videos are accessible on CSLPreads.org. The winning video for Georgia, “Novel Masquerade,” can also be viewed on the Forsyth County Public Library’s YouTube channel.

During the screening party, each of the teens that participated in production for “Novel Masquerade” will be recognized for their efforts. They will also receive a group award of $150 from CSLP and the library will receive small prizes from Upstart and Candlewick Press.

More photo outtakes and behind-the-scenes information is available on the FCPL Facebook Page.