Tuesday, 18 August 2009 19:53

Take part in building the world's most entertaiing science resource by making a film with the support and advice of Planet SciCast Film School.

This brilliant video, The Geiger-Müller Groove, is just one of the hundreds of entries for Planet SciCast, a fantastic competition for short films about practical science. In fact that video won the Best Physics Award, Most Entertaining Award, and the Best Original Score in the 2009 Awards!

Have a look at all the videos online at Planet SciCast and you’ll spot highlights such as a chemistry video about Turboturds, a fun 50s-style film about baking powder, and a hilarious video called The Immiscible Love Story, where water and oil fall in love but can never mix (awwww). As they say on the site:

“We're trying to build the world's most entertaining science resource, featuring contributions from primary schools, secondary schools, families, scout and guide groups, science visitor centres, professional scientists... anyone who wants to join in and help out.”

Source: About Planet SciCast

So, if you fancy having a go at making your own science film how do you go about doing it?

Well, as you’ll see from the site they’ve got a whole mix of entertainment and education, straightforward and silly, repeatable and plain ridiculous. The best place to start is over at the Planet SciCast Film School where you'll get advice on how to plan your film, what equipment you can use, how best to organise your team, and what sorts of things seem to work most reliably. Also follow their blog at: http://www.planet-scicast.org.uk/blog/ for ideas, inspiration, and news.

Planet SciCast has just had it’s 2009 Awards ceremony, the awards were judged by a very experienced line-up including none other than engineer Jem Stansfield (from BBC2’s Bang Goes The Theory), anatomist Dr Alice Roberts (from BBC2's Coast and The Incredible Human Journey) and geologist Dr Iain Stewart (from the BB's Journeys From The Centre Of The Earth and Journeys Into the Ring of Fire). 

The Overall Winner this year in the Best Secondary category was 'The God Particle'.

The Overall Winner this year in the Best Adult category was 'It's About Time'.

The deadline for next year's competition is April 12th 2010 so you’ve got plenty of time to wrack those brains, get those cameras warmed up, try on your cheesiest smile, and shoot some awesome short science films! Good luck!

Planet SciCast is supported by NESTA, the Engineering and Technology Board, and the Institute of Physics, and is the brain-child of Jonathan Sanderson - once a physicist and television producer (working on such fantastic shows as How2 and Science Shack), now a media consultant/freelance film-maker trying to reignite public-service children's media, particularly around science and engineering.

Source: Planet SciCast

Related Links

Planet SciCast

The God Particle video

Bang Goes The Theory

It's About Time video

Jonathan Sanderson's blog

Email article

Comments

Comment on this article on both Facebook and this website. Comments on this website are subject to pre-moderation.

Comment

Add a comment...

Your name

Your email

OR

Log into Facebook to post your comment

3.26 Copyright (C) 2008 Compojoom.com / Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."