Reception for video contest winners

The Development Communications Network (Devcom-Pakistan) organised a reception here on Sunday in honour of the youth group which

 recently won the top country position in the British Council video competition ‘Your World – Your Opportunity’ in the senior category of 17-19 years age group.

The group of six self-motivated students of A level at the Pak-Turk International School & College (Boys Section) Islamabad, include Muhammad Umar Khan, Shaaref Munir, Armughan Aslam, Abdullah Irfan, Muhammad Saad and Zaid Waris. This dynamic and energetic youth group developed a three minute video for the British Council competition on self-help basis. The story of the video revolves around the teenage group that helped with the education of a street scavenger leading him to win gold medal in the Grade 12 exams.

According to the British Council announcement, the Pak-Turk School boys shined out of the 95 entries because of “the incredible originality and creativity”. The storyline and content are the other strong merits besides the video is an exceptionally sound in technical terms.

Shaaref Munir, one of the group member, said, “The outline of the video was developed and improvised through a consultative process within the group on a one-liner initiated by Muhammad Umar Khan. Fortunately or unfortunately we had no teacher as a supervisor from our school. Therefore, the group member could explore their own potential and creativity quite independently. I believe that the self-motivation, creativity and the hard work is the only essence for a big success.”

Armughan Aslam said it was quite difficult to shoot scenes with a cell phone camera where we need to pan it according to the demand of the scene. Once we put mud on the lock of the patrol tank of a motor-bicycle and stuck the cell phone in it and moved the lock for panning the camera. We had no make-up kit instead we used the thrown away carbon and mud on the faces where required. Unfortunately we had no encouragement and support from the Pak-Turk School management. The school had a good quality camera but it was not available to us, unfortunately.

Abdullah Irfan said, “It was a unique experience of teamwork without resources, support, encouragement and expert guidance. It means if there is a will, there is a way. The youth can drive out of their potential to set examples of success. Just give us a chance to prove it.”