Can Long Island Be Saved? Part X — It’s a CrapSHOOT! You Can Be Part of Save The Great South Bay’s Winning Environmental Video!

Suffolk County is holding a video contest called crapSHOOT.  It’s aim is to build public awareness about water quality issues on Long Island.  In brief, the root issue is that there are 500,000 septic tanks and cesspools on Long Island.    This enormous problem must be addressed or we will lose what remains of our bays, ponds and streams, along with all our marshes, shellfish beds and fisheries in a very short time due to nitrogen pollution, with our drinking water endangered as well.  We will lose so much of what Long Island means.

As an organization, we need to have our say.   Here then is Save The Great South Bay’s plan to win the contest:   We call on all members of Save The Great South Bay and supporters to our cause to submit a video of six seconds or less on the topic of water quality/ what they love about the Great South Bay/ what needs to be done to fix it (or whatever you feel needs to be said or shown — see general guidelines below) and either email them to [email protected], or post them at either our Facebook Page Save The Great South Bay, or if you are a member at our Facebook Group Page, or send them via the contact form at the bottom of this event posting as soon as you can, ideally by SEPTEMBER 12TH.  The contest ends Sept 15th and we will need a couple of days beforehand to edit together all the clips into 1-3 minute videos for submission on YouTube for the contest.   With over 1700 members in the group, we could crowdsource something special.

Here is a compelling video produced by Suffolk County itself, by way of kicking the contest off:

Here is the official announcement, as per Suffolk County’s web page on the contest:

Here are the rules from the Suffolk County website (linked here):

In announcing his new ‘Reclaim our Water’ initiative, County Executive Steve Bellone noted that “The alarming increase of nitrogen pollution from septic systems and cesspools in Suffolk County’s surface and ground waters is leading toward an ecological collapse. Nitrogen pollution adversely affects our coastal resiliency, our environment, our economy, our land values, our tourism industry and our recreational use of our waters. We must take immediate and decisive action to remediate the decades of nitrogen pollution.”

We need your help to improve Suffolk County’s water quality by getting the word out about Nitrogen pollution and being SepticSmart! Please refer to the SUFFOLK COUNTY COMPREHENSIVE WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT PLAN Executive Summary for information about the scope of the problem. Please refer to the following Environmental Protection Agency website for information on how to be SepticSmart http://water.epa.gov/infrastructure/septic/septicsmart.cfm

The goal of the contest is to communicate the Nitrogen pollution issue and illustrate ways that target audiences such as homeowners, gardeners, farmers, pet owners, communities and others can improve water quality by changing simple behaviors. We are looking for film or video submissions in the following two categories:

• a 30 or 60 second video that is usable as a TV public service announcement
• a 1-3 minute short film

Examples of possible video topics include:

• How septic systems and cesspools contribute to nitrogen in our surface waters and possible new technologies to combat this issue
• Low impact development techniques that residents, communities or businesses can use to help reduce urban runoff such as: rain gardens, bioswales, disconnected downspouts, rain barrels, porous pavements, and rooftop gardens;
• How wetlands benefit you and your community and how to get people involved in wetland preservation;
• Marine debris prevention: individual actions that help reduce the number of items (e.g., plastic bags, food containers, and balloons) that enter our waterways, oceans, and coasts and become marine debris.
• Participating in watershed, stream, and beach cleanups as well as storm drain marking projects that can help reduce marine debris.
• Nutrient and sediment runoff from agriculture, lawns and golf courses, highways, and suburban areas and actions that people and communities can take to help prevent this runoff.
• Why it’s important for citizen volunteers to monitor water quality conditions.

Six winning videos will be chosen (Three 30 or 60 second videos and Three 1 to 3 minute videos) as well as a number of honorable mentions. The winners and honorable mentions will each receive one of our exciting prizes (To Be Announced) and their videos will be featured on Suffolk County’s Web site. Entries must be received by September 15, 2014. The contest winners will be notified in September via email.

The winning entries and honorable mentions will have their work screened at The Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington on September 22, 2014 for SepticSmart week!

Contest Rules

Your entry is not complete until you fill out the contest entry form. Please sign and mail the entry form. Your video will not be included in judging if you have not completed the entry form. An email verifying receipt will be sent as soon as the entry form is received.

You must be a NEW YORK STATE resident to enter and win. Suffolk County employees, contractors, or grantees and their immediate family members may enter, but are not eligible to win.

• Entrants must complete the contest entry form and provide valid contact information. You must have a contest entry form filled out and signed by each person appearing in the video, and his/her guardian if s/he is a minor. If the entrant is a minor the legal guardian MUST COMPLETE the crapSHOOT consent form.
• Entries must be postmarked by September 15, 2014.
• Entries will be judged by an expert panel on the basis of creativity and originality, quality, technical accuracy, and content of the message. Suffolk County reserves the right to not select a winner if none of the entries received are judged to be high quality based on the above criteria.
• The video must be your own original creation. No copyrighted music, video, or images may be used in the video.
• Your video must not infringe on any third party rights.
• Videos previously produced for compensation are not eligible.
• The winners must provide a copy of the original video file to Suffolk County to receive prizes.
• By submitting a video to this contest, you grant to Suffolk County a royalty-free license to copy, distribute, modify, display and perform publicly and otherwise use, and authorize others to use, your video for any educational purpose throughout the world and in any media.
• Suffolk County reserves the right to make your video available to the general public from its Web site and to distribute it any organizations interested in showing it for educational purposes, including, but not limited to, on Internet sites, at conferences and events, on television, and other media outlets.
• Suffolk County will disqualify any entries it deems to contain offensive material.
• The winners will be notified via e-mail and announced on the contest Web site in September.

Getting Started – Basic Information

Follow these four steps to enter the Suffolk County crapSHOOT Film Contest:

Step 1: Get the Details

• Videos must be submitted in one of two categories: Submissions that do not fall within either of these time categories will not be judged.
  • 30 or 60 seconds suitable for TV (must be exactly 30 or exactly 60 seconds)
  • 1-3 minutes (any length between 1-3 minutes)
• Videos will be judged by an expert panel on the basis of:Keep it clean. No violence, profanity, sex, or direct attacks on individuals or organizations.
  • Creativity and originality
  • Quality
  • Technical Accuracy
  • Content of Message
• Your video must not infringe on any third party rights.
• Videos previously produced for compensation are not eligible.
• By submitting a video to this contest, you grant to Suffolk County a royalty-free license to copy, distribute, modify, display and perform publicly and otherwise use, and authorize others to use your video for any educational purpose and in any media.

Step 2: Make your Video

Your video should meet the following requirements:

• Your video must be submitted as a QuickTime/MOV, WMV, MPEG, AVI, and must be uploaded and posted to the YouTube Suffolk County crapSHOOT Film Contest group page.
• The video file should not exceed 50 MB.
• You must have a video or photograph release form signed by each person appearing in the video, and his/her guardian if s/he is a minor. The video should end with text that directs the viewers to our Website for a minimum of three seconds: www.suffolkcountyny.gov/Departments/Planning/ReclaimOurWaterInitiativeUpdate.aspx
• The winners must provide copies of the original video files to Suffolk County to receive the prizes.

Videos can be funny or serious, as long as they focus on the contest theme and show steps that can be taken to improve water quality.

Step 3: Post your video to YouTube or send by mail by September 15, 2014

• Log in to YouTube. If you don’t have an account already, it’s easy and only takes a few minutes to set one up. The use of YouTube.com to accept contest entries does not imply an endorsement of the site or its parent company by Suffolk County. Users wishing to submit their entries directly may do so.
• Once your PSA or short film has been approved for contest entry, it will be posted to the YouTube Suffolk County crapSHOOT Film Contest channel
• You must post your video to your YouTube account by the August 15 deadline. Please forward the YouTube e-mail verification that your video has been uploaded to [email protected]

Step 4: Make it Official – Complete the Entry Form

NOTE: Videos must be uploaded or postmarked by September 15, 2014. Suffolk County will not be responsible for videos if they are lost or destroyed.

NO VIDEO WILL BE CONSIDERED WITHOUT A SIGNED ENTRY FORM, which must be postmarked by September 15, 2014.

Privacy Policy

Personal information collected from video submitters to the Suffolk County crapSHOOT Film Contest will never be sold. The information collected for this contest will only be used to contact video submitters in direct relation to the contest.

The contest winners’ names (and the names of any honorable mentions Suffolk County may select) will be announced publicly, after consultation with the winner and any honorable mentions, as a part of the Suffolk County crapSHOOT Film Contest award recognition process.

All personal information collected through the Contest Web site will be destroyed within 6 months of the conclusion of the Suffolk County crapSHOOT Film Contest. Any videos posted to YouTube will be subject to YouTube’s privacy policy.