Halloween PSA Challenge 

This Year's Halloween PSA Challenge Requirements:

90 seconds long

Choose category: Halloween Safety or Proper Halloween Etiquette

At least one Dutch angle shot

Must end with the tagline: "Have a safe and happy Halloween! Brought to you by NHHSC"

The New Hampshire Halloween Safety Commission invites students across New Hampshire to make and submit a 90 second PSA reminding kids and families of appropriate and safe behavior this Halloween season. 

Students must submit their PSAs under one of two categories: 

Halloween Safety (think dangerous candy, stranger danger, etc.) or 

Proper Halloween Etiquette (think vandalism, making fun of someone's costume, trick-or-treat etiquette).

The NHHSC is a fictional safety commission, designed to give New Hampshire's media students a taste of a real-world project. We encourage you to get creative and think about all the different things that can happen during Halloween and who is affected by them. Your PSA can be funny, shocking, scary, or thought provoking! We encourage students to think about Halloween from beginning to end and all the things that can go wrong/bad/unsafe within the holiday and how to advise the public to prevent this wrong/bad/unsafe thing...

From candy to costumes and houses to hauntings....

Pick a category, show what can go wrong, give viewers a solution, and finally end with the tagline. 

Dutch Angle Requirement

For a Dutch angle, the camera is slanted to one side. With the horizon lines tilted in this way, you can create a sense of disorientation, uneasiness, or give a viewer some insight into a character's disturbed or uneasy state of mind. It can bring tension or suspense to the scene. It is used in many scenes, across all genres.

Examples of Dutch angles used in cinema:

What is a PSA?

A public service announcement is a message spread in the interest of the public. Their objectives are to bring about awareness and change public attitudes, opinions, or even behavior towards an issue. These can be instructional, comedic, or even shocking to elicit emotion and action.

Not sure where to start? Read here:

• Choose your topic 

• What are the problems that can occur in this topic/situation?

• How can a viewer help prevent danger in this topic?

• Develop a story that brings awareness to your topic.

• Start with a statement like:

  • You may think being a Martian is easy... or;

  • When you are the last robot on Earth... or;

  • When you have been stuck in a spaceship for 900 days and everyone looks like...

• Show the problem(s).

• Show how to prevent the problem or resolve the problem.

• Create a Call To Action. This is what to do, who to call, or where to seek assistance for your problem.

• A call to action can sound like this: If you are experiencing transdimensional phase-shifting, now there is help...

• End with a memorable image. For example, an alien sitting in a support group, with tears of relief. 

PSA Making Tips:

• What is something dangerous/bad about your topic? 

• What behavior do you want your viewers changing? 

• Then develop a story to bring awareness to that topic.

• Show the problem in that topic - why is this dangerous/bad?

• You can show statistics to make an impact.

• Give the viewer a call to action or a way to correct that behavior.

• How does the viewer help/correct their behavior? Make an impact?

• A call to action can include a tagline, a website, a phone number, somewhere for the viewer to go or an action for the viewer to take.

Safety and other requirements:

1. Do not do anything that puts another person in danger

2. Do not bring any weapons (real or fake) on school property.

3. No nudity

4. Gore is okay but remember this is a PSA and must come across accordingly – see rule 1

5. No copywritten music

6. Must be 90 seconds or less 

7.  Films must have been produced after June 2025

8. Open to NH students only, enrolled in a NH High School or home schooled

9. Adult Supervisors (most likely your teacher) must fill out required form here

10. Must have verbal consent of any actors on screen

11. Must be HD - Please do not submit 4K or UHD video

Submissions are judged on technical execution but most importantly, PSAs are judged on how effective the messaging is on viewers in raising awareness about the student's chosen topic.

Please read:

NH Media Teachers group has two contests - the PSA challenge in the fall and the NH High School Short Film Festival in the spring.

We want to remind everyone that this is first and foremost a PSA challenge, not a narrative short film challenge. Meaning - the goal of this challenge is to create a video that informs and hopefully changes behavior or thinking of the viewer for the better. Ask yourself throughout the filmmaking process - Is this a PSA? Does it have a problem, solution, and call to action?  If you have an  awesome horror film idea that doesn't fit into the format of a PSA, we encourage you to make it for our main film festival in the spring,

 the New Hampshire High School Short Film Festival!

SUBMISSION LINK AT BOTTOM

Check out last year's winners!

Please see our Youtube page for all of 2024' PSAs.

SUBMIT HERE 

REQUIRED FORM 

Any questions email us at: 

nhhssff@gmail.com

And Happy Halloween!