IE – Whats Your Story

Shane & the King Family won the Critic’s Choice award of EUR 1,000 with STOP, THINK, CHECK

They answered some questions for What’s Your Story?

Tell us a little about yourself?

We are the King family from Ballinagore, a small picturesque village in the heart of Ireland in County Westmeath. Shane, our video editor and presenter is 16 and in Transition Year at Mercy Secondary School Kilbeggan. Emma, the lead character in the short video, is 14 and in second year. Conor, our cameraman, is 11 and in sixth class at St. Patricks N.S Ballinagore. Dad, Mark is an Intel employee and Mom, Aisling, our weather presenter works with the HSE.

Where did you hear about WYS?

During lockdown in 2021 we had plenty of time on our hands and wanted something exciting to do. Given our interest in video making and acting we decided to enter a video competition as a fun family activity. Through some research online we came across ‘What’s Your Story’ and decided to give it a go. This is our second time entering the competition and have had a great experience on both occasions.

What was it that encouraged you to enter?

We really enjoyed the experience when we entered in 2021 and needed no encouragement to enter again.

 Who else was involved in making the video?

Our whole family was involved in the production of this video. Shane presented the video, Emma was the lead character, Aisling was our weather presenter, Mark was our friend on the phone and Conor was our talented cameraman.

Where did you get your inspiration and ideas from?

We got our ideas from a brainstorming session before creating the video. We got our inspiration from sources like Media Literacy Ireland and from some of our own real life experiences.

How long did it take to make the video? Tell us about the process you went through to get the video to its final edit.

Once the theme and ideas for the video had been established we then started recording each scene individually. All the scenes were captured in our home . We also had to set up the green screen and record those various elements.  A few takes were required, as a few bloopers happened along the way!! The final task was to import all the video clips into the video editing software Filmora.  Shane then had to cut and overlay the clips, adjust the audio, add music and export the final video.

Would you recommend WYS to others?

We would absolutely recommend ‘What’s Your Story’ to others. The fun we had as a family making the video has created memories that we will have forever. The skills we developed during the competition are ones that will stand to us for many years to come and the prizes that we have won have been very beneficial in adding to our video equipment.

Any ideas on how you plan to spend your prize money?

We plan to spend the money on a new camera which will really help in creating top quality videos for future competitions and our own home productions. We then hope to spend the balance on our next family holiday.

So, what’s next in your future?

In the immediate future we hope to continue creating home made videos for the What’s Your Story competition and other projects we love creating together. After School Shane hopes to study journalism.