By Melanie Petrucci, Senior Community Reporter
Northborough – What have you been doing during the COVID-19 pandemic? Northborough Cable Access Television (NCAT) would like to know and as such, is seeking residents’ home videos for its first-ever “All In It Together” Video Festival.
The festival was conceived to showcase the many fun and entertaining videos residents have, or will create, these “stay at home” times due to the coronavirus.
“We are trying to get residents to send us videos of all kinds to be broadcast on our station. We are looking for videos of activities that families are doing together. Ideas include cooking shows such as teens making healthy snacks, funny skits, Claymation, children’s activities, music performances, family greetings to relatives, etc.,” explained Kathleen Dalgliesh, NCAT’s director. “We will be having a ‘Premiere’ night of videos. If there are a lot of videos, we may turn this into a regular event.”
The multiple age categories include: Pre-K through grade 8, grades 9-12, adults, and families.
Other ideas to consider are a game or movie review show, planting a vegetable garden, a mindfulness session, yoga class, poetry reading and pet tricks
“Once we hold our video festival night, which will be announced at a later date, we will be submitting all videos to the Historical Society for their archives,” Dalgliesh added.
“The Northborough Historical Society is happy to be collaborating with the Northborough Cable team to help capture the town’s experience during the COVID-19 pandemic. We are looking for any stories, pictures, poems, songs, etc. that people would like to share regarding this unique time in our town’s history. The videos and pictures will be stored in the Historical Society for people to view after this time is done,” added Ken Bennet, the society’s president. .
Those interested are urged to be as creative as possible and of course, be family-friendly (no violence, cursing, cruelty or dangerous activities). Videos should be no longer than five minutes in length.
“Make us laugh, teach us and share with your neighbors how you are using your time while flattening the curve by staying home,” Dalgliesh said.
Helpful hints: if using a smartphone, make sure that it is horizontal (landscape) and when submitting it to the station’s Dropbox make sure that it is no larger than 2GB. Please verify that all parties present in the video are aware of the video’s purpose and have given consent to it being used by NCAT.
Content created by anyone under the age of 18 must be submitted by a parent or guardian.
A required form must accompany each submission which can be found by visiting: https://www.town.northborough.ma.us/cable-access-television/webforms/all-it-together-video-festival-submission-form.
Finally, submit the video clip by uploading it into the station’s Dropbox https://www.dropbox.com/request/06EZb07dNuUgNT1yrLYf or upload it to YouTube and share the URL. For more information contact Dana at [email protected].
