The 17th Youth in Film Awards ceremony (now known as the Young Artist Awards), presented by the Youth in Film Association, honored outstanding youth performers under the age of 21 in the fields of film, television and music for the 1994–1995 season, and took place in 1996 in Hollywood, California.[1][2][3]
Established organization to establish an awards ceremony specifically set to recognize and award the contributions of performers under the age of 21 in the fields of film, television, theater and music.[1][4][5]
Outstanding Contribution To Youth Through Entertainment
★ World Youth News – Kris Kollins and Mick Kollins
The power of video for kids is a message Mick and Kris Kollins want to get out to youth everywhere as well. After this father-and-son team saw studies showing that kids didn't like what they saw on the news—they felt all the stories were depressing and downbeat—they decided to create "World Youth News," a news program about kids, by kids from around the world.
Calling All Shooters
The first step in a process that has already put six episodes of "World Youth News" on the air was to contact schools around the world and ask them to put up "Help Wanted" flyers on job bulletin boards. The resulting response has been incredible. And it's easy to see why: "World Youth News" pays 250 dollars for each story they use. According to Mick, that's no small potatoes in some countries.
"In Eastern Europe, for instance, an adult male takes home the equivalent of about 150 US dollars a month. And that's considered a good salary. Now you get his kid who comes up with a story, videotapes it and sends it to us and we use it, that kid's got 250 US dollars. Let me tell you, that kid is suddenly a real hero."
"It gives them a real sense of purpose and legitimacy," says Kris. "We make ID cards for them—press badges. Some of our kids have used those press badges to get into political rallies and things like that."
Gaining Exposure
As of right now, "World Youth News" is on two different cable networks three times a week. Combined totals from both networks means WYN (pronounced "win") is currently in about 22 million homes. And that's just in the United States. European interest has been gaining steadily—20 countries are currently in negotiation. One, Saudi Arabia, has already placed an order for 26 episodes.
Success, however, has not been easy. "When we first finished the pilot, we took it to a lot of people and they simply didn't know what to do with it. It wasn't like anything they had seen before. It wasn't exactly a news show and it wasn't exactly some kind of entertainment. It was infotainment."
Still, Mick and Kris knew they were on to something. Says Mick: "The teen market is the largest market in the world, end of story. Last year, American teens, which number about 30 million, spent 57 billion dollars of their own money."
Says Kris: "Besides that, they are the most accessible group—the easiest to talk to. We've got it so they're the ones who are doing the shooting and they're the ones who are digesting that same information. We don't see a lot of good things for teens and we really wanted this to be one of the good things."
Making Plans
But "World Youth News" is only part of their plan. As they expand, their intention is to create the World Youth Network.
"Right now," Mick says, "we have a mini-CNN in place. We've got shooters all over the world who are sending us stories and whom we can contact to go and get a story for us. Our ultimate goal, however, is to expand into the on-line arena and become a complete on-line service. That way, people can send their videos to us straight into our computers and the users out there can have direct access to that same information. We want to provide a service where the user can become a participant."
"Besides," says Kris, "we've got a lot of footage that people have sent to us that we haven't been able to use yet, and we're in the process of archiving it. When we're finished, we'll have this incredible library of footage that, with the right software, people from anywhere in the world will be able to look at, just as if they're going to the library."
Direct work with the kids who shoot for them has already been happening. In one case, they received three different tapes from London, England, all on similar stories. The problem was that each tape wasn't really complete. "One had good camera work," Mick explains, "but lousy writing. Another had good writing, but lousy camera work." So Mick and Kris put all three into contact with each other and sent them out as a team to get the story on unemployment that appears in the first episode of "World Youth News."
"It's very interesting to see how kids from different countries have different skills and different approaches. But that still doesn't make me think they're really that different. I think if you went into any kid's room in any country in the world, you wouldn't be able to tell what country you were in. They're all wearing Reeboks and Levi's. I think kids are essentially the same the world over and that's why this concept is so powerful."
Interested in participating? The rules for becoming a correspondent are simple: you can be any age, but the ideal age is somewhere between twelve and twenty-five; you must have access to a video camera; and you must have something important to say.
"Obviously," Kris emphasizes, "the better the shooter you are, the better chance you have of seeing your story on the air. We do all the editing and graphics and final post-production work, so just get the best stuff you can and remember, quality audio is extremely important." (copyright Videomaker Magazine)
