SEVA Contest Information

2025 SEVA Contest

Entries Due: Wednesday, February 26, 2025
Award Night: Sunday, April 27, 2025

Open to all students of SECC member districts in Sacramento County (K-20), the Student Educational Video Awards (SEVA) contest is the culmination of the year-long SEVA Program and celebrates the talents and visions of student video producers. The SEVAs are coordinated by the Sacramento Educational Cable Consortium (SECC) and sponsored in-part by Comcast and the Sacramento Metropolitan Cable Television Commission. The contest is free to enter.

2025 Defining Moment Recognition

This year’s Defining Moment Recognition will be given to students who use their SEVA as a chance to share a “defining moment” in their lives over the past year. Students who are interested in this special recognition – in addition to a SEVA or Honorable Mention – must include a brief explanation in their SEVA entry.

The 2025 SEVA Contest is Now Closed

How to Enter
Grade Levels
Categories
Judging Rubrics
Captioning
Copyright Info
Tech Requirements
Content Guidelines
Release Form
Upload Files
Interviews
Get Help

Step 1: Create your video and have all of your talent and producers sign release forms either via document download or digital sign. Please make sure to have your talent send you a copy of their completed form to include with your entry.

Step 2: Caption your video and download your .SRT or .SBV or .VTT file to submit with your entry or provide burn-in captioning. Follow this tutorial for captioning through YouTube.

Step 3: Complete the SEVA Entry form, being sure to check your spelling, proper capitalization and punctuation. Please note that if you’d like to complete the form over time, first use the entry worksheet found on secctv.org/seva to save your progress. You’ll still need to move your information to this form to submit. Once you submit this form, your teacher will receive an email with all details you submitted. Please make sure you are communicating with your teacher regarding your entry as SECC will request a final approval from them regarding your entry.

Step 4: Upload and send all releases as well as the captioning file to SECC by Wednesday, February 26, 2025 at 5PM. Please be sure to name all your files with the exact program title you entered. All materials must be received prior to the deadline for your entry to be accepted. You may also drop-off your materials to the SECC Office by the entry deadline.

Note: In fairness to all – LATE ENTRIES OR PAPERWORK WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED – NO EXCEPTIONS.

Step 5: Teachers will be sent a spreadsheet with all of their student’s entries on Thursday, February 27th. They will need to confirm their approval of all entries by 5PM Friday, February 28th for videos to move on to the judging process.

Step 6: Last step! Celebrate SEVA Award Night!

Grades K-3
Grades 4-6
Grades 7-8
Grades 9-12
College/University

Creative Expression
This category includes productions that may contain fictional content, humor, animation, book trailers, music videos or any program that has an educational message and does not fit into the other four categories. [Creative Expression Examples]

Documentary
An in-depth educational study of any program length about classroom curriculum topics, issues or people in current events or history. [Documentary Examples]

Instructional
Provides “how to” advice or teaches a subject or skill related to an educational topic. [Instructional Examples]

Public Service Announcements (PSA)
A :30 (+/- :01) promotional piece about an educational topic or community concern. Credits are not included in the 30 seconds. [PSA Examples]

School News
Campus news stories, full broadcasts or coverage of a school event. Please note: School Newscast & News Story are separated for the entry process. They will be judged with separate rubrics, but they will compete against each other in the overall “School News” category. [School News Examples]

The Google Sheet rubrics are view only documents. To modify a rubric, you can go to File > Make a copy and save it to your Google account to customize the document.

It’s a Student Video Contest
Students must produce their videos with MINIMAL parental and teacher involvement. Any indication that major amounts of the video were produced by adults and not the student will result in the video being disqualified from the contest.

Judges reserve the right to not award a SEVA in any category or to disqualify an entry that doesn’t follow the SEVA rules (such as incomplete releases, copyright infringement, late entry, excessive teacher/parent involvement). Each year, we have disappointed students and teachers due to this rule. Please double check your entry form and video to assure compliance.

Closed Captioning
In an effort to be fully inclusive of all viewers, SEVA requests producers to close caption their entry and submit the captioning file (.SRT or .SBV) with their entry data. This will allow all viewers to fully understand your video, regardless of a linguistic barrier or hearing impairment. The captioning policy applies all videos that contain any audio. Even if your video doesn’t include any spoken dialogue you should still include a captioning file.

A captioning file contains a simple, timecoded transcript of your video which can be viewed with a basic text editing program. Your finished captioning file will look something like this:

1
00:00:00,100 –> 00:00:03,100
– The Student Educational
Video Awards is the contest

2
00:00:03,100 –> 00:00:05,620
to showcase your educational
video productions.

The captioning process is quick and free through the captioning tools on YouTube. We’ve created a short instructional video to explain the process: Closed Captioning with YouTube. You can also view the instructions in handout form.

SEVA Entries Must Use Only Copyright-Free Materials
If you include any elements (video, photos, graphics and/or music) not created by you, your entry MUST BE ACCOMPANIED BY PERMISSION WAIVERS from the copyright holder or provide Creative Commons Licensing obtained from their sources that allow for the use of their content on YouTube and on TV. Entries that contain unauthorized copyrighted elements will be disqualified from the contest. SECC’s policy may be different than your school/district policy. For SEVA, SECC policies apply since entries are cablecast on television and presented online.

If you would like to request permission to use copyrighted materials in your video, SECC has created sample letter you can send to the copyright holder. You can download the letter and modify to suit your individual needs. As permissions can take some time to obtain, please plan accordingly as all waivers must be submitted by the entry deadline.

Music
Although many music providers claim to be Royalty-Free, the fine print many require a paid license for playback on cable TV. For this reason, sources such as BenSound, Freeplay Music, Epidemic Sound, AudioJungle, Purple Planet and others should NOT be used in your video. Please read through all the terms and conditions of any music you use in your video. NCS, No Copyright Sounds and Youtube Music Library tracks are not allowed in the SEVAs.

Approved Free Music Sources:
Student-Created Music (GarageBand or similar)
WeVideo
Incompetech Creative Commons (must credit this source)
Sounds Crate
Pixabay
Not sure? Ask us PRIOR to entering the contest.

Please be aware that in addition to its cable channels, SECC utilizes YouTube for sharing videos online. Any audio/visual content that receives a YouTube Content ID claim is subject to SECC action, including audio muting, video editing, censoring/visual blurring and/or removal from SECC YouTube channel. For more information about YouTube Content ID, visit YouTube Help.

Stock Footage
The SEVAs highly encourage student producers to shoot their own footage. You can include stock footage (for example – WeVideo stock footage) in your entry, but if a significant part of your video is stock footage, you will only not be able to earn any of the points in the “Shot Quality” portion of the judging rubric. Please note: historical footage or footage from government archives will not count as stock footage.

Video Game Footage
Licensing terms may vary from game to game, so it is important for producers to carefully read the license for each game. While one video game may allow for the capture and sharing of user-generated screen captures, another might not. Please include the written proof of the copyright policy such as an excerpt from the licensing terms.

Cite Your Sources & Secure Permission for Images & Videos
Many SEVA entries include facts and information about a particular topic. Whenever you quote, paraphrase, summarize, or otherwise refer to the work of another, you are required to cite its source. During your show or in the credits, be sure to cite where your information came from, just as you would do a bibliography for a paper. If you use images or videos that you did not shoot yourself, you need to get written permission from the copyright holder to include those in your SEVA video.

All video, photos, graphics and music must be original or proof of permission to use the copyrighted elements must be provided prior to the entry deadline.

Delivery
SEVA entries can be submitted in several different ways:
+ Youtube Link (preferred)
+ Quicktime digital file (.MP4) on a USB drive. Please be sure to name your file the same as your entry name.
+ Captioning File (.SRT or .SBV) on a USB drive or upload with your entry information. Please be sure to name your .SRT or .SBV file the same as your video entry name.

File Details
+ File Format: Quicktime (.MP4)
+ Video Compression: .H264
+ Acceptable frame sizes: 1920×1080
+ Frame Rate: 29.97 fps (Important!)
+ Target Bit Rate: 5.00+ Mbps
+ Audio Compression: AAC or Uncompressed
+ Audio Quality: 320 kbps, 48 kHz, Stereo or Mono
+ File Naming Convention: Make sure your file name matches the name of your video

Be sure to check your file prior to submission to make sure it’s the best possible quality and plays properly. Videos can be submitted in languages other than English, but must contain English subtitles.

USB drives will be returned with the judging reports at Award Night.

The Student Educational Video Awards are intended for all grades kindergarten through college, and as such, each video needs to be appropriate viewing material for all ages. Additionally, videos entered may be shown to SECCTV’s audiences in homes across the region via cable and worldwide online. Each video not only represents the student producer but also their school and teacher. It is up to teachers to decide if videos meet the “family-friendly” criteria and should be entered into the contest, therefore each teacher will need to give final approval for each video entered.

Talent & Producer Releases
As a producer, you need to have the permission of each person in your video. Get your talent (and their parents if under 18) to sign releases before you start shooting so that you know they can be in your video. As producer, you will also need to have a release signed. There is a digital talent release and a downloadable PDF talent release available. If using the digital release form, make sure to have your talent send you a copy of their completed form to include with your entry.

Talent / Producer Release Form PDF Download
Talent / Producer Release Form Digital Sign Link
Talent / Producer Release Form PDF in Spanish

After you have completed the online entry form, you will be emailed an upload link to upload all of your materials – including releases and captioning file. Teachers may also share a Google Drive folder with SECC or deliver a USB drive containing entry materials. All materials, including releases and captioning need to be submitted by the deadline. Please be sure to name all your files with the exact program title you entered.

Learn more about how you can record your Official Student Producer Interview.