BRATTLEBORO — Brattleboro Community Television (BCTV) recently entered two pieces in the nationwide “Hometown Media Awards” contest hosted annually by the Alliance for Community Media, and won both categories.
BCTV entered a 19-minute piece in the Original Teleplay category for videos created by youth under 18. The winning video, Double Trouble: BCTV's Summer Video Camp Spectacular, features a mysterious cloning epidemic in downtown Brattleboro.
The story idea and script were written by the group of 10 children ages 10 to 12 who attended BCTV's week-long summer video camp in August 2011, and was inspired by the attendance of identical twins in the camp.
BCTV staff members Frederic Noyes and Roland Boyden supervised the production along with camp instructors Christopher Grotke and Clark Glennon. They attribute the success of the video to the originality and hard work of the youth production crew.
BCTV's submission of Brattleboro Community Television's 2011 Year in Review also was a contest winner in the About Access category, which is for videos created to inform the viewer about an access center or the concept of public access television.
The 7-minute piece is a compilation of clips from local programs created by BCTV volunteers and staff from the previous year, and was presented at BCTV's 2011 annual meeting. The montage highlighted the extraordinary work of BCTV volunteers and staff in covering the Brooks House fire and the impact of Tropical Storm Irene on downtown Brattleboro.
The awards ceremony will be held on Aug. 1 in Chicago at the Alliance for Community Media's annual conference. More information about the Hometown Media Awards can be found here at www.allcommunitymedia.org/latest-news/announcing-the-2012-hometown-media-award-winners.
This is BCTV's first national award, though BCTV producers have received regional awards in the recent past. Kathy Urffer received a first place regional award in 2010 from the Alliance for Community Media, Northeast Region, for Understanding Brattleboro's Wastewater Treatment Plant Upgrade.
Another volunteer producer, Theresa Maggio, received a second-place regional award in 2009 from the same organization for her documentary Living in Town.
Both of the award-winning videos are available at www.brattleborotv.org/?q=news/bctv-news/bctv-wins-two-national-video-awards.