Tigervision recently placed third out of 16 schools in a regional competition hosted by the Texas Department of Transportation. Seniors Austin Ryden and Matthew Crawford and junior Connor Williams created a public service announcement about the dangers of distracted and drunk driving. In addition to having their video advance to a larger area competition, the three won $600 for Project Celebration after prom.

“Our video centers around a girl and her [significant other]. They’re at a party and the girl refuses to drink alcohol,” Crawford said. “Once they get in the car, her drunk [significant other] wants to drive and she takes the keys away from him because he’s drunk. However, once she gets in the car and starts driving, she starts texting and she ends up crashing.”

The emphasis of the dangers of texting and driving was an important part of Tigervision’s public service announcement. Not only did it set them apart from the competition, it also highlighted a risk that many teenagers take daily.

“You see, PSAs that draw too much attention to drunk driving,” Williams said. “You never see them about texting and driving and that’s equally as dangerous.”

Creating the video was a complex process, as the team had to find a way to simulate crashing cars on film.

“We had to film some footage of backing out away from a car and we reversed it when we edited so it looked like the cars were crashing were crashing into each other.” Ryden said. “Then we projected it onto a screen with the girl in the truck with the screen in front of the windshield so it looks like she’s driving into the car.”

In addition, the contest placed strict time constraints on the entries, which proved to be only a small obstacle for Tigervision.

“The video could only be 60 seconds maximum,” Ryden said. “We had to use your time in the film really well.”

Despite missing out on the grand prize, the team feels proud of their work.

“I feel good about the product we made. It was a solid product and it was good from a film standpoint,” Crawford said. “Although a little bit more emotion would have helped us with the judges, I’m happy with what we made.”