And the Winners Are…

The 5th Annual Save Water Video Contest received more than 90 video entries from the following Monterey Bay area high schools: Aptos, Carmel, Gonzales, Pajaro Valley, Scotts Valley and Watsonville High School! Water conservation staff from the member agencies of the Water Awareness Committee of Monterey County and the Water Conservation Coalition of Santa Cruz County screened and scored the videos in April and May 2019 through three rounds of judging.

Judges selected two first place winners, four runners up, and three honorable mention videos. First place teams will receive $500 prizes and runner up teams will receive $350 prizes. All selected videos will be honored at their Water District’s Board Meeting and be broadcast on TV, at local movie theaters, and online! Read more about our contest winners in this press release. Without further ado, please check out the

2019 Winning Videos

Awards ceremonies include:

Tuesday May 21st: Winners from Aptos High School will be honored at the Soquel Creek Water District Board Meeting
June 25^th: Screening and award ceremony for video contest winners from Watsonville High School and Pajaro Valley High School at the Watsonville City Council Meeting
Thursday, June 27 at 9 am: Screening and award ceremony for our winning students and teachers from Carmel High School and Gonzales High School at the Carmel Area Wastewater District Board Meeting

2019 Video Contest Theme:

Your goal is to create a high-quality video that convinces people to save and protect water by learning more about this year’s theme, Water Wise Gardening. Choose from one of these video submission categories:

Inspire residents and/or businesses to take one or two specific actions that conserve water or prevents pollution in our gardens. See the Monterey Bay Friendly Landscaping Program for ideas.
Tell a story about a resident or business that has taken action in their landscape to conserve our water resources or prevent water pollution. See these transformed landscapes for ideas of sites to feature.
Create a visual representation of how much water is saved by being water wise in the garden. Create an infographic, an animated video or use special effects to convey data about the water saved using Water Wise Gardening techniques.

This slide show about the video contest gives you tons of inspirational information for your video. It focuses on water saving strategies in the garden that our local water agencies have prioritized as the most effective actions locals can take.

Need some inspiration? Check out the winning videos from previous contests.

Video Format:

Content = 26 seconds long + 4 seconds of credits
English, Spanish, or both
Find the full media specifications and contest rules here.

Submission Guidelines:

The contest is open to high school and college students throughout Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties.
You may enter as an individual or a team.
Your video must be submitted no later than 12:00 am (midnight) on Tuesday April 17, 2019 by completing the following steps:

Upload your video to YouTube (at high definition).
Submit one online entry form per team or video.

Submit your entry form

Judging and Prize Info:

The winning videos will be announced and may be shown at awards ceremonies in April or May at your sponsoring agency. Winning videos will also be broadcast throughout the summer on local TV stations.

Top prizes get $500 to split evenly between the production crew.
Judges will be looking for incorporation of the theme (Water Wise Gardening), impact, creativity, informational accuracy, and entertainment value.