Wanted: Wacky, wild, in-your-face ideas!

Anyone with a smartphone can enter, including kids and students with a passion for environmental issues. Everyone is invited to have their say, their way and win more than Bt50,000 in prizes! Best of all, the winner will have 60 seconds of fame as their short film is shown in front of 1,000 eco warriors at the upcoming PHIST event in Phuket in September.
Off the back of the biggest sustainability event in the region last year, the organisers of PHIST (Phuket Hotels for Islands Sustaining Tourism) 2019 have a message for all eco warriors: “Get down with digital and set the cameras rolling – with the filter set to green”.
The brainchild of PHIST co-founder Bill Barnett, Green Beat 60 is an innovative video competition that offers a completely no-holds barred opportunity for budding eco activists to show for a minute what makes them mad about the environmental mess we are in.
“When it comes to the environment, the kids are leading the way – just look at Greta Thunberg and the School Strike 4 Climate campaign. So let’s listen to them. Green Beat 60 invites schoolchildren and students to share their ideas about the environment, what it means to them, and how the future will look unless we get it sorted. It’s fun, it’s engaging and it doesn’t matter how insane it is – we’re listening,” Barnett says.
Green Beat 60 invites all ages to create 60-second videos on an environmental theme that really matters to them. Climate change, ocean plastic, deforestation, wildlife extinction, food shortages, soil degradation and the like. “Unfortunately the list of critical issues facing Planet Earth is long. But we're creating an opportunity to bang the drum about it,” he says.
No special equipment is needed; any mobile device or digital camera will do. Drone shots are also welcome. So whether you’re a student with an exciting project, a school class saving the rainforest, colleagues curing climate change, or simply someone with a story to tell, the competition wants to hear from you. Documentaries, sketches, skits, vlogs and music videos are all invited, as long as they don't exceed 60 seconds.
Filmmakers will be judged in eight categories, ranging from primary school age to university students, families, community groups, hotels and more. The best film from each category will be screened at PHIST 2019, the sustainability forum that attracts more than 500 tourism and hospitality delegates from across Southeast Asia. The top three entries will receive prizes, including Bt65,000 worth of retail and hospitality vouchers, and the best film will win the Green Beat Best Film Award.