No Disturbance! Camera, Lights, Teen Filmmakers Accept Driving Safety

 Toyota and Discovery Education Declare Finalists in Toyota TeenDrive365 Video Challenge

In the fourth year of this teen contest, teens across the country were invited to create short videos to encourage their friends to be brighter, more mature and drive safely, to avoid dangerous behavior behind the wheel. From more than 1,000 videos that were submitted this year, Toyota and Discovery Education, the leading provider of digital content and professional development for K-12 classrooms, declared the ten finalists chosen.

   

“Discovery Education is proud to partner with Toyota and we salute their leadership in addressing this critical need by providing young people with compelling digital resources and experiences that empower smart decision-making behind the wheel. “

“Each year we are impressed by the creativity and talent of the young filmmakers who enter the Toyota TeenDrive365 Video Challenge and this year was no exception,” said Michael Rouse, President of the Toyota U.S.A. Foundation. “At Toyota we believe that when good ideas are shared great things can happen. We applaud the teens who entered the challenge to share their vision to improve safe driving among their peers.” 

“We commend this year’s finalists and their use of digital storytelling skills to influence the behavior of their peers, and know that their hard work and creativity will help save lives across the country,” said Bill Goodwyn, president and CEO at Discovery Education. “Discovery Education is proud to partner with Toyota and we salute their leadership in addressing this critical need by providing young people with compelling digital resources and experiences that empower smart decision-making behind the wheel.”

Through April 30^th, the public can watch the finalist videos at http://www.teendrive365inschool.com/contests/6/vote and place their votes for the People’s Choice Winner, who will receive a $5,000 cash prize and a behind-the-scenes trip for two to a taping of a Velocity network show. Furthermore, a committee of judges at Toyota and Discovery Education will choose first, second and third place winners to receive the following awards:   

First Place - $15,000 and the chance to work with a Discovery film crew to reshoot their entry video into a TV-ready PSA to air on a variety of Discovery networks

Second Place - $10,000 and a behind-the-scenes trip for two to a Velocity network show taping

Third Place - $7,500

Last year, the grand prize went to Jenny Kim, Tyler Koski, Kevin Kim and Chase Masterstook of Irvine, Calif. Their video promoted a young boy who visits a tarot card reader and learns he has the power to dramatically change his future by avoiding distracted driving. The re-created PSA ran across Discovery’s family of networks and can be watched at http://www.teendrive365inschool.com/teens/video-archive.

An inclusive program offering a range of tools was designed specifically for school educators and teens. These tools offer to help teens prepare for the importance and responsibility of driving.

The program is a part of TeenDrive365 (www.teendrive365.com), Toyota’s initiative to help parents model safer driving attitude for their children. The program offers a collection of online tools, events, expert advice and tips as well as social media elements.

Toyota launched this program in November 2013. Since then millions of people have engaged with its online and in-person resources. Early this year, the program brought in a new disturbed driving simulator that uses Oculus Rift, the latest virtual reality technology, to bring the dangers of disturbed driving to life for parents and teens. You can see more of this if you visit www.TeenDrive365.com.