Lifestyle

The "Love Green: Just Bin It!" campaign mascot, aptly named Mr Bin, made appearances at various parks and gardens to promote the video competition.

In “Littering = Trouble”, guerilla tactics are employed to catch a litterbug in action.

In “Learn to bin it yourself!”, an intelligent gorilla teaches an errant litterbug a painful lesson.

In “Alabbin”, a genie cleans up the litter-strewn parks, so that this little girl can play in clean surroundings.

<<

>>

Just what do guerillas, a gorilla, and a genie all have in common? Apart from beginning with the letter “g”, these were the subjects featured in the top three winning entries in the “Love Green: Just Bin It!” video competition.

Organised by NParks in April this year, in conjunction with the “Love Green: Just Bin It!” movement, this video competition set out to win the support of the ‘wired’ generation in spreading the anti-littering message.  And judging by the 78 entries which NParks received over a two-month period, the competition’s message certainly met its mark.

One reason for the enthusiastic response could be the attractive cash prizes, including a top prize of $10,000 cash.  In a twist of irony, the prize money for the competition was actually funded from the fines which NParks collected from litterbugs. 

Members of the public chose the competition’s winners, through a three-week voting exercise. Apart from the winners of the three top prizes and six consolation prizes, three other videos were awarded special prizes for their creativity, messaging and quality. These “NParks’ Choice” videos are featured below:

In “A Romantic Affair”, Schlag Alexander and his friends portrayed their female lead as a compulsive user of tissue paper. This silent video had an artistic, “Chaplinesque” effect, brought out by the use of old-school costumes, fast-forward scenes and deliberate over-acting.

“My Park”, which was filmed at the Singapore Botanic Gardens and East Coast Park, stood out for its excellent video quality. The cinematography, angles and shots gave away the fact that it was not a maiden attempt by the filmmaker, Goh Kun Lei, 25.

Kun Lei, who recently graduated with a major in Digital Filmmaking, has been making videos and films since her undergraduate days. When asked about how she produced a video of such high quality, she said, “I guess the message is simple and direct, with the cinematography doing its work of attracting the audiences’ attention. The weather was good during our shoot, too.”

As for “Love Green – Just Bin It”, it was clearly seen that Airene Tan drew her inspiration from a popular credit card advertisement. The video featured a talent performing a familiar comical ‘dance’ in a number of different park environments.

With more than 110,000 views across all the video submissions, and numerous re-posts to blogs and Facebook profiles, there can be no doubt that the anti-littering message remains highly relevant in the digital age. And if you missed the video competition while it was in progress, you can still watch all the entries at http://www.nparks.gov.sg/justbinit !

By Grace Wong