Can children handle video cameras? If they could, where do they access the equipment? Who will oversee editing and scoring? Will the outputs be of broadcast quality?

There were more questions than answers and the most nagging one was the availability of video cameras with which to enter the contest. It turned out the answers were floating everywhere, just waiting to be picked.

Surely any Pinoy child would have a father, uncle, godfather or neighbor who has worked overseas, ours being a migrant worker nation. In stints abroad, the Pinoy would invariably invest in some form of video equipment, with which he captures his golden moments away from kith and kin.

Back home, the equipment becomes part of the worker’s trophy harvest, best harnessed in usage when there are more would-be admirers around: Fiestas, weddings, funerals, graduations. The device retires in its assigned nook in a cabinet until the next party.

Many mobile phones have videocams installed in them and no well-placed Pinoy would be seen with an analog unit these days. Children today, thanks to the wide availability of all forms of modern technology are so much savvier than their parents that it seems as though technical proficiency is a birthmark.

Furthermore, the hours spent relentlessly viewing programs on TV have equipped the modern child an astute TV sense and a high level of video smartness that he is easily able to discern entertaining from boring TV within less than the first hundred frames. The child is consequently sharp with image composition, always aspiring to be as sassy and quick with his own video frames. Television is his video university; his camera teachers are his favorite shows.

It was therefore not a surprise to see a fairly high level of video maturity with the entries to Batang Brodkaster. Judges like Ed Roces of SEAFCTV, independent producers Lem and Espie Garcellano, CPA Randy delos Reyes, this writer and Ivy Mendoza of Manila Bulletin as well as the entire Anak TV secretariat found it rather difficult to select one top winner. As a compromise, two were picked out because they represented varying styles and thematic slants.

The winners? Both sixth graders from private schools. (DepEd vows to field entries from public schools with a vengeance when it is launched in February next year.)

Twelve-year-old Racquel Gertrude Correa of Miriam Grade School in Quezon City chose to probe Japanese porno anime (hentai) and using a power pointlike presentation added views by her schoolmates. Her chosen title (Kabataan) was broad and sweeping and rather inappropriate but the content and her treatment pulled it off. It was like an advocacy piece for responsible viewing!

Racquel’s father Camilo came to the star studded ceremony in her stead that morning as the young winner had to fly with her mother for a HongKong holiday.

Baguio Achievers Academy is proud to have Francis Gavreel Villanueva in its roster. He was the other winner and came to the awarding dapper in a smart jacket worn over his school uniform. Francis is an achiever and was born to a family of artists. It was not surprising that his material was rich in footage about his artistic environment. The video was overflowing with possibilities for editing. Currently, Francis is editorial cartoonist of their school newsletter.

The winning entries will be retooled by professionals, certainly with the young producers’ permission and supervision, to be sent to international competitions such as the forthcoming Basel Media Forum. It is this column’s hope that the entries will put the Philippines in the global children’s video map.