Environmental filmmaking workshops: Engaging university students on plastic pollution in Cambodia and Vietnam

‘Proof of concept’ science communication workshops were organised in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and Hanoi, Vietnam focussing on capturing community perceptions on environmental issues. The aim was to help students on environmental courses learn quick and easy ways to make impactful short films so as to communicate their science to the public and their peers on social media, which is widely used in the region.  The workshops lasted a day and taught students how to find a story, film it and edit it into a 1-minute video, with the videos shown at the end of the day in a mini ‘film festival’ and then shared by the students. Our research involves looking at plastic pollution in the Mekong River. In order to publicise the problem to the general public in the region the workshops with local students allowed us to tell environmental stories on social media from their perspective and streamlined the process of communication, providing content that could be shared widely. The workshops were very successful, and we now have a tried and tested method of training scientists in regions of the world where crucial scientific research is being carried out to effectively engage with their colleagues, the general public and the media in their region.