— THE LAB
At Kainaat Studios we believe in using creativity to foster a connection with the universe, and to build curiosity in science and astronomy.
Kainaat works through ambassadors: young people who learn the principles of good science communication and put them to use. Until now that happened in person, in schools.
The Experimental Video Lab moves that into the visual: students in Grades 10–12, anywhere in Pakistan, in small production teams. The range is the point — different cities, different backgrounds, different instincts about how a thing should be said.
Each team answers a key question of our time in pictures, anchored to 2027, when a total solar eclipse crosses most parts of the world. Where are we now, and where are we headed? We would like that answered here, by the people who will live with the answer.
15-20
STUDENTS SELECTED
3
THEMES IN PLAY
3-4
PRODUCTION TEAMS
10
WEEKS OF PRODUCTION
— WHO YOU ARE
A young creative mind with an interest
in communicating science and digital media.
GRADE 10 to 12
AGE 16 to 20
WHERE Anywhere in Pakistan
APPLY IF
— You want to make things with creative people whose backgrounds are nothing like yours.
— You want to learn from people who do this for a living: animation, storytelling, science communication.
— You want your work in front of a digital audience, not just a folder on your laptop.
ALL YOU NEED
A phone that shoots clean video, an internet connection and curiosity. We supply the science, and we place you in a team.
We read every application ourselves, and everyone who applies hears back either way.
Some examples.
There is no right or wrong way to do this. These five all found their own, and none of them cost much. We are looking for experimentation, and for people who push the envelope further than this.
What you actually deliver.
FIRST PIECE — REQUIRED
Reel 1
One to two minutes, vertical, on your team’s theme. Every team makes one, and every team takes a different theme.
SECOND PIECE — YOUR CHOICE
Reel 2, or go long
A Another 1–2 minute reel, on a second theme.
B A 4–5 minute documentary-fiction hybrid across themes. Clear review and it can go to Labocene.
HOW WE WORK WITH YOU
Guided, stage by stage
Premise, script and storyboard, draft, final. Each stage brings resources, a check-in and a review, plus expert talks.
Team structure.
Small teams, each person owning one craft. Which craft is yours?
Writer / Director
Finds the story inside a research question, decides what the film argues, and retains that clarity through the final edit.
Videographer / Editor
Shoots and cuts. Owns how the film looks, how fast it moves and how it sounds.
Designer / Animator
Builds the world inside each story: titles, diagrams, motion, the parts of space that have to be drawn.
Digital Marketer
Plans how the film reaches people. Owns the release, the platform and the audience.
Each team is led by a manager from a previous cohort: someone who hit the same walls recently, and talks about it as a peer rather than a teacher.
— WHAT YOU GET OUT OF IT
Scientifically sound creative art,
ready for the digital universe.
MENTORSHIP
Notes from people who have delivered for us
A team lead from a previous cohort, plus astronomers, filmmakers and editors who read your work at every stage and tell you what is landing.
A SCREENING
Your work in a room, with an audience
The Lab ends in a public screening and exhibition, part premiere and part installation. The bar is high, and the work that gets there has earned it.
REACH
Credit, and a real audience
Finished work goes out on Kainaat’s channels with your name on it. The strongest pieces go forward to festivals and platforms abroad.
WHAT COMES AFTER
A place in the house band
Kainaat is building a house band: a standing group of makers the studio keeps working with. Some of this cohort will join it, on productions through the year and leading the next Lab.
WHO YOU LEARN FROM
Everything is taught from inside Kainaat, on two tracks.
THE STUDIO
Sessions run by the Kainaat team: research and fact-checking, story structure, shooting on the gear you own, edit discipline, and the principles of science communication the studio runs on.
YOUR MANAGER
A manager from a previous cohort, with your team at every stage. They went through this recently enough to remember where it gets hard.
— BEFORE YOU ASK
Let’s answer some key questions.
21 AUG
2026
Applications open
11 SEP
2026
Applications close
14 SEP
2026
The Lab begins
— APPLY
Tell us what
you’d make.
One person, one form, about ten minutes. We read everything ourselves, and you will hear back either way.