Very rarely does a high-quality production turn around so quickly. However, at Coastal Carolina University it does.
Classes started here on campus last Monday. At the end of the week prior to school starting, Bill Plate, our Associate Vice President for University Communication, had an idea. Inspired by the success that some other universities had with showcasing campus life with a certain wildly popular song, he believed that CCU would also generate enthusiasm and pride doing something similar. He was right on.
Several universities out east have featured their students and faculty/staff dancing to the song “Happy” by Pharrell. These videos show the university community dancing at different spots all over campus. With smiles and interesting/awkward/questionable moves, the videos paint the picture of joyful and beautiful learning institutions. Even though everyone already knows that Coastal is a joyful and beautiful place, we wanted to drive home the point even more.
On Tuesday of last week Bill, Martha, our video crew, and myself sat down for a meeting. We discussed the project and the locations that we wanted to film. Our award-winning video team then went to work.
During the hottest and one of the busiest weeks of the year our video guys outdid themselves. Going all around campus in the brutal heat while convincing students to dance on camera, they logged plenty of long, hot hours. Besides the impromptu video shoots they also organized and executed several planned shoots as well. With the “Happy” song playing in their heads when they went to bed at night, the project really started to come together. Only a few days after that Tuesday morning meeting most of the shooting was completed. Then came of course the significant task of editing all of the dancing, moving, and grooving into an organized piece.
Yesterday afternoon, the video guys invited all of us in University Communication to come over to their stomping grounds of Hampton Hall for a premiere showing. We sat down, Bryan Stalvey (video mastermind) gave us an introduction, and then we watched the 2:24 minute piece. When the screen went dark there was an enthusiastic round of applause and a unanimous request to play it again.
Rather than talk about the parts in the video that make it so great, I will just let you watch it. The whole piece screams Coastal. It is fresh, well-done, and logical. I have seen several of these videos and the version put together by Coastal Carolina University is one of the best. Our social media audience thinks so too. With over 200 shares and 3,000 views, the Coastal community gave this project two thumbs up.
Credit to Bill for pushing to have this project done and credit/respect/thankfulness to our video team for putting in an amazing effort and creating a truly awesome piece. Coastal Carolina University just became even more attractive to prospective students. Don’t Blink.
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