The past year has been a trying time for everyone. Businesses have shut down. Entertainment venues have gone dark. And youth sports have come to a near standstill. The latter especially has had a significant impact on kids and their overall mental and physical wellbeing. So UCHealth decided to do something to bring together young soccer players and their families across Colorado in these quarantined times, shining a light on the importance of youth sports.

Inspired by the spirit of competition, UCHealth and their partner, Colorado Rapids Youth Soccer Club (CRYSC), teamed up with Cinebody to use the power of video crowdsourcing to try and break a Guinness World Record. The record they chose to shoot for? Getting over 450 individual people to pass a soccer ball in an online video chain. Seriously, that’s actually a record!

Getting Started: The Power of Video Crowdsourcing

To accomplish this feat involving feet, a soccer player was to be filmed standing in the center of the frame as someone off-camera passes them the ball from the left, then the player receives the ball, does a little trick, and then passes it off-camera to the right. Many clips like this would then be edited together to make it appear as though a player in one clip was passing the ball to the player in the next clip. The end goal was to have enough clips of different players passing to surpass the world record.

The most challenging part of this run at glory involved getting enough people on board. Participants were encouraged through CRYSC emails, social channels, emails, and coaches to play along. The ask? To simply click a link to download the Cinebody app and get in on the potentially record-breaking video.

The app offered easy onboarding for the young players and their parents. Once downloaded, anyone could join the project and follow the specific directions, including a shot list with desired camera settings and orientation so all the participants’ footage would be consistent. Then everything filmed would auto-upload to the cloud for immediate access and review by everyone in UCHealth’s editing department. The app made the entire process as challenging as a penalty shot with no goalie.

Inspiring Competition: UCHealth and CRYSC's Endeavor

How did this UCHealth and CRYSC collaboration turn out? It broke the world record! Take a look at the winning entry here. The 476 little Neymars- and Alex Morgans-in-the-making can now see themselves on the pages of Guinness.   

A Win-Win Situation: Celebrating Collaboration

“This was a win-win situation for everyone involved,” said Dan Luce, Partnerships at UCHealth. He added, “Partnering with CRYSC to pull this off and give kids something to do during the pandemic was a no-brainer. And Cinebody helped make it happen. The app made the production process super simple and helped us accomplish both our goals: to have fun, and promote healthy interaction among soccer fans across Colorado. You can’t beat that.”

Takeaway: Unleashing the Power of Video Production

If a hospital can partner with a youth soccer organization and smash a world record, just imagine what you could create with video production software.The possibilities are endless. UCHealth, CRYSC, and Cinebody's initiative proved that with creativity and technology, anything is possible.