One of the key ways a university attracts new students is with promotional videos featuring current students. Not only does it showcase real stories from real people, often answering the questions potential students may have, but it also spreads the message far and wide. Videos are easy to share, and these days that kind of content is essential. 

Adapting to Unprecedented Challenges

Colorado Mesa University wanted to showcase the day-to-day lives of a select group of students, in a docu-series they called “Making Mavericks,” they hit some stumbling blocks. The biggest was the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, which almost shut down the film production industry overnight. But there was also budget, timing, and logistics to work out. How do you film the daily routines of students with so many restrictions in place? How do you film students at all times of the day and night without eating up a ton of money, or intruding into their lives beyond what’s reasonable? And how do you increase application and admission rates if you can’t film promotional material?

Embracing a Maverick Mentality

In the face of these challenges, CMU had two options: either suspend the entire production or pivot and find an alternative solution. And in this case, “Making Mavericks” required CMU and their agency partner, Defy Them All, to think like mavericks. And even then, the slick footage captured by film production companies could only do so much. They couldn’t be around to capture the students in their element, from the early mornings to late at night. It would have been physically impossible, and prohibitively expensive. So, they chose User Generated Content and Cinebody. 

First Steps: Casting the Perfect Students

It’s a 10-hour round trip from Denver, home of production agency Lumenati, and CMU in Grand Junction. So, identifying and selecting the perfect students would require a bit of savvy thinking. Lumenati first utilized Cinebody as a remote casting tool. No need for a complex interview schedule or any time-consuming travel. Students were sent a link to download the app to their smartphones and were given a shot list. They could then film their own audition in their own time and submit it. The whole process was streamlined, saving CMU time and money. 

Overcoming Time Constraints: A 4-Day Filming Marathon

Say those words to any producer or director and they’ll look at you like you’re one sandwich short of a picnic. It’s an aggressive timeline to say the least. 

“Forget the obvious challenges posed by COVID. We had 4 days to capture footage for 12 different deliverables,” said Allie Meikle, Sr. Producer, Lumenati Productions. “From my experience, that’d traditionally require up to two  weeks minimum of production, especially when needing intimate footage that would require following a subject around with a camera from sunrise to sunset.”

Two weeks squeezed into just four days, in which you have to capture round-the-clock footage of four different students? Impossible. Unless, of course, you can let the students do their own filming. The latest iPhones contain all the tech needed to capture high-quality footage. With Cinebody loaded onto their phones, complete with the shot list they needed and forced camera settings to ensure all content looked the same, they were off to the races. In fact, with footage being auto-uploaded in RAW format, Lumenati was seeing content rolling in before the shoot even began. That head-start knocks days off the editing time, and in this case condensed the theoretical filming window by over a week. 

Elevating Authenticity: B-Roll by the Students

We’ve said it before, and we’ll keep on saying it. People want authenticity. There’s a reason so many YouTubers are out there getting millions of followers, while glossy brand videos are getting a fraction of the views. And it’s why the b-roll captured by the students was so essential for the “Making Mavericks” series. 

While Lumenati was capturing footage to create the narrative for each subject, the students were “out in the field” (sometimes literally), capturing the raw, real, and inspiring content that really gets personal. From a single-mom-turned-nursing-student spending time with her kids, to theater arts students prepping behind the curtain, and quarterbacks, reviewing game footage in the small hours, this is the kind of intimate footage that can only be filmed by the subjects themselves. And it’s lightning in a bottle. 

The Result: A Fusion of Professionalism and Personal Touch

And the end result? Well, you can see the stories of Jamie Buttermore, Angel Bautista-Ponce, Murphy Baker, and Aaron Howard for yourself. This hybrid of regular film production with UGC delivers an end product that is both professional and deeply personal. And it’s why the future of video production looks set to add UGC to a multitude of different projects. You’ll even see it in major motion pictures.