3, 2, 1, Go!

It is the day before Welcome Weekend starts at Ohio Northern University. You’re frantically opening an Amazon package to find out what goodies you will using and how to set it up. You put a phone harness on your chest but the video isn’t stable! It’s bouncing all over the place and you can’t see faces! What’s next? There’s a harness that goes over your head? But the weight of the phone is too heavy! It’s grabbing your hair and falling! You think of an idea- “if it is falling because it has nothing to grab onto, why don’t we get a helmet to strap it to?”

THAT’S IT! 

You rush to Walmart with your coworker. You’re in the bikes and helmets section when… there’s so many choices. You were told to get a skater helmet, but you know it would move around— not stable enough. You see other adult helmets. This one has a gear on the back to fit the shape of your head! You put it on, desperately trying to figure out if this is the one! You fasten every strap and you mount the phone to the helmet. You start the recording, then… you run around Walmart to test the stability.

Does it seem dramatic? We call it doing “anything for the shot.” Usually it results in a comical story, an awkward position or some crazy trial and error, but it is all worth it in the end!

This camera configuration would be used for one of several videos as a part of the ONU Welcome Weekend social media campaign. Though as plans tend to do, it was only used for one- the Klondike’s Krew Move-in Competition. 

There were two teams, and one helmet but it would be edited to give the illusion that it happened at the same time. Did it work? You tell me! 

We strapped two contestants up in the helmet, the camera pointed directly down on their face at 0.5 zoom to give a 360 degree effect- exactly what we wanted- and they were ready to run. Which they did!

The camera for the most part stayed stable and the contestants had a blast- but also a serious workout. Once the recording was all done, I edited the video for a few hours before it was ready to go on social media that same day. That same day it got over 5,000 views and 500 likes on Instagram reels. Parents commented on how easy Klondike’s Krew made moving in their new students- which was the goal of the video- and some students commented on the post, rooting for a team. 

This video is one of many that I’ve put together for the ONU social media as a student worker for Communications & Marketing but also the first time I’ve done so by filming vertically and exclusively on an iPhone. Filming was pure chaos but that is what makes it fun! Plus, I just found out this week that the ONU Board of Trustees loved the entire Welcome Weekend campaign! Now that means high fives all around!