Ithaca College expanded marketing and recruitment efforts with OpenReel Copy
Ithaca College, a small liberal arts institution in New York, needed to capture student and alumni interviews and other educational videos for enrollment and marketing efforts, even when travel was restricted. They chose OpenReel™’s remote video solution because it allowed them to remotely mimic their in-studio shoots, while expanding their content opportunities to reach Subjects located anywhere in the world.
The Company
Ithaca College is a small, private college in New York with a strong liberal arts core and several pre-professional and graduate programs. Adam Baker, the Multimedia Director at Ithaca College and his small, but mighty team are responsible for producing video content that supports recruitment and marketing efforts by promoting the school, capturing footage across campus, and sharing alumni stories that entice prospective students to attend Ithaca.
The Challenge
Ithaca’s marketing team relied on its studio to shoot content, but were forced to work remotely due to travel and safety restrictions
When the pandemic shut down campuses, Ithaca’s creative team needed to continue to shoot video content to support marketing and enrollment efforts, while working around travel restrictions and social distancing. They still needed to film interviews for promotional content, as they had before, and they were faced with the additional need to communicate important information for students who were now off-campus. Conference tools allowed them to reach their filming subjects, but these were limited in the capabilities and footage quality. Adam and his team needed a way to mimic a professional studio setting to capture professional quality videos of these interviews they would have done in their studio on campus.
The Solution
OpenReel™ Capture fit perfectly into the marketing team’s existing video creation workflows
Before the lockdown, Ithaca’s creative team was scheduling shoots in the studio or on location near the campus, like New York City, with professional film equipment. OpenReel Capture was seamlessly integrated into this existing workflow.
“We’re like a little camera man inside a person’s phone,” said Giovanni Santacroce, Multimedia Director at Ithaca. The team held pre-production meetings with the film Subjects to establish items like the best location for the shoot, and then used Capture’s technology to operate the Subject’s phone or webcam remotely. By adjusting specs, like frames-per-second, focus, and ISO, just as they would in-studio with their professional cameras, Adam, Gio, and their team secured the same quality footage they were accustomed to filming.
Because the process also fit so easily into existing workflows, Capture did not add any burden to the creative process for either the Ithaca directors and the Subject being filmed. “It’s as simple as sending the link or downloading the app. It doesn’t get much easier than that,” said Adam Baker, Multimedia Director.
Results
OpenReel™ enabled Ithaca’s multimedia team to expand their creative reach and film Subjects they previously could not
OpenReel, enabled film to be captured with the same control and quality as an in-studio shoot, right from a Subjects device. This not only allowed their team to continue filming, regardless of the restrictions, but it enabled the production crew to quickly and efficiently get professional quality footage from anywhere — not just from around Ithaca’s campus.
This allowed them to create more content and better messaging by expanding their subject opportunities, removing travel boundaries, and saving them time and money on filming. “OpenReel has expanded our ability to contact alumni, parents, students, abroad students, and others that we [otherwise] wouldn’t be able to,” Adam said.
By removing geographical barriers, Capture also has saved the team time and money. They can now film anything from announcements from the president and interviews with alumni or partners to campus updates for students and virtual admissions events, all remotely. They don’t have to hire a crew and rent expensive equipment, or travel onsite and transport cameras.
Capture empowers Ithaca’s creative team to tell a more complete story with more testimonials from alumni, students, and parents they wouldn’t have been able to reach if it was not for Remote Video Capture. With this wider net of content and ability to film remotely, they have increased the amount of videos they can produce and meet the needs of the enrollment and marketing teams.
Learn more about how OpenReel™ is working with customers like Ithaca College to remove barriers, expand reach, and tell stronger, more compelling stories.
