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At Eastern Christian School, we recently launched our Do Life Big video. Like most “School community videos,” and Lip Dubs, Do Life Big features hundreds of smiling, singing, and dancing students and faculty as they showcase our school’s programs, culture, and facilities. Unlike any school community video that we had encountered before, Do Life Big has a unique twist that has really blown people away.

If you haven’t had a chance to see the video yet (or even if you want to watch it for the 20th time, check it out below):

Eastern Christian School – Do Life Big!

The response from the EC community and from prospective families has been amazing. We have been so blessed by the comments, social shares, and general “buzz” around the video – everyone just seems to love it!

The “music video” portion of the production was simple enough – find some great EC students and teachers to sing and dance along with Jamie Grace’s “Do Life Big,” and you’ve got a can’t miss Lip Dub. We storyboarded the song line by line, and shot a diverse group of students, teachers, facilities and activities to highlight our amazing school.

But what sets this video apart from every other school video that we’ve seen is the stunning aerial footage and amazing swooping “hover shots.” So how did we do that?

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Meet “Eagle Vision 1,” the Marketing office’s new toy… er… tool. Yeah- we mean tool.

“Eagle Vision 1” – EC’s Drone

Meet Eagle Vision 1: Eastern Christian’s newest communications tool. This “quadcopter drone” has four spinning blades that give this device the ability to fly. It allows an independently operable camera to take photo stills or video from a “near ground hover” to thousands of feet into the sky (though FAA restrictions require us to keep it below 400 feet and we are happy to comply). The fluid movements and spectacular angles allow our school to tell our 122 year+ story from vantage points that have never been seen. Some of the coolest comments have come from long time alumni and supporters of the school who tell us that the school has never looked this good!

To operate the camera, the drone pilot downloads a camera app to a smartphone. The phone clips into the remote control which features two joysticks. These two joysticks allow a full range of 360 degree motion. Thinking through drone video is quite a bit more complex than your typical remote control vehicle. The drone pilot has to consider the altitude, the yaw (twist), the pitch (forwards and backwards movement) and the roll (left-right latitudinal movement). All of this, by the way, operates independently of the high definition camera which can tilt as well! A wifi-boost transmits a “real time” signal to the SmartPhone screen so that the pilot can see exactly what the drone sees as it is happening. There are so many things going on at once that this video couldn’t have happened without the amazing eye for photo and video like Justin Van Dyke on our staff has!

#SoarEC: It’s All About the Message

rudi drone

Rudi Gesch explaining the drone to ECES students.

For our marketing purposes at Eastern Christian, when we talk about things that make Eastern Christian School a unique place, we talk a lot about “Eagles Culture.” We’re proud to be Eagles in the athletic arena, and we’re proud to reference “Soaring on Wings Like Eagles” as the core piece of our brand. We have been using #SoarEC as a key message of our mission, our message, and our brand.

So when the opportunity to land this innovative new way of story-telling became available to us, we had to jump at the chance. If we are going to “soar like eagles,” we wanted to be able to see what eagles see!

Oh yeah – and it’s really fun to fly this thing too! The buzz of the students and teachers when they saw the drone in use as part of our video shoot helped make the video an amazing piece. Kids just naturally want to run after it – which, of course makes for great aerial shots of kids running.

Soaring to the Next Level

 
Auditorium Test Flight                                            Final Choir Clip

Beyond the use of the drone, we have been striving for excellence in our communications at Eastern Christian. We have felt the need to share more of what God is doing at and through EC with parents, alumni, and those in our broader school community. In an effort to share these stories, we have:

  • Introduced a “My Story” section of the website to share personal stories from students, faculty, parents and alumni
  • Been very active writing posts on our school Blog
  • Filmed several testimonial videos of recent graduates, highlighting the impact EC has had on them
  • Began an athletic department Twitter page
  • Built up our social media presence with our Facebook page, Twitter handle, and the introduction of Instagram Fridays, where a different teacher “takes over” the school Instragram account every Friday.
  • Invested in technology to better display our beautiful and well equipped campuses

Thank you for your interest in Eastern Christian and in our marketing efforts. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact EC Director of Marketing and Enrollment Rudi Gesch.

Contact Info:
Rudi Gesch
rudigesch@easternchristian.org
973.427.4013

echsecms  eces

Other “Culture of Innovation” Blog Posts: