Creating a web series for Western Michigan University Football

July 9, 2012

in CSC News,

College Sports Information Directors of America

Creating a web series for Western Michigan University Football: by Mat Kanan, WMU Director of Media Relations

Mat Kanan, Director of Media Relations for Western Michigan Athletics and a new member of the CoSIDA New Media/Technology Committee, wrote the following on WMU's football video web series "Inside the Lines." He gives a step-by-step approach on setting up the interviews and videos, and discusses reaction to the series from two perspectives - the fan and the media viewpoint.

You can follow Mat via Twitter (@kananmj) and view the series on WMU's athletics website and YouTube channel. The official WMU athletics website is www.wmubroncos.com.

Spring time in college football is a time of evaluation of the student-athletes returning for the upcoming season and assessing the previous year’s successes and failures. In media relations, the spring is yet another time where we can engage with our fans and alumni by providing unique content on our football program. At Western Michigan, we decided to use this past spring season to give people a look inside the spring practice season with a video series titled “Inside the Lines.”

The genesis of the series came from football head coach Bill Cubit when he asked if I thought it would be a good idea to put a microphone on a coach during a practice. I asked if I could take that a step further.

Scheduling and shooting the videos

The goal of the video series was to highlight every coach on staff as well as two student-athletes from the offensive and defensive side of the ball. In order to do so correctly, we laid out a schedule that corresponded with each of the 15 spring practices, as well as the annual spring game, and matched a practice with a coach of student-athlete.

We took two days to conduct sit-down interviews with each person with the subject matter focusing on the pros/cons of spring practice, what role the game of football has played in each person’s life and balancing family with the game they have chosen. I decided to save our head coach Bill Cubit’s webisode for the spring game, putting a microphone on him for the first half.

Editing

The editing of each webisode really made the series. Our student video crew did a great job of marrying the footage, both audio and video, of practice with the sit down interview of each subject. We packaged with a title screen and closed each webisode with our department tagline (The Power of Gold), which also has a presence on Twitter with the hash tag of the same name (#ThePowerofGold).

Launching the online series for two audiences (fans and the media)

The series was launched with an announcement release on our web site, showing the list of people to be highlighted and the corresponding date that person’s video would be unveiled. The goal was to release each video two days after it was shot, allowing us to have a new video available the day of the next practice session.

We obviously wanted to drive people to our official web site (www.wmubroncos.com) but we also wanted to utilize our social media platforms to promote this series. All of the videos were uploaded to our YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/wmuathletics) for the mere fact that each webisode would have its own unique url that could be easily sent out through Twitter accounts @kananmj and @wmubroncofans, as well as through our official Facebook fan page (www.facebook.com/wmubroncofans).

In all, the series accounted for 8,307 views on our YouTube channel and 18,697 views on our official web site.

FootballScoop.com

Final Thoughts & Advice to CoSIDA Members

Looking back on the creation of the “Inside the Lines” video series, I feel the success lies within the fact that all of the prep work, interviews, video shoot sessions and editing was able to be handled by myself and two video students without interfering with my day-to-day duties of running the WMU athletic media relations office. It also has sparked the interest of our other sport programs as we plan to create similar web series during the upcoming year.

If I had to provide advice to anyone looking to take on a similar project, I would say the key is to plan everything out ahead of time as you need to work with multiple parties’ schedules as well as come up compelling subject matter for the sit down interview portion of the webisodes.

It was a great project. It showcased an aspect of our football program that fans aren’t privy to on a daily basis and, most importantly, it provided unique and original content for our fans.

If you would like to view any or all of the webisodes in the “Inside the Lines” series click here. Follow me on Twitter @kananmj, our head coach @CoachCubit and our department @wmubroncofans and via our hashtag #ThePowerofGold.

Creating a web series for Western Michigan University Football

College Sports Information Directors of America

Scheduling and shooting the videos

Editing

Launching the online series for two audiences (fans and the media)

FootballScoop.com

Final Thoughts & Advice to CoSIDA Members

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