Lincoln Memorial University’s (LMU) DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine recently added a new campus in Knoxville, and after having worked together on a very successful campaign for LMU’s main campus in Harrogate, they came to us wanting to create a piece that would help them recruit aspiring doctors from around the country to this new location. They needed a piece that not only showed off their new facilities and illustrated how this campus provides the ideal backdrop for students actively applying for med school, but also promoted the city and all it has to offer.

Factoring in that we were in a global pandemic and all students were recently sent home, we had some creative problem solving to do as there was a limited pool of students we could work with and locations we could shoot from. Also, because this was a brand new campus, we didn’t have impressive statistics and analytics to tell the story, and the entire pool of students we interviewed had just a single year of experience to share from.

We created a video that could effectively be used in the matching process when students were considering applying to the DCOM Program. We decided to focus on a few, carefully-selected current students, highlighting their personal stories and various aspects of their academic and social experiences in Knoxville. Because we had significant Knoxville b-roll from previous shoots with the client, we were able to bypass any frustrations that the pandemic caused and focused on getting footage in socially-distanced outdoor areas and utilized the empty facilities on campus to our benefit. One of the best things about shooting multiple projects with a client is that each new project adds to a library of footage that can help make every following project better. In the end, we were able to capture personable testimonials from a diverse group of students and told a really sincere story of why this facility and city is the perfect fit for candidates watching the video.