By Matthew Cimitile, University Communications and Marketing
As Clark Stanton puts it, sports were a part of his life before he was even born.
“My family has home movies where sports are playing on the hospital room television as my mom is going into labor,” Stanton said. “I was born into sports, literally.”
That connection led him as a USF student studying journalism on the St. Petersburg campus to seek out an internship with the USF football team. The internship with USF Athletics has given him the chance to combine sports with his other lifelong passion: Producing social media videos. His experience as an intern has solidified his career interests while giving him the opportunity to document an unprecedented USF football season.
Earlier this season, heading into an away game at the University of Florida, Carlee Calfee, digital content manager for USF Athletics, asked her team of student interns if “anyone still had a Nintendo DS?”
Stanton on the sidelines with a Nintendo 3DS before the USF versus UF football game. [Photo by USF Athletics]
Cut to the end of the game, and the Bulls are driving down the field with a chance to win against the heavily favored Gators. Television crews and fans in the sold-out stadium are filming the action on cameras and cellphones. On the sidelines, Stanton takes out his Nintendo 3DS.
“Being on the sidelines, it already feels like you are in a video game, especially when the stadium is packed like it was against UF,” Stanton said. “That kind of atmosphere is unmatched.”
The handheld console was popular in the early 2000s for playing games such as Super Mario and Pokémon. Stanton’s version came with a video and photo camera.
The clip begins with a perspective from someone else on the field filming Stanton holding his DS, then transitions to his recording the game-winning 20-yard field goal by Niko Gramatica and the ensuing player celebration. Even in the peak of their jubilation, players can be heard commenting on Stanton’s use of a gaming system released nearly two decades earlier.
“It wasn’t just capturing the winning field goal, but all the excitement afterwards on the field with the players and coaches that I think connected with fans,” Stanton recalled. “And it really popped off.”
Posted to USF social media channels, it soon attracted millions of views and was shared by ESPN and Bleacher Report. Based on the response, the social media team began to think of other interesting devices they could use to film future games.
A Ring doorbell was used in the game versus South Carolina State University. A bird feeder camera documented the victory at University of Texas San Antonio. An old Nokia phone captured the winning moments against University of North Texas. And a car backup camera was deployed for Florida Atlantic University.
Filming on an old Nokia phone during victory against North Texas. [Photo by USF Athletics]
Each device presented a unique way of capturing live athletics. Each also presented challenges, such as finding suitable ways to record with devices not meant for live events, attaching mics for better sound quality and having to convert older formatted files to newer ones for social media.
That extra work was well worth it for the visibility it has provided USF football. But for Stanton, the real reward was seeing how others began to do the same.
“This has been something that has changed my life,” he said. “The best part of it is seeing other schools and sports team joining in on the trend. We started something that professional teams are now doing, other major D1 programs are doing. They are looking at USF as the trendsetter.”
As a young kid, Stanton and his older brother became immersed in sports and creating their own videos from an early age. That experience would lead his older brother, who is an inspiration to Stanton, into a career melding the two and is now the director of creative strategy at Southern Methodist University’s football program.
Stanton, who will be graduating this fall with a bachelor’s degree in digital communications and multimedia journalism, hopes to follow a similar path. He is prepared to do so after being immersed in digital communications and social media both in the classroom and on the sidelines.