What does it mean to be a Florida Gator?
UF telecommunication senior Rohan Cornwall and UF advertising alumnus Andrew Reid might have found the answer.
Cornwall, 24, and Reid, 23, teamed up to make a video asking UF students that very question. The video was published Monday on YouTube and has about 28,000 views as of Wednesday. It has made its way around UF students’ Facebook pages, faculty listservs and alumni groups.
“When it got 300 the first day, that was amazing to me,” Cornwall said. “I’d never seen that before. When it jumped to 1,000, I was freaking out. And then the next day, 27,000, I almost fainted.”
Reid said he wanted to make a video dedicated to UF because it was an experience he and Cornwall had shared. The duo used some YouTube clips from UF, Dance Marathon at UF and Gator Athletics in their video.
“We connected with an audience built of millions of people — the Gator Nation,” he said.
Reid said they interviewed only students because they wanted students’ perspectives. He handpicked a sorority girl, a Dance Marathon promoter and a newly accepted Gator among others to be in the video.
“We wanted to encompass as much as we could about the Gator Nation,” he said.
The pair became friends during a study abroad trip in Summer of 2012. They made the video to add to their portfolios for their applications to film school.
Cornwall and Reid began working on the video in February. They decided to upload it to YouTube Monday after the Gators’ loss to the University of Michigan.
“We needed some hope,” Reid joked.
Department of Advertising Chairman John Sutherland saw the video after advertising professor Michael Weigold shared it in an email with faculty. Sutherland said he was impressed by the video.
“It’s a very difficult topic to address,” he said. “How do you capture spirit? It’s a challenge.”
Contact Colleen Wright at cwright@alligator.org.
