As we all know, 99.9% of videos released by college football programs fit pretty neatly into a predetermined box. Call them motivational videos, or hype videos, or highlight videos, or anything along those lines.
Fictional short films are a genre that college football programs haven't touched, but Clemson's "The Dream" is changing that.
In the spring of 2015, an idea was discussed to create a video similar in style to "Why We Work" (a finalist for the 2015 FBS FootballScoop Video of the Year Award) that would play "before the game when the team left the locker room, boarded the buses, rode to the east stadium entrance and prepared to rub Howard’s Rock and run down The Hill for the 'most exciting 25 seconds in college football.'” Clemson explained.
The result of that brainstorming session is what you see below - a storyline of a boy who see's Clemson's iconic stadium entrance on TV on a Saturday in the fall, and makes it his goal to play for Clemson and experience it firsthand. The end product is both touching, and motivational.
Clemson actually created two versions of the video. One was a 75-second version that will play on the videoboard inside the stadium before kickoff, and the extended version was created for fans and recruits - that's the one you see below.
It's good to see a quality video staff like Clemson thinking outside the box with a video like this that fans and recruits are going to really enjoy watching over the next several weeks and months.