My guests today are Brenn Borror, who leads content strategy at the University of Maine, and Patrick Wine, founder of Story Stroll, the filmmaker behind UMaine's "Life in the Pines" series. We get into how an unscripted, vlog-style student story series came together — and why it's stuck around for three seasons.

Brenn and Patrick walk through how "Life in the Pines" started as a cold-call pitch for a generic campus tour video that they reshaped into something more specific to UMaine, why they insisted on one person, one camera, and no crew for every shoot, and how a rigged-up "snorri cam" — basically a tripod strapped under a student's arms — lets students walk and narrate their own story without feeling guided by the marketing team. We also dig into the unglamorous side of the metrics: why a nearly 40,000-subscriber YouTube channel mostly built on a viral lobster-cooking video and an old extension-office library isn't the same audience watching these student stories, and why that's actually fine.

In this episode:

• Why UMaine passed on a polished, teleprompter-style tour video pitch and built something rougher and more specific instead

• How the "snorri cam" walk-and-talk format gets genuine, unguided footage out of students

• The one-person, one-camera rule and why it matters for getting students to relax on camera

• Why calling it "seasons" and "episodes" instead of a playlist changed how people watched it

• How a pre-interview process surfaces the small, specific details (like a chocolate bar traded for a bicycle) that make a story worth following

• Why low YouTube view counts don't mean the series isn't working, and what they're actually using it for in the funnel

• How casting evolved from proactive outreach to an open call, and why they now ask for a 60-second video submission

• Why retention, not just recruitment, is a real benefit of this kind of content

Resources mentioned:

• Life in the Pines (full series hub): https://umaine.edu/pines/

• Life in the Pines, full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ue-xo4MsoTs

• Life in the Pines, teaser trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1hKbuFXtw8

• Life in the Pines, Season 2 full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2axURGS18I

• The University of Maine's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheUniversityofMaine

• Story Stroll Studios (Patrick's production company): storystrollstudios.com

Connect with Brenn:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brennborror/

Connect with Patrick:

• Story Stroll Studios: storystrollstudios.com

• Email: patrick@storystrollstudios.com

• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickmwine/

Connect with John:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnazoni

• Website: https://unveild.tv

• Newsletter: https://unveild.tv/newsletter

In this solo episode, John breaks down the fundamental camera settings and workflow decisions that can immediately elevate your video quality—whether you're brand new to video or looking to refine your technical foundation as an in-house higher ed videographer.

Key takeaways:

• The four critical camera settings: frame rate (shoot 24fps for cinematic look), aperture (lowest f-stop for background blur), shutter speed (set to 2x your frame rate), and ISO (keep as low as possible to avoid grain)

• Why shooting in 4K but editing in 1080p gives you flexibility without unnecessary file sizes

• The case for auto white balance in run-and-gun scenarios to avoid color correction nightmares

• Why shooting in LOG color profiles often creates more problems than it solves for in-house teams

• How to avoid the two biggest stabilization mistakes: micro-jitter from handheld shooting and overusing gimbal shots

• Audio quality matters more than video quality—record directly into your camera and hide those lav mics

• Think about workflow and asset management, not just the single video you're making right now
  

Connect with John:

• Email: john@unveild.tv

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnazoni

• Website: https://unveild.tv

• Newsletter: https://unveild.tv/newsletter

I had the pleasure of being a guest on the Sales Schema podcast recently, hosted by Dan Englander.

In this episode we discussed:

-Deconstructing a large-scale video project into a subscription model.

-Lessons learned growing an agency in the pandemic.

-The benefits of a subscription model over a retainer model.

-How to find the right talent to grow your business.