“As a kid with my friends or my brother, we would make up stories directing and recording them, or we would take a Disney story and recreate it. I have always been interested in telling stories,” Scott Lancaster, multimedia producer for the Union University Communications Office, said.
Lancaster has worked at Union since 2007. He is responsible for creating the videos used to promote Union University to potential students and their families. Lancaster attended Union himself where he double majored in communication arts and Christian studies. Lancaster chose Union because he was looking for a Christian school that could give him the education he desired, while still being close to his hometown of South Haven, Miss. Union was able to fulfill everything he was looking for. Lancaster chose to major in communications and Christian studies because it was the most natural choice for him.
“It allowed me to use my interests and the gifts that God had given me,” Lancaster said.
After graduating, Lancaster moved to Memphis where he worked at Fox 13 News for six years. He learned about the job opportunity at Union when his former roommate from college emailed him the link to apply.
“I wasn’t looking for a new job at the time,” Lancaster said. “But I jumped at the opportunity to come back to Union. Union had been such an influential part of my life, and I really wanted the opportunity to be a part of that for someone else.”
Lancaster wanted to be part of the process of attracting students to Union so they could experience what he had. Over his last fifteen years in this position, he has had the opportunity to do just that.
One of the most important aspects of a good video is telling the story authentically. Lancaster has interviewed hundreds of people who have a connection to Union, and he often hears the same thing.
“While Union is not a perfect place, our talk matches our walk,” Lancaster said. “Our core values are not just public relations strategies. They are what we actually strive to live out, and you can see that in our faculty and students.”
Lancaster’s challenge is ensuring this authenticity shines through in his videos. He wants people to know that Union is who they claim to be. Video gives a unique opportunity to visually see the people Union has impacted.
“It is one thing to read about Union or the people at Union, but to actually see and hear those people talk about their experience, I think it can be a compelling way to learn about it,” Lancaster said.
The office of communications is always thinking of new ways they could promote the University. Some videos are built into the schedule of events like the scholarship banquet coming up.
While Lancaster splits his time evenly between shooting video and editing, he spends a lot of time thinking and planning out the videos.
“The thinking is the hardest part actually,” Lancaster said laughing. “The shooting and editing are hard too, but we are always thinking. Even when you are shooting the video, you are thinking about shaping the story. Then when you are editing the story, it is always evolving.”
Lancaster looks for opportunities to show Union’s core values of being excellence-driven, Christ-centered, people-focused and future-directed. These core values show the true heart of those at Union and of Lancaster himself.
“Scott Lancaster is a consummate professional. His work is consistently characterized by excellence, and he serves and supports his coworkers well. He always has a positive attitude and is willing to do whatever is necessary to serve his colleagues and the university as a whole,” Tim Ellsworth, Associate Vice President of University Communications, said. “At Union, our first core value is ‘Excellence-driven,’ and there’s no better example of that than Scott Lancaster. Anyone who has watched the videos he produces for the university can see that they are of outstanding quality”.
“My job is to tell the Union story; video is the tool I use to do that,” Lancaster said.
Over his years at Union, Lancaster has needed to adapt to the changes in technology which have a huge impact on the way he does his job.
“When I began my career at Union in 2007, I was recording HD video on digital cassette tapes, lighting with traditional tungsten fixtures that got extremely hot and storing video on spinning hard drives,” Lancaster said. “Now I record 4K raw video to a CFast card, light with LEDs and store video on several 4 terabyte solid-state drives. These changes have all been a blessing and help me to be more efficient when I work.”
Not only has technology changed, but the way prospective students view the videos he creates has also drastically changed. With the rise of social media, Lancaster and the entire communications team has shifted their approach to video distribution.
“In 2007 the primary distribution method for University Communications was YouTube and DVD/Blu-ray. We still use YouTube, but I can’t tell you the last time I made a DVD or Blu-ray for someone,” Lancaster said.
It’s comical now, to think of someone handing out DVDs to promote their school, but this was the primary form of distribution just 15 short years ago. Students have also changed over this short time as well.
“Advancing technologies and the rise of social media and the internet have also changed our students, and, therefore, how I relate to them,” Lancaster said.
As social media has become more popular, students are more comfortable with being on camera and eager to help when it comes to being a part of a university video. This has been a huge help when Lancaster is thinking of ways to tell more Union stories. Telling these stories to prospective students is not as easy as one might think. Students are constantly being bombarded with stories and videos from all different directions. Grabbing the attention of young people has become more difficult even as technology has made it more available. It has been the job of Lancaster and his team to change along with them.
Lancaster said, “The Union story and mission remain the same, even though the way we tell it changes over time”.
Photo by Union University Photo Project