Student Video Winner Captures the Spirit

“When I’m out there on the ice seeing those faces, the team, the fans … I’ve got spirit.”

As the camera focuses on a man in front of a gray backdrop, you think you are watching a hockey player talk about his experience playing in a world-class arena.

“When it gets tough … They cheer and chant my name … It’s the spirit that keeps me alive. From the moment I suit up, to the moment I spread my wings.”

The wings are those of Rowdy the River Hawk. It’s not a hockey player, but a mascot who claims, “I’ve got spirit. Where’s yours?”

This clever twist captured the spirit, as well as 61 percent of the votes, and was named the winner of the 2008 Capture the Spirit Video Contest. Razmig Arabian of Watertown wrote, directed, edited and starred in it, with camera assistance by Katelyn Cusack. Arabian will receive a $250 gift certificate to Amazon.com in addition to the semi-finalist prize of a Flip Mino camcorder.

While Arabian himself is not Rowdy the River Hawk, he has friends who occasionally don the suit and served as inspiration for the video. Filmed in the basement photo studio in McGaurvan Student Union, the minute-long  video took a little more than two hours to set up and shoot – the largest chunk of time was spent getting the lighting right. The rest was improvised.

The senior graphic design major says he should have been a film major as he has been creating videos since high school and has since launched two web series.

Students were asked to create a maximum 3-minute video showing the spirit of UMass Lowell. The three runners up were Paige Devlin, liberal arts major from Manchester, NH; Alex D’Agostino, plastics engineering major from South Attleboro; and Zaccur Fettig, mechanical engineering major from Westborough.

The videos can be seen on YouTube and at www.uml.edu/videocontest. The contest was sponsored by the offices of Public Affairs and Undergraduate Admissions.