“When, Not If”: Lachance inspires Corps through Video

WEST POINT, NY, UNITED STATES

12.04.2016

Story by Michelle Matos 

United States Military Academy at West Point

It all started with a good idea
Prior to the Army-Navy game of 2014, Lachance came up with an idea for a spirit video. Problem was, all he had was an idea. After talking to Cadets (now graduates) Cameron Novak and Tessa Knight, Lachance was able to put his idea into action. Novak had the equipment and editing know-how while Knight had the creativity and production capabilities to facilitate Lachance’s proposal. After coordinating multiple entities, trial and error, and numerous man hours, “A Secret and Dangerous Spirit Mission” was born.
“That was the start of the War Tuba spirit videos, after that one did so well, I got really intrigued with the whole video process and kind of seeing how a well-done video can have a notable impact on the Corps,” Lachance said. “Had Cameron and Tessa not helped me out and facilitated the first video, I wouldn’t have discovered the impact videos can have, my passion for it, and we wouldn’t be here today.”

Operation OBOAT: On Brave Old Army Team
“Some people buy motorcycles with their cow loan, I decided to buy a bunch of cameras.”—Austin Lachance

While the spark of Lachance’s interest began with his first video, it was certainly just the beginning. Going into his junior year, he pulled out all the stops to produce a no holds barred video project that would help to motivate and inspire the Corps.
Although he had purchased the necessary equipment, Lachance knew his cameras could only get him so far. He watched countless YouTube tutorial videos to teach himself how to edit and started to form relationships with a wide array of Academy entities like Visual Information and Public Affairs. From there, he began the production of OBOAT.
“One of the things that I had in mind with OBOAT was I wanted it to be a completely original body of work, both from the video side, not having it be a parody of something, but rather an original premise and with originality on the score side,” Lachance said.
In regard to score, Lachance teamed up with West Point Band composer, Staff Sgt. Noah Taylor, and the two instantly hit it off.
“From the get-go of my first meeting with him face to face and having him strum a few keys on his keyboard, I instantly knew it was going to be fantastic because he is just so darn good at what he does,” Lachance said. “Not only does he have profound personal resources and a fantastic zeal for what he does, but our styles just meshed perfectly.”
With original music and an original premise, Lachance was able to produce a high quality spirit video that surpassed expectations. Since its debut on Dec. 1, 2015, OBOAT has received almost 550K views on Facebook and over 107K views on YouTube.

A New Position
As Lachance approached his senior year, he knew he wanted his final spirit season to be the best one yet. After speaking with leadership and filing paperwork, he worked closely with Alton Lee, the head of the Cadet Spirit Group, toward the creation of a new Corps leadership position, the Brigade Video Captain.
“Academy leadership started to recognize the value of facilitating higher quality level cadet video production and in order to do that, they created a position to give cadets the resource of time,” Lachance noted. “Also, to try to use that time and develop future filmmakers so we can try to have some longevity to this new precedent of producing higher quality videos.”
From the moment he officially received the position, Lachance was ready to expand his filmmaking, not only to Army -Navy spirit videos, but to videos that highlighted other clubs and groups of the Corps.
“I wanted to try to use this platform to shine light on aspects of the Corps that usually don’t get as much attention, whether that’s smaller teams or clubs, and trying the best I could to give everyone their own spirit video,” Lachance noted. “It’s very exciting to see your team represented in a cinematic way, but also for the Corps, it’s a nice highlight of an entity that you maybe knew was there, but didn’t know much about.”
After creating a running man challenge video that coat tailed on the virality at the time, Lachance knew he had to change his technique.
Instead of larger productions, he decided to create smaller, less intensive pieces that would still relate to broad audiences. It worked.
“The running man challenge was a drastically smaller project, on the order of maybe 15 minutes of filming and it had four times the reach of OBOAT,” Lachance mentioned. “It was just validation that refined, strategic surgical videos are just as good as massive orchestrations.”

Long Gray Cinemas
Now a Firstie with a new leadership position, Lachance sought to expand beyond the War Tuba premise and started from scratch with an all-encompassing, grassroots production team he called, “Long Gray Cinemas.”
The purpose of the group is to engage newer cadet filmmakers in an apprenticeship manner to learn the production process, and ultimately create a legacy.
Currently, the core of LGC consists of Lachance and Class of 2018 Cadets Alex Werden, Jake Sparano, Alexis Blindauer and Justin Taylor, and Class of 2019 Cadets Ian McBride and Isabella Vargas.
While small, Lachance’s team of cadets has packed a big punch.
LGC’s debut video, “Ghostly Assemblage,” paid homage to the loss of several recent graduates and current cadets, including Army football player Cadet Brandon Jackson. The video, though somber, swept through the Academy and reached a massive audience instantaneously, accumulating a total of over 530K views on Facebook and YouTube.
“What made me especially proud about this video was that LGC’s debut project proved the point right off the bat that cadet produced videos could be more than just spirit videos. They could carry a message and have a deep, positive impact on the Corps,” Lachance noted.
In addition to “Ghostly Assemblage,” Lachance and LGC were able to produce 12 videos throughout the course of the semester, including a tribute to the golf, drill, boxing and sprint football teams, the IOCT, a mannequin challenge video, and Army-Air Force spirit videos, also known as “Spirit Season 1.”
All of the small videos, Lachance says, though each important in their own right, were just practice for his plans for “Spirit Season 2: Army vs. Navy.”

“When, Not If”
“When Army finally wins, it will be such an important moment for generations of officers and anyone even remotely affiliated with the Army or the Academy… Thinking about what it will be like, immersed in that environment of having the clock tick down to zero and looking up to realize you just witnessed history. The thought of storming the field, the thought of tearing down the goal posts, crying tears of joy, being able to finally hear the beauty that is the West Point Alma Mater being sung second.” –Austin Lachance

Lachance is determined, through video, to embed the idea of “When, Not If” Army wins, into the mind of every Army fan.
“The idea behind ‘When, Not If,’ is simply having a different perspective on how to view this year’s Army/Navy match,” he explained. “By phrasing it with ‘when’ instead of ‘if,’ you’re allowing yourself to transcend the inherent pessimism and uncertainty of the prospect of a loss.”
Through a string of continuous spirit videos, Lachance’s goal is to build momentum leading into the Dec. 10 matchup. LGC released the first video of Spirit Season 2 on Nov. 29, a Snickers commercial parody. In less than a week, it already received more views than OBOAT has received over the past year. What’s more, is that it took just 10 minutes to film.
“The hardest part of that video was walking up to the commissary to get the MRE and then walking back down,” Lachance joked, regarding the video that received over 730K views on Facebook alone.
The other videos are a boxing (or lack thereof) video; “Childs Play,” based off the idea that children play Soldier not Sailor, a Pipes & Drums video, and the challenge video from our First Captain to Navy’s Brigade commander. Each dropped continuously during the course of Army-Navy Week and all received significant viewership and interactions.
As the Army-Navy Game approaches, Lachance hopes that his work and the idea of “When, Not If” will impress upon each individual watching the game, ultimately triggering the most universal and arguably most important Army cheer, “Go Army! Beat Navy!”

• Date Taken: 12.04.2016
• Date Posted: 02.03.2017 11:34
• Story ID: 222308
• Location: WEST POINT, NY, US
• Hometown: WEST POINT, NY, US