Creating a high-impact promotional video with zero budget, limited hardware, and overcoming catastrophic data loss
The promotional video campaign for the Cheers 2016-2017 cheerleading event – Colombia's largest – presented a unique creative challenge that pushed the boundaries of resourcefulness, technical skill, and determination. Tasked by a prominent Colombian high school with elevating the event's profile far beyond previous amateur efforts, this project required forging high-impact event promotion under extreme constraints.
My primary goal was to increase national awareness and attendance through a professional-quality promotional video, translating a vague client desire for "impact" into a concrete concept. The project demanded creative leadership, extreme resourcefulness, and advanced technical execution on limited personal hardware, all handled primarily solo over a 16-month period from December 2015 to April 2017.
Increase national awareness and attendance through a professional-quality promotional video that far exceeded previous efforts.
16 months (December 2015 - April 2017)
Solo creator (concept development, direction, filming, editing, VFX, motion graphics)
Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere Pro, Plexus plugin, personal camera equipment
This project faced a convergence of significant obstacles that required creative problem-solving at every turn. The combination of unclear expectations, zero resources, technical limitations, and a catastrophic data loss created a perfect storm of challenges.
Meeting these challenges required a multifaceted approach combining proactive leadership, technical ingenuity, and crisis management skills. The solutions addressed each obstacle directly while maintaining a focus on the ultimate goal.
Taking this project from a vague request to a professional promotional video required a structured approach that maximized limited resources while delivering high-quality results. The journey involved distinct phases, each with its own challenges and creative solutions.
When faced with a vague request for "something bigger and better" without budget or clear direction, I took the initiative to develop a concrete vision. I created detailed storyboards and mood boards for a "professional trailer" concept, presenting a clear visual direction that secured client buy-in despite the lack of resources.
With no budget for equipment or talent, I had to be extremely resourceful. I used my personal camera gear, recruited volunteer student actors and assistants, and utilized free locations. This phase required careful planning to maximize limited shooting opportunities and create footage that could be enhanced in post-production.
Working on an underpowered personal laptop presented significant technical challenges. I implemented extensive optimization techniques including proxy workflows, reduced preview quality, meticulous layer management, and strategic rendering of complex elements. For demanding effects like Plexus particle simulations, I rendered specific pre-comps to intermediate files with alpha channels, effectively "baking" effects to reduce computational load.
Hours after working through the New Year holiday to finalize the project, disaster struck when the external hard drive containing the entire project physically failed. Recognizing the severity, I immediately stopped trying to access it to prevent further damage and arranged for professional data recovery at my own expense. Despite client impatience during the recovery period, I maintained professional communication and ultimately delivered the completed high-quality video after successful data retrieval.
Despite the client ultimately using an alternative video due to impatience during the recovery delay, this project delivered significant value and demonstrated the ability to produce professional results under extreme constraints. The finished video, shown to stakeholders and viewers, received strong positive feedback and served as an important benchmark.
Beyond the numbers, this project achieved several important qualitative benefits:
"The general sentiment from those who saw the final version – including students, staff, and peers – was consistently positive. Comments often centered on how professional it looked compared to previous years, its high energy, and the impressive complexity of the graphics and effects, especially knowing it was created on limited resources."
— Project Reception Summary
This project was a trial by fire that taught invaluable lessons about resourcefulness, technical problem-solving, and crisis management. The experience provided critical insights that have informed all subsequent work.
This project forged critical skills in technical problem-solving under pressure, data integrity management, and resilience. The ability to optimize workflows and manage crises became foundational to my approach on all subsequent projects. Perhaps most importantly, it demonstrated that professional-quality results are possible even with severe constraints when combining technical knowledge with creative resourcefulness.
