Eric Croci is one “happy” guy. This Marist senior is the Student Assistant to the Director of Social Media and Online Initiatives and works in the college admissions office. You may have seen him running around Open House (with a headset, naturally) or giving tours to prospective students as an Ambassador. Most recently, he created the famous Open House video sensation, miming the music video for the song “Happy” by Pharrell Williams. The video has since been featured on the MyMarist portal and rocketed to over 12,000 views on YouTube in just a few short weeks. HC Marist sat down with Croci in an interview about his time at Marist, his reaction to the “Happy” video success, and what’s next after graduation.
HC: How has your involvement with Admissions impacted your Marist College experience?
Working in Admissions has been one of my favorite parts of my time here at Marist; the people down there are really great, they really let you explore what you’re passionate about. I got into Admissions through the Ambassador program and did just some office work and then they realized that I enjoyed filming and editing different videos, so I was able to do that as my main job. The three different video campaigns were: Office Hours, Word on the River, the “Happy” video, and there’s a few other just random videos that we were working on that I’m able to pretty much have creative control over.
HC: I want to know more about the “Happy” video! Was that your idea?
So this actually goes back to Open House 3 years ago: they did a flash mob when all the students were down in McCann, unbeknownst to President Murray. They kind of took a leap of faith and did more of a production with some of the students, and President Murray really liked it, so the year after we wanted to make it a little better. They brought me in last year and we did a video and another scene, and it was good, but this year we wanted to take advantage of the “viral video” effect. A lot of people were making renditions of the “Happy” video so we thought this was a great opportunity for us. So my boss in Admissions was handed down the idea at the director’s meeting that they wanted to make a video to the song. And it was kind of funny because the first time he told us, we absolutely hated the song and we didn’t want to do it.
HC: You didn’t like the song at first?
I didn’t like the song at first and so naturally I was asked to do it. I went online and watched his video (because I never actually saw Pharrell Williams’s video) to see what the craze was all about, and we hit the ground running from there.
HC: What was it like getting to meet and film so many different members of the Marist community? You had a lot of different people who are involved in different things.
It was really interesting to see how open the majority of the people we asked were, especially with the men’s basketball team. We really hadn’t gotten any athletic teams involved, and a couple days before Open House, Tim Murray, the athletic director, was asked if we could film the basketball team. So we went down to one of their practices and told them what we were doing and they were really open to it, and as you can see in the film, they really had a great time doing it.
Just going around campus, a lot of students were dancing in front of other students, and it’s not an easy thing to do to start dancing around in front of complete strangers. So they had a lot of fun with it, I had a lot of fun filming them, and I definitely was able to meet a lot of students as well.
HC: You even got President Murray to participate! What was it like to dance with the President of the College?
I have to say it’s the highlight of my experience at college; being able to dance with President Murray in his office was pretty funny. He was very open to it. He was a little nervous about having to dance solo so some of the other students, including myself, danced with him. He actually wished that his wife was there – he said that she was the dancer of the relationship.
HC: The Happy video has now exceeded 12,000 views on YouTube. Did you expect it to be this popular?
No, not in the least bit! The most popular student produced YouTube video we ever put up had about 2,500 views, and the other videos I worked on kind of capped out at 800, so I was expecting maybe 4,000-5,000 views. The day we posted it, it went viral and by the end of the day we had over 1,000 views, and we hit the 10,000 mark within 8 days, which was really exciting for us. Even some local radio channels picked it up, posted it on their blog, and talked about it during their shows.
HC: How do you feel about the song now? Do you still not like it?
After listening to it, I would guestimate at least 300 times, I don’t mind it anymore.
HC: What is next for you after graduation? Do you plan to stay involved through Alumni groups?
I actually just won an award, presented to a male and female of the graduating class, called the “Alumni Leadership Award.” It’s based on your academics, your involvement during your time at Marist, and also the idea that you’re going to be an alum to stay involved in the Alumni community. I would absolutely love to stay involved.
HC: Do you have any words of wisdom for new students looking to get involved, or new students just coming to Marist?
It’s a question we get a lot on tours – “what’s your biggest piece of advice?” – and it’s one of my favorites, because there are so many different things that I wish I had known coming here. If I had to pick one individual topic, it would be just get involved. No matter what club or organization it is, you’re going to meet great people who have similar interests, be able to express yourself, be able to work on projects that you never expected to be able to work on, just like the “Happy” video; I never expected to create a viral sensation that went through the whole Marist community.
HC: Are you happy?
Yes, I am happy! I’m sad that I’m graduating, but I’m happy for the last four years.
Photo 1 credit: Marist.edu
Photo 2 credit: Eric Croci