This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Ohio U chapter.
Rewind to the beginning of 2013. Besides ringing in the new year and making new resolutions, a new app called “Vine” was beginning to be downloaded onto the smartphones and tablets of millions across the world. The app allows users to film six second videos (known as Vines) while also offering capabilities similar to Twitter, such as “revining,” commenting on, and “liking” the videos.
Through their captivating displays of creativity and humor in just six seconds, a mass number of users have gained hundreds of thousands of followers. Among this talented group of people is Ohio University freshman Logan Paul with around 777,700 followers.
Logan first started filming his Vines back in March, but started to take them more seriously and put more thought into them towards the middle of May. When it comes to inspiration for the videos, his imagination and creativity know no limits.
“As far as coming up with the actual idea, most of the time it’s literally so random, like on the spot,” he says, struggling to put into words his thought process behind it. Quite frequently he’s just lying in bed, and when an idea pops up he goes over it in his head, thinking about how it would look on camera. For the times when Logan gets stumped though, he has a list of at least fifty ideas to turn to.
“Vines themselves can actually take [a max of] two hours, and up to fifty takes. A lot of people might not understand an hour or two went behind the making of it. It seems stupid, but that’s the difference between having 500 followers and hundreds of thousands of followers, because I actually want to devote time to it, you know?” he explains.
On the other hand, there are two things that remain vital in every single Vine produced by Logan– confidence and courage. For him, the first time around is always the most nerve-racking; he still gets extremely nervous about filming.
Furthermore, with shortly under a million followers, the label of “Vine Famous” leaves the Westlake, Ohio (near Cleveland) native with some mixed feelings.
“A lot of people look at me like I’m some sort of celebrity, which is cool, and I get it, but I’m still a normal kid going to college and getting an education, being a Bobcat.”
Starstruck fans often asking for autographs and mostly pictures aside, it’s easy to tell that Logan genuinely enjoys everything about the Vines he makes, especially meeting new people and making new friends, such as Vine superstar Jerome Jarre, with whom he collaborated in New York. The two would spend days Vining on the streets of New York City, or in the subway where one of Logan’s favorite Vines was filmed, titled “Subway Monkey.” Jerome contacted him on Twitter when Logan had approximately 32,000 followers; the two hit it off immediately.
More than anything, this Bobcat majoring in Industrial and Systems Engineering couldn’t be happier living on this beautiful campus which feels like home to him. Logan wants to inform all students that he will be making an “OU Supervine” on September 29th at 4 p.m. on South Green in front of the Front Four by Nelson, and all are encouraged to attend! In the future, Logan would also like to film a celebratory Vine on campus once he hits one million followers.
So what do you do if you see this dude around sometime?
“Just come up and say hi. I’m a Bobcat like everyone else!” he says.
**STORY BY EMILY MCINTYRE