Meet Arlin Moore, the BU vlogger with the incredible drone footage

COM sophomore Arlin Moore became a big hit at BU with his incredible footage of campus and sights from his trip to Israel over this past winter break. Arlin has over 800 subscribers on his vlog, where he posts new videos every week. He’s even shot Alpha Phi’s recruitment video.

Arlin was first interested in video when he was four years old, but really got into editing when he got his first camera and made videos of himself skateboarding and snowboarding. Arlin was initially accepted into Questrom but made the switch to COM when he realized he wanted to go into a video career.

The Tab BU spoke with Arlin about why he loves shooting videos, and he even gave us an inside look at the making of the Alpha Phi recruitment tape.

What initiated the switch from Questrom to COM? Why do you think it’s a better choice for you?

I applied to BU and thought I would go into video and film because that’s what I enjoy, but when I was accepted I had a change a heart and realized I’d rather be more practical and pursue a business degree, so I took 131 and Finance. I thought they were interesting but it wasn’t something that excited me. I hadn’t been making videos during my entire freshman year because my laptop couldn’t handle anymore video editing, but then I ended up making my personal promotional video on my Ivy Man coach’s iPhone. I spent about six or seven hours just making it on an iPhone in iMovie and it turned out pretty funny. It got a lot of views and that’s kind of ironically what made me realize that I didn’t like business stuff at all and that I wanted to do video.

What kept your interest in video all this time?

The moment I really realized it was something I wanted to keep doing was when I was working on my first project for a gym. I worked on it for maybe 10 hours straight and when I finished it I was like “holy shit I haven’t eaten all day.” So it’s kind of this realization that if you could find something you like to do so much that you forget to eat then you should probably follow that and do something at least related to it. You can check out Arlin talking about how he started to get into film here. 

So you’ve got this huge vlog that people on campus are really into, how have you built up your following?

The first thing I wanted to do when I decided to do start my vlog is to make a video every day — kind of as a personal challenge. The hardest thing was putting it out there. Around my seventh video, a famous vlogger at our school, Gretchen, saw the videos I was doing and gave me a shoutout on her vlog. I woke up the next day and I had gone from 11 to 400 subscribers. I continued to crank out more videos but then went on break and stopped making them every day. However, I still had people commenting asking where I went — I had this little groupie following which was kind of funny. Now I have 800 subscribers so it’s at a point where my vlog isn’t just growing from a shout out, but because people really enjoy it and it’s interesting because I just film what I do and people like that.

Can you tell me a bit about the five guys in all of your videos — the stars?

The main guy I would say is Jackson Eaton. He’s one of my closest friends at BU and we started this section called the Jackson minute. It’s basically just Jackson rambling on about whatever comes to mind in the moment. He has a very bold personality. People love him and I would say the most positive comments come from Jackson. Girls love Jackson too. Then there’s Josh Barkoff, who I went to Israel with. He’s really goofy and loves the camera. He is always smiley and has a goofy grin and has a funny laugh that adds a bit of humor to the video. I got a comment the other day about Josh which said: “Every time I see Barkoff I can’t help but laugh, he’s not ugly, he just makes me laugh.” The next guy I would go to is Ricky, who is on my hockey team, and every time I interview him he speaks in a Dominican accent and pretends to be a Dominican Baseball player and literally nobody knows if that’s how he actually is.

How was shooting the recruitment video for Alpha Phi?

They came to me in the summer and asked if I would do it and I wanted to because I know recruitment videos get a lot of hype. I wanted to make something that was different than the typical glitter and sparkles. It was difficult because sororities, while they claim to be very different from each other, are all exactly the same. I kind of realized that immediately so I struggled at first on how to make it different. They all came to me when I asked them why they’re different and said “Well you know we’re different because we’re all truly friends.” And my response was, “Yeah, if you were in another sorority with a different label you’d all be friends too.” The video ended up basically being shot at a ton of different locations in Boston and I also went on their retreat that was on a beach at the North shore.

What’s the best party house to shoot at BU?

Probably the Ocho. I have a lot of funny footage there, but I love filming us getting ready for a party more because everybody is so ridiculous.

Have you ever come close to crashing your drone?

I ended up crashing it the fifth time I ever flew it while I was on a real estate job. I was making a video for this architect and I was flying it sideways and I got confused and I went full speed into a tree 100 feet up. It fell and hit the concrete driveway and I was like “shit I broke my drone.” It turned out to just be a small dent and it still flies completely fine, but after that I never crashed it again. The cool thing is that now I don’t feel like I need the obstacle detection because I’ve gotten really good at the maneuvers and getting a good cinematic shot. When I took it to Israel I was nervous if I put up the drone it would get shot down but we didn’t have any problems and I wasn’t really afraid at all because I realized it does what you want it to do.

What are your ambitions from here? What do you want to accomplish in video?

For now and this summer I want to keep making videos consistently whether I put one up day to day or at least a couple a week. If I could give any advice to anybody it’s to constantly put out content because people will find what you do interesting. This summer I’m hoping to work at a digital marketing company in Boston and in the future if my blog blows up that’d be pretty cool, but long term I’m interested in the commercial side. I don’t really know exactly my long term goal but I would love to make a Super Bowl commercial and be in charge of something like that. I’m not sure I want to go into film but you never know.

You can check out Arlin Moore’s vlog here.

Interview has been edited for length and clarity.