How drive and creativity earned Santa Barbara’s award-winning student videographer widespread recognition

SANTA BARBARA, California – From the soccer field to creative, self-taught student videographer Diran Bebekian discovered new passions during his journey with UC Santa Barbara Athletics.

Bebekian was selected as a finalist for three 2024 Sports Video Group (SVG) College Sports Media Awards. He beat the top college Division I communications departments to win the Outstanding Social Media Video – Collegiate Athletics Championship category with his UC Santa Barbara Swim Season Video. Finalists and winners are selected by a jury from SVG in collaboration with the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA).

In addition to the swimming video award, Bebekian was also selected as a finalist for “Outstanding Social Media Video – Collegiate Student Championship” for his 2024 Women In Sports Video and “Outstanding In-Venue Video – Collegiate Student Championship” for the 2023 Men’s Basketball Introduction Hype Video .

Bebekian is a senior studying film and media at UC Santa Barbara. He played for the Gaucho men’s soccer team during the 2021 and 2022 seasons. During this time he filmed women’s soccer games and created edits as a passion project.

“From a young age, I made funny soccer videos,” Bebekian said. “I was playing soccer and I just wanted to record myself.”

Bebekian began editing his videos on iMovie and uploading them to YouTube. When Bebekian saw other creatives using new technologies and tools to design athletics videos, he looked for more advanced software. As a beginner, he taught himself Premiere Pro and progressed with each video by simply exploring.

“I just kept watching other people create things and told myself that I could do it and that I just had to take the time, learn the program and be creative. It’s all about creativity… how do you get an audience to be like that?” “That was cool” or “That was different.”

As a freelance videographer for the women’s soccer team, he caught the attention of UC Santa Barbara’s communications office as well as players and coaches who were impressed with his work. He was officially brought on board as a student videographer for the athletics department, where he now works for each sport producing introductory videos and game highlights.

Bebekian balances multiple video projects, particularly during overlapping sports seasons, in addition to courses and freelance projects. On any given day, Bebekian can go to Harder Stadium to score a Gaucho goal, direct a basketball media video shoot or watch his new video debut at the Thunderdome, his favorite spot on campus.

Bebekian emphasizes that thinking outside the box is the key to a successful video. His award-winning swimming introduction is a prime example of how he had to navigate showcasing athletes in a sport where a cap and goggles can get in the way.

“If I only go to swim training, it will be difficult to do something dynamic or something that focuses on the athletes. I had to do it a little differently,” Bebekian said. “I thought if I went to the gym and caught them working out, there would be variety.”

Bebekian’s proudest projects were the 2023 Men’s Basketball video, also an SVG finalist, and the 2024 Men’s Soccer video. He selected the videos to submit to SVG based on the recognition and positive feedback they received he received, and how well the video told a story.

“It means a lot to me that I was able to do it [win] for them and represent the school in that way,” Bebekian said.

In his process, Bebekian emphasized the difficulty and importance of good song selection.

“I usually try to make an anthemic hip-hop song,” Bebekian said. “Something that shows that they are going to win something and that they are fighting really hard for it.”

His third SVG finalist video was a film project for Women in Sports Day.

“I wanted to make it more of a movie than a hype video, make it more of a story. I had the privilege of asking Kelly.” [Barksy, The John and Jody Arnhold Director of Athletics,] to tell the first part and she was really willing to do that. “It put the story together really well,” Bebekian said.

Bebekian’s advice for people wanting to break into this field is to keep observing, take your time and be creative. He hopes to work for a professional soccer team in the future as he plans to graduate from UC Santa Barbara in the spring.