Southeast athlete produces videos

Driving by the library in February it might seem surprising to see a bunch of students in crazy clothing and costumes dancing around and on the fountain in front of Kent Library. People likely would be more surprised to have seen that it was being recorded.

Southeast Missouri State University joined the likes of countless other churches, schools, banks and organizations that have created Harlem Shake videos to go on YouTube. One of the masterminds of the project was Southeast track athlete Reggie Miller.

Miller, a sophomore, has made his presence known while at Southeast. Miller was recently named the Ohio Valley Conference track and field athlete of the year and helped the Southeast men to a second-place finish at the Indoor Track Championships in February. Aside from his track abilities, which include holding the school high jump record, he likes to create movies.

Reggie Miller works on production in his room. Photo by Daniel McElreath

However, many people don't know about his creative side. He has published more than 50 videos to his YouTube channel called "ezoen."

"These videos are just random," Miller said. "We decide that we want to make something, and then we do it."

This was the case with the "Harlem Shake-SEMO Edition" video. Miller said that he and his friends invited about 2,000 people using Facebook and by having friends contact other friends. Students were told to meet at the library and dress in crazy outfits.

"It was like a real job. We had students in charge of filming, people in charge of the audio and I was in charge of making people get there and their positions while dancing," Miller said.

Somewhere between 100 and 200 students showed up to the event, and the video was shot from trucks in the middle of Normal Street.

Miller said that he has a real passion when it comes to working with film. His major currently is mechanical engineering, but he plans to change that to pursue his love of film.

"If I could have any job, I'd like to work on movies like 'The Hobbit,'" Miller said. "I want to follow cinematography and work on actual films."

Miller said that it has been making films like the Harlem Shake that has helped him decide that.

"With film, it combines all the things that I like," Miller said. "I love music, I can write music and you use problem solving because you have a problem or a creation and you can make it on film."

Miller has no plans for future films, but he said that ideas are brewing. So far Miller's videos have been popular on campus. The "Harlem Shake-SEMO Edition" was published on YouTube in February and already has more than 11,000 views.

An earlier creation of his, the "SEMO Gangnam Style," was published last year and has about 11,000 views as well.

Miller employs the talents of many Southeast students when he creates videos, and they are heavily featured throughout both videos.

The Harlem Shake has become a trend in popular culture lately as it has been popping up all over YouTube. It was started by a group on the Internet and has been growing in popularity ever since.

The Harlem Shake, while originally a dance that is about 4 minutes long, has been made into a 30-second clip that usually features one person dancing and others joining in.

At one point, according to the Huffington Post, nearly 4,000 videos were being added to YouTube per day. People get pretty creative when they are making them.

The University of Georgia swim team created one where they are doing the Harlem Shake underwater, and there is also a version of the video that features members of the U.S. Army.