Videography maestro John Snelson enjoying unique new role with CU football

For fans of Colorado football, John Snelson, the videographer extraordinaire who crafted "The Rise," documenting CU's 10-win season and journey to winning the Pac-12 South in 2016, is a man requiring no introduction.

Snelson rejoined the Buffaloes back in July as creative services manager, a position from which he continues to lead the charge on videography for CU football.

In this new role, Snelson focuses much of his energy towards cultivating a unique perception of Buffs football through his various projects, which, in the age of social media, is critical for every program wanting to stay relevant and interesting.

Snelson, 32, graduated from the University of Colorado in 2011 with an economics degree.

By the time of his senior year, he was working as a student assistant for video and football operations under the Dan Hawkins staff.

Getting his foot in the door formally with the Buffs came somewhat on accident, as some work he had produced caught the eye of Jamie Guy, Colorado's director of sports video.

"At one point, I had made a highlight video just for fun and threw it on YouTube," Snelson said. "Jamie Guy saw it, messaged me and said, ‘Hey, would you want to come make videos?’ That’s how I got my start."

From there, Snelson spent four years (2011-2014) as assistant director for sports video under Guy and from 2014-2017, his role at Colorado evolved to serving as video production manager for the football team.

It didn't take long before Snelson's work started making waves.

Snelson was a key player in the production of the six-part series "Forward," which follows Colorado's football team through the 2015 season.

As we will see, "Forward," provided something of a framework that Snelson later expanded upon the following season with "The Rise."

In 2017, with "Forward" and "The Rise" having bolstered his resume, Snelson left Colorado and formed his own firm, Snelson Films, where he wore a number of different hats, overseeing cinematography as well as editing, producing and directing a variety of projects.

"I started getting a lot of connections, a lot of people asking me to do different stuff and so I decided to leave and do my own thing," he said. "I worked for a couple different production companies and gained a lot of experience on big-time projects."

Snelson then joined Second Wind Creative, creating content that appeared on the NFL Network, ESPN and FOX.

After striking it out on his own for a few years, Snelson had an itch to return to covering college football, a passion of his.

As this past summer got underway, the stars aligned and a chance to come back to CU presented itself.

"I think deep down, I just always really loved the atmosphere of working in football," Snelson said. "I love the camaraderie, being a part of the team, being a part of pumping up the fan base and helping with recruiting — I just love it."

"I got a call one day that (Colorado) had created a new position, which was the creative services manager...I was just like, ‘Man, deep down I really know this is what I love to do — I’m going to take this opportunity.’"

The 2016 Colorado Buffaloes won 10 games — the most by CU since Gary Barnett's 2001 squad — capturing a Pac-12 South Division title in the process en route to a Valero Alamo Bowl appearance.

Even five years later, the success the Buffs had in 2016 remains the high-water mark for CU football in the 21st Century outside of Barnett's 2001 team that played in the Fiesta Bowl and finished the season ranked No. 9 in the nation.

For Snelson, heading into the 2016 season had a certain feeling to it, one centered around the belief that the Buffs were capable of doing something special that fall.

After all, Colorado had shown promise in the immediate years prior; in 2014 and 2015, the Buffaloes went a combined 6-19, but lost a total of 10 games by a touchdown or less.

"What was interesting about it — the 2015 season, I felt, as well as the coaching staff and different people, that we had the guys to be good in 2016," Snelson said. "I felt like we were going to be good."

"You could tell with the leadership of Sefo (Liufau), Phil (Lindsay), Chido(be) (Awuzie) and Ted(ric) (Thompson) — it just felt like we were going to be good. And so, I was like, ‘I want to go all out — I want to follow the whole season no matter what happens.’"

As the 2016 season progressed, Snelson's work the previous fall on the "Forward" series proved to be a blueprint for putting together "The Rise."

That said, once CU started winning consistently, it only took Snelson so far before entering uncharted waters was unavoidable.

In short, documenting the day-by-day doings of a losing team had its challenges.

"In the past, we’d done some series, but if we lost, we’d just be like, ‘Nah, we’re not going to make one,’" he said. "It’s hard to keep it up when you’re not winning. But I wanted to commit to it being a real series."

Snelson ultimately pitched "The Rise" as a bonafide television-quality product to the Pac-12 Network, which was receptive to his vision and eventually aired all six episodes nationally.

"It was a lot of fun," Snelson said. "It was a fun staff to work with. Coach (Mike) MacIntyre was very supportive and on board with me doing the show and whole staff was. It was a fun project and I think all the players appreciated it. I have had some recruits or current players tell me, ‘I remember watching that and that’s one of the reasons I committed.'"

"I would say, if there’s a defining moment of my career, doing ‘The Rise’ was (it)."

Since Ralphie V was retired near the end of the 2019 season, and with the COVID-19 pandemic putting a pause on the Handlers program's search for Ralphie VI, Buffs fans had been wondering when Colorado's beloved tradition would continue.

Last November, the buffalo candidate that would emerge as Ralphie VI was donated to the Handlers and from there began a process that took the better part of a year, culminating with her debut Sept. 3 in CU's 2021 season opener vs. Northern Colorado.

As it became apparent that Ralphie VI would make her inaugural appearance when the Buffs began the season, Snelson knew it warranted a significant project on his end.

"My thought was that we needed to have a script, we needed to have a big-time voiceover and we needed to have the right feelings and not make it about this Ralphie necessarily — but (instead), we make it about passing the torch," Snelson said.

Snelson turned to his former colleague Charlie Mangano, who from 2015-2020 served as a senior director and multi media content producer at Colorado, to help write out the script.

Along with Mangano, CU Senior Graphic Designer Tyler Davis, Director of Sports Video Jamie Guy, Assistant Athletic Director Curtis Snyder, Senior Associate Athletic Director Alexis Williams, Director of Creative Services Brent Depaepe, Director of Digital Content Serena Archer and Digital Content Manager Lexi Hartmann all had a role to play in brainstorming, too.

For the "big-name voiceover," it was decided to present the project to ESPN's Chris Fowler, a Colorado graduate, Class of 1985.

"I sent the script to Chris and he loved it," Snelson said. "It honestly came together pretty last minute. There was just a lot of stuff going on and so I think I finished editing that video on the Monday of that week that it came out."

"But I was really proud of how it turned out. It’s definitely one of my favorite videos I’ve put together, from the writing, to getting the right person to narrate it and the right feeling. It was cool to see it on the scoreboard, too, before she ran.”

Snelson would probably be the first to tell you that in 2021, social media is king.

Nowadays, you're hard-pressed to find teenagers, and especially recruits, who are not fully immersed in social media.

Whether it's Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc., Snelson knows how pivotal it is to stay relevant on those platforms, supplying a constant stream of content that'll catch people's eyes.

"It is a big responsibility in what I’m doing and what our team is doing to stay relevant, stay interesting and fun and get the right information out there at the right times," Snelson said.

Snelson has frequent meetings with Bob Lopez, CU's general manager, as well as Director of Player Personnel Chandler Dorrell, to strategize about all things recruiting.

An idea Snelson had this summer was to create a project that would provide a glimpse into a day in the life of CU's position coaches, offering fans of the program and namely, recruits, a chance to see what it's like at one of Colorado's practices.

"During fall camp, I did ‘Mic’d Up’ with all the coaches," Snelson said. "That may not be the coolest video type thing or big production, but it does give someone watching, like a recruit, the chance to see a coach's personality that they may not have ever gotten to see before."

"Recruiting is definitely a big goal of what I’m doing here, as well as keeping the fan base and Buff Nation informed and excited.”

Back around the time when "The Rise" was airing on the Pac-12 Network, Snelson received more than a few comments from then-recruits who went on to commit and sign with Colorado about just how impactful the series was for them.

Some went as far as saying it was a major contributing factor in their decision to choose Colorado over other programs.

It is with making that kind of potential impact in mind that Snelson continues to produce content geared at raising the eyebrows of prospective student-athletes across the country.

“It's really an exciting part of my job and something I take pride in," he said. "I know the work that I’m doing can directly affect the success of recruiting and therefore, directly affect the success of the program and winning."

Across college athletics, programs have realized how imperative it is to have people like Snelson on their staff.

After all, it's become an increasingly competitive landscape, with schools constantly trying to outdo one another in the name of looking the flashiest on social media and staying relevant online in general.

While Snelson is no stranger to high-production series and pieces of content, he does feel at times that many programs overlook the value of being intimate and upfront — not only with recruits, but fans, as well.

"I think a lot of schools are good at putting out fancy editing transitions and those kinds of videos, but they’re not good at storytelling," he said.

"My goals are to tell the real stories of our coaches and players. I want to dig deeper and get not only our fans, but recruits and people who are paying attention, to actually know who we are.”

Looking down the barrel, Snelson aims to get cracking on a series of projects that will familiarize Colorado football to the fanbase in a more personal manner than focusing simply on the gridiron itself.

"One thing I’m trying to do is put together a video on every one of our coaches and our players as well, and really tell well-done stories about their background — where they came from, who motivated them, what their motivations are now and what that translates to how they coach or how they play," he said.

Snelson plans to start from the top, as the first installment of his forthcoming project will focus on head coach Karl Dorrell.

"I went and got a bunch of pictures and videos of (him) from his childhood, to high school, to UCLA to his career in the NFL and all of that," Snelson said. "I just talked a little deeper than what you’d expect — not coach speak, but real talk about, 'This is who I am, this is why I am the way I am.'"

For Colorado fans who have become fans of Snelson's work over the years, stay tuned. Much more is on the way.

"That kind of stuff is important to mix in along with your fun, cool stylized edits. That’s really what I'm trying to do and that’s how I’m trying to be different."