“Tiny Tufts,” a short film that transformed Tufts University’s 150-acre Medford/Somerville (Massachusetts, U.S.) campus into a bustling miniature world, was created to uplift the university community during the pandemic. The lighthearted video became so popular it broke records for the university’s social media channels and became its highest-performing post on Instagram.

The video, which earned a 2022 CASE Circle of Excellence Award, was filmed by Anna Miller, a multimedia producer with the university’s Communications and Marketing Office. Miller became a licensed drone pilot just prior to the pandemic so that she could film aerial footage and photos of the Tufts University campuses. She used a DSLR camera, a drone, and a tilt-shift lens for the project. That special lens allowed her to alter the depth of field, resulting in a video that downsized the campus complete with tiny people moving about at high speed.