This Eerie Drone Footage of BU Will Make You Yearn for Campus Life

Aerial shot of Marsh Plaza and Comm Ave. Drone footage vividly capturing how BU has been transformed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Video shot by Above Summit, edited by Chris Palmer, BU Productions
Campus Life

This Eerie Drone Video of BU Will Make You Yearn for Campus Life

Robert Pinsky’s poem “Viral Quiet” captures the coronavirus pandemic

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This Eerie Drone Video of BU Will Make You Yearn for Campus Life

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Campus Life

This Eerie Drone Video of BU Will Make You Yearn for Campus Life

May 13, 2020
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On Thursday, April 23, a beautiful spring day when Boston University’s Charles River Campus would normally have been buzzing—with jam-packed sidewalks and bike lanes, overflowing buses and MBTA trolleys, and energized labs and classrooms—it was an alternate universe. The drone footage for this video, shot from 10:30 am to 7:30 pm that day from as high as 250 feet, captures an eerily quiet landscape, devoid of nearly any human interaction. 

BU Today asked three-time US poet laureate (1997–2000) Robert Pinsky, a William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor and a College of Arts & Sciences professor of English, to put words to the video.

Aerial shot behind Marsh Chapel showing greenery and brick paths. Drone footage vividly capturing how BU has been transformed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Video shot by Above Summit, edited by Chris Palmer, BU Productions
Robert Pinsky
Viral Quiet

Video from a drone in the great Quarantine:
Barely a rivulet of traffic on Comm Ave,
Nor much on what the kids called Sparrow Drive.

Blocks of calm like the crooning of a theremin.
Footpath symmetry revealed from high above.
The Castle, where BU presidents used to live.

Elegant, calm pace of a masked pedestrian
On ordinary business: provisional, grave.
All Commonwealth nearly immobile, yet alive.

Audio — 52 seconds
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Video from a drone in the great Quarantine:
Barely a rivulet of traffic on Comm Ave,
Nor much on what the kids called Sparrow Drive.
 
Blocks of calm like the crooning of a theremin.
Footpath symmetry revealed from high above.
The Castle, where BU presidents used to live.
 
Elegant, calm pace of a masked pedestrian
On ordinary business: provisional, grave.
All Commonwealth nearly immobile, yet alive.

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    Above Summit is a Boston-based drone and video production company. Profile

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Comments & Discussion

Boston University moderates comments to facilitate an informed, substantive, civil conversation. Abusive, profane, self-promotional, misleading, incoherent or off-topic comments will be rejected. Moderators are staffed during regular business hours (EST) and can only accept comments written in English. Statistics or facts must include a citation or a link to the citation.

There are 12 comments on This Eerie Drone Footage of BU Will Make You Yearn for Campus Life

  3. The headline says Eerie. The dictionary says that eerie suggests an uneasy or fearful consciousness that mysterious and malign powers are at work.Lets have more positive BU Today experiences instead of ones that infer that mysterious or malevolent powers are at work. Our human presence is still going strong through online courses, meetings, support groups, academic advising, training videos, athletic workouts, and being the great BU community that we are. BU is far from dead. BU is going strong every day. Love you guys!

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    1. Thanks BU Strong for the comment. I understand your point, and we certainly did not mean to imply some mysterious powers at work! Simply that the sight of an empty BU campus on a beautiful spring day is a strange and even eerie sight. Absolutely the human presence is strong and alive and we cannot wait to be back stronger than ever. Doug Most/Exec. Editor

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  4. That was fabulous I enjoyed watching it twice. I was able to point out the buildings to a new employee. Would like to see it again when everyone returns.

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  5. The YouTube caption says this was the third time an outside vendor was used to shoot drone footage of the campus. Could you post links to the other two videos? thanks.

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  7. Stunning footage. It really underlines the beauty of the campus, and how the people in the BU community give the university life. Here’s to a crowded Comm Ave in the (hopefully) near future!

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  8. Great work Chris. Video captures BU campus and the city.
    Very professionally done. I can see that you are very familiar with drone photography and video. Would be great to post similar video after everything goes back to normal to see the difference.
    I run blog site Ultimate Drone Flying where you can find more about drone cameras if you are interested.
    Thank you for the great video.

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  9. To really show all of BU there should have been footage showing the medical campus. BU faculty cared for hundreds of COVID-19 patients and it would have been especially fitting to include their campus during these difficult times.

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  10. Longtime BU staffer here. I enjoy these videos but none of them look “eerie” or “haunting”. Speaking as someone who occasionally works in COM weekends and holidays, this is BU always looks when classes aren’t in session! If the weather in the photos wasn’t nice, I’d think the footage was shot during intersession.

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