‘Have No Fear, the Crew Is Here’
A look inside the group’s founding, goals for the future and the content creation process that brings entertainment to the Fordham community
COURTESY OF THE HAVE NO FEAR CREW
Fordham students gather around Mollin and Chen on Fordham’s Outdoor Plaza to participate in a video.
April 28, 2023
If you’re a student at Fordham Lincoln Center, chances are you’ve heard of the Have No Fear Crew. This group of Fordham seniors creates YouTube, TikTok and Instagram videos, with content ranging from man-on-the-street interviews to challenges and vlogs filmed on the university’s campus and around New York City. Since their founding, in spring 2021, they have attracted thousands of followers across their social media accounts and gained over 2 million likes on TikTok.
The Have No Fear Crew consists of four members: Montse Ruiz de Gamboa, Arul Mollin, Wei Chen and Jenny Bocchicchio, all Gabelli School of Business at Lincoln Center (GSBLC) ’23. They were brought together through GSBLC, and what began as a casual friend group grew into a tight-knit content creation team when the group formed the Have No Fear Crew.
“We have such a special friendship that for many people is hard to find,” Ruiz de Gamboa said. “The four of us feel like brothers and sisters.”
Because they film around Fordham, the crew has the opportunity to interact with many students on campus through interviews and conversations. This engagement with the university community has made them a familiar face for Lincoln Center students.
In the end, making and uploading content is a team effort — everyone does a little bit of everything to get the job done.
“It is nice at a campus without any sports or traditional forms of exercising school spirit, to have something that people get excited about,” Caroline Hyde, GSBLC ’25, said. “You can tell that the people involved really enjoy it which makes it entertaining to watch.”
Their shared love for social media and passion for making content brought the Have No Fear Crew together. A few of their favorite videos they have made thus far have also created some of their fondest memories, such as their hide-and-seek series, their speed dating videos and their vlogs from when they studied abroad in London. While the crew strives to step outside of their personal bubbles while filming, their first priority is to make sure the people in their videos feel comfortable and welcome.
“We’re also college kids, so we want to be as relatable to the students as we can. We’re not any different than anyone else here,” Mollin said. “We wanted to create something that other people could laugh at, be inspired by and things like that.”
The crew adds an inviting catchphrase at the end of their YouTube videos: “Have no fear, the crew is here,” a simple yet sweet and friendly signoff.
The Content Creation Process
The crew spends many nights brainstorming to come up with new video ideas. They have meetings once or twice a week to discuss what they are going to work on for the rest of the month and where they are at with any current projects.
Prior to filming, they consider how they will market and promote their videos and attract sponsorships. They also work out who they want in their videos, as well as the camera angles and the equipment they are going to use. Because many of their regular viewers are Fordham students, they try to come up with videos that will engage the community.
Sometimes, they will look to other YouTubers and analyze videos to see what sparks their own interests or discuss things they have seen before to figure out what they would like to do next.
“We watch a lot of YouTube videos together, and we study them and critique them. We get a lot of our influence from Kelly Wakasa, MrBeast, Jubilee and the Sidemen,” Chen said.
“It’s possible for us to continue this after college, and we all want to, so that’s what we’re planning on — that’s where we need to pivot the channel towards.” Wei Chen, GSBLC ’23
The filming and editing process varies greatly depending on the kind of video, the length, how many people are working on it and which social media platform it is for. It can take anywhere from two hours to a week to edit one video.
“The more camera angles that are involved and the more raw footage there is, the longer it takes exponentially,” Chen said.
To help with the amount of time needed, the crew has found specific jobs for each of them to take on. The editing is broken up between everyone, since they all have the necessary experience.
In terms of the work division, Ruiz de Gamboa stated that she’s mostly in charge of Instagram posts and reels, while Bocchicchio focuses on TikTok editing and posting.
Chen and Mollin typically take care of the networking, and they are usually the ones in front of the camera talking to people. Mollin is also credited with coming up with the crew’s name.
“He is one of our most outgoing personalities in our friend group, and he’s always lived behind the principle of just doing what you love and not caring about living someone else’s life and getting other people to do that too,” Chen said.
Of course, the group occasionally encounters obstacles, such as timing, mixing personal and professional lives, and consistency in content creation.
“When you’re so forced to stick to a schedule, it sometimes limits creativity,” Mollin said.
They have resolved these issues by creating a shared calendar, communicating, looking out for each other, and posting at least once a week. In the end, making and uploading content is a team effort — everyone does a little bit of everything to get the job done.
What the Future Holds
As content creators, the members of the Have No Fear Crew hope that their viewers perceive them as a group of friends making videos together and appreciating their time at Fordham and in New York.
“There’s a lot of hard work involved (in) showing what’s so great about the city and what’s so great about Fordham,” Ruiz de Gamboa said.
All four of the members will be graduating in May, but they plan to continue their YouTube channel. Right now, they are working on defining what the Have No Fear Crew is without Fordham, as most of their content has been centered on the university.
“It’s possible for us to continue this after college, and we all want to, so that’s what we’re planning on — that’s where we need to pivot the channel towards,” Chen said.
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“I think we did a really good job of bringing our friends and the community together, especially post-pandemic,” Bocchicchio said. She added that she hopes their group can be similarly remembered for being a source of “good vibes.”
“We want to be known by the time we graduate as a group who inspired people, took people out of their comfort zone in a good way, and really forced everyone to be comfortable in their own skin,” Mollin said.
