Umbrella Ave.

This summer I have been working on a ton of different projects, photography, graphic design, video editing, all with the end goal of making a well rounded portfolio that I can use to apply for internships and jobs. Now, I was planning on waiting until that site was live to share much of anything, but I have been working on something, literally all day, and it turned out so much better than I ever could have hoped, so I'm sharing it right now!

My sister-in-law, Alex, has a small business where she sells one-of-a-kind, handmade toys and art, called Umbrella Ave. Last year I filmed her and her creations for well over an hour, in the hopes of getting enough footage to make a commercial for her business. When I first went through the footage last year, I didn't really know how I was going to use it. There was a lot of bad lighting, poor sound, and long stretches of silence. At the time I didn't really have the time to dedicate myself to the project, so I put it away, and planned to get back to it when I had more time.

Well, this summer, I have forced myself to have time to work on this kind of stuff, and after starting a YouTube channel where I am reviewing movies and TV shows, (more on that later) I felt like I had gotten back into the editing groove, and gained enough new knowledge that I could finally tackle Alex's commercial. Plus, she has a big art show coming up this weekend, and I wanted to surprise her by finishing the video in time for her to play it at the show.

I started it this morning, and it was really slow going at first. I was really struggling to try to figure out how to turn around an hour's worth of semi-worthless footage into a commercial she could use to promote her business. I was clipping out some decent shots here and there, whittling away at some of the worst of it, when I started noticing that in our small talk while she worked, there was actually some good little anecdotes about her work and why she does what she does. So instead of just making a commercial, I switched gears and I decided to use the clips of her stories, overlaid with footage of her just working, along with some shots of her creations, and make them into a mini-documentary!

It is now well after one in the morning, I just finished uploading the video to YouTube, and I am as close to being thrilled with something I've created as I've ever been. I've done video editing before, and I'm not usually completely happy with it, but not this time! I am really shocked at how well this went together, so I had to make this post to share it right now, in the middle of the night. You can watch the video here!



If you liked what you've seen and you want to look into Alex's work some more, I'm including links below.

Alex's Etsy Shop: www.etsy.com/shop/UmbrellaAve
Alex's Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/umbrellaave
Watch another of Alex's creations come to life:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMiakfobPWE