Every so often, up pops a local video that simply does everything right: great production values, a clever premise, great use of local settings and personalities, and a fantastic sense of fun. And when it’s all for a good cause, even better. This week, just such a video surfaced. It’s a promotional video for the upcoming Walk a Mile in Her Shoes (presented by Our VOICE), an awareness-raising march that aims to help prevent sexual violence against women. For such a grim topic, it’s a great way of getting positive attention.
One of the most important elements of creating a quality video project of any kind — a commercial, a short film or even a public-access TV show — is planning. Knowing exactly what you want to make before you start filming can decrease the hassle and cost of trying to fix unexpected issues on the set or in editing. But it’s relatively rare for that process to be documented. Asheville Starz, however, is a project that’s starting out with a video about defining what the project will ultimately become. It’s a essentially pitch session and pilot all rolled into one. And if you don’t actually like the concept of the show, you can simply sit back and watch as they roll through what appears to be every single available transition on their editing software.
Another important element of the creative process is procrastinating until just before a deadline. That way, you get that mad flash of urgency needed to kick yourself into high gear. Here’s a locally made student film by Chris Hampson — one which claims to be “based on actual events” — that aims to demonstrate this exact scenario.
Of course, some videos don’t really need to be planned out. In some cases, it’s more a matter of showing up and filming what’s already happening. Such is the case for this video about the upcoming Asheville Twestival — that’s a Twitter-Festival, for those of you not up on the current Twitter portmanteaus — which grabs a few thoughts on the event from local folks who attended a recent “tweet-up.”
We like to close out each week’s video round-up with a tune by a local band, so here’s the “Cold Kentucky Rain” performed by Asheville-based eclectic rock group Joltwagon.
Each week, dozens upon dozens of interesting local videos are uploaded to YouTube. It’s a lot to keep up with. Did we miss a particularly interesting, recently uploaded local video? Share it by leaving the videos URL (but not the embed code) in the comment fields below. Also, please mark it Not Work Safe if there’s any controversial content to the video.
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