The Modern Cottage Company

For my first DSLR video, I borrowed my wife's used and abused Canon Rebel T5 with its workmanlike 18-55 mm lens. She was okay with it because the video would be promoting her store, The Modern Cottage Company, in Old Town, Tacoma.

The idea was pretty simple. I sat down with Alison and we figured out what she wanted to say about her store. I also wanted her to say something about Tacoma so I could run out and get some beauty shots on a sunny day. A lot of the people who come into her store are seeing Tacoma for the first time and they often say how pretty it is. I interviewed her in an audio booth at my TV station rather than read anything so she could get her points across in a natural, more conversational way.

Alison has a furniture painting and home decor business. I brought the camera in and got as many shots as I could. Lots of close ups. She mentioned coasters and knobs so I had to get tight shots of coasters and knobs. Lots of pans. One rack focus, as I'm not a big fan of those. A few staged shots. A sharp eye might notice that Alison isn't really painting the green dresser. At the end I asked her to look outside then look at me and Alison smiled in a very natural way, probably thinking the whole thing was kind of  silly.

I edited the spot on my MacBook Pro using iMovie. I had to use GarageBand to edit my wife's interview down to just over a minute. GarageBand also provided the music. I had hoped to come up with something breezy on my own, but wound up using a jazzy piano number that was already there.