Elba comes together for HGTV contest video
Everything from parks to historic houses to the Pea River was thrown into a community-produced pitch video Elba put together to enter a contest to become a lucky winner of the new HGTV Series “Home Town Takeover” contest.
The competition was stiff. According to the HGTV website, the contest received “no less than half a million photo and video submissions representing more than 2,600 towns across the U.S.” as towns competed to be featured – and transformed – by the show.
Even though another Alabama community, Wetumpka, was selected to be the first town to be featured in the series, Laurie Chapman, who nominated and coordinated Elba’s video submission, said the effort of entering the contest was worthwhile.
Chapman said when she heard about the “Hometown Takeover” challenge she knew she had to nominate Elba. “I know it was a shot in the dark, but you have to take the risk to even have the chance.”
The process became a community project. “When we decided to do this, we only had a short amount of time to make it happen,” she said. With just a few days to work on the submission, Chapman wrote a script and enlisted other community members to help with gathering photos and putting the video together.
The day before the audition tape was due, Chapman contacted Mike Moseley, the owner of Moseley Studios, to help in the editing of the tape. With only 24 hours to work, Moseley worked hard to condense all the ideas to produce the video submission.
And he did just that, creating a video reflecting the pride Elba citizens have in their town in southeast Alabama. The video puts a spotlight on historic homes, parks, and community projects.
Homes, including the Curran residence built in 1904, as well as structures in downtown Elba in need of restoration were featured in addition to ongoing projects such as the Elba Theatre and plans for the Mulberry Heights School.
Aerial views of sites around town and voices from many citizens came together in the video.
One theme that tied the video together was how citizens in Elba share the goal of “making our community more livable and lovable” as one video narrator noted.
The “Hometown Takeover” series is a spin-off of the popular “Hometown” show featuring Ben and Erin Napier as they renovate homes in Laurel, Mississippi. One HGTV article about the new show said that it will be an effort “led by Erin and Ben that’s certain to bring new hope and inspiration to an entire community.”
Although Elba did not win the coveted spot on the HGTV show, Chapman said the process of making the video shows Elba “is a town with so much potential.” She added that working on the submission provided inspiration to all involved, and she is sure the video will be useful for future endeavors.
Tags: Elba
