Lesson Learned!

Avon was having a Makeup Maven contest and the grand prize is a 3 night stay in New York with a tour of their labs and what-not. The contest has been advertised for several weeks and I had it in the back of my mind to make an entry video. The contest is for Avon Reps, and to enter you need to make a how-to video using Avon’s makeup or nail wear. You could do a smokey eye look, a full face look, a lip look or a nail look. I had it in the back of my mind to do a full face look, either for the Holidays or an evening look. I also considered doing a smokey eye. I thought about how I would shoot the video, where I would sit, how I would apply the makeup, what I would say (I imagined I would sound like Giada, only describing makeup instead of food).  I thought about it, imagined it, rehearsed it in my head over and over, and even mentioned it to my family and a friend. However, I never got around to actually shooting the video until yesterday afternoon.

My daughter and I got everything all set up. She felt like a professional videographer, even improvising something to hold her iPhone steady so it wasn’t all jiggly. We did a practice shoot and figured she needed to change the position of the camera and I needed to look up at the camera after each step.

Then the Trick or Treaters started coming around, so we paused the video shoot while we handed out candy. That was a blast! The kids were so cute and creepy in their costumes.

When most of the neighbors were done and their porch lights were off, we decided to go inside and get the video shoot finished. I had to wash my face from the previous practice shoot (but boy did I look good handing out candy!). We got through one eye, then I messed up, so we had to start again….and again….and again….at least 5 times I messed up before I actually made it through the whole thing without any major mess ups. Finally, we had a good shoot, and could move onto the editing process.

First, we had to figure out  how to get the video from her iPhone onto the computer. My daughter thought she could just put it in Window Movie Maker. After trying that, I remembered that doesn’t work. Then I remembered we had to convert it somehow. Then we decided to try it on my laptop using Camtasia. But it didn’t work either…at least not easily. Then I thought there must be an app for the iPhone we can use. So I did a search and found one called Splice. I downloaded it to my iPad. Karlie then emailed me the video in bits and pieces so we could edit it on my iPad. That worked pretty well and by the time we got done it was 11:57pm. The video had to be entered by 11:59pm and we still had to render it. We sat there and watched the bar move ever so slowly across the screen. We even covered up the clock at one point so we couldn’t see it.

The video finally finished rendering. It was 12:01. I clicked on my Avon rep site, logged in and clicked the Makeup Maven button. When the page loaded, the Entry tab was greyed out. I was so bummed. All that work for nothing.

Well almost nothing. I figure I have a decent how-to video on You Tube now and I can use it to, you know, post on my blog as well as Facebook and Twitter. 🙂 Oh I think I will post it on my Avon website too! (You can shop there if you prefer shopping online at www. youravon.com/marylutz.)

 So without further ado, here is How to Create an Evening Smokey Eye. Oh and the lesson learned? Never wait till the last minute!!!! 🙂