How would you describe Edmonton to someone? Thanks to Alex Scuccato, you can just show that person a YouTube video: Outpost: This is Edmonton.
Faced with some extra time last summer, Scuccato decided to capture his view of Edmonton on film.
Scuccato admired videos that showcased other cities, such as Portland, but found a lack of anything non-corporate that featured Edmonton in the same way. “I just felt really strongly that this was something that I wanted to do and that this was a story that I wanted to tell,” he says. “I really wanted to use my skills and talents to promote the city and maybe change people’s perceptions about what Edmonton is like.
“Video has a lot of power.”
Armed with a video camera and flexible storyboard, Scuccato transformed his footage into the stunning video that he shared online in October. Scuccato captured slices of Edmonton, from the High Level Bridge to a violinist entertaining clapping riders on the streetcar. The responses poured in. Within days of the video’s debut, it had garnered thousands of views and it didn’t take much longer to reach the 60,000 mark. While sitting at a University of Alberta football game with a phone that wouldn’t stop buzzing, he realized his project struck a chord.
“I got so many cool stories,” he says, including an Edmonton teacher working in Taiwan who wanted to show his students where he lived, and a Scandinavian woman who wanted to show family back home why she decided to stay in Edmonton.
