Student Captures Audio Atmosphere of East Main Street Shop

Ariam Frezghi dreams of one day becoming a professional travel blogger.

For now, she’s an aspiring journalist attending classes at Stony Brook University. When her Online Journalism professor told the class to produce an audio slideshow for the web, Frezghi – who describes herself as a freelance writer and iPhonegrapher – set out to Port Jefferson village to find herself a suitable business to profile.

“I have heard great things about the town of Port Jeff and since it was the closest to campus I figured why not find a store to profile,” she said.

After cold calling a few possible subjects, Yvonne Affronti, owner of on East Main Street gave her permission to come in and poke around.

Frezghi took her Canon Rebel digital camera and audio recorder and interviewed Affronti while photographing the store. She also went back a few times to speak with customers and capture the natural sound of daily business at the store. She put it all together in Final Cut Pro, a professional video editing program.

“This is my first experience with editing a slideshow and believe me it's harder than I expected,” she said.

In the final edit, Frezghi added narration at the suggestion of her professor. The audio slide show profiling Village Chairs and Wares can be found by clicking here.

To keep up with Fezghi, follow her on Twitter at @Ariam_Alula.