Avila Student's Music Video Goes Viral

A RISING DIRECTOR

Avila Student's Work Goes Viral

by Emme Moorehouse

Kelly Ulrich, an Avila student studying Film and Digital Media, got the job of a lifetime. She recently directed and co-edited a music video for Youtube sensation Elijah

Photo courtesy of Kelly Ulrich

Daniel. Daniel has a fanbase of 620,000 subscribers on

Youtube and 576,00 Twitter followers. Kelly stated that, “It was literally the biggest opportunity I’ve had in my entire life, and he reached out to me, which I thought was so insane. I’ve looked up to him as creator for 3 years now, and him per- sonally coming to me and already seeing my work was such a great feeling. It was weird because I didn’t feel nervous. I’ve been preparing my whole life for a moment like this.” Kelly loves Daniel and felt closely connected to his vision of giving a voice to the LGBTQ community. Raising controversy with his new song “PHAGGOT”, which was aimed towards people who discriminate against the LGBTQ community. Daniel called out the Westboro Baptist Church (a church in Topeka, Kansas that openly hates on people based upon race, sexual orientation, and gender). Kelly also stated, “I honestly did feel like this was the perfect job for me.

Photo courtesy of Kelly Ulrich

I honestly didn’t know what to except with meeting Elijah and Sam in person, but honestly, they were the most kind hearted people in the world. They believed in my work, and my worth. They let me be my most expressive and true self while directing and filming this video. All in all, I feel like this is my greatest work. The “PHAGGOT” music video is already at 100,000 views in less than a month. I worked extremely hard on it with 100% creative freedom. It made so many people happy, and I gained some notice from it, which is a pretty cool feeling.” Kelly hopes that this will be the start of her path to being famous and by the looks of it she’s got a fantastic start.