If I were going to pick my least favorite part of being a videographer in Olympia, it would be that most of the wedding videos and production work I do take me to Seattle. Well, it actually doesn’t bother me that much. It’s only an hour away, and I love what I do. Some people make longer commutes every day, so I really can’t complain. Though I would truly love to get more gigs in Olympia.
Most recently in the wedding videography realm of Kinetic Vision Media is the wedding of Randy and Athena. This is the second Greek Orthodox wedding I’ve shot, the first being for Basil at being MEdia. I’m always really impressed at setting foot in the Orthodox churches, and witnessing the orthodox ceremony, realizing that I’m watching pre-Catholic traditions that have remained unchanged for… oh, well, you know, a couple thousand years. Give or take.
Even more interesting to me was what happened after the ceremony, during the reception. The dancing was crazy and fun! Here I saw dancing to a live greek band that played traditional greek songs. The interesting thing about the dancing, is I got the impression it was even older than the Orthodoxy of their church. Certain elements of the dance seemed almost, dare I say… Dionysian. It was awesome to see the blending of different elements of their culture over thousands of years, all compiled into a days wedding festivity. I enjoyed every minute of it, and I thank Randy and Athena for the opportunity to document their wedding.
Sometimes this video production gig in Olympia keeps me so busy I don’t have time to post here as often as I’d like. Wedding videos represent a major tier of the work I do, and my first wedding of 2009 fell on the first day of spring. March 21st, a noteworthy date of significance to me, as I value dates that mark the changing of the seasons. The first day of spring, the first day of my wedding season, my first wedding of 2009, and the first time I’ve shot at two historic locations in Tacoma.
It was a beautiful wedding at Tacoma’s historic Holy Rosary Church. You know, that really big one you can see from I-5, on the hill overlooking the Tacoma Dome? Yeah, it was awesome. It’s pretty old too. Late 1800′s if I’m not mistaken. Finding intact structures that old in this state always impresses me, especially when they are still in operating condition, and still used on a regular basis. Okay, upon researching I find that the church was established in 1891, the current building was constructed in 1920. Still, it’s impressive, especially for a region lacking in old megalithic structures. Check out the video below and you’ll see the impressive exterior before the video follows Levi inside to the still excellent interior. (though I have to admit I didn’t much care for the blue)
Levi and Stephanie had a great wedding and a fun reception. I learned that when people go to Ohio State they sing the song “Sloopy” punctuated with chanting of O-H-I-O!!! Pretty interesting to say the least. The reception was at the historic Landmark Theater in downtown Tacoma, a fascinating building whose decor was riddled with masonic seals, egyptian flying discs, and other symbols of a masonic bearing.
Levi and Stephanie were very happy with their video, and said they would happily refer my services to anyone needing video production work or wedding documentation.
Congratulations Levi and Stephanie, it was great working with you!
In February I received an e-mail asking if my video production company in Olympia did “video biographies.” At that point, I hadn’t, but I was very excited by the opportunity to try something new. Wedding videos and web commercials are great, don’t get me wrong, but I’m always wanting to branch out and experience different things, broaden my range, expand my portfolio, and learn. I thought this would be a perfect opportunity. So I was candid, and replied that I had not done any, but would be eager to give it a shot. I recommended another company that I know specializes in such things if the client didn’t want to take a risk with a type of project I had not done before. I offered a fair price and waited.
She got back to me and had decided she’d like me to do the video biography for her mother, who was soon to be turning 80. The video biography would be shown at her birthday party, and copies given out to the guests. Here is about an 8 minute excerpt from the video.
I was very happy with the finished product. Quite pleased. The project in it’s entirety was a pleasure to work on. The shoot was fun, it was nice listening to Iona’s stories, and as usual, by the time I was done editing, I felt I knew Iona really well.
After everything was said and done, I found that Tammy, (Iona’s daughter) and Iona had left a great review on a vendor listing site I utilize.
I hired Ken, at Kinetic Vision Media, to do a video biography of my mom for her 80th birthday. He was extremely patient with her, respectful throughtout the process, and we couldn’t be happier with our end product. I showed the DVD at her birthday party and I had 43 people agree with me that the DVD was amazing. I gave Ken some photos and my mom’s favorite music at our shooting and he implemented them and added so much richness in the creative way he put them and his own ideas all together. He allowed us to do some final editing to make it exactly to our liking and he met our deadline without a problem. I found Ken easy to work with and extremely flexible to our schedule. Prior to hiring Ken, I did much research within a reasonable distance to view the industry standards and try to decide how I wanted this to turn out. Ken offerred his own ideas and assisted us with coming up with a wonderful product and copies that we were able to distribute to our family members as a life-long momento. His pricing is extremely fair and lower than many other places around. Very good value all around. We would recommend Kinetic Vision Media without hesitation and hope many people read this and hire him so they can be as happy as we are with Ken’s work.
Thanks Tammy and Iona!
So I’m hoping to launch a redesigned website soon, and plan on having a section featuring info and pricing on these types of videos, which I hope to be doing more of in the future. Thanks for reading!
These yellowbook shoots! I sure do seem to do a lot of them! For anybody who hasn’t seen these on my blog before; I contract with a production company to shoot these 30-60 second web commercials for yellowbook.com. They’re a lot of fun, I enjoy doing them, they keep me very busy, and they’ve certainly expanded my portfolio! Even though I can’t actually embed the videos on my site, I can post links to the videos, which I recommend watching, as I’m fairly proud of each piece I’ve shot.
I’ve noticed recently that yellowbook has changed their embedded flash video player. The new video player seems to be quite glitchy, which is unfortunate, as the videos don’t look as smooth as they could while watching…
Auburn Muffler Brake and Radiator an automotive shop in Auburn (as the name clearly establishes!). This was shot in October, but only within the past few weeks did it make it up. I have no idea why! I don’t edit these, I just shoot them and send the tapes to LA for post.
D&D Recycling These guys don’t have anything to do with recycling old role-playing books. It’s mostly metal. Not the kind of metal you’d listen to while playing D&D… Interesting, this video was shot the same day as the Seattle Movers video, but this one didn’t post until a month later!
Others are in the pipes! A video shot in December has yet to be posted, I’ll be glad to see it when it does. 6 additional videos have been shot in the last 2 months, and I’m shooting one tomorrow. As much as the economy seems to be flailing, I get the impression the little guys are doing all the heavy lifting! These small businesses all seem to be doing well, and they’re keeping me busy. Thanks for reading!
A couple more Yellowbook shoots from December have been completed and are now live.
If you’re interested, these are pretty sweet, I like them. There are still a few more in the pipes, a couple I’m actually anticipating quite a bit, a Baptist School in Tacoma, and an automotive shop in Auburn.
