Okay. Trying to finish up 2009. A few more wedding videos in Olympia, Seattle, Tacoma and outlying areas. Then I moved on to some other really cool projects.
Toward the tail end of summer ’09, I was the wedding videographer for Amber and Justin’s wedding. The wedding was at a beautiful historic house in the Sumner area, and it could not have been a more beautiful day. Here is the Highlight Reel from the wedding.
I did the videography on a couple more weddings that year, but I think it’s about time to move this blog on to what I consider to be my single most monumental achievement of 2009. Next blog – Mutually Assured Productions and The Van Job.
Okay, it’s been well over a year since I’ve written on the blog here. So I’m going to start way back when I stopped updating it, and spend the next few weeks covering everything I missed; bringing it up to date. Sometimes this commercial and wedding video production gig here in Olympia, Seattle, and Tacoma keeps me so busy I don’t always have time to update. Wow, what an understatement!
Starting with Jasmin and Louis. June 27th, 2009. Jasmin and Louis booked early, which is great. Their wedding was at St. Ignacio’s Chapel, which is on the campus of Seattle City U. Beautiful church, really amazing. I loved shooting there, and would love to do it again. The architect of the church described the theme of his design as “7 bottles of light.” It’s really pretty.
Jasmin and Louis’s wedding was the first opportunity I had to utilize the camera I had just purchased; Panasonic’s HMC-150 AVCCAM. This is an HD camera that takes advantage of a relatively new video compression coded called AVCHD. After many months of researching, this was the HD camera I decided to buy. Panasonic had earned my loyalty years before with their DVX-100 line of cameras. Although the final product went out in standard definition, the HD stuff looks far superior, even on a DVD.
Anyway, here’s a couple of video clips from Jasmin and Louis’s wedding! The first clip is the pre-ceremony montage. This was shot exclusively with the HMC-150.
Next is the post-ceremony montage. This portion was shot with a combination of the DVX and HMC. You can actually see the difference between the two cameras when it switches. This is primarily due to adjusting the aspect ratio of the two cameras to match up properly.
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.
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 of updates here in the second week of January are needed.
Like that snow? Ridiculous. Glad it’s gone, really. When I plunged a yardstick in to the flattest area of my backyard it read 17 inches. Seriously. I’m so delighted that the rain is back, I’m thinking about putting on my dancing shoes and doing a tap number in the middle of my street.
Just a little footage captured during my boredom while snowed in on the 7th day. While it was surely driving me a little stir-crazy, I got a little cabin fever to be sure, it was also a great opportunity for productivity in the editing department.
Nick and Lois had wanted to know if I could get them their wedding video by Christmas. Well, it would be a little on the narrow side, I told them I couldn’t make any promises, but would do what I could.
Sunday December 21st, 1st day of winter, 5th or 6th consecutive snow day in our region; I agree to meet Nick and Lois to hand deliver their DVD’s, as I don’t know if the USPS could effectively deliver the package in 3 days, with the holiday, and the conditions.
My car being stuck, my friend John drives me to the Kinko’s where I print the DVD sleeves. Everything is looking good, we stop and buy tubes for sledding while we’re out and about. I need to get home, insert the sleeves into the DVD cases, with the DVD’s and make the package complete. Then to a local coffee joint for delivery.
Unfortunately, as we return to my house, John gets his car stuck on a pile of snow in what would be the only area he could really park. The plow has been piling it up for the last 4 or 5 days. John ends up staying on the couch that night, getting a ride to work in the morning. The next day after work, we dug him out and he got home.
Nick and Lois ended up meeting me at the bottom of my hill, where I ran through the snow piled up almost 2 feet high, while it was snowing, and hand delivered the DVD’s of their wedding to them, so that they could have them in time to give their parents for Christmas!
Merry Christmas Nick and Lois!
Their video turned out great, and though I like the Pre-Ceremony Montage a lot, I’m going to share the Post-Ceremony Montage here –
So here is what Nick and Lois had to say about their wedding video -
Ken,
WE LOVE IT!! It was just what I wanted… seriously!! I am picky and you pleased me very much.
It was last minute but it was soo needed to create our lifetime memory of that special day
Thank you,
Nick and Lois
Once again, I feel I should iterate that the emphasis in quotes from clients is always original, never added! I love it when a plan comes together! Seriously, not much makes me feel better than knowing a client is happy with the work I’ve provided.
Nick and Lois’s wedding also marks a kind of monumental occasion for me business-wise, in that for the 3 years I’ve been doing video production work professionally I’ve never booked a wedding after September. Theirs was November 15th. Another good thing is that ’09 is already starting to fill up. Good stuff!
Here is the Highlight Reel from Nick and Lois’s wedding.
