January 15th, 2007 by edit1media

November 15, 2006

We received a phone call from Stephen Nathans, the editor of EventDV Magazine that we were voted as one of the Top 25 Hottest and Most Influential Videography Studios! This is an award in which other videographers from all around the world vote on, so it’s a huge honor to have such recognition from our peers! We were really surprised to be on this list, but totally excited too!!! What an honor!

This award will be officially announced at the 4Ever Group’s Video ’07 Conference on January 8th. I’m going to be a very busy bee that day with giving out awards after being a judge and also receiving this really cool honor too! Another plaque for the wall…ya gotta love it!

business

Awards, wedding videographer

January 15th, 2007 by edit1media

November 5, 2006

Yesterday’s wedding was gorgeous! Ann-Marie and Steve were married at St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church and had their reception at the Rainier Club. It was a rainy Seattle day but the mood was still warm and sunny! Ann-Marie was glowing and the wedding party was tons of fun to work with!

Wendy from Weddings With Wendy did a fabulous job and we had fun having dinner with her in our own little vendor room. Bella Rugosa created a warm candlelit room at the Rainier Club that was truly breathtaking. John from the infamous JKHPhotography was great to work with, as always, and let us get some really creative shots.

At the end of the night, Ann-Marie and Steve left in a horse-drawn carriage into the downtown Seattle night. It was a bit wet, but still very romantic!

wedding

Greek, JKHPhotography, Rainier Club, Real Weddings, Seattle, wedding videographer

January 15th, 2007 by edit1media

October 29, 2006

After three days of being confined to a very small room in a crappy hotel and watching 14 hours of videos each day, I’m happy to be back home! The final judging was an educational and amazing experience. One I would be happy to do again in the future.

The three other judges were Sheila Orsi, Joe McManus, and Jay Stein. I already knew Sheila but didn’t really know Joe or Jay, so it was great to get to know these fine folks! We had a ton of fun and I hope we’ll all stay in touch from now on!

The videos…the cool thing about the final round is that by this time almost all the videos were awesome! My head is spinning with great shots, cool music, and the fact that an hour long video seems SO much longer than a 30 or 40 minute video. The amazing thing is that the 30-40 minute videos actually seemed to have more footage and tell more of a story than the longer videos. So the first thing we are going to do is implement this style into our own productions.

I was also happy to see more videographers incorporating voice over into their weddings. It really helps to tell the story and condense time without making the viewer feel like they are missing anything.

The funny thing is that they wouldn’t tell us who the winner’s are. We won’t know until everyone else finds out at the AAA Awards Banquet in Jacksonville, Florida in January! It’s killing me! There were several winning videos who I’m pretty sure I know who did them, but there are quite a few that I’m not sure of. I can hardly wait until Jacksonville now!

It truly was an honor to ask to be a judge by the 4Ever Group. Again, I’d do it in a heartbeat. The ONLY downside is that we couldn’t enter the contest ourselves and we had some pretty amazing videos this year. But there is always next year!

wedding

Awards, Cinematography, Crazy Schedule, Travel

January 15th, 2007 by edit1media

October 15, 2006

We did an amazing Greek wedding yesterday. About a month ago we got a phone call from a bride who was unhappy with the videographer they were going to use. She found our website and fell in love with our work. When she called and said they were getting married at St. Demetrio’s Greek Orthodox Church, I mentioned Camp Agape which is an awesome camp in Gig Harbor for families who have children with cancer. We were lucky enough to have been there for two years and it was an amazing break to have when going through such a hard time.

Anyway, she said yes she knew about Camp Agape and that in fact her fiancee is a counselor there. She said his name is Steve and I just about hit the floor! I quickly emailed her a picture, and sure enough…it’s the same Steve who was my kid’s counselor at camp! The bride said she definitely believes in fate and I think she decided on the spot that we were the ones who needed to film her wedding.

Cinematography, Greek, Personal Life, Real Weddings, Seattle, wedding videographer

January 15th, 2007 by edit1media

October 08, 2006

A few months ago I was asked to be a judge for a national wedding videography contest for the 4Ever Group. I was sent a total of 76 tapes and I have 12 left to watch. It’s been an interesting experience and in about two weeks I’m going to New York for the final round of judging with all the judges.

The ones that I have selected as the top in their category are hands down better than the rest of the group. It’s actually a little bit disheartening to see so many bad videos. Plus it makes me wish I had actually been entering national contests over the last few years!

The biggest problem I come across is camera stability, followed by editing that just doesn’t match the music. This just goes to show that there is still definitely a need for lots of education in the industry! I highly recommend the training videos by Mark & Trisha Von Lanken for anyone who needs help in these areas!

Awards, Travel, wedding videographer, Weddings

January 15th, 2007 by edit1media

October 02, 2006

A few days ago I sent out an email to past clients for an online survey. The results have been amazing! Every client who responded has only great things to say about us! Whew! It’s a little nerve-wracking sending out surveys because you’ve got to take the bad with the good, but it’s a great way to see what people REALLY think and how you can improve your business. I hadn’t done a survey in almost two years so I was pretty anxious to see the results!

Here are just a few of the comments:

“They listened to us and what we wanted, they were easy to work with, and made us feel very comfortable, even in front of the camera!”

“They were almost invisible during the wedding. Never knew they were there. Also, seemed to be in the right place at the right time.”

“Super professional and friendly. The video was amazing!”

“We love our video! Would do it again in a heartbeat. I recommend them to every bride I know.”

wedding

Business, wedding videographer, Weddings

January 15th, 2007 by edit1media

September 30, 2006

That’s right…no weddings to shoot this weekend. It’s always a strange feeling when the wedding season starts to wind down a bit. Our wedding season is busiest from late June until mid-September. Of course some years it seems to start a bit early and other years it ends later. But that first weekend after so many months of having no weddings, is hard to describe. The kids are home and it’s almost like we aren’t sure what to do! So we cleaned…what fun.

While the shooting season for 2006 winding down, the booking season for 2007 and 2008 is really heating up. So far we have more weddings booked for 2007 and 2008 at this time of the year than we did at the same time last year. And we have three couples coming over in the next three days. So 2007 is definitely going to be a busy year for us!

I LOVE meeting with new clients and getting to know them. I love the excitement in their voice as they describe their wedding. I love how they cry when they watch our videos…it’s just so much fun! But that definitely requires taking time out to CLEAN!

Chris shot a last-minute corporate video yesterday and I was able to get it out to DVD in between cleaning (it was very basic). I also got a lot of stuff cleaned off the hard drives, so all-in-all it was a busy but productive day of housekeeping! Not much else to write about today!

wedding

Corporate, Weddings