artisan wedding videos by studio msv

SF Chronicle BAYLIST

Hello all!

Thank you for being faithful blog readers and friends! Today I'm going to ask for your help. Two week's ago I received an email from SFGate (The SF Chronicle's online presence) saying that my "listing for BayList Best has been approved" and that I am officially in the running as the Bay Area's best wedding videographer!

If you think I've done a great job for your or someone you know; or if you just want to do me a favor :-) please stop in, register, and give me a vote! I would very much appreciate the sentiment!

Go here to vote and/or write a brief review! Thanks!

Another Great Tip!

Remember Cindy and David for whom I did the Fogarty Winery Instant Video?

Well, David, a producer at Electronic Arts took advantage of his position at his work place and his knowledge of my love for video games (I know. I'm a geek.) and the two of them sent a wonderful thank you gift to me!

Need for Speed ProStreet
Skate
Burnout: Paradise
and the in-demand, stand-in-line-to-get-it, Madden 2009!

Whoo hoo!
And the cherry on top was a terrific, heart-felt, hand-written thank you note.

Thanks Cindy and David! Totally unnecessary but very much appreciated! Cheers!

The Coolest iPhone App!

My movies are very music-driven.

If you're a bride of mine, you've gone through the rigors of having to create a song list from which the foundation of your wedding movie will be laid. If you're not a client of mine, you might get a sense of the importance of music in my movies just by watching them.

So it's no surprise that sometimes my "editor's block" centers around the fact that I can't find that perfect song to create the mood I'm looking for in a particular segment. In fact, I try my best to find (musical) inspiration wherever it finds me. That means trying really really hard to remember a band name, a song title, or a lyric or two that I can later Google from my desktop. But my memory has never been great when it comes to that sort of thing so thankfully those days are over!

Have you tried the Shazam App from your friendly neighborhood iTunes App Store? Goodness gracious. It's awesome.

Imagine: You're a wedding videographer. You're in an elevator and you hear a killer tune that would be perfect for a dramatic Super 8mm segment of the movie you're currently working on. You bust out your iPhone. Touch the Shazam App icon. Shazaam listens to the song you're no longer trying to memorize the lyrics of, searches its database for what song you're hearing, and reports back to you the title, artist, album, and even allows you to order the song from iTunes.

Nice.

If you've ever found yourself in a situation where you heard a cool song and wanted to know who it was by, but couldn't, give Shazam a quickie (FREE!) download.

Elegant Cheesecakes

As I said in an email I sent to Susan Morgan, owner of Elegant Cheescakes in Half Moon Bay, I love meeting talented wedding vendors. Be it florists, designers, photographers, big-time-pimp-jam-mix-master deejays or in this case, cheesecake sculptor extraordinaires, I love soaking in the creativity and artistry of all these vendors.

Check out some of Susan's handiwork here below.
(Click the picture for a larger image.)

 

Second Shooter

I've been recently fielding a lot of calls from my fellow Bay Area videographer friends about helping them shoot second camera. I've been able to help out with some but not with others due to scheduling conflicts and other factors.

It's always an interesting situation when you offer other people your assistance in this way. Some people feel too proud to shoot second camera because it seems below them or somehow demeaning. Even the term "second camera" or "second shooter" conotes a level of unworthiness, doesn't it?

Well, my policy is kind of different. I have no problem shooting second camera for my friends whatsoever. And, to be honest, I don't even charge them very much at all! In fact, I'm downright cheap. :-) My philosophy regarding helping others is to always do my best to share. Share my time; share my experience; share my equipment; share any small level of success I might have enjoyed.

David Jay Interview Part II

Here is part two of the David Jay Interview that I helped Ron Dawson of F-Stop Beyond and F-Stop Beyond in Living Color shoot down in Santa Barbara not too long ago.

Check it out.

If you missed my post about the interview, go HERE.
If you missed part one of the interview, go HERE.

Uncle Augie

In Chinese custom, all the our parents' peers are addressed as "uncle" or "auntie" whether they're related or not. I always make my kids address my friends as such.

Today my kids, Zach and Hannah, met Uncle Augie for the first time when he came over to my house in San Ramon to do a kids photography shoot with them.

Augie was great with my kids. He made them feel really at ease and talked about stuff that they are interested in which relaxed them and made them feel like they're just hanging out with another "uncle" friend.

I haven't seen the pictures yet, but I can't wait! I think I'm going to make some big canvas prints for the house... maybe for the loft area or maybe on the stairwell. I haven't decided. But it's going to be fun trying to figure it out!

If you guys are thinking of a great gift for a sibling, cousin or�friend with kids, a gift certificate for Augie Chang's Child Portraits would be a great idea! Check it out!

(We even made some time to play Wii. Being someone with whom kids can play video games is a sure-fire way to endear yourself to them. Suffice it to say that my kids are excited to have Unlce Augie come over again some time soon.)

Augie working his magic with the kids.

To see Augie's Promo Video, CLICK HERE.

A Thank You Letter

I rolled out of bed this morning, and checked my email on my iPhone. (As a business owner, I guess it's my lot in life to have work on my mind as soon as I wake. ~sigh~) To my pleasant surprise, there was this nice email waiting to greet me:

I just wanted to let you know how awesome the video was - I am the mother of the best man and have been to lots of weddings but you have a gift and did an outstanding job of capturing the essence of the day, thank you so much, I have known David since he was three years old!

Thank you for that nice note, ma'am! It's notes like that that make the grey days sunnier!

(In case you don't know what video she's talking about, it was posted HERE)

Fogarty Winery Instant Video

Saturday I spent some time over in Woodside at Cindy and Dave's wedding shooting their Instant Video. (Do you remember Cindy? She was the fifth and final winner of our Promises and Pearls Sweepstakes drawing from March of this year.)

Monaco Glitz

Remember not too long ago I mentioned a secret project that was going to be inspired by Bond, James Bond? Well, you guessed it; the secret project has to do with a photoshoot with a team of awesome collaborators. I won't mention too much about the shoot just yet, and the images have yet to be revealed, but just know that we decided to pursue a James Bond look-and-feel because of the triple-helping of suave and oozing sexiness that Bond consistently brings.

Dang. Look out smooth Bond is!

Here are some snapshots of the behind the scenes at the shoot (all taken with my iPhone)
The gals' all here! Wait... where's Jen?

There she is! Sorry for the blurry photo :-(

You know how if you stay up too late past your bedtime you start to get delirious? Yeah. 'nuff said.

So what did the actual shoot look like? OK... here's a teeny tiny sneak peak...

More to come!

ISES Gala

ISES (pronounced like "the lake *ices* over in the winter" or "Andrew *ices* over if you tell him you have no budget for a wedding movie") is the International Special Event Society and they are a collection of the best special event vendors around the nation (and world!)

The ISES Northern California Chapter had their annual gala last Tuesday and I had the pleasure of attending.

Aside from being inspired by driven industry professionals and getting a chance to network with new friends from all different portions of the event industry, I got a chance to taste wonderful gourmet food and delicious desserts as well as hang out with some old friends.

Here is a picture of the wonderful design at my table. (These pictures were all taken with my iPhone... not the best quality. Sorry.) The table linens were from Wildflower Linen. The florals were by one of the following (I'm not sure which so I had better cover my bases:) either my friends Rafael and Leah from Spiral Hand Event Design, my friends Linnae and Jonathan at Asiel Design, Ornamento or Branch Out.

I got a chance to say bye to Duncan Reyes before he flew out of SFO the very next day to his five-day, Dubai/India, mulit-national wedding event! Wow. Must be nice! Pictured below is Duncan and Maiko of Hartmann Studios (I think.)

I was also pleasantly surprised to be able to meet many other old friends at the gala. Networking and making new friends is awesome... but so is meeting old ones! I met all kinds of vendors; professional theater lighting and electrical experts; rehearsal dinner specialists; all-inclusive corporate event planners; hotel catering managers; and the list goes on.

Here I have a picture of Janae Shields (Janae Shields Photography) and Gabby Feuersinger (Cake Coquette) in a beautiful red and black "boudoir-themed" dessert and cocktail lounge after dinner.

I couldn't stay too late because I had an early morning the next day. More on that tomorrow... :-)