Milestone: cinematographer

I'm sure you all remember my melt down here. I would like to take a moment to thank you all for being so nice. None of you called me out on being such a bitchzilla/bridezilla. Let's be honest, I sounded like a whiny little brat, "woah-is-me, nothing is going my way." I am a very detail oriented person, but there is no excuse. Just goes to show you that one should not blog while in a heightened emotional state.

Moving on. I started my search for a videographer on Thursday, March 17. I found them less than 24 hours later on Friday, March 18. But me being me, did not book immediately. I wanted to see what else was out there and compare prices. However, I did book 10 days later on Monday, March 28. 

Let me back up first. I just said videographer, but the title says cinematographer. Here is a quick vocab lesson. Videography - simply put, is the act of capturing moments on film. Cinematography is the art of capturing moments (and feelings) and presenting them in a movie-like experience. I always knew that I wanted a cinematic film, I just did not know that there was a term for it. Don't get me wrong, there are some great videographers out there that have a cinematic flair. 

Back to the search. It was a long shot. Video is one of those things you should book early, like your photographer and your venue. I got a lot of "sorry, but we are already booked." I even started thinking out side of the box, to Florida. I enlisted the help of my photographer's wife, Lucia. That woman is amazeballs. I've said it before and I'll be saying it to the end of time. She sent me a complete list of her favorites around the country in addition to suggestions from FL as well as the passing along the video vendor their last Boston couple used.

In my search, I was smitten with three cinematographers:

• Monachetti - They are based out of MD. Click for Meredith and Tommy's feature film - I fell in love instantly. It just makes you smile and want to get up and dance. It is a little long though.
• Focal Point Cinematic - They are based out of TN. Click for Grace and Kim's highlight film - One of my favorites.
• Boston Wedding Films - They are almost in our backyard. Click here for this epic trailer, it is such a tease!

While Monachetti and Focal Point were unavailable, Boston Wedding Films (I will refer to them as BWF from here on out) were!!!

My engineering nerdiness came full out during my chat with BWF. I asked specifically about the equipment they used. Most wedding videos are now taken on dSLRs, not those giant camcorders that I remember seeing as a kid. I asked how they did the awesome sweeping motions that are as smooth as butter. I asked them how they did the super cool defocusing to focusing shots. As it turns out, with the advent of dSLRs, it means they use the same lenses as a photographer would, giving them tons of artistic options. 

BFW instantly picked up that I understood what dSLRs were and how different lenses worked to give different depth of focus and light sensitivity (aka no, or very little, on camera lighting required). We chatted for an hour about this and that. We probably could have talked forever. Honest truth, I couldn't stop thinking about the conversation I had with them. We just "clicked." BWF is VERY passionate about what they do. They pride themselves on quality, consistency, and the art of capturing a moment that cannot be repeated. Seriously, can you tell that I'm smitten by them?

Meet our cinematographers:



via Boston Wedding Films.



You have no idea how relieved I am to have this item checked off. We will have the video of my dreams. I cannot wait to get started! Also, I'm completely humbled that not only are they shooting our wedding, but they WANTED to shoot our wedding (aka, I wanted them as bad as they wanted me). I think this union was meant to be.

Back to School

I'm going back to school y'all. OK, not really, just only kind of. You've seen all the pictures I've been taking with my new toy since Thanksgiving (I'd attach links, but it is basically every post with photos published since December).

My photos are just OK, but I did buy a pretty high end camera with lots of bells and whistles that I should learn how to use and not just use the thing as a stupid expensive point-and-shoot (as I currently do now when I feel like I'm under pressure to just capture moments). Who buys an advanced dSLR when upgrading from a point-and-shoot? Oh wait, that would be me.

(via Mansurovs)

Anyways, I do not want to just take mediocre photos or use it only in auto mode. My friend C, (Hi C!) has been taking workshops through the New England School of Photography for awhile now and loves it. So far her focus has been on film photography and film development. Following in her footsteps, I signed up for a 8 week workshop on digital photography. Class starts tonight, I cannot wait! Wish me luck.

(screen capture of the NESOP Spring newsletter)

Oregon 2011 - Conclusion

Sorry that I'm dragging these updates out. It is a mixed bag of emotions as I recap our trip. It is almost as if I am reliving our short time back home. In doing so, I also re-live all  the emotions that go with it: the anticipation, the joy, the fun, the excitement, the closeness, and of course there is the sad.

Anyways, back to the recaps. Last time I left off with a tasty snack at Mojo Crepes. As the clock drew closer to 4pm, Jake and I parted from the sibs and headed west to meet up with some of my oldest and closests friends. Two families: the D family and the B family is how I will refer to them.

I HAVE to see them on every trip home. Not only to see my friends, but also to see their kids. First up, the D family. I have known K since the first day of high school. I met C in college. They have two of the cutest little boys, B (4 years old) and S (he just turned 2!). Now for family B. Funny story. I actually first met J the summer before senior year of high school at engineering camp. Yes, we are giant nerds, we know. I remember meeting L just before the first day of college at one of our scholarship banquet dinners. Back before they booted me from the scholarship program. That is a story for another time. Come summer time, all of us ran in the same circle. And we have remained friends ever since. Oh J and L have a beautiful little girl who is also 4 and they are expecting a new bundle of joy in July. It was tough to say goodbye at the end of dinner. The next time we see the D family will be in August and the next time we see the B family will be next year as they will not be flying out to Boston.

Once we were home, I concentrated on packing up my bags, while Jake hung out with the sibs. I am not an emotional person. If anything, I am your stereotypical engineer that just likes to deal with facts, none of that emotional, touchy, feely mumbo jumbo. I barely shed a tear when my parents dropped me off at the airport when I took the one way flight to Boston. But this time, it was different. I could barely hold it together. I did not want to say goodbye. I did not want to leave. I also did not want to go to bed. Going to bed meant that morning would come. And with morning, our flight back to Boston would come.

Well, morning came. Suffice to say, I was a huge mess at the airport. I was doing pretty well until TSA took my very expensive bottle of conditioner that I purposefully purchased in OR to save on taxes. It was 5 oz! I mean come on. Boston's TSA let me thorough security with 10 oz bottle of detangler! Oh yea, PDX took that away from me too.

Until next year...




Did you miss a day?
Oregon 2011 - Day 4
Oregon 2011 - Day 3
Oregon 2011 - Day 2
Oregon 2011 - Day 1

Project Mustache



Materials:
3/16" wooden dowels - ($2.49 - 25% off + tax = $1.99)

9"x12" black felt - ($0.29 - 25% off + tax = $0.23)

3/16" black foam board - leftover from Project Bubble

mustache templates (here, here, and here)

exacto knife

hot glue

white gel pen, chalk, or fabric pencil

The felt I picked up from the local craft store was really flimsy. I wanted a way to stabilize it. I could have followed Lisa Welge's tutorial and used hot glue or used craft foam sheets as suggested by Tiffany Kelley, but of course I can never do things the easy way and I also wanted to use up leftover pieces of the foam board from my previous project.

I took mustaches from each of the templates, cut them out, traced them onto the foam board and cut them out with the exacto knife. This was a very painful and tedious process as mustaches are not straight lines. 7 mustaches later and not a single cut on my fingers and hands, I call that a great accomplishment. P.S. I was a bit neurotic and chose to make sure to cut off all the white pen marks.

Next, I traced the templates onto the felt and cut them out. I probably should not have used my gel pen, but I was too lazy to go find the chalk. Of course a fabric pencil would be a much better choice to begin with.

After everything was cut out and lined up well, the felt was hot glued onto the foam board. Originally I wanted to have felt on both sides, but after talking to my friend S, she reminded me to keep things simple (duh!) and that trying to figure out how to hide the wooden dowel was not worth the effort. (Hi, S! And thank you!)

Lastly, the dowels were glued on at an angle. Why at an angle? Have you tried to hold something up to your face while keeping your elbow straight down? Kind of difficult right? Exactly.

Eat your heart out Etsy, the grand total for this project comes to $2.22!

Nursery inspiration

This colorful story board totally inspires me:



via Elizabeth Anne Designs 


Wouldn't it make for the cutest baby girl nursery? Wait a minute...


via Me and Wee. Click on the photo for more photots.



via Armelle Click on the photo for more photots.



Oooof, did I just go there? Yeup, I went there. Now I just need inspirations for a boys room...

******** NO we are NOT expecting ********