Whew.. What a week! I’ve been looking forward to furthering my education as an event filmmaker by attending this years In[Focus] video event in Charleston SC. I teamed up with Dustin Blake Sinard from IndyProductions and Wes Haley from WesHaley films. We left on Sunday for Charleston. While we knew each other from our local GPVA video association, I hadn’t actually spent much time with either of them so it was interesting to spend 4 days and nights sharing a two bed hotel room with them. Even though I’ve been in the business for over ten years, I can always learn new things about the business. Before the trip we were given instructions to create a video of our experience at this years event. The rules were simple:

• Create a 3 minute or less video about your experience at In[Focus] 2012.
• Use only music you obtained the copyright to legally use.
• Film must be from the time you leave until the time you return.. doorstep to doorstep.

That’s it…. Enter the video by Jan 26th in the contest and it will be judged. The winner will receive lavish gifts! Extra credit included getting a presidential candidate to say the line “It pays to stay In focus!” as the Republican convention was in town for the 2012 election. All amped up, I dorned my trusty GH2 on day one during the ride up and didn’t put it up until we were returning home 4 days later!

I follow the Facebook group “Wedding cinema & photography” where we all gather to discuss issues in our field. Most of the discussions prior to my trip were about “Karaoke night” where all the filmmakers would gather and attempt to sing while partaking of adult beverages, so I knew I HAD to film some karaoke performances during my excursions about the town. After 4 days of awesome presentations from the best the industry has to offer, I left with a new love for my fellow colleagues, and for the industry in general. I got some great new information to take our business to the next level, made some great friends along the way, had a few drinks, ate a lot of pizza at 3 AM with filmmakers from all around the country, and got a ton of footage including one presidential candidate!

I think I’m the ONLY one to be at the right place, at the right time, and have the cojones to approach senator Rick Santorum and press him for an exclusive!

Well, without further adieu:

I decided to share these stills while finishing up their edit! LOVED shooting their wedding @ the Marriott in Gwinnett!  Ripal was absolutely beautiful. It was a wonderful day!

This was so much fun to shoot and edit! Two awesome people met, fell in love and were married and we’re delighted they decided to invite us in to be a part of their special day! Thanks guys and we hope you enjoy the teaser! (note: go to vimeo for the full HD full screen effect as the teaser is in cinema 2.35:1 ultra wide display)

Just a quick heads up. A new law passed by congress is causing the RIAA and music industry to crack down on copyrighted material hosted on Vimeo and Youtube so until we find a solution any video using copyright material on our site has been password protected. If you are the Bride and or Groom or family member and wish to see a video we’ve producted for you, please email us here and we’ll give you the password.
Because of the current climate, getting teasers online may take a few more days than expected due to us creating our own music or finding quality royalty free music to use. Please bear with us and pardon the delays.

Thank you,

Michael & Sheena
D&RFilms

I’m working on Jamie & Joey’s teaser, while Mike is working on Alisha & Eric’s teaser. We are also finishing up Meghan & Jordon’s wedding!! Bam Bam Bam… )

We sent off Lindsay + Drew’s DVDs and Bluray on Saturday. This is the response we received today:

The videos arrived on Wednesday. Of course I sat right down and watched it beginning to end. It is so beautiful. I cried my way through it. Thank you for giving us such a terrific memory of this very special day.
I can’t tell you how much I admire your work. I recommend you to everyone I know.
Drew and Lindsay loved the video also.
Andrea

It’s letters like this that drive us to be better and to work harder. Thank you Salapka Family!

Lindsay + Drew

We started putting the title, “Wedding Video” in the top of all our posts for SEO (search engine optimization) … Yes we are Wedding & Event Filmmakers, but “video” is what brides search for.

I saw this over at Youtube and wanted to share it with you all.

Suggestion No. 1 when you hire a videographer to tape your wedding:

Ask your family and guests to NOT act as "photographer" during your wedding.
Let the professional photog's do their job and your wedding video will also
be a lot nicer than having your guests stand in front of the camera.

Luckily, there were two additional camera's operated by
the wedding filmmakers, and this camera's POV would have been great,
but in this case it wasn't totally a loss.

Lesson learned: Request your guests not to stand in the aisle to
take photographs during your wedding and hire as least two
filmmakers/videographers to cover your wedding.