Michael and Jessica’s wedding day.

April 19th, 2008.  Michael and Jessica’s wedding day.  From the first conversations with Jessica about their wedding video one thing she really wanted was a Same Day Edit.  Not a problem for us as we do them frequently.  What I didn’t know is Jessica would pull out an unusual song to edit with.  When I first heard the name, Nine Million Bicycles, I thought it was unusual but wanted to hear it first.  Once I heard the song I realized it really worked for a Same Day Edit.  It just had a little different flavor.

After listening to it a few times my creative brain started playing with ideas.  We thought it would be fun to have Jessica and Michael each ride up to the church on a bicycle and then leave together on one with her riding on the handlebars.  Michael and Jessica tried this at home with her in a dress and couldn’t pull it off.  With her wedding dress there was no way.

With that plan out of the way I scaled back the fun a little.  We ended up finding some images of people riding bikes in China as a background.  I found some other images of people riding bicyles and put Michael and Jessica’s head on top of them. I then made the bikes “ride” through each scene.  Each time the lyrics of the song talked about bicycles I dropped one of these clips into the video.  It was really fun to do and Michael and Jessica liked the idea so we went with it.   

We had a fun day working with one of our favorite photographers in the Milwaukee area, Patrick and Tracy from Expressive Photography.  The images shown here are compliments of Expressive Photography.   We also got to work with Kris from one of Milwaukee’ top reception venues, The Wisconsin Club.  

One last note, we had Steve Clark, a videographer from Minocqua, join us for the weekend to do a Same Day Edit ride along and learn about Same Day Edits.  It was a pleasure having him along and we hope he learned a little something. 

 

Here is the Same Day Edit complete with animated bicycles.

 

The Frog Blog is back

If you have attempted to check the frog blog recently you will have noticed we had some problems.  I am happy to say that I think the problems are almost all solved.  To let you know what we have been up to….the company that was hosting our site and blog moved us to a new set of servers that were supposed to be better.  This move created a problem with the blog that caused it to show our posts in the order they were created from the beginning.  If you know much about blogs you will know they are supposed to display from the most recent post and not the oldest.  

My developer, George from Prologue Media, found out the database software on the new servers had a bug in it that created the problem in the blog.  The old host company refused to upgrade and fix the problem so we had to find a new company to host it all.  We found a new company with better support and features and started the move.

It was not as easy as I thought it would be.  There were some bumps along the way and the blog actually had to be completely reloaded.  It was a challenging time to say the least.  The blog is back and ready to go and I hope to have a few new things on it real soon.

 

A fun day with a fun family.

On Saturday 4/12/08 we got to work at Jeff and Chris Martinelli’s wedding in Milwaukee. We had previously done a wedding video for Chris’s sister, Natalie, so the opportunity to work the family again was a treat. Our entire day seemed to go smooth and effortless because we already knew Chris’s family and we were treated as if we were part of the family all day long.

A full Catholic wedding mass took place and Saint Peter and Saint Paul Catholic Church in Milwaukee. After the wedding and the usual picture taking it was off to the reception at the Milwaukee Athletic Club.

During the picture time after the wedding Chris and her sisters were talking about how they had played with the idea of Star Wars music and themes being incorporated into the day somehow. Evidentally Chris and Jeff like the Star Wars movies. They decided against it during the day however. When I heard this my brain started whirring (yes that is scary when it happens) and I thought it would be fun to do a movie trailer to with a Star Wars influence.

I got home on Sunday and began laying out the concept. I found some music and went online to learn how to create the disappearing into infinity titles so popular at the beginning of the first movie. After creating a Starfield background and spending sometime building the opening title we put together a little movie trailer appropriately themed.

I sure hope Chris and Jeff really are fans of the Star Wars movie. If not the trailer will just be fun quirky part of the day.

Vendors for the day:

• Photography - Edward Fox Agency (Patrick Sterling photographer)
• Flowers - Esther Fleming
• DJ - Exciting Events
• Videography - Us of course!

Here is the movie themed trailer we put together.

A new wedding movie

I recently finished up an edit for a customer that has now become close friends of ours. We shot the wedding back in September and we created a wedding movie for the customers, Scott and Wendy. Someone from the family created some wedding Madlibs and placed them on every table. We had never seen this done before and they were quite humorous. We managed to video tape a number of them but when they were being read back (to make the Scott and Wendy kiss) I was wondering how in the world I would ever put them in the video. I figured I would just stick them in the outtakes and not worry about them.

While in Orlando at our national videographer convention I got some ideas (or inspiration) on how to use reception footage to tell the whole wedding day story so I decided to give it a whirl. Needless to say it worked and this movie is a hit.

The groom and all the groomsmen rode up on their Harley Davidson motorcycles so we knew there would be some fun footage to work with. We built a pretty fun, and funny, preceremony video and interworked some of the madlibs in with it.

Scott and Wendy have become really good friends of ours and even inspired us to get a motorcycle of our own (a fun video with me and the bike will be coming soon). We are hoping to go on a ride or two with Scott and Wendy. Both for our families also share a real love for the Milwaukee Brewers so we have been having fun staying in touch with Scott and Wendy since the wedding.

I’m sure you probably sick of hearing me talk about the video and you want to see it. Well here it is.

A little different look on some highlights.

This past week we finished up an edit for Jose and Kellie’s wedding. In the process of building the highlights I tried to find the perfect song that would match the feeling of their day and their personalities as well.

After doing some digging through the recesses of the hard disk on my computer I uncovered a gem of a song which I had never used before. As soon as I heard it ideas started running around in my head of how the edit would come together.

Excitedly I jumped into the edit and started putting different elements of the flow together while they were fresh on my mind. What resulted was a highlight video that is in some ways similar to our other work style wise yet had a flow different than what we usually create. I used some special titles to build the story around at the beginning and ending. The final result, available for viewing below, turned out to be one of my favorites of the year so far.

Click to view the video.

A special day for a special bride (and groom)

Our February 23, 2008 wedding for Kaila Skinner and Dan Gatz was very special for us. Not only was Kaila a good customer but she is a great friend of Sherry and I as well. Kaila grew up in our church and we have always been a part of her life as she was shaped into the great person she has become. When she was young I was her children’s pastor and directed her in many Christmas musicals ( a few of which she was a leading character…lucky for her I didn’t pull any of that footage out). As she grew into her teen years Sherry was her youth pastor. As you can see we have been close to Kaila for many years so the privelege of making her wedding movie was something we had to do.

The ceremony was held at the beautiful and historic Wesley United Methodist Church. The ceremony was beautiful with a short, but great message from Kaila’s growing up pastor (and our pastor), Ron Dobie from Christ the King Community Church in Stoughton, WI. Pastor Ron always has a great illustration for the couple to carry into their lives together and Saturday was no different.

After the ceremony it was off to the Landmark Center, another beautiful piece of historical architecture, for the reception and party. While cake was being served we played back a photomontage of Dan and Kaila growing up and followed it up with a Same Day Edit showing highlights of the day. It was a surprise to almost everyone except Dan and Kaila. According to Kaila she didn’t cry all day until the Same Day Edit played.

The photos you see in this post are compliments of Wendy Woods Photography. We had the pleasure of working with Wendy, her husband Nick and an assistant named Ben. We had lots of fun working together as a team to create a great document of Dan and Kaila’s wedding through photo and video. They will be able to remember this day for many years. If you are in Minnesota and need a great photographer just find Wendy and Nick!

Also helping make our day flow easier was the wedding planner, Sarah, from Amira Gaynor Wedding Planner. Sarah did a great job getting the ceremony underway on time. Then she was off to the Landmark Center to get all the final preparations ready for the arrival of the newlyweds, Dan and Kaila Gatz.

This was a wedding Sherry and I have been looking forward to for a very long time. It was a beautiful day, with a beautiful bride and of course a handsome groom. It is rewarding for Sherry and I to know that in at least a small way we helped Kaila become the wonderful person she has become. Dan, you got a keeper!

Click below to view the Same Day Edit that was shown at the reception.

A “rescue” project

It’s been a while since I put anything in the blog so I decided to try and get started at this again in earnest. We had an opportunity along about August last year to do what we call a “rescue” project. Here’s the scenario. A potential customer calls and tells me he got married in 1994. They had hired a professional videographer who went out of business before editing the video. Thankfully the videographer turned over the tapes of raw footage. There were 3 tapes of the ceremony but each individually were difficult to watch. He asked if I would like to do something with them. At first I didn’t want to since frequently we “industry” people refuse to edit someone else’s footage. This one sounded too good to pass up though. I decided to take on the challenge. I figured after Iron Videographer last year it must be a piece of cake. The coolest part was the bride was clueless this was happening….this was going to be her Christmas present.

Well when the time came to edit I discovered the 3 cameras of footage weren’t all that bad but the audio was really bad. I guess they didn’t have wireless mics for videographers back then. Two cameras actually had the date and time stamp superimposed on the video via incamera functions. What kind of pro would do that? I edited the 3 camera ceremony into something that was decent considering the footage. I then decided to attempt a highlight video. Since all the cameras were on medium to wide shots I had no closeups to work with. I contacted the groom and he used “stealth” operations to scan a bunch of photos and email them to me to use. That helped alot.

Here’s where it gets interesting. It was held in a church in Milwaukee where we had worked a few years back. Thankfully it was a very historic church with virtually nothing different outside or inside. I took some establishing footage from my wedding 2 years ago and created an intro for the highlights and the main video. There was no footage of the bride coming down the aisle till she arrived at the front so I took a frame grab from the footage I shot 2 years ago and cut the bride out and dropped the bride from 1994 in the image so it appeared she was coming down the aisle. We used a little 3d “trickery” to make it look more realistic. Anyway we ended up putting this highlight together.

You are probably wondering what the bride’s reaction was. Well I was fortunate enough to have the groom videotape her opening everything. To debut the video he had given her a new iPod Nano with the highlight video loaded on it. She opened the iPod and started watching. At first she didn’t know what it was. How exciting to be able to watch her wedding video right there with her kids. Here is the video of her watching it the first time. The footage was shot with a still camera in movie mode so the quality isn’t as great as a real videocamera would have been.

This is a good example of why we feel everyone should get a wedding video.

Heading south for a while.

We are heading south for the holidays. We will be in Raleigh, NC for Christmas where 2 of Sherry’s brothers live. It will be the first time all the brother’s and sisters have been together since 2000. Should be a fun time. After Christmas we are heading to Miami and Ft. Lauderdale to see my family and one of Sherry’s brothers. We will be in Miami till the 4Evergroup Videographer’s convention in Orlando from January 21-24. We will be working while in Miami but will take some much needed time with family to recharge our batteries and make some memories.

We added a new page to the blog. Look above for the link to the Fun Stuff. To document all the fun we are having on our trip we have hired one of our stuffed frogs named Tad (short for Tadpole) to help tell our story. Tad will chronicle our adventures from time to time. Check it out to see the first few entries. Check back every few days to see what we are up to. Tad has quite the sense of humor so look out…you may be caught smiling.

Lifetime network is promoting wedding videography!

Get Married, a TV show on Lifetime Network, has posted a video on their website talking about the exciting trends in wedding videography. They talk about how wedding videography can now put the bride in the middle of her own cinematic movie.

The video talks about Cinematic Production, your wedding on an iPod, Love Stories, Same Day Edits (they call them Instant Highlights) and even live webcasting of your wedding. Here at Frogman Productions we are proud of the fact that we are already up to speed on all those trends and always looking for the next trend.

Did you know that we have created a second business, with a colleague, that offers webcasting of events. This means our capabilities now include the possibility of webcasting your wedding to family members anywhere that couldn’t make it to the wedding. Below is the video from the Get Married website. Very exciting for videography

Click here to view the video

On a snowy, icy day….

Dateline: December 1, 2007.

It was an early season snow/ice storm in south central Wisconsin. Not your typical wedding day type of weather. Andrew and Carissa never let the weather get them down or dampen their spirits. After a ceremony at St. John Lutheran in Reedsburg it was off on a slow and icy drive to Wisconsin Dells about 15 miles away. The reception was held at the Kalahari Resort home of the America’s largest indoor waterpark (but the reception didn’t take place in the waterpark ).

We got to the reception early and got to work on our Same Day Edit video presentation. After a time of intense editing the following video was shown on 2 giant 25 foot screens in the main ballroom. I have to mention the AV technician at the Kalahari resort. His name was Anton and he was there multiple times with answers to playback questions regarding the Kalahari resorts dual screen playback system. He really simplified the process for us.

Andrew and Carissa were such a fun couple to work with. We had met Carissa last year at the wedding of her good friend, Bekah and her husband Tom, whose wedding we also filmed. The whole wedding party was just a blast and the party was going full steam when we left thanks to the DJ, Geoffrey from Celebrations Entertainment.

Vendors for the day:

Church: St. John Lutheran, Reedsburg
Reception: Kalahari Resort
Entertainment: Celebrations Entertainment
Videography: Frogman Productions
Photography: Anderson Fine Art Photography

Below is a copy of the Same Day Edit that was shown on the 2 giant screens.