Tales from our guest blogger, John
Lawd what a week!
It's been a long time since i was so tired and so pumped at the same time.
It started as early as Tuesday, when we produced a new promo for Alene Gamel. We love Alene. Her events always go off without a hitch and everyone has a great time. But Tuesday was a long night, I stayed up way late burning and printing DVDs.
Thursday, Angela appeared on ABC 33/40 morning program "Talk of Alabama" here in Birmingham. She was nervous and attempted on several occasions to convince me to go in her place. In the midst of this, Will comes down with an ear infection and strep throat - one thing for sure when the Deaver boys get sick, we go all out.
We knew looking forward that we had:
1. to print and burn 300 DVD's
2. a photo/video shoot with the ladies From "The Perfect Wedding Guide"
3. a wedding Saturday night
4. an overnight edit to for the PWG photo shoot.
5. a very large and important bridal show on sunday at the Wynfrey.
So Friday was our last day to batten down the hatches and prepare for the 48 hours of run and gun on the fly, production. First on the list for friday…..Replace the starter in the van. I haven't worked on a car in a while, and I do like to tinker but it's hard not to look at a busy weekend and think "a broken down van is like the last thing i need" so anticipating the starters eminent failure (been giving us problems for a month), I found a replacement and spent an hour getting dirty.
Starter replaced, I ripped out the back seat and started loading up. Meanwhile, Angela printed and burned and packaged tons of demo DVDs, all while taking care of Will who is not feeling well and wants to make sure everyone knows it.
We called in Will's grandparents for some child care duties and Chris Carr one of our top shooters for the wedding on Saturday.
The Photo Shoot was fun. The folks at Omni Studios ( www.omnistudio.net ) were in charge of the shoot itself and were super cool to work with. Melissa Rycroft of reality TV fame was in town for the PWG Bridal expo and this photo shoot. We wrapped the photo shoot and headed off to the Wynfrey. We had anticipated the crazy turnaround on this project and decided to just stay at the Wynfrey to save driving time. We had just enough time to throw our stuff on the ground and get my laptop processing the footage from the shoot. We left there and went straight to the church where we started setting up for the wedding. Look for more details of the wedding in the coming week as we post a sneak peek.
I left Angela and Chris at The Club and headed back over to the hotel to get some editing done. Angela and Chris wrapped their shoot around 11:30 and she walked into the hotel room around midnight. Around 2:00 AM i started making stupid mistakes in the editing and decided to finish up in the morning.
6:00 came very early, very very early. Coffee in hand I started back editing. On the one hand i hate deadlines, on the other I am very motivated by them. The edit came together as the clock counted down to noon. Meanwhile Angela and Kerri set up our booth in the Ballroom and got ready to meet with brides. With the PWG video finally in the can we packed up and moved out of the room and down to the show floor. With help from Carlos from Total Entertainment and the staff at the Wynfrey, we got the video playing in the lobby.
I will say this, the whole reason I do what I do is because I enjoy producing video that people watch and enjoy. Most of the time the work we do is for a very small audience, our brides and their families. Occasionally, we get to display our work in public for a larger audience. And although I have had this opportunity a few times in the past (with varying degrees of successes) it is very, very cool to see people watch something you did and enjoy it. Also I was very very tired.
Thanks to all the folks at PWG and Omni Studios. Thanks to Melissa Rycroft and her husband Tye. Thanks for Birmingham Glam, and thanks to the great guy doing hair (a name that I must find TODAY) also a Very Very big thanks to my wife Angela who not only helped with shooting but also shot a wedding, took care of all the promotional duties, and really took care of everything else so I could edit.
As I left the hotel at the end of a long day I saw Butch Oglesby with Blue Moon Studios taking a group shot of all the models involved in the fashion show that had just wrapped. I stepped up to say goodbye and he leans over and says "what a job, right?"
Indeed.
