Von Training

Our friends Mark & Trisha Von Lanken are coming to So Cal & are doing a 1 day training workshop. Mark & Trisha put on fabulous training workshops which have helped many videographers take their businesses to the next level. There are only a few spots left. Visit the link below for all the info:

http://www.trainingvideographers.com/californiaworkshop.html

Cover of WEVA Magazine

It was really cool to see our bride & workshop attendees on the cover of WEVA's July 08 Wedding & Event Videographery Resource Guide. A super big THANKS! to Keith Anderson & his wife Jennifer (our dear friends) of All Occasions Video who wrote this creative article for the magazine after Keith attended the workshop where we did this shoot. Keith came up with the name for this article which is also the title of our new behind the scenes DVD "Red Velvet & Blue Skies. After reading this article, I see their creativity is not limited to the amazing videos they turn out! If you didn't get this article you can sign up for the free online resource guide at: http://weva.com/publications/

I also want to say thanks to Roy Chapman, Jon Zale & Dan Argenas of WEVA for continuing to put out an informative resource guide.

WEVA Expo 08 Rocked!

WEVA Expo was so much fun this year! It was great seeing old friends & making some new ones. Unfortunately Andee could not make it this year which was the only downside. She did get to listen to my seminar courtesy of the iphone & it made her feel a little more part of it. For those of you who were at my seminar, thank you for not only coming, but for the wonderful response! You made me a bit emotional! (what a baby right).
We were Blessed to win Gold for Bridal spotlight, (the one mentioned in an above post "Red Velvet & Blue Skies."
Other great moment were seeing friends Steve & Laura Moses win Gold for their amazing Demo! http://www.vppvideo.com/ and Friends Keith & Jennifer win Silver for their incredible Love Story & Bronze for Concept Video http://www.alloccasionsvideo.com/. Congrats!!!

Event DV Top 25

Andee I feel totally honored to be voted as one of the Top 25 again this year! Thank you for taking the time to vote! We have been so blessed to be able to conduct our Hands On training workshop and see so many of your businesses flourish! Thank you!!!! If you do not subscribe to Event DV Magazine, it's FREE! & there is a lot of good info there. Check it out.

www.eventdvmagazine.com/

www.eventdv.net/downloads/2007EventDV25.pdf

Triple Scoop Colection

Roy Ashen one of the 3 owners of Triple Scoop Music asked me if Andee & I would put together a Blue Skies Cinema collection for them. http://www.triplescoopmusic.com/ is a site where you can purchase royalty free music for your productions. I listened to hundreds of songs, some in part of course, and heard some great stuff. I came up with my 10 favorites that I thought would be great for our industry. I'm always looking for music that lays down well under pre- ceremonies, ceremonies... and other places that have talking or voice-overs in them. I really like this collection & have used it quite a bit already.

To check out our collection go to: www.triplescoopmusic.com/About/Featured/jeff-wright-vol1.aspx

If you use this code: blueskies08 you will get a 5% discount on any music Triple Scoop offers.

Minnesota Workshop

I had a great time in Minnesota conducting a workshop for the MPVA. A big "Thank you!" to you all for your warm hospitality! They brought in a live bride & groom (as opposed to a dead ones?) and we went on location to a park & had a lot of fun going through different shooting techniques. The rest of the workshop was at a beautiful church were we mocked up ceremony & reception events as well as a bunch of other stuff. What a great bunch! A special thanks to assoc . Pres. Jeffrey Fuchs of Northers Lights Video, who made it all happen. You can view a photo montage of the workshop they put together at: http://www.mpva.net/20553_3035.asp

Red Velvet & Blue Skies

We recently had a new "Secession Two" workshop with previous attendees who wanted to come back to another workshop that involved an extreme type shoot where they could see the techniques learned at the last workshop put to use in a very extreme running & gunning environment. Fortunately we had a client, Meredith, who wanted us to shoot a Bridal Spotlight Music Video of her with free reign. The Idea we had was to travel around shooting our bride in very unique locations on a red velvet love seat. We had a blast! We shot for 2 1/4 days (followed by a day of editing together) trashing 2 love seats, a dress, and submerging our bride completely under water. The attendees (now good friends) were Kieth Anderson, Jimmy Harris, Angela Ellis, Don & Mariam Moran and Anthony Andaleon. I also want to give a big thanks to my friend who documented the shoot for a behind the scenes video: Claressa Jaen, Erik Wagee and Craig Coston. Here are a few photos. I'll have the video up shortly.

Our daughter Savannah releasing a butterfly from her butterfly farm!

WELCOME!

Welcome to our new training blog kickoff!
Below is a quick Look back at the year. It was a wonderful one!
We want to first & foremost thank our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ for all he has blessed us with!
That includes so many of you we are blessed to call friends!

Josh 24:15

Our New Training website

Our new Blue Skies Cinema Training website is up. New Layout, new pages...Check it out http://www.blueskiescinematraining.com/

I welcome your feedback!

2008 Workshop Dates are here

Cinematic Shooting & Editing
March 4-5
May 4-5
June 17-18
Oct 21-22

We are really excited to announce two new workshops:
Wedding Cinematography 101 - for the beginning wedding cinematographer
April 29-30
Oct 7-8

And by the request of some of our workshop attendees for a second secession...
Secession 2: On the move: Inside the mind of an Editor - A 4 Day Workshop
April 14-17
Sept 22-25

Please visit our training website for all the details
http://www.blueskiescinematraining.com/

2007 Workshops

We had 5 workshops at our studio & made some great friends in the process! Thanks to all who attended! Steve & Sandy, Don & Miriam, Jimmie & Ronda, Rose Mary & Mike, Mike & Karleen, Jerome, Kent, Johnny & Beth Ann, Craig, Keith & Jennifer, Bob & Jeanette, Nichole, Damon, Stephanie, Tom, Rolando, Dan, Erik, Alexis, Warren & Jean, Anthony, Rogie, Clarisa, Bill & Maxine, Erik, Ronaldo, Luisa, Todd & Gail, Carolina & Franklin, Each one of you made our workshops really special & we so appreciate all the new friends we have!

One Day Workshop in Flordia

We had a great turn out & a great time hitting the beach & then heading back to VH Video's amazing studio for the rest of the workshop. The whole VH Video crew, www.vhvideo.com, were awesome host. Aaron, Vance & David went way out of their way to make me fill at home. Thank you!

Workshop in San Francisco

Andee & I had the pleasure of heading out to San Francisco and had a blast with a great group of people! Our friend Dan O'hara, www.OharaFilms.com, took great care of us! Thanks Dan. We had a wonderful dinner with Dan & his wife Dena along with Chuck & Jewel Savadelis, who do amazing work by the way www.savadelisfilms.com. Andee & I enjoyed spending a couple days relaxing & site seeing prior to the workshop. Here's a photo of a car/shooter thing we rented & accidentally ended up on the freeway on...yep that's right the Freeway!

WEVA's 2007 Expo

WEVA'S 2007 Convention was really cool! It was great being back at Ballys. We were blessed to win 4 CEA's: Finalist: Short Form, Bronze: Pre- Ceremony & Ceremony, & Gold: Bridal Spotlight.

It was fun to see our Bridal Spotlight article in the WEVA magazine. It was especially cool to see our daughter Savannah's photo included!

"Cinematic Shooting & Editing" Was my seminar title. It was good seeing all of our workshop friends in the front. Thank you Laura & Steve, Jennifer & Keith, Mike & Karleen, Steve & Sandy, Stephanie, Kent, & Rolando for all the help with the DVD's! You guy rock! Also a big thanks Steve Moses & Steve Fowler for your help during the seminar!

We had a Fun workshop reunion dinner & it was great catching up with everyone!

A big congratulations two 2 of of our workshop friends: Stephanie & Barry, http://www.fatcatrocks.com/ (& they do!) who took home a finalist award for their creative Love Story, & Keith & Jennifer http://www.alloccasionsvideo.com/ who took gold for their amazing Demo.

I was also front & center for Keith & Jennifer's first WEVA seminar. What an incredible job they did! I heard nothing but great comments!

I also want to say a big "way to go!" to our great friends Steve & Laura Moses http://www.vppvideo.com/ for taking gold in Pre-Ceremony & silver in Highlight! Wow! Much deserved!