ARH Recovery Homes

Simply Interactive is continuing to suppport our community and we hope you will join us. We were contacted by ARH recently to assist in their drive to purchase some of the homes currently on the market. The homes are currently being used by ARH to provide needed services to the addicted in the Bay Area of California. They need help to continue offering hope to those who have extended their hands for help getting back up from making poor decisions. This is a cause very close to my heart and we are going to be providing needed multimedia services to this outstanding, family-focused organization. They have a real passion for what they are doing and they have, in my opinion, really developed an excellent approach to recovery in general. The fact is that whether we pay taxes to keep these people in jail or if we offer support to ARH and the many organizations like it, we are going to have to address the fact that Moms, Dads, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles and you and I are all affected by one person in the family or community who takes the wrong path. Sometimes all the person needs is one human being to ofhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.giffer them kindness that becomes a catalyst for their personal recovery which, in effect, ends up being a huge benefit to society. I am honored to have a part in this and I hope you too will consider assisting this organization in whatever way you can. They really are stopping the vicious cycle of addiction and changing lives and communities with their work. We will be offering financial resources as well as video production services that ARH might not have been able to afford previously. If you've taken the time to read this far, please take a moment to go check out their website and conssider assisting them as we have. ARH Recovery Homes

Post # 100 - Get a Free iPod

This is officially our 100th post on the wedding and corporate video blog for Simply Interactive llc. To celebrate, we are going to offer something REALLY snazzy for the next couple that books with us gets their deposit and contract in. How about an iPod Shuffle for FREE? That's right folks, the next wedding client we get will get a free iPod shuffle in either a mac or PC version. Your choice. Our way of saying thanks for reading :-) But you HAVE to mention this post!

Wedding Video: Independent Survey By WEVA

The ground-breaking survey, commissioned by the Wedding & Event Videographers Association International (WEVA), was conducted last month between December 12th and December 22nd by Breakthrough Marketing, Inc. If there’s one thing brides today can agree on, it’s that future brides should have their weddings videotaped. This is according to a new nationwide survey of brides who were married in 2005. The survey was conducted by telephone of a cross section of brides from around the country. Results showed ninety-eight percent of surveyed newlyweds recommended that brides have their weddings videotaped. Interestingly, brides still don’t fully appreciate the value of video until after the wedding. Before the wedding, only a little more than half of surveyed brides considered wedding video a "Top 10" service in comparison to other wedding-related services. However, after the wedding, that number climbs to 75%. Of surveyed brides, 38% did not have their weddings videotaped by anyone – amateur or professional, and apparently have some regrets. Sixty-three percent of them now either somewhat or strongly recommend that future brides hire a professional videographer. Ninety-eight percent of brides surveyed used the services of a professional photographer compared to only 29% for professional video services. However, surveyed brides who used professional services for both were expressive about what they like best for each of these professional services. Brides said video does a better job of capturing the emotions of the day, records the history of the day better, and they strongly feel that future children will enjoy their wedding video more than their wedding photographs. Brides need professional services for both. WEVA, the first organization to survey actual newlyweds (as opposed to brides-to-be), regarding the value of wedding videography, commissioned a similar survey, the industry’s first-ever, three years ago. Not surprisingly, newlyweds today say it is more important than ever for brides to have their wedding video delivered on DVD. Three years ago, only 27% of surveyed brides said it was very important to get their videos produced on DVD. That number climbed to 55% for this latest survey. For brides who spent over $30,000 on their weddings, 75% said it is very important for them to get their video on DVD. WEVA's 2005 survey also probed brides’ interest in new and emerging video technologies. One stood out. Fifty-five percent of surveyed brides said they were interested in high-definition DVD. In addition, 43% were interested in still prints from video; 32% were interested in widescreen format; 29% were interested in live Internet webcasting of their wedding; and 21% said they were interested in the new video production concept of a "Same Day Edit."

Learn Wedding Video

Due to an enormous amount of questions and interest in this sibject, Simply Interactive is launching a new site with the intent of freely sharing information about the event videography field of business. Far too many people think the they can Learn the Wedding Video profession by trial and error and all they need is one wireless microphone and a 2,000 dollar camera. Not so. I think the entire wedding video business will succeed and flourish the faster we get people up to speed with how to ethically and honestly run a business AND get their editing techique up to speed. After all, if someone has a bad experience, that may make some of our brides less likely to consider videography and that is not only harmful to us, but harmful to her as well because she will not have a video keepsake for her future generations. So, phase one is launched and can be seen at "Learn Wedding Video (dotcom)" In the next few days the forums will be up and running too. We will also be offering some services and products through that site in the coming months so if you are looking to learn how to run your own wedding videography business, stay tuned.

Same Day Edit: Hyatt in Burlingame

As I write this I am waiting for some video to render at the Hyatt Regency in Burlingame. Rosy and Caleb are getting married today and in a few short hours I will have in my hands the pre-ceremony tapes. At that point my task is to edit that together prior to the end of the ceremony. After the ceremony I will be given the ceremony tapes and I will create a highlight of that as well and will show it to everyone at the reception in this magnificent hotel. This is not your ordinary Hyatt. This one is phenomenally decadent with indoor greenery, fountains and stylistic decor set inside of an enourmous "green-house" internal courtyard. That is a good thing because this is the first wedding in 5 years that has had any rain whatsoever. I guess it pays to be in California eh?

Wedding Video: Villa Ragusa

We had another succesful same day wedding video highlight event last weekend and am preparing for another one tomorrow as I write this (rendering takes time). LAst weekend I think was one of the best Same Day Edits I've done and I have abeen a little slacker by not posting it for you to enjoy, however, it should be posted shortly. The wedding was at a church in San Jose - St. Maria Goretti Catholic Church. We have been there three times previously and it is a very nice location with a classic catholic church environment. Aside from that, I wanted to take a moment to REALLY compliment the management and staff at Villa Ragusa in Campbell(where the wedding reception was held). I have now been there twice and both times the staff was exceptional. Very helpful, customer focused, and willing to go the extra mile even for the vendors present at the facility. They arranged for a nice room for me to perform the Same Day Edit in and were courteous the whole time. Click Here to check out the Villa Ragusa Website I will be adding them to my reasonably short list of preferred locations on our links page. The list is short not because we've had bad experiences but because we are very discerning. We RARELY put services there unless we have been able to work with them several times to determine their level of customer service. As a side note, we have people asking us to share links all the time. We do not do that to raise our search visibility. We ONLY put links there if we believe they will offer you excellent customer service and products.

Making the Move to HD for HD Wedding Videos

We are almost there from an industry and equipment perspective to convert homes and multimedia centers into an HD mecca. I have people ask me all the time about HD videos and while the technology is presently expensive to have as an entertainment system and also from the production perspective, it is presently possible to shoot, edit and deliver a personal video in true HD format. We currently offer one package at 8075 as our HD offering and will soon begin to offer more as the technology becomes more and more available. Want to Convert Your Home Entertainment System? HD for wedding videos is a conundrum for me because the crisp detail and color-enhanced footage = longer editing process and more data that needs to be packed onto a DVD. In addition to the longer editing process (mainly due to increase in Processor useage) there is also the expense of storage. HD is roughly 5 times the size of SD (Standard Definition). That means I will need to increase my studios storage capacity from 3.5 TeraBytes to 15 TB or more! Aha! And now you know why it is so much more costly for the HD packages. Another consideration for us is delivery. What HD system do you have? We will then need to export, render and encode for your specific HD Entertainment System. Check out this link. Amazon has done a great job piecing together what YOU need to have an HD Home Entertainment System.