Monthly Archives: June 2012

At JPod Productions, we strongly believe in investing in our industry’s educational opportunities, as our product has reaped the benefits over the past three years. Last Monday in Dedham, MA (south of Boston), we joined an elite crew of wedding filmmakers from New England to hone our skills on the glidecam. The glidecam is a device that allows us to create “floating”, or cinematic looking shots within our wedding films. The training was led by Dave Williams, (bottom picture) of Cinemacake Filmmakers in Philadelphia and we were fortunate to learn along side two other award winning studios from Boston and Newport, RI. Dave took us through a series of challenges to improve our skill set on the device. Dave Williams also spoke in the New England Professional Videographer’s Association (NPVA) meeting in the evening about running a better business. I’m excited to implement some of my new ideas into our wedding films in the coming months.

Wedding and marketing expert Alan Berg, who used to work for the Knot, has “posted” his support for wedding videos in his blog post: Let’s Watch our first dance… oh, that’s right, we can’t: Hiring a videographer is more important than you think. Alan was has experienced both sides of wedding day memories. He recently came across his parents wedding video on 8mm movie reels. It was a trip down memory lane that he truly enjoyed. On the flip side, Alan only hired a photographer on his wedding day. He now regrets not being able to watch,, or share with his two sons, his own vows from 29 years ago. Beyond the fundamental memories that a cinematographer will capture, today’s wedding film is so much more and becoming an essential part of the wedding budget. I quote Alan Berg when he says, “I’ve been in wedding media for over 20 years and one of a couple’s biggest regrets after their wedding is not having a video.”
On Memorial Day weekend, we spent our second straight Saturday west of Boston in Westborough, Massachusetts. Our fun-loving couple Kay Thongpoon and Kevin Quang had a beautiful outdoor ceremony at the Acacia Country Club at Indian Meadows with a rockin’ reception in cooler conditions in the main ballroom.

Kay and Kevin wove their Vietnamese and Thai backgrounds throughout the day which included Kay wearing four different dresses throughout the wedding day and evening. Kay actually got her traditional American wedding dress in Thailand and had it shipped here. They are a sweet couple that really put value on getting a quality wedding film, and I’d liked that! The ceremony was short, but very sweet, and as you can see from the trailer, the groomsman and bridesmaids were ready to celebrate.

Vendors we worked with included:

Salon: D’Iorio’s Salon

Flowers/Cake: Gerardo’s Italian Bakery (West Boylston, MA)

Officiant: Spiro Efstathiou

Photographer: Dat Nguyen

Shoes: Jimmy Choo

For June, I had to highlight a wedding band that I had the pleasure of working with recently, as they just stood out from the crowd. My June wedding Vendor of the Month is the Boston band, Men in Black.

Men in Black caught my eye right away as we both set-up for the reception. It was clear to see that this wedding band wanted to perfect each of the special moments that evening, as every instrument had to be precisely tuned for every formal dance. Before the reception started, the band’s leader, Jeff, coordinated with the facility, the photographers and the cinematographers to make sure everyone was on the same page and that doesn’t happen all that often. Jeff emceed the introductions and did a fantastic job getting the crowd rocking early on, as the family, bridal party, and bride and groom entered the tent at Gore Place in Waltham, MA. The dance floor was packed from start to finish with a little band-crowd interaction mixed into the evening to keep the energy at its highest.

The band comes with plenty of credentials, as they have earned three straight the Knot – Best of Wedding awards and two straight Wedding Wire Bride’s Choice Awards in the Boston wedding market. Men in Black was chosen by Dropkick Murphy’s Tim Brennan to play at his wedding and the band was also chosen to be the wedding band in the movie “The Proposal” with Sandra Bullock.