Wahoo!!!

Found out late last night that I won a Creative Excellence Award from WEVA, the largest video association in the world. Weva is having their annual Expo out in Las Vegas this week. Last night was the opening ceremony where they announced the winners of the International competition. Regarded as the most prestigious video award in the wedding and event industry, the Creative Excellence Awards Competition honors those who display outstanding achievements in creativity and technical excellence.

I was blessed with a Silver Award in Short-Form Wedding Production. I would like to thank Illana & Noah for allowing me to produce their wedding which was the winning entry. Boy I wish I was there last night to receive the award but I have too many weddings to edit.

Here is a sample clip of the reception party of the winning entry. Illana & Noah rented a night club to have their party. How cool was that!

Christina & Brian

What a cool couple! They were so laid back and fun. The ceremony was at the beautiful Ukrainian Catholic Church in Hamtramck and the reception was at the Ukrainian Cultural Center. We headed to Belle Isle for a photo session with Deborah Lambrecht after the ceremony and ran into some skate boarders. A light bulb went on inside my head as soon as I saw them. I asked the skaters if they could do some freestyle around Christina and they agreed. Check out the footage!

Vote for Us!!!

We have been nominated as one of the videographers in “Vote 4 the Best” contest that channel 4 (WDIV Detroit) is sponsoring. We are very excited about this opportunity. We have been very blessed to have worked with many wonderful couples. We truly enjoy being able to capture the memories of one of the most important days of your lives. If you feel that we qualify to be voted “The Best”, please go to the link provided below and vote for us. You are allowed to vote once per email address. If you have multiple emails, you can use them and vote again. The voting process is very easy and fast (less that a minute of your time). Once you have voted, an email will be sent back to you to confirm your vote. You have to confirm it for the vote to count. If you have any friends/families that have seen your video and just loved it too, please forward this and have them vote for Take 1 Productions. We appreciate your support! Please provide any comments too.

Vote Here

Trash The Dress

So what are you going to do with the wedding dress after the wedding day is over? How about Trashing It!!! Trash the Dress has been a growing trend. So much so that it has been on The New York Times, Good Morning America, ABC News, Entertainment Tonight. So what is it you say? Well…it is a photo and/or filming session of the Bride wearing her wedding dress posing and playing in unique environments. If you are working with a good professional, the outcome will be amazing.

Trash the dress is not for everyone. You either Love it or Hate it. There is a website that photographers and videographers around the world submit their work to get posted. I was fortunate to get my Trash The Dress video posted yesterday. Go to the website and see some amazing work by really talented artists. But first a word of WARNING. If you get queazy seeing wedding dresses costing thousands of dollars get dirty, wet, muddy…don’t go there. If you Love what you see and want to Trash your dress…we can help you! :-)

The website - trashthedress.com
My post – Trash The Dress Detroit

Here are some photos of my TTD session and some cool pics from the TTD site.

feets

I was reading over my blog entries when I realized that I write about weddings too much and hardly anything about my life, my interest, my thoughts, my family. Well I should...I think. I'm going to start anyways.

First thing I would like to announce to the world or at least the cyberspace world is that I LOVE my wife. She is more than I deserve and ever dreamed of. God was truly generous to me when I married her. My three kids are great! Each is truly unique in character which makes parenting fun and challenging. Here is a pic of the kids.

Melissa & Ryan

got married at St. John Lutheran Church and had their reception at the beautiful Royal Park Hotel. We had some time between the ceremony and reception so we went to downtown Rochester for some cool shots. Prem and Cheridy from Arising Images were the photographers of the wedding day and they were so fun to work with. Check out some of the pics at the end of this entry. And now, the Teaser…

Here are some cool pics by Arising Images.

Lisa & Rastko

Their wedding and reception was at the beautiful Royal Park Hotel. We just love filming at this venue! Janet and Julie are great coordinators to work with. The conservatory and reception hall was wonderfully decorated. Lisa and Rastko were such an awesome couple to work with. Just by looking at them, you could see their love for one another. Before the ceremony started, we had a chance to go with them to downtown Rochester. We were able to capture some great shots. We also meet a new team of photographers. Jessica and Nathan from Jessica Johnston Photography were so nice to work with. They are a husband and wife team. It is always nice to meet someone new in the industry and be able to work well together. Oh yeah….the coolest thing was the Persian Ceremony that Lisa and Rastko had after their announcement into the reception hall. It was very unique! Here’s their trailer……

Here are some pics from Jessica.

Something Different

It has been a while since my last entry but I have been so busy. I guess that’s a good thing. I want to share a new feature I will be offering. I don’t have a name for it yet but in the video industry it’s called Bridal Highlights.

I want to thank David Beckstead (American Photo’s Top 10 Wedding Photographers in the World) and Kevin Kramer (Expert Wedding Fashion Photographer) for allowing me to work with them on this project. A special thank you to Jessica for being such a great Bride. When watching the video you would never guess that she is a Doctor specializing in Radiology.

Sabiha & Julius

Sabiha & Julius had their wedding at Wellers Carriage House. The day was full of excitement with sun and rain. It was raining "cats & dogs" in the middle of the outdoor ceremony. Everybody ran for shelter and the ceremony continued. Sabiha and Julius did not let the rain put a damper on their day.
I met two new photographers from Arising Images. Prem and Cheridy are a husband and wife team and are wounderful to work with.
Here is the teaser of their wedding day.

Here are a few pics of the day by Arising Images.

and the Winner is...

Lisa from Illinois. Congradulation on sending in the winning picture of your rings. Lisa won a $50 Macy's gift card.

Don Pham Films

Coming in 2008 will be a NEW branch of Take 1 Productions. Don Pham Films will be developed to meet the needs of the most dicriminating clients and destination weddings. If you like what I produced now, you ain’t seen nothing yet!

Jennifer & David

The wedding day started off with rain but it turned out to be a beautiful day for Jennifer & David. Both the ceremony and reception took place at the Carriage House which is at Pine Knob Golf Course. Jennifer was such a relaxed and fun Bride, it was really easy to work with her. It was really cool when I received an email from Jennifer's maid of honor asking when the trailer will be up. It is a wonderfull feeling to know that people are really anxious to view my work. So here it is...the trailer.

A Wedding in Ohio

Last Saturday I was in Ohio for the wedding of Amanda and Michael. Michael is such a laid back kind of guy. It was a riot seeing him cooking breakfast with all the Groomsmen in his pirate hat Saturday morning. The ceremony was at Olivet Lutheran Church and the reception was at Sylvania Country Club which was decorated with an Asian theme. As I was filming the table settings, I noticed that the table number cards and the seating chart were really nicely done. Come to find out later that they were designed by the well known Tifany from Gourmet Invtations.

It was a 16 hour day for me to cover 5 different locations. I was really tired at the end of the day but being able to capture special moments for this nice couple made it all worth while. I would like to thank Ralph Cabildo for helping me out as 2nd camera man. He was fun, full of energy and great to work with. I also worked with a new photographer Roy Katalan.

Here is the trailer.

A Thank You Gift

When I started this blog I thought no one would ever be interested in reading it. To my surprise, the traffic on this blog is awesome. Way beyond what I expected. To say ‘Thank You’ I would love to offer everyone a gift. But since I’m broke, I can only afford to give one gift. So I’ve decided to have a contest. All you need to do is e-mail me a picture of your wedding or engagement ring. Be creative…think outside of the box. You don't have to be one of my clients to enter. You can be married or not, male or female, pretty much no rules. I will post the winning picture on May 31, 2007. Oh yeah...the prize will be $50 gift card to Macy’s. Have fun!!!

E-mail your picture to yestake1@aol.com

12 Angry Men

I love a good story. It can make me laugh, cry, angry, happy, shocked, inspired. A good story can create so much emotion. But a story is only as good as how it was told. Over 20 years ago I watched a move call “12 Angry Men”. It was made in 1957 staring Henry Fonda. The whole movie took place in a jury room where 12 men debated on a murder case. I was riveted to the screen and I enjoyed every minute of it. After the movie was over I asked myself why did I enjoy the movie so much? After all there were no action scenes of gun fights and special effect explosions, no bad villains, no grand sceneries…nothing. All it was were 12 guys locked in a room debating and yet it was a great movie. How can this be? And look at all of the awards this movie got:

Best Foreign Actor (win) - Henry Fonda - 1957 British Academy Awards Best Director (nom) - Sidney Lumet - 1957 Directors Guild of America Best Picture - Drama (nom) - - 1957 Golden Globe Best Actor - Drama (nom) - Henry Fonda - 1957 Golden Globe Best Supporting Actor (nom) - Lee J. Cobb - 1957 Golden Globe Best Director (nom) - Sidney Lumet - 1957 Golden Globe Best Adapted Screenplay (nom) - Reginald Rose - 1957 Academy Best Director (nom) - Sidney Lumet - 1957 Academy Best Picture (nom) - - 1957 Academy Golden Bear (win) - - 1957 Berlin International Film Festival Best Picture (nom) - - 1957 National Board of Review


The reason why it was such a good movie is because of how the story was told. The director took the script and with his vision and interpretation, successfully created this drama using what I believe to be the basics of movie making: composition, details, lighting, soundtrack, and most importantly timing. Of course good acting helps a lot too.

As a wedding film guy, my goal is to create movies that tell a good story using those 5 principals. It does not matter if the wedding is extravagant or modest, if the couple is shy or outgoing, if the wedding day is short or long, my challenge is to use my vision and interpretation of the wedding day and create a one of a kind movie for my clients. Unlike Hollywood I have no script to follow, no retakes, no control of lighting…actually no control of anything. It’s a challenge but I welcome it.

The following are short clips of various wedding movies I have produced using those 5 basic principals. See if you can spot them.

Ouch!#@!? My Leg...My Leg....

It’s been a while since my last post. I’ve been extremely busy with projects, marketing, and of course tons of editing. As if that was not enough…I am now Mr. Mom too. My darling wife slipped on some stairs and broke her left leg. So now I’m the cook, the chauffer, the laundry guy, the bath guy, the what ever needs to be done guy. But I’m not complaining…life is good and God has blessed my family and I beyond my comprehension. OK, enough of my adventures…back to wedding flicks.

I would like to share a Music Video Recap of Emily and Steven. They had the reception at Comerica Park. How cool was that! As you listen to the lyric of the song, which was Emily’s choice, notice the name on their Tiger jersey. Now that was even cooler!

The Resurrection and The Life

This is a trailer of an Easter play I produced last year for a local church. The play is on again this year and I encourage everyone to go see it. It's a nicely produced play with lots of great music.

April 5 & 6 - 7:00 pm
Faith, 3411 Airport Road, Waterford
248-623-7330 www.hisfaith.net

Amber Lights

Back in December I met a new photographer at a wedding I was filming. Amber from Amber Lights Photography was a pleasure to work with. Joanne recently visited Amber at her studio in Milford to share ideas and our work. When Joanne came home, she kept talking about how big and impressive the studio was. Amber's photographs are very stylish. Brides in Florida hire her to shoot their weddings all the time. You can check out some of the pics of a wedding we worked together below.

It's A Remix!

I had an opportunity to re-edit a trailer I did last November for a client. The Bride, Jennifer, has no idea that I'm doing this. So if you are reading this Jennifer...Surprise!!! If I had all the time in the world, I would never stop editing my work. Cause everytime I look at my work, I see things that can be changed or altered to make the movie flow or look better. Of course no one ever sees these minor changes but myself. OK...I'll admit it. Most of the time I edit for myself not for the client. Oh well...

3...2...1...Launch!!!

I launched our New Website last night! I'm really excited and pleased of the look and feel of the site. It's more of a representation of our creative style than the last website. I have a lot of positive feedback already and it's not even 24 hours yet : )

Check it out www.capturingthemoments.com