As reported in the Spring, 2009 issue of Kallah Magazine, Sparkling Video has partnered with a truly amazing photographer. Beto has many years of international experience capturing weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, as well as dignitaries and celebrities. Beto’s work is special because he captures the essence of the subject. He loves to highlight details that other people might miss, but that make a tremendous difference in the message of an image. Like our videographers, his work is unobtrusive but thorough. He loves what he does, and we love working with him! We are looking forward to greeting the public together at the Simcha Expo in Brooklyn on Sunday, May 10th. Hope to see you there!

BETO CAPTURING AN IMAGE FOR SPARKLING VIDEO

We like to post samples of the edits we do, but in this case, the client is very private and didn’t want any family images on the Internet. We certainly respect their wishes, but couldn’t resist commenting on some of the more interesting aspects of the project. At the affair, we were faced with all kinds of crazy audio. The band was VERY LOUD, and we had to make sure that their sound came through well on our recordings. Then there were speeches, and speeches, and speeches!!! Actually, mostly inspiring, but maybe one or two just a little bit boring! (Can’t win them all). But don’t you know, that during one of the most important (and compelling) speeches, the hall’s sound system stopped working? We hadn’t miked the podium in this case since everything through the speakers was so LOUD!! But our cameras have extremely sensitive mikes on board, and they picked up the speech that wasn’t amplified. We just had to equalize it a bit, and it sounded just fine (better than the amplified portion, if you must know!)

On the video side of things, the mother and sister of the bar mitzvah boy wore beautiful, flouncy dresses. We had a great time catching close ups of those frocks in motion. There’s nothing like a video! And did we mention the dancing?? The Bar Mitzvah boy’s kindergarten teacher came to the party and wowed everyone with dynamic dancing! All the kids had a blast!! We love shooting bar and bat mitzvahs. They’re so much fun!

It’s almost a week since the unbelievably beautiful wedding of Tomer and Ruchama. We were so happy to be able to broadcast the wedding live over the Internet for Tomer & Ruchama’s friends and family who couldn’t fly in for their simcha. For those who couldn’t watch the whole wedding, we thought you might enjoy seeing three minutes of highlights! MAZAL TOV!!

Highlights from the Private Web Cast

We are pleased to announce that our entry into the License Stream contest to create the best 30-second commercial for the web was chosen as the winner! The contest was open to all WEVA (Wedding and Event Videographers Association) members nationwide. The goal of the commercial was to show how WEVA members could benefit from License Stream, a wonderful and easy-to-use stock photography/videography enterprise. We had a great time producing this commercial, and thank License Stream for this amazing opportunity!

View the winning web ad:

Whenever it snows now, we think of Lihu’s Vermont Bar Mitzvah. Most unfortunately, all of Lihu’s close NYC relatives booked passage on Jet Blue, on the ill-fated weekend when the airline was grounded. We as videographers, on the other hand, were lucky to have chosen a small commuter airline that weekend, and we made the trip from NYC to Burlington, VT without incident. We are very grateful to be able to provide Lihu and his family with lasting memories from their beautiful simcha! And p.s. — we have flown Jet Blue lots of times since then and have had no problem!

Lihu’s Bar Mitzvah

A client asked recently asked us to show them a clip from this bar mitzvah that we shot. Seeing it again brings back a flood of happy memories. We look forward to shooting his brother’s bar mitzvah coming up in September, 2009!

Boruch Ber’s Bar Mitzvah

Sparkling Video is very pleased to help promote License Stream, a global license registry for video and still images. Last August, we were thrilled to win their uploading contest. Now, our video clips, together with those of our fellow WEVA (Wedding and Event Videographers Association) members, are available for license. The reaction to date has been very positive.

This month, License Stream featured us in their E.NEWS because we had been at the forefront of using their new technology. To see our video clips, as well as those from our colleagues, copy and paste the following URL into your browser:

http://www.licensestream.com/LicenseStream/onestream/portal.aspx?weva=all

In case you are new to Sparkling Video, we want to make sure you know about our web broadcasting capabilities. We can broadcast your event - LIVE - via the Internet to anywhere in the world. Your event is private, and password-protected, so that only viewers of YOUR CHOICE will see your video. In these economically troubled times, it may be hard for guests to travel for an event, or your may not be able to afford to host more than a certain number of people. By webcasting, guests of your choice can view your event, and you will be able to send your good wishes to them LIVE, so they feel that they’re with you. We offer webcasting either by itself or as part of a broader video package. Give us a call about it. 718-252-2332.

As the weather turns brisk in our part of the world, we at Sparkling Video are gearing up for a hectic shooting schedule! As we do, we take a minute to reflect back on the end of summer, when we were able to enjoy some true peace, if only for a few hours!! If you have the opportunity to take a balloon ride yourself, go for it!

BALLOON RIDE

Too bad we didn’t have a Blog up and running last May when we shot a truly amazing wedding!!  I’ll try to recapture the excitement we felt being part of such a special simcha.  It was Nasanel’s and my first Chabad wedding – and this initiation was in Crown Heights on Lag Ba’Omer, no less!  Besides the usual logistics, we had to work around the Lag Ba’Omer parade, with its closed off streets and limited parking.

Noach and Sprintza’s day began at the Bais Rivka hall, and then to the chuppah at 770, with a stops in-between for mincha at Machon Chana, and a visit to the Rebbe’s house.Not only were we a videography team that day, but we also provided car service (with our comfortable minivan) to the choson and kallah, the kallah’s parents, the wedding planner, and the still photographers.  Seating was tight, but B”H, everyone was happy.

We enjoyed the new (to us!) customs, from the choson’s ma’imer (words of Torah) to the couple stepping over a silver spoon into the Yichud room.  At the reception, the music was truly unique.  A group called “White Shabbos” (think “Black Sabbath”), with its interesting array of instruments and talented musicians, sent the crowd “higher and higher.” Our lucky job was to capture this joy in a way that would give proper respect to all the varying facets of the wedding, while creating a story that would be interesting and intriguing to watch.

We didn’t ask for feedback, but the family called to say ‘thank you’ and that we really “got it.”   We just say ‘thank you’ to Noach and Sprintza for allowing us to be part of their celebration.