New Article on Michiana Weddings

Amy over at Michiana Weddings has been bugging me for an article on what makes a good wedding video for a longtime. I have long thought that many brides and grooms and their families settle for uncle Bob quality video because that is 1 what they are used to and 2 they don't know what good video is. So this series of articles sets out to use video clips and audio clips to define exactly what makes a good wedding video.

The first article in the series which is now online sets out to define what is good audio. Crisp, clear and intelligible is what you should be looking for in a video. So mosey over the Michiana Weddings and check out Part One of What To Look For In A Wedding Video Demo.

Weddings on Fifty Foot Film!

Everything that is old is new again and so it is with Super 8mm Film. Allure Films / River City Productions is now proud to offer Super 8mm Film for your wedding! That's right, the same format that many of your family's home movies were recorded on in the 60's, 70's and 80's. The format hasn't died with the onset of high quality video production, in fact it's experiencing a resurgence!

Why Super 8mm Film? Do you have any family members that will only listen to vinyl records? They'll spend hours explaining to you why their scratchy and static albums sound better than your cold, clear digital CDs or downloaded mp3s. The same can be said for film vs video. Film has a warmth and an organic feel to it that digitally captured video just can't reproduce.

It is also the memories of childhood. Some of my most treasured memories are of my uncles hauling out their old projectors and showing Super 8mm Films from days gone by. Through film I have seen who my grandfather was, since I never saw him in life, saw him laugh, saw his affection for his family, all through the moving pictures of film. Relived my own memories of proudly somersaulting across my grandmother's living room floor. Playing tag with my cousins. Ripping open Christmas presents with my family. Those grainy, vibrant images are like memories, organic, colorful and something I would never give up.

As wedding cinematographers we at Allure Films are now proud to offer the ability to add Super 8mm Film to your wedding video!

Below is some footage I shot at the University of Notre Dame of the Baslica and the lakes on campus last fall. I had just won a Cannon camera at an ebay auction and wanted to test it out. So I went there to get footage of the Basilica planning to work it into the openings for weddings we shot there. I just happened to run across a bride and groom and their car, so from a distance I shot some footage of them. Enjoy the minute and fifteen second clip below.

Last Friday we were hired by the Hilton Garden Inn to photograph their wonderful Fleur de Lis Ballroom in the Gillespie Convention Center. I can wait to get into there and photograph or video an actual wedding reception. We had a lot of fun with their wonderful staff getting these photographs. Below are a handful of my favorites.



I love the effect created by a fish eye lens and for this shoot I brought along our new lens to experiment with.


Outdid ourselves on this photo. Don't know why, I think it's the symmetry, but I love it.

Sanning Your Family Photos!

The other day I posted that we are now offering bulk digitizing of your family photographs also known as scanning photographs. Shortly after making that post I was digging though my own family photos and discovered one album had badly faded. This was one of my favorite albums from when I was 8 years old which was the year of the 1978 blizzard and the same year my parents took me to Hawaii. I have no idea what format the camera was at this point, it was small and produced square images. The negatives were half the size of 35mm. It was my first camera and I remember I broke it a year after getting it. Never would have guessed I would be a videographer and photoshop expert back then.

My dad walking down a street with walls of snow, this is how the photograph looked before our equipment performed the basic color correction included with all our digitizing.
The photograph returned to it's original glory!

Anyone for some red snow?

Color correction applied to the scanned photo. But the photo is more than just faded, it is damaged and requires repair and retouching once it is color corrected.

Besides scanning and color correction we offer photographic repair and retouching. This is an additional service besides the bulk scanning with color correction. We can return heavily damaged photographs to their original pristine condition and reprint them for you!

Bulk Digitizing of your photographs.
Presently we are charging $0.75 per photograph for 300 dpi scanning and $1.00 per photograph for 600 dpi. Most digitizing completed in one business day.

Photograph Repair and Retouching
We charge $50.00 per hour to repair and retouch photographs. Includes same size reprinting.

A few more of my 78 memories below returned to their original colors.

A traditional Hawaiian Canoe in Hawaii.

Snow anyone? We think we had it bad this winter, but nothing compares to the 1 story tall drifts in the blizzard of '78.

Palais Royale

I was digging through the archives today when I ran across this wedding photograph from a first dance in the Palais Royale. Without a doubt, Palais Royale is the most elegant, beautiful and photographer friendly reception hall in South Bend. There is no bad angle to photograph at in the Palais Royale. From the magnificent chandelier that is the center piece of the room, to the opulent details there is nothing that compares in the local area. Modern architecture just does not compare.

Digitize Your Family Photos!

We are offering a new service, photo scanning at a bulk rate to convert your treasured family photos into digital images! Until a photograph at a high quality and adding basic color correction meant about 10 to 15 minutes a picture. Technology has changed and we are now offering scanning services at a bulk rate! 30 photographs for $15!

Why should you scan family photos? Because you never know when you are going to need another copy. Digital files are great for Scrapbooking! We have a new product to offer I will be blogging about shortly, inexpensive, high quality coffee table books to print your photos into and share with family and friends!

With our digitizing services, we scan your photos in at 600 dpi. The scanning software does some minor color correction as demonstrated in the images below and we burn them to disc. Or we can have them reprinted, bound into a picture book and drop them into a video montage. The possibilities are endless. Call us today!

Brian

Happy Saint Patricks Day!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! To celebrate this Irish day of the year here is a little clip from a 2004 wedding. This wedding is one of my all time favorites weddings. The bride and groom were a joy to work with. They were married in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart at Notre Dame. But the standout moments were later that night at Knollwood Country Club, as the bride and several guest demonstrated Irish Step Dancing! Enjoy this clip of Irish dance on this Saint Patrick's Day.

Wedding Photography Special!*

Allure Films is having a special! If you are getting married between now and the end of July 2008 we have a photography deal for you!

6 Hours of wedding day coverage.
One Photographer
Image files burned to a DVD as Jpegs the next day to do with as you want!

$1100

*Restrictions apply, must be available for your date.

Weddings at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on Notre Dame Campus

I just noticed, tomorrow is Basilica Day at the University of Notre Dame when the books are open for those wanting to have their wedding at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in 2009! For all those brides and grooms who will be rushing the phones in the morning and dialing until they get through, Allure Films wishes you the best in getting the dates and times that you desire!

And once you have your date and time, please consider River City Productions / Allure Films for your wedding photography and videography needs! We love working in the Basilica and are at ease working within the restrictions of the Basilica wedding day rules.

Check out a full wedding video that took place at the Basilica on our Notre Dame page. For photos check out below some of my favorite pictures from the Notre Dame Grotto. Enjoy!

Life is Change, announcing Allure FILMS!

It's funny how life changes. When we started off as DJs in 1989 I never expected to be where we are now. In 1994 adding video production to our services was a fluke brought on by a friend who thought it would be a "fun idea". Our first wedding taught us it wasn't a "fun idea" but hard work but very rewarding work at that. That friend has moved on but I'm still loving video production.

Last month an opportunity presented itself, one I could not pass up. I'm proud to announce:

Allure Films!

River City Productions is proud to announce it's new Film division that offers both video production and photography! That's right I am proud to announce that photographer extrodinaire Greg Luzney has joined us to start offering Photography! To celebrate this we are changing the name of our wedding and event services to Allure Films! River City Productions isn't going anywhere, it's still our legal name but this site will slowly be changed to reflect our corporate video production services. So click on Allure Films and check out our established video services and our new photography services. Change is exciting and we are looking forward to the new possibilities that we can now offer.

Now Offering Photography!

Exciting news for River City Productions, we will now be offering photography services for your wedding or special event! Talented photographer Greg Luzney has joined the team and will now be offering his photographic expertise through River City Productions. More details will follow shortly, but if you are looking for wedding, family or high school senior photography River City Productions is your place to go!

St. Pius Ceremony Clip

Here is a wedding ceremony we shot at St Pius. Turned out pretty nice.

Oliver Mansion Wedding of Jennifer & Steve

I posted a while back the clip of the couple who wrote their own vows. Well here is the finished wedding ceremony. I'm quite happy with it. Jennifer and Steve were married at the Oliver Mansion in South Bend, a beautiful setting for a wedding.

Balta Wedding

It's been a while since I posted and the last several posts really haven't been about wedding films but more disc jockey related. So it is time to change that. Below is one of the ceremonies I love from the summer. The emotions are so raw, you can tell how important this day is to this couple.
And the nerd in me loves the Star Trek themes for the processional. We also did the DJ work and played the music for the ceremony. When first given the music lists I wasn't really quite sure how using the Deep Space 9 and Voyager themes was going to work and frankly the day of I didn't even notice, your mind is on other things while shooting the event. It's only in post where I get the opportunity to appreciate the ambiance and mood of an event and it worked. So enjoy.

Credit Where Credit Is Due

Tonight I was leafing through Wedding Essentials when I was blindisded by a picture on page 95, that I own the copyright on. It's a picture of one of the master pieces created by Rascia at Rascia's Creative Cakes. Originally I took the picture for use in the now defunct Michiana Weddings Magazine. Rasica has a copy on her website, but I was surprised to see it show up in the fall issue of Wedding Essentials, especially badly cropped. I've always been very proud of this picture, it's one of my all time favorites that I've taken of anything. So here is a better cropped and color corrected picture.