Hi Gang!
We decided to move this blog to our NEW and IMPROVED website - CentralMassVideo.com
Unfortunately, the blogger platform just didn't allow us to post as often as we wanted to (or should have done) - that along with the need for a new wedding video website helped us decide to move everything over to a custom Wordpress website, where we can blog, share new videos, and serve up information to our clients all in one fast and friendly area.
So this will be the last post over here - but please check out our new Blog and Site and let us know what you think!
Thanks
Ryan
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Jen and Jason Carlisle Highlights
Putting up some more highlight videos that we haven't had time to put up until now. This one is from the Wedding of Jason and Jessica Carlisle whom were married at Blissful Meadows Country Club in Uxbridge, MA.
This wedding was a lot of fun to shoot, as it was the fist wedding that we ever shot at Blissful - one of the more beautiful country clubs in Central New England. Hopefully we will get to shoot a lot more there in the future!
Jessica and Jason Carlisle Highlights at Blissful Meadows Country Club from Ryan DesRoches on Vimeo.
This wedding was a lot of fun to shoot, as it was the fist wedding that we ever shot at Blissful - one of the more beautiful country clubs in Central New England. Hopefully we will get to shoot a lot more there in the future!
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Our Dog Training Video - 5 STARS on Amazon!
And now for something completely different.
Besides doing Wedding videos, we also dabble in some other projects as well. We have in the past done some documentary work as well as some fictional shorts, although most of that was done when I was a grad student at Emerson. Most of these projects were done for fun, however back a few years ago I was approached about doing a training video on Hunting dogs.
Since I am a huge dog lover, I took the challenge. The budget was very much bare bones for a project of this magnitude. The shoot was going to take place at a three day training seminar that the head trainer, Pat Perry, was going to give. What made this project difficult was that it was going to be a multi-camera shoot, using a variety of dogs (Always unpredictable) and live firearms.
Oh, and did I mention that in day two of the shoot - it decided to POUR! Now we had Mud, Wet Cameras (cameras don't like water) and a lot of smelly wet dogs!
However, despite the weather - the experience was a rewarding one, we shot over 30 hours of footage, and I learned a ton about training dogs.
Editing was a chore on this project - 30 hours of tape takes a LONG time to cut down and put together for a completed DVD. Needless to say - this video took us over a year (working nights/weekends in the middle of our load of weddings as well) to put together. Finally, earlier this year we had a final deliverable product.
Since the deliverable, we haven't really thought a ton about the video, as we had our wedding coming up as well as our clients wedding videos to edit down. But while shopping for some Christmas items, we discovered that our dog training video - Training Spaniels to Hunt - A Seminar with Pat Perry - we made with dog trainer Pat Perry is available on Amazon.com, and the reviews are great! 5 our of 5 stars!
" 5.0 out of 5 stars A comprehensive training DVD, July 8, 2009
By Dawn Smith "dawnand3dogs"
This is a training DVD you won't want to miss. Pat Perry takes you through the highlights of a three day spaniel training seminar, introducing you to handling techniques, demonstrating essential training drills, and offering problem solving ideas for some of the common glitches in training that you might run into when working with your own dog. This training DVD is easy to follow, and spaniel lovers will surely delight in watching the beautiful dogs at work!"
Here's a clip from the video:
Its just awesome to put so much work into a project and see it pay off in the end!
Besides doing Wedding videos, we also dabble in some other projects as well. We have in the past done some documentary work as well as some fictional shorts, although most of that was done when I was a grad student at Emerson. Most of these projects were done for fun, however back a few years ago I was approached about doing a training video on Hunting dogs.
Since I am a huge dog lover, I took the challenge. The budget was very much bare bones for a project of this magnitude. The shoot was going to take place at a three day training seminar that the head trainer, Pat Perry, was going to give. What made this project difficult was that it was going to be a multi-camera shoot, using a variety of dogs (Always unpredictable) and live firearms.
Oh, and did I mention that in day two of the shoot - it decided to POUR! Now we had Mud, Wet Cameras (cameras don't like water) and a lot of smelly wet dogs!
However, despite the weather - the experience was a rewarding one, we shot over 30 hours of footage, and I learned a ton about training dogs.
Editing was a chore on this project - 30 hours of tape takes a LONG time to cut down and put together for a completed DVD. Needless to say - this video took us over a year (working nights/weekends in the middle of our load of weddings as well) to put together. Finally, earlier this year we had a final deliverable product.
Since the deliverable, we haven't really thought a ton about the video, as we had our wedding coming up as well as our clients wedding videos to edit down. But while shopping for some Christmas items, we discovered that our dog training video - Training Spaniels to Hunt - A Seminar with Pat Perry - we made with dog trainer Pat Perry is available on Amazon.com, and the reviews are great! 5 our of 5 stars!
" 5.0 out of 5 stars A comprehensive training DVD, July 8, 2009
By Dawn Smith "dawnand3dogs"
This is a training DVD you won't want to miss. Pat Perry takes you through the highlights of a three day spaniel training seminar, introducing you to handling techniques, demonstrating essential training drills, and offering problem solving ideas for some of the common glitches in training that you might run into when working with your own dog. This training DVD is easy to follow, and spaniel lovers will surely delight in watching the beautiful dogs at work!"
Here's a clip from the video:
Training Spaniels to Hunt - Encouraging a Natural Retrieve from Ryan DesRoches on Vimeo.
Its just awesome to put so much work into a project and see it pay off in the end!
Monday, November 30, 2009
Kim and Kevin Stewart Wedding Highlight Video
Finally getting some post some videos from some of the weddings that we did this summer. First one is of Kim and Kevin Stewart, whom were married in a beautiful ceremony at Agawam Congregational Church then had a blast at The Oaks in Agawam for the reception.
Kim and Kevin Stewart Highlight from Lakota Den Productions from Ryan DesRoches on Vimeo.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Long Time - No blog - Where we have been!
Well, it's been awhile since our last blog! Here is a little bit of what I have been up to:
I got married! The big day was on August 22 at the Overlook Hotel (Masonic Home) in Charlton, MA. Yes, this year for us has been really crazy as we were helping our clients with their weddings while also planning our own! Needless to say, the wedding was perfect! Great food, great music and just a wonderful day. Our vendors were excellent. We had Chris Phillips as our Guitarist for the ceremony, and he was excellent! We had two GREAT photographers in Tammy Woodard as well as Tim Mulcahy - our photos came back super fast and were outstanding! Music on Wheels provided the entertainment and kept the dance floor moving, and finally Aaron Cadieux from Big Operations Productions filmed the ceremony for us (and we will be editing it ourselves, once all of our client videos are done for the year).
I always tell my clients is that your wedding day goes by like a blur, but until I lived it myself - I had no idea how right that statement was. We had a short ceremony, a five hour reception, and then an after-party (that went for another few hours) and it just FLEW by. I am just so glad we got the photos and the video to look back on, as there was just so much that we missed!
One thing that we learned is that a big wedding also doesn't have to cost a ton either, if you plan things out and are not afraid to get your hands a little bit dirty. Being in the business helped up out, and we know what (though experience) what was needed and what was typically wasted at weddings - so we planned our budget around that. No special favors (we donated to a animal shelter in lue of favors) - Flowers were bought the day before at a super-market and put together by the bride and a friend. We had two great photographers and two videographers that we were able to barter with - helping to cut down our costs. All favors and decorations were made by hand by my talented wife - saving hundreds in paper costs. Overall, our biggest expense was the food (which was excellent). Luckily for us, The Overlook is not a well known wedding location, and thus prices were very reasonable. So, in the end - we spend about $7000 total on our wedding. Proving that you don't need to spend 30-40 grand on a nice wedding - you just need to get 'creative' in how you approach your budget.
The Second big news that has kept me from blogging is that I took on a new "day job" as a Senior Web Developer/Designer at a large insurance company. It has just taken me a little bit of time to get acquainted with the new job - and thus stuff like blogging and marketing Lakota Den took a back seat for the moment while I focused on the .
For those that don't know, I only do weddings during the summer time and on a part-time basis - the "day job" allows me to pay my bills and not have to worry about "getting the next wedding" to pay the bills. Doing weddings part-time also allows us to be fresh and give our clients more personal attention. Since we work with a smaller group of brides, and only do one wedding on the weekends - we can spend a lot more time focused on that one wedding - instead of juggling multiple jobs at the same time.
So those two things are the reason that I haven't posted in awhile. We've been a little busy adjusting to all the new and wonderful things that have happened! I am hoping to get back to posting more often!
I got married! The big day was on August 22 at the Overlook Hotel (Masonic Home) in Charlton, MA. Yes, this year for us has been really crazy as we were helping our clients with their weddings while also planning our own! Needless to say, the wedding was perfect! Great food, great music and just a wonderful day. Our vendors were excellent. We had Chris Phillips as our Guitarist for the ceremony, and he was excellent! We had two GREAT photographers in Tammy Woodard as well as Tim Mulcahy - our photos came back super fast and were outstanding! Music on Wheels provided the entertainment and kept the dance floor moving, and finally Aaron Cadieux from Big Operations Productions filmed the ceremony for us (and we will be editing it ourselves, once all of our client videos are done for the year).
I always tell my clients is that your wedding day goes by like a blur, but until I lived it myself - I had no idea how right that statement was. We had a short ceremony, a five hour reception, and then an after-party (that went for another few hours) and it just FLEW by. I am just so glad we got the photos and the video to look back on, as there was just so much that we missed!
One thing that we learned is that a big wedding also doesn't have to cost a ton either, if you plan things out and are not afraid to get your hands a little bit dirty. Being in the business helped up out, and we know what (though experience) what was needed and what was typically wasted at weddings - so we planned our budget around that. No special favors (we donated to a animal shelter in lue of favors) - Flowers were bought the day before at a super-market and put together by the bride and a friend. We had two great photographers and two videographers that we were able to barter with - helping to cut down our costs. All favors and decorations were made by hand by my talented wife - saving hundreds in paper costs. Overall, our biggest expense was the food (which was excellent). Luckily for us, The Overlook is not a well known wedding location, and thus prices were very reasonable. So, in the end - we spend about $7000 total on our wedding. Proving that you don't need to spend 30-40 grand on a nice wedding - you just need to get 'creative' in how you approach your budget.
The Second big news that has kept me from blogging is that I took on a new "day job" as a Senior Web Developer/Designer at a large insurance company. It has just taken me a little bit of time to get acquainted with the new job - and thus stuff like blogging and marketing Lakota Den took a back seat for the moment while I focused on the .
For those that don't know, I only do weddings during the summer time and on a part-time basis - the "day job" allows me to pay my bills and not have to worry about "getting the next wedding" to pay the bills. Doing weddings part-time also allows us to be fresh and give our clients more personal attention. Since we work with a smaller group of brides, and only do one wedding on the weekends - we can spend a lot more time focused on that one wedding - instead of juggling multiple jobs at the same time.
So those two things are the reason that I haven't posted in awhile. We've been a little busy adjusting to all the new and wonderful things that have happened! I am hoping to get back to posting more often!
Friday, July 31, 2009
Standard Definition (SD) Video v.s High Definition (HD) Video
I just wanted to post a comparison of HD (High-definition) Video V.S. SD Video (Standard Definition) - Below is a video we shot with our Sony HVR Z7U camcorder. This video below (since Vimeo doesn't allow embedding of pure HD movies) is HD downconverted down to a Standard Definition output. To view the pure HD Version - click here
Stacy and Dave's Wedding Highlight at Zukas Hilltop Barn from Lakota Den Productions on Vimeo.
Below is an older clip that we shot with a Canon XL2 Camera - which is a Standard Definition Camera (Still very good $6000 camera in its own right - but it only shoots in Standard Definition).
Jen and Art Wedding Highlight Video. from Lakota Den Productions on Vimeo.
As you can see, the top video shot with the HD camera is more vibrant and has less pixelation than the SD version. This is even more noticeable when you view these videos on TV.
Friday, July 17, 2009
We Now Offer Blu-Ray!
Just added to our Al-La-Carte' selection of upgrades are Blu-Ray DVDs. Now you can enjoy your wedding video in TRUE 100% High-Definition. Blu-Ray is simply the best picture quality that you can get on the market today!
So what is Blu-Ray?
Lakota Den Productions has been shooting all our wedding in HD for the past year, but had only been able to deliver on standard DVDs (by using a process called down-converting that converts a High-Def 1080i video down to the standard definition size and resolution). Since we started off with a HD video, we gave out clients the best quality picture that they could get with on a standard DVD. Blu-Ray now gives us the option to give our clients the true 1080i resolution for an even better picture.
How much better is Blu-Ray? Well, most standard TVs and DVDs come in a format called NTSC. The NTSC format has a picture resolution of 720×480 pixels and plays at a speed of about 30 frames per second (29.97 actually). HDTV (and Blu-Ray discs) can Display in a resolution of 1920 × 1080 pixels at a speed of 50 frames per second. That's more than twice the resolution and the faster frame rate allows for a crisper picture when it played - you really notice the difference in sporting events or anything that is fast-paced.
For our clients that have not upgraded yet to Blu-Ray Players, all of our packages will still come with the standard DVD that will play in any DVD player. When the time comes when you do upgrade to a Blu-Ray DVD player, just let us know and we will be happy to re-author your DVDs to Blu-Ray.
Check this out along with our other packages at LakotaDenProductions.com
So what is Blu-Ray?Blu-ray, also known as Blu-ray Disc (BD), is the name of a next-generation optical disc format jointly developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA). The format was developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition video (HD), as well as storing large amounts of data. The format offers more than five times the storage capacity of traditional DVDs and can hold up to 25GB on a single-layer disc and 50GB on a dual-layer disc. This extra capacity combined with the use of advanced video and audio codecs will offer consumers an unprecedented HD experience.
While current optical disc technologies such as DVD, DVD±R, DVD±RW, and DVD-RAM rely on a red laser to read and write data, the new format uses a blue-violet laser instead, hence the name Blu-ray.
Blu-ray is currently supported by about 200 of the world's leading consumer electronics, personal computer, recording media, video game and music companies. The format also has support from all Hollywood studios and countless smaller studios as a successor to today's DVD format. Many studios have also announced that they will begin releasing new feature films on Blu-ray Disc day-and-date with DVD, as well as a continuous slate of catalog titles every month. (taken from Blu-Ray.com)
Lakota Den Productions has been shooting all our wedding in HD for the past year, but had only been able to deliver on standard DVDs (by using a process called down-converting that converts a High-Def 1080i video down to the standard definition size and resolution). Since we started off with a HD video, we gave out clients the best quality picture that they could get with on a standard DVD. Blu-Ray now gives us the option to give our clients the true 1080i resolution for an even better picture.
How much better is Blu-Ray? Well, most standard TVs and DVDs come in a format called NTSC. The NTSC format has a picture resolution of 720×480 pixels and plays at a speed of about 30 frames per second (29.97 actually). HDTV (and Blu-Ray discs) can Display in a resolution of 1920 × 1080 pixels at a speed of 50 frames per second. That's more than twice the resolution and the faster frame rate allows for a crisper picture when it played - you really notice the difference in sporting events or anything that is fast-paced.
For our clients that have not upgraded yet to Blu-Ray Players, all of our packages will still come with the standard DVD that will play in any DVD player. When the time comes when you do upgrade to a Blu-Ray DVD player, just let us know and we will be happy to re-author your DVDs to Blu-Ray.
Check this out along with our other packages at LakotaDenProductions.com
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