Lakota Den Productions - High-Definition Wedding Videography in New England

This Blog is Moving!

2010-10-20T17:54:00.000-07:00

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

Jen and Jason Carlisle Highlights

2009-12-06T13:35:00.000-08:00

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.

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!

Our Dog Training Video - 5 STARS on Amazon!

2009-12-05T11:43:00.000-08:00

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:

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!

Kim and Kevin Stewart Wedding Highlight Video

2009-11-30T12:26:00.000-08:00

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 were the first couple that I ever had that choose a rap song for their highlight, which made this video a little bit more interesting for me to put together. When I do a highlight video, I try to have the video flow with the music, and this was no different. I felt that having the video in Black and White and using some slow-motion really helped tie the song with the footage - So, here it is: (click on the Link to Vimeo to view the High Deffinition version)

Kim and Kevin Stewart Highlight from Lakota Den Productions from Ryan DesRoches on Vimeo.

Long Time - No blog - Where we have been!

2009-11-14T11:26:00.000-08:00

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!

Standard Definition (SD) Video v.s High Definition (HD) Video

2009-07-31T08:01:00.000-07:00

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.

We Now Offer Blu-Ray!

2009-07-17T12:01:00.000-07:00

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?

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

Congratulations to Mr and Mrs. Carlisle!

2009-06-23T09:58:00.001-07:00

Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Jason and Jessica Carlisle who were married this past Saturday at Blissful Meadows Country Club in Uxbridge, MA.

Thankfully the weather held out (it was suppose to rain all day!), and were extremely happy to be able to film the ceremony outdoors in Blissful's beautiful gazebo.

Jessica and Jason has a beautiful ceremony that had the entire wedding party in tears at the end. The vows were beautifully written and you could tell that these two would have dealt with any obstacle (and there were a few, to the threat of rain to the limo getting a flat, causing the bride to be late!) in order to get married on that day.

After the wedding - the weather actually started to brighten a little bit, allowing us and the great photographers from Total Focus Photography to get some excellent shots of this photogenic couple.

For this wedding, we shot with two HD cameras, allowing one of us to film the couple's formal photo session, while my assistant (whom happens to be my fiancee) covered the guests having a great time at the cocktail hour.

Not only does having two professional videographers at your wedding allow us to give you more coverage of your wedding day, but it also allows us to give you a more exciting video, as we are able to switch between camera angles when we are editing. It also allows us to get more closeups and interesting angles of the ceremony and reception than a typical single camera shoot. If you are interested in a multiple camera shoot for your wedding, please check out our wedding videography packages

From the photo session we went on to the Reception, where Alfredo from Soundforce Unlimited provided us with a great party and kept the dance floor moving! Alfredo was great, and he helped us get great shots of the bridal party and guests all night long. If your getting married in the Southern Mass or Rhode Island area - make sure to check out Alfred and Soundforce Unlimited.

One of the highlights of the night was when one of the groomsmen from the wedding performed a special song for the Bride and Groom. While the photos may have captured the bride and groom kissing while listening to their song, only will the video let them hear their groomsmen play and sing it to them over and over again. As we like to say, "a picture may capture a thousand words, but only with video will you hear them again".

I will say this, Jessica and Jason have some crazy friend and family! But crazy in a good way! We caught some really funny shots of the crew on the dance floor strutting their stuff. I can't wait to get to editing some of that beautiful dance footage.

Overall, it was a great day. The weather held out, the bride was beautiful, and the groom had a smile from ear to ear on his face all night long. This wedding was a pleasure to film, and I couldn't have asked for a better couple to work for! Have fun on your honeymoon guys!

All photos are taken from stills of the video footage and are property of Lakota Den Productions.

Rain Rain - Go Away! Prepping for the Wedding of Jason and Jessica

2009-06-19T06:24:00.000-07:00

We are off this weekend to film the wedding of Jessica and Jason at Blissful Meadows Country Club in Uxbridge this weekend. Congratulations to you both!

I'm hoping mother nature cooperates and stops raining for at least a few hours so that we can sneak in the ceremony outdoors. If not, I'm sure that the staff at Blissful will set up for a beautiful indoor ceremony anyway - it's good luck for it to rain on your wedding day, isn't it?

Tonight will be the rehearsal, which I will be filming, and then tomorrow we will be shooting their wedding and reception. I like shooting the rehearsal's for a few reasons, for one - it allows me to meet the family and bridal party before the big day. They all get a chance to be around the camera and get comfortable with both the camera and myself. Second, the rehearsal is usually a lot more causal for the people involved (well maybe the Bride and Groom are a little stressed, but the family and bridal party are usually pretty candid and calm!), and that allows me to capture some good candid moments of the bridal party and family. And third, the rehearsal allows us to find the best angles to shoot and allows us to experiment and try things out before the big day occurs.

We've caught some great moments at a few of the rehearsal nights in the past, including some heartfelt toasts from the father's of the bride and groom, and also some great clips of friends hanging out at a BBQ that followed the rehearsal. If your interested in having us attend your rehearsal night, check out our A La Carte' options on our Wedding Packages page at http://www.lakotadenproductions.com/WeddingPackages.html

As for the wedding itself, even if it does rain, I'm sure it will be beautiful. This will be our first time shooting at Blissful Meadows - and we hear great reviews about it! (The food is suppose to be fantastic!)

We'll be posting a recap of the wedding, as well as some photos soon!

Congratulations to Kim and Kevin!

2009-06-14T19:46:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to the new Mr and Mrs. Stewart!
The wedding was wonderful - the bride was stunning, the ceremony was both emotional and humorous as the Reverend had some great quotes (I guess the Bride really likes salad - I'm still not really sure what that's all about!) the weather held out until after everyone was inside at the reception and dancing!

Got tons of great footage of the bride, groom, and wedding party tearing it up on the dance floor. Hats off to Stephan from Party Zone Entertainment for keeping the dance floor hopping and making my job that much easier!

(Photos are stills from the video footage).

Easily, the most emotional part of the day was when the bride and groom read personal messages to each other that detailed their lives up to that movement. I'm so glad that I was able to capture that on video for them, because that's one thing that the photos won't show or let them relive. The photos only will show them reading those words, while the completed video will let them hear them and let them relive that moment. What better way to show your children and grandchildren how crazy you were for each other than to let them hear those same words that you spoke on your wedding day.

As for the funnest moments, well - they had to occur on the dance floor. The DJ brought with him numerous props and hats for the guests to wear. I was able to capture some great shots of some guests playing air guitar and wearing light up glasses and funky hats. I love it when the guests play to the camera!

Shot of the guest crowding the bride and groom on their last dance! (photo taken from video footage)

We'll be posting some video clips to the blog in the next few weeks. Again, congratulations to Kim and Kevin - have fun in Hawaii!

Off to shoot the Fontaine/Stewart Wedding!

2009-06-13T08:50:00.000-07:00

First off Congratulations to Kim and Kevin, whom in a few short hours will be happily married and sharing their first dance. And I will be there to film it all. . . .

Off to a wedding today in Agawam - looking forward to it. The rain has finally stopped, so the happy couple has a great day for the ceremony, photos, and video!

Just double checking all my notes prior the the ceremony now, I've already talked to a few of the other vendors, so I am looking forward to a great time working on Kim and Kevin's big day!

I'll post a recap soon and eventually have some clips up of their big day!

Welcome to the Lakota Den Productions blog!

2009-06-12T10:22:00.000-07:00

The purpose of this blog will be to share some of our Wedding Videos and to explain a little bit about how we produce a wedding video for our clients.

Other items related to the work we do will also be posted here, such as news articles and topics related to the wedding industry.

I hope you all find this blog interesting, and I welcome any and all feedback!

Thanks
Ryan