I recently flew up to Holland, MA and got to spend the weekend with Dick & Rick Hoyt of Team Hoyt. They are the father & son team that have completed over 1000 races including 29 Boston Marathons and 6 Iron Man competitions. Rick has been a quadriplegic since birth so Dick pushes him in a special jogging chair and also pulls him in a small raft & bike attachment for Triathlons. They know the importance of mobility, and what it means for Rick to feel like he’s free from his disability when they run together.

My past work with Variety Children’s Charity here in KC has meant a lot to me. I never would have guessed it would have led me to Massachusetts to meet such an incredible group of people. Dick, Rick, their amazing assistant Kathy, along with a whole slew of people from Team Hoyt Virginia Beach made it an incredible weekend. We shared a cookout at Dick’s house and ran a 5k the next day. (More on this story to come in another video)

So, what do you need to know?
Variety is teaming up with the Royals and holding a 5k at Kauffman Stadium on August 28th. Ok, before you stop reading, you really can be a part of this too. Come out and run or [walk] for kids who can’t.

Variety mobilizes kids with special needs through adaptive bikes, wheelchairs, van lifts, walkers, hearing aids, you name it; their mission is to give these kids a more active/normal life.

After watching this video I hope you see what mobility can mean to kids and will be a part of it.

During my weekend I watched a 12 year old girl push her younger sister in a jogging chair the entire way. I realized at that moment that there is absolutely no reason why I can’t also get out there and run. I signed up as soon as I got back to town. I hope you will too.

visit: http://www.royals.com/run

There’s only 3500 spots, and I’d love to see us sell this event out. Normally I’d be filming an event like this for them, but I’m getting out behind the camera this time and running myself.

see you out there.

So my friend Sara Swenson not only has an awesome album out, but also has a song from it featured on tonight’s Season Finale of Private Practice on ABC. If you watch the show be sure to listen tonight for “Time to Go”. The other day we got together and put together a little video for her talking about the song:

Be sure to stop by her site and her album on iTunes

In the midst of non-profit organizations and wedding films, I occasionally shoot music as well.
My background, for those of you that don’t know, is in audio engineering. I graduated from Middle Tennessee State University with a BS in Audio Engineering (basically) – it’s got a much longer title that mostly means I know how to make records and mix sound.
It was my start in the Nashville area that led me to doing video work in the country music industry.
Over the last few years I’ve had some connections to the Academy of Country Music, producing a video for Chuck Wicks, then a series of “Road to the ACM Awards” for Josh Thompson, and finally in April working directly for the Academy documenting the fan experience of the weekend.

It was an incredible weekend full of 16 hour days filming everything from rehearsals for the show to Freemont Street concerts, a show at the Nellis Air Force Base, the Red Carpet and a great fan party at Mandalay Bay.

It’s funny.
When I was originally talking with a guy at the Academy I was somewhat afraid to mention that I’m a wedding filmmaker. In the grand scheme of all the video work in the world, weddings sometimes seem to be lower on the credibility level compared to “feature filmmaker” or “documentary filmmaker”. The funny thing is, most of those professional directors wouldn’t touch a wedding with a stick.
We work with conditions we can’t control, some of the worst lighting situations, no re-takes, and often not being able to control what happens at any given moment. Moments happen before our eyes all day long. In split seconds we make decisions of composition, lens choices, who to film, how to get the best audio, and if that moment is more important than the one happening right behind us.
It’s years of making weddings that actually qualified me to go film something like the ACM Awards. After mentioning I make wedding films it turns out he does too. One of my “bosses” actually said “you were hired because you shoot weddings and I know you won’t miss anything”.

It was a complete blast.
There’s really nothing like it, for me anyway; the best sound engineers, the best lighting and set designers and some of the best performers all coming together in one place. It’s a culmination of artists, and there I am getting to use my craft, my art, to capture what they’re doing.

Ok, enough talking from me: Here are some photos…

My new friend Sara Kauss is an amazing photographer from Florida: www.sarakauss.com – we shot the Freemont Street shows and red carpet together – she also took the red carpet photo of me at the top of this post.

The “Fan Jam” party was held at Mandalay Bay. Fans could watch this huge HD screen of the awards show happening live over at MGM, then CBS would cut the broadcast over to us where performers like Sugarland, Eric Church, The Band Perry and Rihanna with Jennifer Nettles performed on our stage.

Here are a few from Sugarland’s performance. I’d like to point out the incredible lighting design by Nate Cromwell:

Blake & Reba opening the show on our side:

Eric Church:

Sugarland introducing the next performance:

Rihanna and Jennifer Nettles:

These are all images pulled from video I shot from the Fan Jam. My job was to show the fan experience so I filmed everything from in the midst of the crowd each time with an occasional high & wide shot to show the whole room. The whole weekend was an incredible experience and I’m looking forward to heading back next year.

You can swing by the Academy’s site or YouTube page to see some of the videos we put together of rehearsals, the Nellis Air Force piece, and the red carpet: www.acmcountry.com There really wasn’t time to edit. My piece for Freemont Street included 12 acts, audio bites from their interviews and performances. It was a minute and half long and took around 5 hours to put together. Unfortunately most of my best shots weren’t able to be included because of the hours of footage we need to go through to pull them all. Next year we’re bringing a bigger team to pull it all off.

Thanks for coming by and checking this out – back to weddings now for me… the 2011 calendar is full and I’m already booking for 2012 so contact me soon!

“Hey!” he yelled into Kelsey’s face in a crowded bar downtown in the Power & Light District downtown.
Wearing a hooded v-neck sweater with the hood halfway down, that’s all Andrew could think to say.
Apparently “hey” was enough for Kesley. The v-neck wasn’t seen again in his wardrobe until much later when he proposed in that very spot that they met.

Andrew is one of the funniest grooms I’ve ever filmed, while Kelsey is a girly-girl and an incredible dancer.
She picked out jewelry for her bridesmaids and had their bouquets made based on their personalities while having a special photo of her grandfather on her own.

It was a day full of great moments including an awesome note from Andrew, her father singing a cappella to them during the ceremony and dancing with Diane and a crew of other dancers. It was one of the most fun receptions I’ve been to.

I loved getting to know them over the year leading up to the wedding, our coffee meetings and talking over plans + what was most important to them.
Congratulations to you guys and I know I will see you again soon!

Here is a highlight of their day featuring music by Boyce Avenue, Just the Way You Are.

They were married at Country Club Christian Church with a snowy reception at Club 1000 downtown.

Things I love about this:

Jonathan and Carody love playing scrabble. So much that he proposed using a scrabble board over Christmas. For their wedding favors they filled tins with four letter words like “love”, “ring”, “true”, and “kiss”.

Carody’s mom sat across from me in a meeting when I overheard her saying she was making all of the dresses for the wedding. All of them. Bridesmaids, flower girls, and Carody’s. I’ve seen a lot of dresses in the last 10 years, but this one-of-a-kind was beautiful, and even more-so because it fit Carody’s personality perfectly.

And that was just the start of what her mom created for the day.

It’s pieces of the story like that that are so important to me to capture. There’s more than just the wedding day. I can film dresses as a detail in my films, but often there is so much more significance to the couples than what is realized by most.

I don’t shoot details because they’re expected; whether it’s a dress, a pillow, jewelry or flowers, I film them because they’re pieces of who my couples are.

I’m excited for them. Not because they had a beautiful wedding, but because of how focused they are on the marriage ahead of them.

For best results, please press play, then press pause to allow the film to buffer first.

Jonathan + Carody were married at the Hawthorne House in Parkville, MO.

music: Marry Me by Train

Young Variety Children’s Charity of Kansas City is a local group of young professionals helping to mobilize children with special needs.

The 2nd annual Beer for Bikes event held at the Boulevard Brewery allowed young professionals to network while raising money for adaptive bikes for kids in wheelchairs and other special needs.

Music: Derby, “If Ever There’s a Reason” licensed through With Etiquette.
Featured photos by Shawn Haley with www.haleyphotography.com

Venue: Boulevard Brewery – www.boulevard.com
DJ: Eric Coomes – http://www.facebook.com/djericcoomes

Just a hint of what’s to come:

Music: licensed through Sara Swenson, “All Things Big and Small” off of her recently released album.
It’s amazing, check it out: http://saraswenson.com/

Samantha and Jake are incredible people. They are world travelers, brilliant business people and have amazing friends and family that came from around the world to be a part of their wedding.

They met while working at Google. Samantha gave up that job to pursue working in the non-profit world and it wasn’t until her going away party that Jake decided to make his move.
After their first date, Jake flew from California to Washington, D.C. to meet her for their second, and so it began.

Their day was held at the amazing Circle S Ranch just outside of Lawrence, KS and officiated by Samantha’s grandfather.

Circle S Ranch: www.circlesranch.com

Here is a just a short highlight of their day:

Since 1995, the First Hand Foundation has helped over 93,000 children with health-related needs in over 73 countries around the world.

The 2010 Masquerade Ball fundraiser held at Kansas City’s Midland Theater had nearly 1000 attendants. The ball included face painting, costumes & masks as well as the music of Sean McNown, Perpetual Change and DJs NoMathmatics. Live painting by Mike Potts and dancing by Elijah Oliver.

For more information please visit: firsthandfoundation.com

Music in the video used with permission by: NoMathmatics
myspace.com/​nomathmatics

Talent:
pottsgallery.com
perpetual-change.com
adamblueproductions.com/​seanmcnown/​

Food provided by Californos: californos.com and Grand Street Cafe: grandstreetcafe.com

It almost didn’t happen.
Literally a few weeks before the wedding Katelin called. One of her friend’s [only] regret about her wedding was that she didn’t have a video.
Thanks to one of my awesome couples Jan + John Fogerty, I got the last minute call, happened to be open, and this film came to be.

Their feature film is one of my favorites I’ve ever done.
Starting the day off filming Katelin having her last run as a single girl to watching their totally awesome first dance and working with their amazing photographer Dixie.

Katelin is such a talented fashion designer that she made her own dress for her reception. She is totally fun, creative, artsy awesomeness. Yes, all of that. Because of that, she let me try some new things in editing her film and totally trusted me with whatever I wanted to do.

We decided originally to do a 15 minute edit of the entire day, then include her full length ceremony at the end of the DVD… and by 15 minutes I really mean 23 minutes. There were just way too many great pieces that I had to leave in.

Here is the much shorter highlight of the whole day: (only 4 mins)

If you would like to see their full length 23 minute video, click here.

Details:
Church: Immaculate Conception, Kansas City, MO
Reception: The Hobbs Building – www.feastsoffancy.com
Photography: Dixie Dixon – www.dixiedixon.com

Music by Ben Rector, “When She Comes Around”

Do yourself a favor and go by Dixie’s site. She’s an unbelievable worldwide fashion photographer.