Thursday 28 May 2009

and another one...

This clip is taken from Suzanne & Ben's wedding DVD and was filmed at Blundellsands United Reform Church followed by a reception at Rufford Old Hall.

Suzanne & Ben Wedding Highlights from ABC Video Facilities on Vimeo.

Just added some more video clips...

...onto our Vimeo site. These are taken from some of last years weddings...finally managed to find the time to get them onto Vimeo!

Sharon and Nick at the beautiful Ashton Memorial in Lancaster and then onto the reception at Stanley House

Sharon & Nicholas Wedding Montage from ABC Video Facilities on Vimeo.




...and then Claire and Chris at St Stephen's Church, Banks followed by a reception at the beautiful Meols Hall

Clare & Chris Highlights Sequence from ABC Video Facilities on Vimeo.



We will actually be at Meols Hall on Wednesday 1st July for their wedding fair evening. The doors open at 6.30pm. I'll be posting some more details nearer the time but in the meantime you can visit the Meols Hall website here.

Tuesday 26 May 2009

Just some of the positions you can get in to...

...when filming a wedding!

Saturday was Sarah and Dave's wedding day and the service was held at St Mary's Church in Penwortham. As usual we were made to feel most welcome by the vicar, Chris Nelson. The weather was dry although slightly overcast but everyone breathed a sigh of relief that the rain held off...especially after some of the downpours we have had these last few weeks.


Whilst filming though, I was spotted (by Julie with camera!) lurking amongst the bushes...




...and then crouching on the floor.




However, I did take up some of the more usual positions as well... although it seems Julie managed to get herself amongst the bushes for this one!

The most precarious positions though where at Barton Grange Hotel which is where Sarah and Dave had their reception...


to begin with I climbed on the wall as one of the cars drew up...





and then a bit later climbed onto the roof (with camera) to get the group photo being taken. All was going well until Rob (from Barton Grange) decided to sneak up behind me...

...to say I jumped would be an understatement! You'll notice on the photo though that Rob has made a hasty retreat...I wonder why!


That said however, Rob and Tom did look after us (as always) and kept me informed on what was happening when...which is much appreciated, as it makes my job a bit easier.

The final shot Julie managed to squeeze in was of Rob 'striking the gong' to get everyones attention...if you are thinking of booking Barton Grange then I would highly recommend that you book Rob as well as he really does make the day proceed smoothly. On the day though, he did rib Tom as he had just managed to get himself (at great expense!) some tickets to watch Burnley play Shefield United in the playoffs at Wembley...given that a lot of the guests were Wolves fans, this was found to be quite amusing. Although, I guess in the end Tom has had the last laugh, given that Burnley won and gained promotion...even managed to do me out of a job! I had been booked not once, but twice in anticipation of Shefield winning to go and provide a camera feed for their celebrations...they perhaps should have learnt the first time round...not to jump the gun. Oh well, there is always next year!

Monday 18 May 2009

Gilbert & Sullivan

This week sees us taking in the performance of Princess Ida (albeit from behind the camera) at St Mary's Church Hall in Penwortham. It is being performed by St Leonard's Gilbert & Sullivan Society.

I have filmed lots of these over the years, but I have to say they are actually very good. So if you do fancy a night out then check out St Leonard's website for more information.

The rest of the week is mainly taken up by editing and trying to catch up on the 'little things' as the last few weeks have been fairly hectic.

Friday 15 May 2009

It's raining...euros

Oh dear...don't you just feel for the German motorist who left an envelope full of euros on the back seat of the open top Audi he was test driving...you can guess the results! 23,000 euros rained down on the Autobahn and they only managed to recover 3,000...

That old saying 'more money than sense' comes to mind...whoops! I bet there were a few happy motorists behind him though...

Thursday 14 May 2009

Unusual wedding venues...and blogs

I was reading the BBC blog dot.life the other day and a piece on Bletchley Park. It was discussing the effect celebrities can have when they champion good causes. We only have to look at the effect Joanna Lumley has had with the Gurkha's (and all credit it to her...someone needs to!) and how it can really raise the profile of a cause when a celebrity gets involved.

Well, Bletchley Park was hoping for a similar effect with Stephen Fry as they need to raise a ton of money to try and preserve the huts where thousands worked during the war trying to crack codes. I must admit my initial thoughts were 'how on earth do we let places like this get in such a state...we (the country) only seem to react when something is about to fall down..why?' It was interesting to read though, that when Stephen turned up at Bletchley to be given a guided tour there was a 'Twitter' there who immediately Twittered that Stephen Fry was at Bletchley and the place was then inundated with visitors...interesting the power of Twitter and blogs in general.

Any way back to my blog theme...whilst looking at the Bletchley Park website I noticed that they also did weddings. That got me thinking about unusual wedding venues...what are the most unique? I found a site whilst surfing the net that lists many of the venues with civil licences but wondered what peoples experiences where of unique venues.

For us, I guess it has to be Blackpool Tower...although strictly speaking we weren't filming it as a wedding day film. It was actually for the news and we had been commissioned by the PR company that works for Blackpool Tower. I mentioned this in our very first blog back in January. Generally though most people seem to go for the tried and tested venues...the next few weeks sees us at Barton Grange, Farington Lodge and Stanley House to name but a few.

Saturday 9 May 2009

What have I done?...

Well, nothing too serious anyway, but I have just registered to ride in the Manchester 100 Bike Ride in September. It a 100 mile bike ride and the aim is to try and raise funds for Christies.

I must be mad! Oh well, it now gives me a goal to loose a bit of weight and get a bit fitter. It must be the life changing event of having hit 40...it really did hit me hard! It's one of those mile stones that seems so far off in the distance and then suddenly it was here.

Anyway, I blame Phil at Apple for this one, he happened to mention it and I thought, yer I can do that...now I'm thinking 'what have I done'? It's all in a good cause though.

There isn't actually a set amount that I need to raise as you pay an entrance fee and buy a t-shirt as well...but Julie has set up a just giving page for me...so if anyone feels like sponsoring me, it's all in a good cause and would be much appreciated! The link is www.justgiving.com/chrisdell

Than plan is to stick a little camera on my helmet and film the ride...so watch this space for the video later on...got to really, it's what I do!

Thursday 7 May 2009

Isn't it a small world?

I think we have all used that expression at some time or other when we have bumped into someone that knows someone we know...and it was that thought that caught my interest with the BBC documentary programme Six Degrees of Separation. It was a really fascinating programme about the science of what was thought to be myth but now...maybe...might be true. It's a bit spooky I suppose when you think about it, but I guess the phenomenon may well be a reality.

How many people have found other people they know through a friend of a friend on facebook? I recently got back in touch with a friend who'd I'd lost contact with 8 years ago. I had periodically searched on facebook and friends reunited to no avail and then one day I was registering my details on yet another website when up popped my friends info...mind you after 2 aborted attempts we are still trying to meet up for lunch! Fingers crossed for the 16th May.

Anyway, just thought I'd throw this one into the mix...it seemed appropriate after my last post. I guess the question is, have we always had six degrees of separation and we have just become more aware of it due to the web, social networks and bloggers...? I'll let you mull it over.

Wednesday 6 May 2009

Has marketing gone 'viral'?

So how many of you have watched Susan Boyle on YouTube?

Some, 52 million of you have and I must confess to being one of them! It's hard to imagine that one video clip could travel round the world so fast and be viewed by so many people...but what a phenomenal marketing tool!

It seems 'viral' is the way it's going these days. I was down in London the weekend before last to film a runner in the London Marathon. The guy was being sponsored by Jack Links to run for Leonard Cheshire Disability and was sporting a very fetching yellow outfit...a packet of their tasty X-S. My brief...to create a short story of the visit to London and the run and to give it an amateurish feel... So where was it destined for...you've got it...YouTube!

Take a look for yourself...

Jack Links - London Marathon from ABC Video Facilities on Vimeo.