The new website is up!

http://www.exodousdigital.com is now up and running!  Go check it out!

Kyle Van Leuven

You may notice by scrolling down the page, that there appear to be duplicate postings...  This was done intentionally!  Today I received an email from the State Police trooper who has been helping with the Kyle Van Leuven situation.  He attached a message to the email, and asked me to pass it on to my readers.  Since a Google search for "Kyle Van Leuven" can lead to any one of the postings I'm made about him, I've added an addendum to them all, just to ensure that everyone gets the message.

Wedding Packages

Hey, all you soon-to-be 2009 newlyweds! Have we got a deal for you! Book with us anytime between October 15th, 2008 and November 15th, 2008, and you'll save 10% off your total package price! That could be up to a $375 savings! Simply mention this blog when booking, and we'll be more than happy to give you the discount!

Thus far, 2008 has turned out to be a fantastic year for weddings (including my own)! I've met with a lot of fantastic families, and have had nothing but great experiences. I hope to meet you, soon!

Our Wedding!

I was just sitting here, thinking about the fact that I've spent so much time talking about everyone else's weddings... I never actually put up a posting about my own!

Back on September 27th, Katie and I finally pulled it off!  After nine years, we finally rounded everyone up and had our wedding.  It's not that we didn't want to do it sooner... this was just the most logical time to do it!  We had initially planned on September of 2006, but then we both got accepted to grad school, and decided that #1, we were probably going to be too busy to plan a wedding, and #2, two more years of school meant two more years we could each stay on our parents' health insurance plans!  The latter probably being the more important issue, we stashed away the decorations we had already bought, and carried on with life as it was.

The wedding was everything we wanted it to be.  About 200 of our closest friends and relatives, coming together to share in our happiness.  I've seen so many brides and grooms acting crazy and being terrified on their wedding day.  I always thought to myself, "Why are you so nervous? If you're that nervous, maybe you should rethink your decision!".  A long time ago, I said that wouldn't happen to me... and it didn't!  We were the two coolest cats in the building.  Everyone kept asking if we were nervous... "No, why, are you??"

Our ceremony was short.  No more than 7 minutes long.  We decided not to go through with a religious wedding, so we were right down to business.  After a year of planning, and a whole previous day of setting up, we were calm and collected and ready to go.  The second Katie walked up the aisle and took my hand, we were both in a river of tears!  It was the happiest either of us has ever felt.  Everyone in the room disappeared, and it was just the two of us, floating on cloud nine.  Seven minute of sobs later, and we then cried through 80% of the reception line!  Oh, yeah... and all the way through our first dance, too! 

So, everyone asks me:  is it any different?  Tough question.  

-Are we more in love than we were before? 

Ehh...  I don't think that was ever a problem.  

-Are we struggling more now?  

We've lived together for the past four years, so... no.  Despite the financial meltdown in the economy, this is probably the most comfortable we've ever been. 

-Do we treat each other differently?  

Yes.  If there's one thing I've noticed, it's that we both seem to appreciate each other more, now. Maybe it's because it's finally official... maybe it's because when I looked into her eyes at the wedding I saw nine wonderful years fly by in an instant.

Anyway, that's the story.  Someday soon, I hope to get the pictures from our photographer, and I'll throw a couple up here!

P.S.:  I've been to weddings that cost $5,000, $10,000, $20,000, and even $30,000+.  All inclusive, our wedding cost under $4000... and it was the best one I've ever been to! :)

Book now for the 2009 wedding season!

Hey, all you soon-to-be 2009 newlyweds! Have we got a deal for you! Book with us anytime between October 15th, 2008 and November 15th, 2008, and you'll save 10% off your total package price! That could be up to a $375 savings! Simply mention this blog when booking, and we'll be more than happy to give you the discount!

Thus far, 2008 has turned out to be a fantastic year for weddings (including my own)! I've met with a lot of fantastic families, and have had nothing but great experiences. I hope to meet you, soon!

UPDATED: Paul Bunyan Scout Reservation Promo Video

Three new wedding samples!

Paul Bunyan Scout Reservation Promo Video

Just finished up with a rough version of the PBSR video!

Alden B. Dow Home and Studio

I just found out last week that our "Alden B. Dow Home and Studio" feature from the show last year was selected as a finalist in the College Broadcasters Inc., national student production competition!  Last year we were selected as finalists for the Best General Entertainment category, but didn't end up with the grand prize..  In October, we'll travel to Kansas City to find out find out if we can take the Best Documentary category this year!  

Here's the piece. (YouTube made me break it up, since it's over 10 minutes...)

Part 1

Part 2

A few pics...

I was just looking through my Images folder, and found a few good pictures that might be worth sharing...

Library Footage

Here are the shots from the Roof of Park Library!  It was so cool to get up there and shoot!  Thanks a lot to Anne Casey for pulling the right strings for us!

In other news, I just found out yesterday that a segment (Alden B. Dow Home and Studio) from my TV show Central View has been selected as a finalist for another national competition!  College Broadcasters Incorporated, National Student Production Awards.

Busy, busy, busy...

I realize I haven't had a post in a while, but I've been just about everywhere but here, lately.   Two weeks ago I was up in Grand Rapids, Michigan for Kim and Dans wedding.  Then it was back to Illinois to edit and get caught up on all my projects.  Last Wednesday, I headed up to Michigan,  yet again, for another wedding.  This time it was Amanda and Greg in the Kalamazoo area.  It was a great wedding!  Both Greg and Amanda have a heck of a sense of humor, so the entire ceremony was filled with laughs.  My personal favorite was when they read their vows off of their iPhones!

While in Michigan, I also picked up another great job, producing a promotional video for CMU's College of Graduate Studies!  Apparently, someone in the Political Science Department showed off the videos I did for them.  Yet another satisfied customer!  We pushed all the paperwork through in a hurry, so I could save myself 1200 miles and shoot while I was still up in Michigan.  I've never seen such a large organization operate so efficiently!  Way to go Rob!

This is pretty much how my week went.  I drove up Wednesday, arriving in Mt. Pleasant around 8:30PM.  I was crashing at Ed's place, so I had to wait for him to get out of class.  I spent Thursday meeting with the Graduate School people, and taking care of all the paperwork.  Friday morning, I drove home to Pinconning to pick up my mom, and we went to Bay City together.  I had to apply for our marriage license (!!!!), and I also got to visit my Grandma, who recently went into the hospital for heart problems.  Her poor little 91-year-old heart is just plain old wearing out...  From there, we went home so I could spend some time with my dad after he got home from work.  Saturday, I left Pinconning around 11AM, so I'd have plenty of time to get to Kalamazoo (it's about a 3:30 drive).  Well, right before I left, we noticed that you could see the steel belts on both of my two front tires!!  There was no way I was going to safely make it, so I had to go to Bay City first to get new front tires!  Damn good thing I was leaving early!  I made it with thirty minutes to spare.

The wedding was quick, the reception food was good, and I was on my way back to Mt. Pleasant by 7:00.  I spent the night at Ed's, hung out with Friends all day Sunday, and then spent most of Monday shooting the video for the Grad School Promo video. Stuff turned out great, and everyone cooperated with the cameras.  I even got to go ON TOP of the Park Library!!  That was soooo cool!  I don't think many people get that opportunity!  I finished up shooting around 4:00, ate dinner, and left for home about 5:00PM.

Normally, I get about 370 miles on a tank of gas, but apparently I had a bad batch, because I ran out at 349.5 miles.  Yahoo.  Midnight, on the side of I-70 in Indiana (exit 41), absolutely pouring rain... and I could SEE the gas station.  I called AAA, and it took them 86 minutes to bring me 2 gallons of gas... UGH.  I made it home about 4:30AM (E.S.T.).

As soon as I get the Library footage captured, I'm going to put it up here.

Back to work!

Updates

I made the final finishing touches on the Political Science videos today.  There were a couple of minor changes requested by the department, so I wanted to get that done and out of the way.  Now I need to re-upload them and I'll be done for good!

I received an email from my contact in the PSC department, and they all really liked the videos.  Apparently, some PR guy from CMU's Graduate School requested my contact information, so hopefully there may be a couple more jobs in my future.  I hope so!  I find myself searching for excuses to drive back to Michigan and be in Mount Pleasant..

I worked on Kathryn's wedding video a little more today.  I'm pleased with how things are coming together.  Hopefully the rest of it continues to go so smoothly!

In other news: While doing some searching today, I found out that SIUC has a fairly respectable flight school program that they offer...  While growing up, most kids want to be firemen, police officers... cool things like that.  Me; I've always wanted to be a pilot.  If I could afford it, I'd put myself in a flight program tomorrow.  It's just something that I've always had interest in...  Someday.

Political Science Videos

I can't believe I'm saying this... but I'm actually done with the Political Science videos!  It's been almost a four month project, but things are finally done.  The blog has been created, videos uploaded, and it was unveiled to the PSC department on Wednesday! Everyone seems REALLY happy with it, so I guess that means it's a job well done!  Follow the link and check it out!

In other news, Ed created a blog.  Good for you, Ed!

In other, other news, I started Kathryn and Will's wedding edit last night, and things are rolling along smoothly.  I finished a rough of the ceremony and will start polishing on Monday.  Thank God for Multicam Editing!  I wish there was a way that I could add up how many hundreds of hours of work multicam has saved me...  Sweet stuff!

It's been raining all day, here.  Feels much more like a Sunday, than a Friday.  Perhaps that's why I don't feel like doing ANYTHING AT ALL!  Maybe I'll set up some compression jobs today, so that I can tell myself that the computer is too busy to work on other things... ;)

Katie just told me I use too many exclamation points.  I'm not sure if I agree.... !

Kimberly and Dan's Wedding!

Well, after a 9 hour drive on Wednesday, I arrived in Mt. Pleasant around 8:00PM.  Not a bad trip!  Everything went smoothly, and I got a chance to catch up on some of my favorite podcasts as I drove!  I met up with some friends for a little get together before heading back to our apartment to clean.  My good friend Jason has started brewing his own beer for some time, now, and he had just finished up a batch of root beer... so he gave me a bottle to try.  We'll come back to this later.

I spent two days cleaning up our apartment and turned in the keys before leaving for the wedding in Grand Rapids.  The drive there was great, and it felt good to be rolling through Michigan, again!  I arrived at 1:30 and started shooting pre-ceremony stuff (exteriors, interiors, people arriving).  The ceremony started at 4:30, and was great!  I've shot a wedding with Pastor Steve before, and he's pretty entertaining to listen to.

The ceremony wrapped up around 5:30 and we headed downtown to shoot some photos before the reception.  About five minutes into the drive I heard a huge bang/crash, followed by a shower of glass...  Turns out good 'ol Jason's root beer had exploded in my back seat!  What a mess!

The reception was a lot of fun, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.  Plenty of great toasts and dancing, a slideshow of Kim and Dan, and everyone seemed to be enjoying the... refreshments.

I wrapped up the night around 9:30, or so, and then headed straight for home.  I hit Chicago around midnight, and Effingham around 3:00, putting me in our driveway at about 4:30am.  Again, it was a great drive, and I look forward to my next Michigan wedding on September 6th!