Here we have a promotional video we did for a church in Ann Arbor to promote a periodic event they host called “Friend Day.” We attended a Friend Day event and interviewed on camera a number of people at the event. The object was to capture the energy and life-blood of the event on camera. We were then able to compose a short promotional video which could be played at church assemblies and individually distributed via the iPod format. On mobile devices, such as the iPod, church members are better able to demonstrate to their unchurched friends what Friend Day is like when encouraging them to visit.
Church or Organization Event Promotion
September 6th, 2009Vintage High School Vinyl LP Album Transferred to CD
August 19th, 2009
Many times when people want their legacy vinyl LP albums transferred to compact optical disk (CD) we find that they are already available commercially. These would include all of the fabulous 50 artists such as The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Gene Pitney, Frankie Avalon, and many more. Commercial entities able to sell these at a price significantly less than what we would have to charge to transfer to CD, anyhow. However, there are many of the legacy vinyl LP 33 rpm albums from the 1950s, ’60, and even ‘70s that are not available anywhere on CD. This is especially true for the case of private label albums such as high school productions.
Many of us are old enough to remember the quality even brand new LP albums had. The true audiophile of 1970 would spend thousands of 1970 dollars to get sound quality close to what we think nothing of today coming from a CD. The average teenie-bopper, however, only had access to far less quality playing hardware which nonetheless produced impressive audio but wore the vinyl. After a few playings, scratches began to be heard and as the vinyl aged the listener could detect hiss and objectionable scratches.
In addition to simply transferring the audio of a vintage LP album to CD, we can also do audio restoration for an additional nominal fee. Any LP album surviving multiple decades is certain to have scratches, clicks, pops, and lots of crackle. In many cases our restoration lowers the presence of these to the point where the average listener will not be able to detect them at all though results are not always the same.
We present here an example of the results from transferring legacy LP vinyl (50 year vintage) to CD with audio restoration. In 1959 and 1960 the Thomas M. Cooley high school in Detroit, Michigan produced three LP albums recording student festival productions. As you listen to samples of music extracted and restored from the vinyl, pay close attention to any sign of scratches, hiss, or rumble. It is not uncommon to achieve this level of success with our audio restoration.
If you are a Thomas M. Cooley High School alumnus (especially from 1959 and 1960) and would like to purchase any of these CDs, they are available at $12.50 each +tax plus $5.00 S&H. To order please call (734) 834-1700 and say you would like to order one or more of the three Cooley High CDs. Download the order form by clicking here. Personal checks, MasterCard, Visa, and American Express are accepted.
Multimedia Interactive Family Tree
August 7th, 2009
We at W. Cardone Productions have developed a unique medium for preserving your family legacy. The Multimedia Interactive Family Tree is a personalized DVD the includes a variety of formats to provide your children’s children with a valuable inheritance…a complete family history.
Our staff will meet one-on-one with you for an initial consultation. At this time, we will draft a family tree template that will include the name and photo of each individual in your immediate family tree. This template will become the menu for a fully-interactive DVD where each family member becomes a “clickable” button. When choosing an individual on the three from the menu, you will be able to view that person’s “story.” This story may be told through a variety of media in order to share the important memories of each family member’s life.
Our suggestions include a professionally narrated photo montage, a combination of photo/home movie clips in a montage, or a professionally filmed video interview.
- Free initial consultation
- Fully interactive DVD or Blu-ray disc
- Story for each family member
- Includes one archival grade DVD for ultra longevity.
Imagine viewing a video of your great grandparent, listening to their voice and becoming familiar with their gestures and mannerisms. You would cherish the opportunity! You can provide this priceless gift to your descendants for generations to come.
Capturing the Marriage Proposal for Generations
August 4th, 2009
A marriage proposal is a once-in-a-lifetime event that a couple will want to remember for a lifetime. Even more, a couple will want to share the event with others not only in the days and months before the wedding but even years down the road.
Imagine recreating scenes from that proposal and telling the details of it to show on cinema! The proposal would be immortalized for generations even yet unborn.
Presented here is the story of a marriage proposal made by Merrick Miranda to Katie Darnell. As you watch the story notice first the tender moments presented before the discussion where Katie and Merrick spend time together enjoying nature and each other’s presence at a scenic park with mood enhancing timeless music. Here the viewer becomes acquainted with Katie and Merrick so that when viewing their story a heart-felt joy will be experienced.
By way of interest, please notice what some may take to be a paid advertisement for a seafood restaurant. While it may have the appearance of a paid advertisement, the purpose is in memory preservation for the couple. Ten or more years down the road seeing these things will bring back cherished memories. We are doing more than telling a story. We are capturing memories for generations.
Katie and Merrick’s Wedding Highlights Video
July 31st, 2009Every wedding we capture memories in motion at is unique and even moving. It never grows commonplace. Please take 4 minutes and view highlights of Katie and Merrick Miranda’s wedding from May 16th. This has moved some to tears!
Please feel free to leave your comments after viewing.
House Audio vs Cinematic Audio
July 29th, 2009There are important distinctions that exist between house audio or public address and cinematic.
House audio must be optimized for understandability in a room that has dynamic auditory characteristics. Sometimes people are coughing, children may be excited, someone may be sitting next to sound absorbing curtains while another may be sitting against a bare wall reflecting sounds, and the list goes on. To optimize understandability a public address system will therefore have a narrow band of frequencies it will put on the loudspeakers usually centered around 3,000Hz, optimum for the human voice. Cinematic audio, or audio for television, serves an audience of just a few people in a relatively small room. Under these conditions the audio is much easier to understand. This leaves room for a much wider band of frequencies enabling a more natural and rich sound.
Capturing audio from a variety of church sound systems we have noticed the practical effect of all this. The sound we typically capture from a house sound board sounds fine in a video until you compare it with audio we captured at the same event with our own microphone systems.
Please view below a sample video illustrating the differences between a typical house audio system and audio for cinema. In the video you will see a pastor delivering a wedding message to a couple during their wedding ceremony. The pastor is double miked wearing both a house microphone and one of our wireless microphones.
The video is in HD high definition so if your bandwidth is too slow click on the HD icon to switch to standard definition. Please bear in mind that this is raw video and not necessarily representative of the quality we release.
Hiding Mistakes You Made at Your Wedding
July 17th, 2009It is extremely rare that a wedding or event can transpire from beginning to end without somebody making a mistake somewhere. What is worse is when something unfortunate happens during a significant event that you had wanted to cherish for a lifetime. Your videographer can only capture what transpires and cannot turn 
the clock back to have your wedding party perform their part again without the mistake. After all, your videographer is only human. …or is he? Maybe he has abilities far beyond those of mortal man, is able to jump across tall buildings with a single bound, faster than a speeding bullet, etc.
Technology allows us to do amazing things in the edit room that just might persuade you that your videographer has abilities far beyond those of mortal man. In the example to follow we captured the lighting of a unity candle by mothers of the bride and groom. The mothers made a mistake. They were not supposed to actually light the unity candle. Their task was to light two individual candles which the bride and groom would later use during the wedding ceremony to light the unity candle. For the plain and simple video of the ceremony we will just show what happened at the wedding. However, when we develop the music highlights video, artistically composed from events of the entire day, we want to avoid triggering unfavorable memories and center on developing those which warm the heart and will continue to warm the heart ten or more years down the road.
So, what are we supposed to do? We could simply leave out the mothers lighting the candles which would be ashamed as this is symbolic of families joining. What we did was not change the story but simply remove a part of the image which would draw attention and the viewer’s eyes to a mistake. Viewers will still know what happened but at least the showing of the candle lighting in the music highlights video will not be highlighting a mistake.
Please watch the twenty-seven second video below where you will see the actual footage of the candle lighting and then you will see how a portion of that same footage was used in the music highlights video.
What to Ask: What About Photographers?
July 7th, 2009
One of the skill sets videographers acquire is an ability to capture memories in motion at weddings and events such that the photographer does not get in the way. When you interview potential videographers you might consider asking them how they deal with photographers with respect to keeping their presence in your video at a low profile.
The optimum you are looking for is a set of vendors for your wedding or event that will work together for your benefit. The people you hire need to have a sense of urgency that they must communicate between themselves insulating you from various anomalies of the day. Your vendors need to have a concept that helping other vendors to succeed is part of their job.
The answer you are looking for from videographers you interview can take a lot of shapes. However, the answer that works is the one that does not center narrowly on videography but rather on a much larger perspective. Your videographer must express as part of his or her answer that part of a videographer’s job is accommodating the photographer’s needs. You also want to hear what the videographer does to insure that the
photographer reciprocates. Listen for specific words addressing what steps are taken to that end.
When there is bi-lateral communication between the photographer and videographer you become the winner.
Family Band for Weddings & Events
July 4th, 2009Capturing memories in motion by videogrpahy at weddings, we see a variety of vendors serving a variety of functions. We take special notice when we see a vendor who goes out of his or her way to serve the client. Such was the case at a May wedding we did this year where Trilogy Band provided dancing music and entertainment at the reception.
We prepared a complementary promotional video (adapted from our client’s HD composition) for the band which you can view below. Often times portions of a client’s video can be easily adapted to serve as a promo as was the case here.
Ann Arbor Carriage for Weddings
July 2nd, 2009When we capture memories in motion at weddings we are careful to observe what memorable services vendors are providing at the wedding. One such especially memorable event was a horse drawn carriage ride at a wedding we did in May provided by Ann Arbor Carriage.