Last Chance

In a few days time our new pricing structure comes into effect so this is your last chance to book us at this years prices!

From 01st Jan 2007 our entry level prices will start at 2,100euros. All events booked under our new price structure will include 2 camera persons working discreetly to capture all those significant moments that will shape your wedding day.

Behind the scenes we have been carrying out some extensive research on various cameras and we are seriously considering upgrading our present equipment to the new HDV format in May. And then there's yourStory - a new service that will available in April/May and it really is a fantastic presentation that will amaze your wedding guests at your reception!

So, it's exciting times ahead as we push Velvetine Productions forward and redefine the identity of Irish wedding videos with true, broadcast standard documentaries.

House Warming

I've been buried up to my eyeballs in work since the summer and during that period my brother Liam invited me to a house-warming party - not to give me a break from work but more like because he needed a drive! I'd been shooting a wedding the night before and still had my equipment in the car so when the lads pulled out a guitar, a drum, and started up a sing-song I just had to get my cameras out.






Staying on a Scissor Sister theme I can tell you that things got very weird after that... the lads found an orange leather cap and decided to have a competition to see who could perform the campest dance routine... scarily enough, all of them were a bit too good for my liking! Check it out for yourselves.

Kerry Media Network

Rory Kirby, a fellow video professional who happens to be an old school mate of mine, has been hugely instrumental in setting up Kerry Media Network - a resource for connecting individuals who are interested in filmmaking. For far too long, too many creative people have been wandering around in Kerry feeling isolated from the filmmaking community and I firmly believe that the network will be a great success.

The first workshop took place last week - an informative talk on screenwriting - and I was very impressed with the enthusiasm shown by the KSM and their hopes and goals for the future.

The website - kerrymedianetwork.com - is still under construction but if you know anyone that is interested in film and connecting with like-minded people, tell them to stop by and leave their details on the database.

Sneak Peek

Here's a couple who fully embraced the benefits of professional video and their WeddingStory looks fantastic.

It was an absolute pleasure for me to be present at this couples amazing wedding day and, I have to say, the footage looks equally amazing!

This WeddingStory will be completed in about seven days time and the couple are hosting a special DVD Night in their fab home with all their families and friends and I've been invited along. So, I thought let's crank up the anticipation levels and give everyone a sneak peek with a WeddingStory trailer!

I'm really looking forward to meeting up with everyone again and that's one of the best things about my job; I get to meet so many new friends. Anyhow, enough already... click on the screen below and check out Deirdre and Francis' WeddingStory.





Would you like a copy of this WeddingStory? Simply contact us at info@velvetineproductions.com or call 066 711 9980 and get your free, no obligation copy. Enjoy!

More Picture

Velvetine Productions are already offering our clients fantastic wedding films that have woken up the entire industry and yet we are still raising standards so that your video is the best it can possibly be. And, as of today, all of our future weddings will be filmed in cinematic widescreen to enhance your viewing pleasure. That means more picture on your widescreen TV with no distortion or loss of quality!

Even though Velvetine Productions cite our creative flair as our competitive advantage over all our competitors, we are also setting the bar with our technological advances and nobody in the Irish wedding industry can even come close to our high production values. Fact!

Check out our work here and here and see for yourself.

Fake Tan, Anyone?

Not for the Carribean wedding party that I'm covering this Christmas, that's for sure.

When Laura Scanlon told me that she and hubby-to-be, Tim, are living in the Cayman Islands my interest was immediately piqued - yeah, I admit it, I thought she was flying me over there to cover her destination wedding - but I was just as glad when she told me that her event was taking place down in Kenmare, which is one of the most beautiful locations you could ever hope to visit!

I know that our lot have practically planted ourselves in every nook and cranny of the world but I was still somewhat surprised to learn that the Cayman's has a thriving Irish community; we were built for wind and rain, weren't we? I was even more surprised to learn that they have a GAA club. Laura assures me that they are going to update their website www.caymangaa.com.ky but it's well worth checking out, IMO... I even noted some Na Piarsaigh ladies in there... Back in the day (when I was eleven :)), I used to play for the Stacks and we'd travel up to Na Piarsaigh for weekend tournaments.

So there you have it... next time you head off for a sun-drenched week or two in the Cayman Islands bring your boots and togs with you!

yourStory

Exciting times ahead with this new service of ours!!!

I'm still putting the finishing touches to it but it's quite unlike anything that's ever been seen before on Irish shores. Without giving too much away it's called yourStory - an amazing video presentation that will be screened at wedding receptions with stunning montages of the ceremony that only happened a few hours earlier. In total, the video will be 20-30 mins in length with stunning photo-montages, concept video, and "how we met" type interviews.

yourStory will impact entire wedding venues and show the true value of professional video! I can't wait to start offering this service to my clients!

Last Minute

Got a call on Skype last night and it was one of my best mates, James Pierce, calling from Dublin. True to character, he rambles on about Canons, Olympus', and prices for lens' and then willy-nilly slips in a date announcement for his wedding to his fiance, Liezel. James masqerades as some kind of successful office manager by day but in real life he's a talented photographer - go pro, James!!! And Liezel is a bit on the arty-farty side so she and I always have loads to yacker on about; she's a brilliant graphic designer and artist.

They're off to South Africa in December for 6 weeks and then they're tying the knot here in Dublin in Feb. There'll be a gang of us heading up from Tralee and I might even bring the video camera with me... and I'll definitely be hogging James' Olympus E500 to see if I can cut it as a wedding photographer. Only joking... photography is cool but video ROCKS!

Best of luck, James & Liezel.

Velvetine Girls Rock Best!

This is a sneak peek for Helen and the craic at her wedding. I'd such a great day shooting this video and editing it is bringing back fond memories... so I decided to make this internet clip as a little bonus for all the gang in Dublin.

Check out www.velvetineproductions.com for more information about our range of services.

Kerry School of Music

Good artistry will bring goosebumps to your skin and The Kerry School of Music always succeed in doing just that whenever they are performing at any wedding ceremonies that I am covering.

The Kerry School of Music provides music, drama, and ballet training in my hometown of Tralee. For wedding ceremonies, and with their diverse selection of talented musicians, KSM really can cater to all tastes. I've heard them perform with just an organist and flutist, I've had the pleasure of covering them with a boys choir, soloists, duets... you name it , they can do it... and well!





This particular video may take several minutes to download.

Contact Kerry School of Music (Aidan O'Carroll) - (066) 712 5690 and tell them that Maurice from Velvetine Productions referred you.

Best Wishes

My Uncle Maurice in Birmingham, UK, has just come out of heart surgery and he's already on the road toward a speedy recovery. Maurice is my late father's brother and I'm sure my Dad and his parents were with him in some form or another during this tough period.

All my family here in Ireland have had Maurice, his wife Kathy, and their two daughters, Kerry and Angela, in our thoughts this week and we're looking forward to seeing them all in the very near future.

Muay Thai

Here's a prime example of a nutcase. This lad hanging off the side of a Spanish mountain is my trusty 2nd camera op, Shane. He's never happy unless his life is in danger - which is probably why he loves filming the Siege of Ennis!! - and I suppose the lack of oxygen during his rock climbing adventures convinced

him to go to Thailand for a couple of fights...

Muay Thai is like a form of kick-boxing and it's hugely popular in Thailand. Shane left Ireland on Tues and he should be arriving in Chang Mai at some stage today where he will join a training camp and immerse himself in all kinds of physical torture for the next 6 weeks. After that he's hoping to get into a ring and have a right jolly up with one of the locals who will hopefully knock plenty sense into him. Just wish I had my camera there to capture it all for prosperity!

All jokes aside, I wish him the very best and can't wait to hear all about it when he gets back.

Latest News From Chang Mai
VoicePod

New Website!

We go LIVE with our new website today!!! Things have been so hectic over the summer with all the weddings that I just kept putting it off. But, with no end to the work that was rolling in, I decided that I'd have to set a few hours aside in the

evenings to get our site online.

That was two weeks ago and after some long, long nights I've finally got the website up and running so that we are accessible Nationwide. It was scary how many emails I was getting from brides - and I've since learned that people were talking about us on some of the bridal forums - and they were asking for our web address so that they could look at samples.

Now brides outside of Kerry can finally see what all the fuss is about and enjoy WeddingStory examples in the video gallery of our website.

A Wedding Videographer Is Born

Brent Cross Shopping Center, London. Wave upon wave of Christmas shoppers washed past me and the bulky box sitting between my unsteady feet. The adrenaline rush was gone, reality had kicked me up the arse, and now I was scanning the receipt for the terms and conditions of the Returned Goods policy... after all, I only popped into the shops for some socks and jocks and a couple of Xmas cards.

I was saving for a house; the saving hadn't been going as well as expected. And yet, here I was, rooted to the spot outside the Sony shop with a 4,800 euro camera at my feet. "You're very lucky!" the Sales Assistant had told me. "The Sony VX2000 is a great video camera. It's on sale and it's the last one in stock."

"Wedding videos," I said aloud on the bus journey home. Several people looked to see who the nutcase was and I buried my head behind the Sony VX2000's bulky box. I knew I could make a few pounds back off the camera if I made a few wedding videos but then I thought... 'Saturdays, church, boring priests, speeches, drunk Uncles' trying to dance to the Bee Gees... Nah!" Besides, I didn't just finish my Masterclasses at the renowned Raindance Film School to make wedding videos? Did I study story theory just to record a bride and her father walking up an aisle?

Every single moment of that Christmas was captured for prosperity on my new camera and I left no single button or menu feature unexplored over the next couple of months. I discovered that the on-camera mic needed to be upgraded to acquire better sound capture, a wide-angle lens would always come in handy, and no cameraman should be without a decent tripod!

The garden of my future house just got a lot smaller by the time I was finished adding a brand new iMac and Final Cut Pro - a state of the art editing suite - to my shopping list. All items were expensive acquisitions and put serious dents into my savings plan but my research had identified them as the best so I was prepared to sacrifice that garden for the greater good. And sure enough, video work started to trickle in my direction. I got work on a couple of student short films and gained my first film credits. People were interested in my ideas and proposed film projects. I was meeting TV writers, actors, producers, and award winning directors. I was gradually sneaking into "the loop".

And yet, wedding videos were never far from my mind. I knew instinctively that I could make a great one, something unique, something special but it seemed like a step backward. After all, I didn't even enjoy attending weddings as a guest.

And then, out of seemingly nowhere, a mate was telling me about his brother's up and coming wedding and I blurted out "I'll do his wedding video for free if he wants one." I immediately regretted it. The Wallace family accepted my kind offer and I tried to think of every excuse under the sun to get out of the mess.

As it turns out, my offer to The Wallaces' turned out to be the catalyst for far reaching changes in my life. I filmed their wedding day and I was hooked. The English garden disappeared forever, the house remained a dream. I quit my job, formed Velvetine Productions, created WeddingStory, and returned to my home in Ireland.

Buying that camera was the best decision I ever made!