What a past month I've had! I have been working a ton and trying pretty hard to focus on getting more video jobs going.
Just a few weeks ago I filmed a Orthodox Jewish wedding and finally was able to finish the editing. Now it's just a matter of getting the DVD menu finished and sent off to the client. The wedding itself was unreal and nothing like your traditional Christian wedding. It was a non-stop party and I was running around from shot to shot. Needless to say I've never been so tired and worn out at a wedding. The bride and groom are a super nice couple and I hope they like what I did and maybe recommend me to a few of their friends. (Shameless self plug)
All this time sitting at my computer editing is starting to actually pay off though. I'm becoming more efficient with my editing and learning new things. I really would like to talk to a few pros to try and figure out some new things or maybe even find a class to help broaden my repertoire.
You can check out the wedding video just below or if your feeling adventurous, just go to my new website HERE. (Huge thanks to the lovely Kendra Handke for whipping up a lovely website for me.)
I've been working on building a portfolio and exploring new programs for editing and this is kind of what I've come up with. More to come soon. Keep an eye on my Vimeo page. www.vimeo.com/jessetobler
I understand that this is coming to everyone rather belated but in my defense I have been waiting on my updated version of Final Cut Pro. So without further ado I present to you the latest installment of Logically Sound.
I hope you enjoyed that much as I have. That fine gentleman definitely brightened up my night. Especially when he broke out in the blues.
Lately, the weather has been tolerable and I’ve been making an effort to get outside and check out some local rock climbing spots. Nothing extraordinary around here so far but the area is teeming with bouldering problems only a bike ride or short car ride away. And with views like the one below... I’m not going to complain.
[Pictured above, panoramic view from on top of Indian Rock, North Berkeley]
First and foremost, I hope everyone that considers them self to be an American can truly understand and recognize that today was a historic day. One day after Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Barack Obama, was inaugurated to be the 44th president of the United States of America. Very exciting stuff indeed. I am excited to see what happens in the next few years and I feel blessed to be alive and witness history in the making. If you didn’t get a chance to see the inauguration speech, I found it on YouTube in two parts.
The speech isn’t long and I think that everyone should watch it and hear what our new president has to say.
Part One:
Part Two:
This last weekend was amazing. Like I said in the previous post, we went up north to the Portland area for Kendra’s big sister’s wedding. We had a 9:00AM flight and I figured that with traffic, check in, and the security check, that we should be there kind of early. So we woke up at 4:30AM and finished packing, grabbed some food, and hit the road to Oakland Airport.
Funny thing about traffic here in California at 5:30AM... there is none. So, our trip to the airport was very short. After all the usual preflight crap, we ended up finding out that our flight was delayed for about an hour. With this all taken into consideration, Kendra and I sat at the terminal for almost 3 hours waiting to board our plane. All I have to say is thank God for iPhones. We battled it out on a little puzzle game called Trism for a large portion of our delay.
Right when we got to PDX, we sat at a window that overlooked the Arrival Pick Up area while we waited for Justin and Jenae to pick us up. As you may know, it is strictly prohibited to leave your vehicle unattended at the Pick Up area. I saw this lady park, rush out of her mini-van, dash into the airport, and was hurrying back out to her car in less than a minute. I can only guess she needed to use the restroom. In this very short minute, an airport meter maid made her way to the front of this lady’s mini-van and started writing a ticket. Now keep in mind that I couldn’t actually hear what was being said but the expressions on the mini-van lady’s face were absolutely priceless. I could tell that she was completely dumbfounded that the meter maid caught her in less than a minute and while the meter maid was finishing up writing her ticket, her face went from, “No no no, you don’t need to write me a ticket, I was only using the restroom.” to “Un-F#@&ING-believable. I was only gone for a minute you wretched bitch. I bet you eat your young, huh?”
Honestly I felt bad for the mini-van lady but it goes to show that the airports mean it when they say, “Do Not Leave Vehicles Unattended”.
The first day we were in Portland we played it low key and took the time to relax and catch up with Justin and Jenae. They are renting a house from a friend of theirs that is outstanding. So outstanding in fact, that when you use the microwave, instead of it just beeping at you it plays a little tune to let you know that your tasty food is done being cooked.
Then came the wedding the next day. Jenae looked amazing and everything went off without a hitch... well, most everything. A little miscommunication with the DJ but other than that, it was awesome. I feel bad though. Jenae asked me if I could be in charge of the video recording of the wedding and I of course said yes. That morning I was having a hard time waking up so I downed not one, but two RedBulls followed by a cup of coffee. Some of the shots that I thought would be pretty cool came out pretty shaky because I was so cracked out from a caffeine overload. Hope my Final Cut Pro editing skills help me out on that one.
Later that night, after everything was winding down, I had a chance to meet a couple of Kendra’s high school friends. Honestly, I’m not sure a girl could ask for better friends. From what I’ve gathered, these boys haven’t seen her in almost a year or more and it’s like they had been hanging out the whole time. We met Cole, Trevor, Nick, and Mark at one of their friends penthouse condos in the Pearl District. His name was Darren and talk about an amazing place. Straight out of MTV Cribs and he’s a really nice guy to let us in his house and mingle.
After that the party moved right down the street to Aura where, because Darren knows the promoter pretty well, the bouncers let us in for free. The music was loud, the dance floor was packed, and everyone was having fun. Darren is the dude in the front with the green t-shirt on and Kendra and I are in the back. There are tons of pics of this party, and it seemed that Ian was in the background of almost every one of them. I guess he's pretty hard to miss. To make the night even better, my friend Michelle came out and met us. Kendra’s friend Cole worked his magic and got her in for free too. (She's the one being kissed by the blonde)
I loved how one by one, each of Kendra's friends pulled me aside and said in a mildly inebriated manor, "Ya know, Kendra's a good girl. An angel! You're a lucky guy, man. If she approves, I approve." Then proceeded to mention that her ex-boyfriend was a "Douche". Which is even funnier to me cause Kendra told me that they never even met him. My point is, I'm really glad that I finally got to meet these guys and hope to see them again real soon. (By the way, that's a hint to come visit us boys.)
The day after the wedding we hung out and enjoyed another low key day before heading back to the airport. We packed up and said our goodbyes then Ian drove us back to PDX. By the way, huge props to Ian for bringing me 6 bottles of my second favorite beverage in the entire world, Guayaki Organic Yerba Mate. I downed 3 of them while up in Portland and knew I wouldn’t be able to take them on the plane so I put them in the fridge to chill and then forgot all about them before I left. Thanks anyway, Ian.
We where basically already checked in and just had to drop off our only checked bag when we found out that our flight had been canceled. Not to worry but tell me if this makes sense, they rerouted us to Seattle then back down to Oakland. Not a huge deal, just thought it was strange. Either way, when we got to Seattle, they bumped us up to first class for the flight to Oakland. Pretty sweet... minus the old guy that asked us, “Do you feel lavish?” and when I said “No.” his reply was, “Well you should.” Like I was intruding on his magical and sacred first class territory that he actually paid extra for. What a tool.
I have video footage of most of the weekend and I'm sure I'll have something together by the end of the week so keep an eye open for that. Another thing that I thought was pretty cool is that my little brother is creative as all hell and is designing a few t-shirts that should be for sale very soon. Go check them out on his RedBubble page right HERE!
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