Some may call it a blog, others maybe a newsletter, Rainstorm Video & Film just calls it like it is. So every few months, here in the aptly-named "Weather Report," we'll showcase updates, special offers/discounts & info on some of the projects we're working on or just finished up... July 2010 Hopefully everyone is having a fun and productive summer, and remember to watch your kids around water. A few quick updates from the Rainstorm team...
Rainstorm takes on the role of featured vendor at the July WEN Event... We had the honor and privilege of being one of the featured vendors at the July 2010 WEN-AZ (Wedding & Event Network) event hosted by our friends at Baisch & Skinner in Phoenix. A great time was had by all and we enjoyed both showing off some of our work while meeting and hanging out with some of the Wedding industries finest working professionals. Vendors out there, check out Baisch & Skinner if you haven't already, and check out a little more on WEN in the Newsletter article below.
Here's a little video we put together for the July WEN event, focusing on the events featured vendors...
More on WEN-AZ... If you work in the Wedding/Events industry here in Phoenix and have yet to check out WEN, we strongly suggest you do so. They are a step-above other similar networking groups and truly attract the best in the business. Check them out at their website and for fellow members of WEN, we do offer discounts to you.
Here's some testimonials we shot of WEN members at the July 2010 meeting...
Another Rainstorm/Midnight Pie Train film has Award-Winning debut...
We're proud to announce that the newest Rainstorm/Midnight Pie Train short film collaboration, "Blank Canvas," was warmly received in two screenings alongside some other local short films at the Phoenix Art Museum's screening theater on July 23rd. Be sure to keep an eye out here for the DVD release announcement sometime in the near future.
Later in the evening the film went on to win an award from the IFP for "Best use of Props" for the story's and film's usage of paint brushes with a special mention for the original artwork pieces created for the film by Miranda Jane. Photograph by Laura Durant, check her out at www.durantcom.com
Transferring Weddings, Preserving Memories... Some weddings done even just a few years ago were shot on or given to the couples as masters on VHS tapes. Of course now down the VHS seems more than just a bit archaic and indeed they are of much poorer quality than todays DVD and Blu-Ray standards and wear out and break eventually. Recently we've done a few projects where we helped preserve some memories by transferring some weddings from the early 2000's to DVD as anniversary presents for the couples from family members. The DVD's, like all of our DVD releases, featured beautiful custom menus and full-color gloss-printed discs that wowed the couples. We cannot re-live our memories, but we can re-watch them. Make sure yours will still be viewable when you do! Transfer to DVD or Blu-Ray today!
Busy, busy with video-for-web work... Well it's back to the editing suite for us. June and July has been packed mostly with video for web work for various companies around town either building their websites for the first time and looking to add some video right off, or some just looking to spice up their current sites with some videos to showcase their work/product to clients. Hopefully soon we'll have a chance to post further updates and a couple examples of these current projects for you.
April 2010 If you or someone you know is getting Married over the next few months, be sure to check out the Wedding packages "Beat your Budget Heat" Summer deal, as detailed below!
Award-Winning Rainstorm collaboration, "Space Broads II: Greystache's Revenge," selected to screen at the 2010 Phoenix Comic Con Convention's Film Festival... Earlier this month, we got an exciting e-mail from Lucas Boyle (producer of "Space Broads II"), where we found out that the Phoenix Comic Con and IFP has teamed up, and are looking to highlight some local AZ indie short films. One of the films requested for this years Comic Con is the Award-Winning Rainstorm/Midnight Pie Train collaboration, "Space Broads II: Greystache's Revenge," which will be screened at the 2010 convention's Film Festival on Friday, May 27th.
The version to be screened will be a new Five-minue cut, unique for the Convention's Film Festival. Longer than the original theatrical version, which premiered at the Scottsdale Harkins Cine Capri in July of 2009, and shorter, with some different cuts and editing pacing/timing, than the extended DVD version, this found the middle ground of those two versions for this special cut of the Sci-Fi comedy short. The new version was edited out of a 10-Bit, 1:1 Uncompressed copy of the Digital Cut Master of the extended edition, once again showing off Rainstorm's and Avid's fantastic archiving abilities to go back to a project completed month's earlier so easily. It's some exciting news and we're sure a number of the cast and crew of "Space Broads II" will be on hand at the Film Festival. Hope to see you there!
"Beat your Budget Heat" Summer-time Special on Wedding Packages! Swimming is one way to beat the Summer heat here in the Valley, and if you've planned a Wedding for this Summer, Rainstorm is here to help you beat the heat that your Wedding budget is burning in your wallet! ALL Wedding Packages (Basic Silver; Silver; Gold & any Customized Package that includes BOTH shooting & editing) are 10 - 20% off from June 1st thru September 20th. That's nearly FOUR months to cash in on the savings! As always, we look forward to helping the most special day of your lives be even more memorable!
"Story of the Storyteller" documentary premieres and arrives on DVD... Back in late-2008 Rainstorm put together a Fifteen-minute memorial piece about the amazing life of a Retired Army Major, which was shown at his Funeral Viewing. In addition, Rainstorm was in charge of filming the services, which included the full on Military theme that included the Gun Salute, bugle call, presenting of the American flag and a dozen motorcycles armed with their own American flags leading the Hearse and dozens of family vehicles.
Now, eighteen months later, Rainstorm has put together a Forty-Five minute extended documentary, chronicling the man's truly astounding life from beginning to end. Named aptly after his infamous stories and storytelling abilities, we were proud and honored to be able to document such a great life in video form. The film, now on DVD for his Family and loved ones, premiered in front of about twenty of the closest family members on a projector and 60" screen. Between the footage from the Funeral, as well as tons of newly discovered pictures, slides, video, 8mm film and audio, Rainstorm was able to surprise more than just a few family members with what the final, extended video entailed. As always, it's both an honor and privilege for Rainstorm to be trusted with these special, personal projects.
Another Memorial Montage with Funeral Audio/Video Services taken care of tastefully and carefully by Rainstorm... All too often it seems, Rainstorm has the bittersweet task of offering our services to a family saying goodbye to a loved one, by putting together pieces that help celebrate their lives. In this case, Rainstorm had the task of creating memorial montage from around 45 pictures (that we also had to scan in at HQ) within a 48-Hour period, and then also take care of the video and audio presentation for the Memorial Montage at the Funeral service. While the tastefully done, completely customized Montage, which clocked in at around Six-and-a-half Minutes, offered no real problems besides the time crunch, the Funeral made things a bit tricky. The building, surrounded by tall windows that couldn't be covered up, prevented the use of our Projector and screen. However, as usual, Rainstorm was prepared to make some last minute changes to make sure the presentation worked. In place of the projector screen, we placed an LCD-HD monitor to showcase the video on. Thankfully, despite a rather large attendance, everyone enjoyed the viewing and some came up afterwards, as we looped it as people mingled and headed out, to catch a second viewing.
We are always honored and privileged to put together a loving look at a person's life, to help families and loved ones with the healing process. At the same time, just as it is for the families themselves, it's always an emotional draining process for us as well. We take such care in putting these together, especially in such short time periods. After spending so much time looking at and putting these pictures and video footage together in such an in-depth editorial process, we oftentimes feel like, we too, just lost someone we knew well.
Rainstorm finishes up Marketing-Promo for Catering Event... Back in 2009, during a particularly busy time for us, Rainstorm was on hand to film and record a Catering event/mixer. We just recently put together the footage into a just shy of Three-Minutes marketing promo that nicely showcases the event and it's main theme: Catering companies marketing themselves through delicious competition with each other! It was a fun shoot to be involved with as in between shooting the event, as well as grabbing some interviews and testimonials, we got to taste some of the goodies ourselves. We're not telling which one we liked best though...
Shooting in Sedona... Rainstorm first filmed in Sedona for a Three-Minute Car Commercial spot back in the Spring of 2005, and has been lucky enough to have been back many times since. It's beauty always lends itself to the camera and is a joy to shoot. One of the few places left where natural, God-made beauty still towers over Man-made beauty. This April, Rainstorm's Aaron Hudson was there for reasons involving some close family and friends, but arrived early to take his time shooting some extensive B-Roll for a special, as-of-yet unannounced, project...
Another Rainstorm/Midnight Pie Train collaboration arrives on DVD... "Unmopped Mysteries," a faux documentary comedy short that Rainstorm collaborated with their long-time friends at the Midnight Pie Train on, has arrived on DVD after having it's successful theatrical debut at the Harkins Scottsdale Cine Capri in early February. The DVD, available through Rainstorm, comes with both an extended 'Director's Cut' as well as the original shortened theatrical version (which also includes a bonus audience reaction track recorded during it's theatrical debut), an extensive behind the scenes mini-Documentary, Deleted & Alternate Scenes, trailers, Filmmaker Commentary among a few other extras. Those interested in a copy simply need to Contact us », and mention either "Unmopped Mysteries" or it's catalog number "RSV&F-551-10" in the Contact us 'Comments' section.
Other Rainstorm/Midnight Pie Train collaborations available on DVD:
"Phoenix Vice" RSV&F-254-08
"A Kidnapping to Remember" RSV&F-464-09
"Space Broads II: Greystache's Revenge" RSV&F-456-09
"Phoenix Takedown: Ninja Terrorists from the Border" RSV&F-527-09
**"DumbFellas," "Phantom Reflection" and "Desolate Quest" are not available at this time**
February 2010
Just a quick update this go-around. Firstly Rainstorm would like to wish everyone a belated Happy New Year. We truly hope 2010 is a fantastic year for everyone.
Another Rainstorm/Midnight Pie Train collaboration has it's Theatrical debut...
Once again, Rainstorm collaborated with our old friends at the Midnight Pie Train, putting together a faux-documentary short film comedy, "Unmopped Mysteries." Filming and Editing took place in January in between some Rainstorm duplication and transfer projects, and just recently had it's theatrical premiere, at the Harkins Scottsdale Cine Capri among a number of other shorts. It was more than warmly received, garnering some hefty laughs during it's screening. As usual, Rainstorm/Midnight Pie Train collaborations are both a mixture of a lot of hard work in a short amount of time with an extremely fun atmosphere with good friends. Once again, that hard work paid off. Also as usual, the IFP of Phoenix did an excellent job hosting the event. As always, looking forward to the next one...
Rainstorm puts together 10-Min Promo for Comedy Fundraiser... Over the past few years, Rainstorm has collaborated with Mission ONE of Scottsdale, helping them promote their partners in the mission field all around the world in a variety of ways in the video world. Earlier in 2009, Rainstorm shot a Comedy Event fundraiser, which was headlined by the hilarious Tim Hawkins. Just recently though, Rainstorm has had the chance to put together a nice little 10-minute promo piece to not only help those who attended the event reminisce a bit, but especially to help market any future incarnations of the event. Be on the look-out for the 2010 event, as it's well worth the money for the laugher you get back on your end...
December 2009
First off, Rainstorm would like to wish a Merry Christmas & Happy Hanukah to everyone! The end of 2009 is upon us and Rainstorm has been quite busy during this wonderful season. We do finally have a chance to do another volume of the "Weather Report," so here's a little bit on a couple of recent projects involved with Rainstorm...
Cathedral & their Kids call on Rainstorm...
Our old friends at Cathedral Christian Center called upon Rainstorm to film and put together a DVD for their spectacular, all original, Children's Church Christmas play "Wise Men Still Seek Him." Working closely with the play's Writer/Director Angelique La Fon-Cox and Lighting Director Jim Walden, the two camera shoot (shot with Aaron on a Panasonic HVX & Robert on a Panasonic DVX) fully allowed Rainstorm to capture the play, basked in such beautiful lighting, quite wonderfully. To help further enrich the video's final edit, Rainstorm also shot some particular scenes extensively during a live dress rehearsal. This allowed for the final edit to feature some really great close-ups of the action sequences while not blocking any audience members view during the play's live performance. Recording audio both directly from the soundboard as well as a live open air feed into condenser microphones connected to each Panasonic allowed for the final stereo audio mix to be just as great sounding as the video is great looking.
After an extensive, yet quickly handled, edit (once again taking full advantage of Avid's multi-camera functions), Rainstorm then handled the design and authoring of the DVD, as well as the duplication and custom disc design/printing. Yvonne also enjoyed her part in the project, getting to reminisce with some old friends in between passing out the final "Wise Men Still Seek Him" DVD's for a couple Sunday's following the event. Christmas-time is so special for so many reasons, and this event and project was another example of Rainstorm being blessed to participate in some really wonderful and unique projects each Christmas season. Here's hoping 2010 starts as well as 2009 ended!
Rainstorm handles Benefit Concert Filming & DVD for Performing Arts School...
More exciting event videography handled by Rainstorm came in the form of a benefit concert for a local Performing Arts School. While the budget didn't allot for a eight-camera crew like a Springsteen or Rolling Stones concert might, the client wanted as much of that multi-camera/angle look and feel of the larger scale concert videos as he could get. Working with the budget and with some shooting and editing trickery, Rainstorm was able to do just that. With longtime Rainstorm friend and collaborator JD Smith, armed with a Panasonic HVX, shooting from a balcony getting various wide, medium and close-up shots, and Rainstorm's own Aaron Hudson, with a Panasonic DVX, on the ground constantly moving behind and through the crowd, from one side of the stage to the other, getting an array of different angles and shot set-ups, The limited crew was able to get more coverage out of the concert than a typical two-camera-man crew should. It was then in the editing room where Avid Media Composers excellent multi-camera editing features helped piece together the Two-plus hour concert into a cohesive form, truly benefitting from the unique shooting style. Yvonne & Miranda helped further the post-production and DVD graphic design elements by getting some really great stills of the concert, which was a unique hybrid of different styles and artists including rap, pop, rock, hawaiian and acoustic music. Another neat element was added to the mix in that the lead singer of one of the groups performed solo at one of Rainstorm's very first live event gigs back in 2004.
Finally, Rainstorm brought all these elements together for a beautiful, fully customized, DVD that featured custom motion menus, a behind the scenes look at the concert & some slick looking, full-color, customized DVD art. Rainstorm then handled all the duplication for the discs in-house.
Portfolio Section of website Changed over & Updated... We recently finished the time-consuming task of switching over all our portfolio videos onto Vimeo. The site offered us some things we just couldn't pass up. Loads of customization features, some storage space issues, as well as our portfolio videos not only looking fantastic in their embeds on the site here, but also now available to be seen and searched out on Vimeo.
In addiction to uploading the portfolio videos to Vimeo and updating the embedding on the site here, we had the chance to add a couple new examples to the site. Check out the different portfolio sections to view some of the work examples recently posted.
Award-Winning Rainstorm collaboration, "Phoenix Takedown," now available on DVD...
The Award-Winning short film comedy, "Phoenix Takedown: Ninja Terrorists from the Border," which Rainstorm collaborated with some long-time friends at the Midnight Pie Train with back in November, is now available on DVD through Rainstorm. The Award-Winning short brought in some great reviews and audience reactions when it premiered in front of a sold out crowd at the Harkins Scottsdale Cine Capri back in November. The DVD features both an extended "Director's Cut" as well as the original theatrical shortened version, along with some behind the scenes making of documentary shorts, alternate scenes, trailers, bloopers and filmmaker commentary among some other extras. Those interested in a copy simply need to Contact us », and mention either "Phoenix Takedown," or it's catalog number "RSV&F-527-09"
Here is Rainstorm's Aaron Hudson with long-haired Producer Lucas Boyle at the MadCap Cinema in Tempe, shortly before embarking on the filming of the short...Photo Courtesy of the IFP of Phoenix September 2009 Award-Winning Rainstorm collaboration, "Space Broads II: Greystache's Revenge," is now available for purchase on DVD at Zia Records stores across Arizona & Nevada... The Award-Winning Sci-Fi Comedy Short, "Space Broads II: Greystache's Revenge," which was a collaboration between Rainstorm and the Midnight Pie Train, is now available for purchase across Zia Records independent record stores across Arizona & Nevada! You can find it on the "Zia Film Festival Compilation Volume 1: You Saw Us Back When" compilation DVD for just a couple bucks.
The full-on "Space Broads II" DVD, which features both the extended 'Directors Cut' as well as the original shortened theatrical cut (which premiered to rave reviews at the Harkins Scottsdale Cine Capri in July) as well as a behind the scenes mini-documentary, blooper reel, filmmakers audio commentary, trailers and a few other goodies. That DVD is available through Rainstorm. Just Contact us, and mention either "Space Broads," or it's catalog number: RSV&F-456-09
May 2009
Not a lot of time to update, but here's a couple recent projects with Rainstorm. Have a fun Summer, but be sure to stay safe!
Mesquite calls in for more copies...
Mesquite Power was really pleased with the Safety/Instructional DVD we produced for them earlier this year. They called upon us to order up over twenty more copies of the twenty-minute disc. Here's hoping any future endeavors with Mesquite go just as smoothly!
Rainstorm
once again comes through in the clutch for Ellison Research
Our friend Josh Maxwell from Ellison Research once again needed some quick turn-around on some quicktime and windows media files that needed to be created out of a couple dozen DVDs. While going through hours upon hours of research discussions filmed behind those infamous two-way mirrors, followed by editing together clips from particular time codes, blurring out faces and creating subtitles may not seem like the most invigorating job to some, here, we always find it a nice change of pace. Though that pace is still a fast one, as we were under the gun on this project, due in turn to Josh and his own team being under the gun with their own timetable. Ultimately, we got the job done, getting Josh his we-lost-track-of-how-many-dozens of media clips for his presentation in time. As always, Josh is a supreme pleasure to work with.
More tastefully & carefully done projects with Whitney & Murphy...
Rainstorm has enjoyed a wonderful working relationship with the great folks at Whitney & Murphy Funeral Home since 2006. While that might not be anywhere near the number of years they've been in business (Well of a Hundred for those looking to count) we appreciate and are grateful for all the projects we get to work on together. In this case Rainstorm was tasked with filming and recording the funeral service to a World War II veteran, out at the Veteran's Memorial Cemetery. As always, we did our best to stay out of sight and out of the way as much as possible while also capturing the brief, though beautiful, service, which included the always emotional folding and presenting of the American Flag. Less than 24 hours later, Rainstorm had the piece edited and burnt onto a number of copies on DVD, complete with beautiful customized disc art, to present to the client in time for it to be shown at a larger funeral held inside that evening.
This came just a couple weeks after our last project with Whitney & Murphy, which was also the filming and documenting of a funeral for another Army veteran. This was a longer service, equally as moving with some wonderful stories, scriptures and the presenting of the American Flag as bagpipes played out the notes to 'Amazing Grace.'While we look forward to a continued positive relationship with Whitney & Murphy, it is bittersweet knowing it involves families and loved ones gracefully saying goodbye to those that have passed on.
New Video/Animated Rainstorm Logo...
While website visitors have certainly noticed the new Rainstorm logo and website design/layout that's been up for a while now, it's only if you've viewed a recent Rainstorm DVD release that you would have noticed the ALL NEW Rainstorm logo animation. The animation was created by Aaron Hudson, based on the new Rainstorm logo that was created by Sarah Loukota. The animation has received a great response, though there's always those partial/used to the old one. You can now check it out for yourself as our demo reel has been updated to include it in the beginning.
Busy Summer ahead...
It looks to be (and will hopefully continue to be) a busy summer for Rainstorm, as a number of projects are lined up for June so far. So far three different live events we'll be handling the videography and editing of, as well as a couple smaller duplication and tape-to-DVD/digital transfers we'll working on.
December 2008 It's been an extremely busy end to the year, but it's time to, finally, put our our first inclusion of "The Weather Report" newsletter...
La
Purisima lets Rainstorm handle retrospective DVD & weekend long
festivities…
Those EXTREMELY
tasty delicacies from the La Purisima bakery in Glendale are turning Twenty-Five, and
Rainstorm is proud to be a part of the fun. For the first part of this large project, Rainstorm is
tasked with creating a 30-minute retrospective on the bakery and it’s owners
history. Piecing together the retrospective from hundreds of pictures, home
videos, old commercials and local news spots, Rainstorm is proud of how well
the story came through the video. After recording voice over for the piece in an audio booth
with one of the Owners himself, Rainstorm edited in the V.O. and music to
perfectly go with the retrospective. After that, the last task was creating English
subtitles to go along with the V.O.
La Purisima
wasn’t just celebrating Twenty-Five years by looking into the past, but present as
well, with a weekend long list of festivities that Rainstorm was also all set
to handle. First up was the Anniversary Celebration at the Bakery and it's back-lot, full of all sorts of fun with hundreds of satisfied, long-term customers on-hand to celebrate. Rainstorm was there documenting the festivities, with Aaron filming on a Panasonic DVX and Miranda taking some
great stills. In between shooting the event and the behind the scenes action with the workers and owners of La Purisima, we were filming as many
testimonials and best wishes, with Yvonne in charge of the interviews, as
possible. Rainstorm then moved one to filming a beautiful Mass of thanks (along with a baptism) at a local Catholic
Cathedral, and then finally the anniversary banquet full of dozens of close
family, co-workers and friends. It was at this banquet Rainstorm headed up the audio and visual equipment to premiere the retrospective documentary.
Now that
the partying is over, Rainstorm’s Aaron Hudson is now in the editing room,
putting together the hours and hours of footage shot over the weekend into a
Celebration DVD that will nicely compliment the Retrospective DVD. It’s been a
long couple of weeks with lots of writing, shooting and editing, but we’re proud of the
work that’s been done for this special client, and we're also proud for La Purisima for such a
great achievement for their business. We hope their next Twenty-Five years is as
happy and successful as the last!
Rainstorm
prepares for shoot out at Mesquite Power…
2009 Looks to
start off well, with our first project already lined up, shooting a safety and
instructional video out at Mesquite Power. This project has been lined up for
quite some time, and now all the pieces and timing have come together for the
project to get underway. We look forward to serving Mesquite the same type of
professional and quality video production work as we do all our clients.
Another
personal memorial montage and Funeral video done right by Rainstorm…
In one of the
larger memorial montage tasks handed to Rainstorm for 2008, we were given
around four days to produce a Fifteen-minute memorial video for the funeral of an Army Major. With just
those four days to produce the video, we were given unlimited access to family
archives of pictures, slides, 8mm film and home video tapes by the family, which made our
task both easier and all the more extensive. In the end, Rainstorm got the job
done, turning in a fifteen minute retrospective montage/short film to the
family that got it’s share of both tears and laughter when it was shown at the
Funeral viewing.
Beyond that, Rainstorm’s Aaron Hudson was on-hand at the
Funeral with his Panasonic DVX, documenting both the Funeral and viewing, which
included some amazingly heartfelt stories and warm memories. Then it was out at the Veteran's Memorial Cemetery, capturing the dozen motorcycles, with American flags waving proudly, guiding in the Hearse and family vehicles, the short sermon and prayer, Military Gun salute and one of the most emotional scenes Rainstorm
has ever captured on film: A family grandson, as well as soldier like his Grandfather,
getting the opportunity to present the folded American flag to his own Grandmother.
As always, Rainstorm is both honored and privileged to have such personal
projects trusted to them.
The following
picture is courtesy of the Patriot Riders…
"Cold of December" heats up the competition, wins Three Awards...
The music video for "Cold of December," by the Ken Oak Band, which was shot and edited over a two week period in August and September 2008, recently premiered, through Vuze. It has received some spectacular reviews, most notably for both it's story and visual effects. At the 2008 A3F Music Video Challenge Festival, it took home three Awards: Best Story, Artist's Choice & Top-5 Film. We're really proud of the work we put into this video, and how well it all came out.
