Sarah Hill's Video Blog

Theatre People

2012-01-25T09:45:00.000-08:00

This couple met doing Theatre in college. Having done Theatre in High School myself, it was easy for me to see that, and to identify them and their friends as "Theatre People." Taryn said that this was not going to be our average couple, but I still wanted to make their film Fab. I LOVE the music, and I love their ceremony and all of the cool stuff that they did. Sometimes weddings are all about the spectacle or the tradition or whatever, but I really felt like their day was really a day focused on their relationship and their love. I love that they had their pre-ceremony and the Rabbi had all of their friends and family go around and bless them with something, I love her one single tear during the ceremony at 10:46, I love that their bridal party all were able to participate in the ceremony, and I LOVE that immediately after they were married they weren't immediately surrounded by people and being congratulated, but that they were able to go off by themselves and spend the beginning of their marriage alone. I wish I had gone to this wedding because they seem like so much fun!! Ok, well, enjoy!

Merry Christmas You Filthy Animal... And a Happy New Year!

2012-01-21T00:08:00.000-08:00

So, I had every intention of sending out Christmas cards for the first year of my life... But, what with working like crazy, going on a cruise, getting engaged and hanging out with my fiance for two weeks, I let it slip through the cracks - no need to stress myself out more than I need to over something that didn't matter and that nobody really expected anyway!!

But, I was thinking about it more today; I think that it would mostly just be something fun for me to review my year.

So, 2011 started out with me leaving home for the first real time (because going out to college when I was 18, and going on my Mission when I was 21 don't count because in both cases I didn't have to support myself). I went to Phoenix to work as an unpaid intern for Serendipity Videography. My friend Emily's mother got me a job during the morning as a receptionist at the Senior Living Center she was the Director of! I lived with my old mission companion Melissa in a house 2-doors down from her parents, where we enjoyed Family dinner every night, and Sunday afternoons lounging, eating, and watching Sunday appropriate (but not necessarily religious) movies.

I returned to Rexburg for my last semester at BYU-Idaho. There I met back up with and started dating Jeff, who I had known for about a year already. After the first date I came home and Matt Hire's song "You are the One" started playing over and over in my head. I knew then that this was going to turn into something big.

Unfortunately, I had a LOT going on between working at the radio station, having 9 classes, trying to work on a 50-hour Senior Project, having a substantial calling in my Ward, and doing the sound for the play on campus, AND having a boyfriend that after only 3 weeks I broke up with him for lack of time. I got home that night after doing the deed and regretted it. For one entire week the feelings I felt were comparable only to how one feels when they learn that someone close to them has died. We decided we were both happier together than apart, decided to forget the whole 'breaking-up ' thing, and agreed to do the whole "long distance" thing after Graduation.

I looked forward to graduation with excitement and disdain, both excited to be FINALLY finished after 12 semesters, and sad to have to be apart from Jeff. But I figured that long-distance wouldn't be too bad.

Well, I was wrong.

I worked 3 weeks as an EFY counselor in late July and early August were incredibly fun, not only because of the youth that I was in charge of, but also because of my co-counselors and friends that I made. It was a rejuvenation of spirit, but definitely not one of body. I came home and lounged around, spending my days sleeping and talking to Jeff on the phone - one Saturday we talked for 6 hours (not continuously).

I had a short visit to Boise to meet Jeff's parents before driving with all of my possessions down go Arizona again. I stayed at my boss' home for two or three weeks before finally finding a place of my own!

Fall brought a prison sentence for Jeff (his new job teaching in the federal minimum security prison), a few trips for each of us, and LOTS of shooting weddings and gaining experience for me.

December brought a week with my family on a cruise ship in Mexico, and a trip to Boise. One engagement later, Jeff and I are planning a wedding for 2012.

So here we are; I'm starting out 2012 with a degree, an engagement ring, and a wedding to plan. I'm the Relief Society President with a full-time job, and no social life because my fiance lives thousands of miles away! I've got some big plans for 2012; a graduation (Jeff's), a wedding, and a marriage, each of which will include some major lifestyle changes. (Who has lived alone with one boy before? Not this girl!!)

So, 2012 - Here's looking at you, kid!

Blast from the Past (but just barely)

2012-01-08T20:46:00.000-08:00

So, way back when I was an intern with grand visions of owning my own company, I asked my friends (via Facebook) who was getting married and wanted me to film their wedding. Well, Brittney won and, so in the middle of my last the semester I skipped all of my Friday classes and trekked down to Utah!! Brittney and I met at church when we were... well, her family moved into town the summer before 8th grade, so... 1999?... Yep, that's it. Anyway, it was neat being able to meet her husband and see her family again. I loved their wedding, and I loved being there, and I just love Brittney!

It's obviously not quite up to Serendipity's standards, considering I used cameras I had rented from school, I did most of the filming myself (mom came with me and helped a little), and ran into a LOT of problems I was not prepared for... but if you take all of those things into consideration, I'd say I did a dang good job with it. I try and never make something I don't really like or love, so I'm pretty proud of this one! It was also my first LDS wedding, which was really a lot different of an experience... and it was really fun not having a specific time limit it had to be. If this film was any longer I would really struggled to make it any good.

Oh my goodness, I just watched it for the first time in a few months... I love this film!! Some of the shots are shaky, but overall, I love it. Anyway, enjoy their film!

Brittney + Mark from Sarah Hill on Vimeo.

Fun and Fancy Free

2011-12-16T09:06:00.000-08:00

So, last week you experienced whe awesomeness that was Z&B. This week you get C&J!! What I like about this highlight is that it is SO different than my last one. I never want to be a template editor, which is an easy and dangerous trap to fall into. However, when you have different couples every wedding, with differend guys constantly shooting what you edit, and different coordinators asking the questions during the interviews, it's not easy to make the same project every time if you put a little effort into things.

This couple was super laid back, easy-going, and chill, so I really tried hard to make the video that way too. The crazy winds during their ceremony didn't seem to bother anyone, even when the Bride's veil flew right off her head. I love the song at the beginning, and I love the footage of the Bride dancing with her sister during the photo shoot! Jeff ended up not being able to do his highlight film, so he finished the end of this one (starting after the ceremony) while I tried to salvage what I could of his project... anyway more on that later. For now, please enjoy!!

Memory Loss

2011-12-12T18:48:00.000-08:00

So, some of you may have noticed that most of the videos on my blog are no longer available on my blog. Although nobody has actually asked me why yet, I thought I would avoid getting mobbed my all of my many fans (mom and grandma), and just answer the question in this public (albeit viral) venue.

The reason is simple; those videos don't exist anymore. Ok, well they don, but they're locked in a folder in a computer somewhere in Gilbert, Arizona. Due to the wedding industry's recent lawsuit scare, last week my boss Taryn and I went through all of our old videos on Vimeo (about 30 pages worth) and deleted all but our "most recent" ones that don't have such mainstream music. This has been a HUGE deal in the industry news lately, with most wedding videographers doing the same thing all over the country, and probably the world. From now on (or at least, in the near-ish future) most of the videos posted on the Serendipity blog will use only music that we own a license to use.

However, because this - my personal website - is not a place I post only my best work, but all of the crap that I make, I will continue to post all of my videos, so be warned that some of them might still have music you recognize.

However, because little ole' me can still get sued by "Big Brother" aka "The Man," I am thinking about possibly making this a private blog, which I always thought was really lame unless you are a mother and post pictures of your adorable children and don't want some rapist hunting them down (I saw that on CSI once). Or, another option is to just lock all of the videos I post, but provide the password for you, my faithful readers.

Anyway, does anyone have their two cents to throw in? I'd love to hear what you, my loyal and adoring fans prefer - so mom and Grandma, don't forget to comment!!

Hump Day Treat

2011-12-07T10:09:00.000-08:00

Hey all y'all out there! I have a little Wednesday treat for you to help get you through the week. I started working on this project on Thursday of last week, and finished it yesterday. Taryn watched it, and I had NO CHANGES to make to it.

I love this highlight film. I love the music, I love the couple, I love the shots. After not doing any highlights for so long I was afraid I would be a little rusty, but I felt like I was really able to get back into the swing of things quickly.

This Highlight was also challenging for me because about 80% of the ceremony was in Spanish (a language that I can not speak), and more than half of the toasts were as well. I had to find a way to show the ceremony without very many words. I LOVE the way it turned out. Usually you just kind of skip over the ceremony, but I hope that everyone watches this one all the way through. I also love the photo session footage from after the ceremony... bah!!!

Ok, well I guess I should stop being so prideful. I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I enjoyed making it!!! Happy Wednesday everyone!

Cine-Mind-Melting-Magic

2011-11-23T16:35:00.000-08:00

Let me explain to you my rutt: I seem to be one of Serendipity's only competent editors. Jeff, Sean and Kristin all do amazing work, and I have learned a lot just by watching their flms. They are truly masters of their craft. However, sometimes our brides... well, once in a while they don't appreciate the time and effort that we put into our films, or they had a different vision of what the end result would be. Often times these problems or concerns happen not with the edited Highlight film that we create, but with their Chapter Menus (their Ceremony, Toasts, Guest Well wishes, etc they can get, edited in full from beginning to end).

In all of these cases, I am the only one Taryn trusts enough to fix the problems. I pay attention to details, and treat the audio like it's my baby. It's often hard for the original editor to fix or revise a project, and sometimes they just are not able to do a good enough job to make the client happy. So, the last few months I have had to do a LOT of revisions.

I HATE revising other people's work.

It's so much harder for me to have to go into a project that was laid out differently than I work, and to look through every piece of footage that another editor has already looked through, so that I can find an accordion player, or the Groom's grandmother getting down on the dance floor. It's frustrating and artistically stifling, as well as creatively unfulfilling.

So when I finally had time last week to do a wedding movie trailer for a wedding I coordinated a few weeks ago, I didn't want to do the same old thing we always do. I wanted to do something crazy! Something unexpected! Something new and exciting!

So I did it backwards.

Too often these short films begin at the beginning, and end at the end. But I wanted to start with the sparkler exit! Putting this together kind of melted my mind a little bit. Not only because I hadn't put together anything since this crappy Highlight film, but also because I had 2 13-hour days that week.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out; I especially love that it ends with the couple's first look. I bet you've never seen that before!

'Tis The Season

2011-11-23T15:58:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure why, but Fall; 'Tis the Season for Promo videos! We've still got a few more to work on, but here is my latest - The Country Club at DC Ranch. Filming this with Jeff was the first time I was ever on a golf course, and the second time I ever rode in a golf cart. The property is SO beautiful, and let me tell you that the members and staff are really as nice as the video says they are. Filming weddings all over I've been to about 3 other Country Clubs around town, and DC Ranch honestly has the nicest people at it.

This is technically the first draft of the video (I sent it to them on Thursday or Friday before I went on vacation (last week), and she sent a few small revisions over early this week), so I may or may not post the new version of the promo in a week or two. Also, I should probably take it out, but if you look closely at the clip at 1:13, I make a small cameo. haha!

Anyway, if you want to move to Scottsdale AZ and join this Country Club after you watch this, you can only half-way blame me.

Sanctuary!

2011-11-23T15:43:00.000-08:00

When I was younger, one of my best friends - Katie P - was very catholic. When "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" came out, I remember consulting with her about certain things - most notable was at the end when Quasimodo lifts Esmeralda (as a side note, I had to look up the spelling of both of those names on imdb.com) up and shouts "Sanctuary!" "What does that mean?" I remember asking her. With her 7-year old explanation, and my 7-year old understanding, I never really understood, but always associated that word with Catholicism. It might have been right around the same time in my life that I learned that Jewish Temples are called Synagogues, and so for a time in my life those words floated around in my mind interchangeably, and always represented to me a religious place of sorts.

Yeah, dumb.

So when I moved to Phoenix in January and started to work for Serendipity, I was confused when there was talk going back and forth about an exclusive, swanky place on the top (-ish) of Camelback Mountain called the Sanctuary where some of our most ritzy brides got married. I mean, I knew we did Jewish weddings, but surely there wasn't one place that all of the rich Jews wed.

Well, after I got the hang of things and Taryn started sending me off to weddings as a coordinator, I learned that the Sanctuary wasn't a religious place of worship, but was, in fact, a totally exclusive resort and spa. Celebrities stay there when they visit Scottsdale.

So a few months ago I got to go to the Sanctuary with another one of our shooters to do this promo - they were looking for something new for their website. Lauren, the super nice venue coordinator who books the resort for events, noticed that brides all wanted to decorate for their reception the same way, and that was how it was decorated on their website's promo video. One of the greatest selling points of getting married there is that it's built into the side of a mountain, and in the ballroom most of the walls are made out of glass, so the views from all angles are beautiful!! But all of the brides wanted heavy drapes to cover the view! So Lauren worked with Regina from Meant2Be Events to put together this pseudo-reception room to put on their website.

I got to edit both promos (Meant2Be Events, and the one for the Sanctuary), and, not surprisingly, they are very similar. Neither wanted to be interviewed to tell why they are so rockin', so the only distinction between the videos is that they have different songs, and the Sanctuary video has more Sanctuary shots.

So here is Meant2Be Event's video:

But I like this one better:

Update!!

2011-11-23T14:41:00.000-08:00

Alright, so, as a quick update, the Kimberly Jarman video I uploaded 2 posts ago is disabled. Yes, I know. The reason is this: There was a spot in the video that I purposely omitted any video, creating a black spot. I loved this part, and thought it gave a lot of character to the video, adding emphasis and creating drama. Like punctuation! Jeff thought it was a mistake, so he filled it and sent the link to Kim for her website. When Taryn told me that Jeff had "fixed" the video, I watched it with caution and I was SO disappointed. Therefore, I can't being myself to post the "revised" edition on my website. Because I hate it.

So, I'm a bit behind on my posts, but I'm just sitting in a cold house in Bosie waiting for "my" Jeff (as opposed to "Taryn's" Jeff) to get home from work, so I thought I would just post some of my recent projects.

So, this couple got married in the Spring. Their wedding was really boring, and they only had something like 6 or 7 hours of coverage, neither the bride or the groom wanted to be interviewed, and most of their reception coverage consisted of them greeting their guests during dinner, but they were contracted to have a 30 minute Highlight film!! I got the job, and it was a challenge to say the least. I'm actually REALLY pleased with how it turned out. The first 10 minutes are pretty good if I say so myself. The 10 minutes of ceremony shoved there in the middle are not ideal, and if you watch the entire thing you might fall asleep (as I did every time I had to watch it through). The last 10 minutes leave something to be desired, but are fairly watchable. I know that will probably really inspire you to want to watch it... eh, as long as you only watch the first 10 minutes I'll be happy. That's the good part.

Eve + Brian from Serendipity Videography on Vimeo.

Time to Slow Things Down

2011-10-25T21:47:00.000-07:00

So, I don't know about you, but my absolute LEAST favorite part of any dance party is when the DJ announces "We're going to slow things down a bit here." That just means it's time for me to get a drink of water, or to sit down and awkwardly talk to my friend, avoiding any and all eye contact with anyone of the male species (and I wondered why I never got asked to dance). Like seriously, what's wrong with having an entire dance with ONLY fast songs?

Anyway, the point of my story is this: Not everyone can handle slow songs. But when it comes to brides, not everyone can handle the fast ones either. I originally put this trailer to a much faster, upbeat song. But this couple's wedding just couldn't take it! I feel like with the fast song, this trailer was ok. But once I slowed things down, the outcome is much better, and much more fitting to the couple.

they just got married last weekend. I hope you agree with the music choice... although it's hard for you to say one way or another because you won't have anything to compare it to!

Vanessa + Brian from Serendipity Videography on Vimeo.

Promo!!

2011-10-12T21:13:00.000-07:00

So, Jeff and I shot Kimberly Jarman's photo session a few weeks ago. We had a lot of things pile up between then and now, but I was FINALLY able to edit it today!!!

I LOVE it!!! I think that the music was perfect, and it really lent well to the flow and beats of the video. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it!

Kimberly Jarman Promo from Serendipity Videography on Vimeo.

Double Wide Anybody?

2011-10-11T10:26:00.000-07:00

So, These two Wedding Movie Trailers were put together by one of our other editors. Taryn hated them, and had me fix them. On both of them Taryn watched it through once and said they were perfect and needed no changes. I love to hear that!! Although I can't put TOO much weight into that, because - like I said - she kind of hated the 'before' project. So while the skeleton was assembled by someone else, the finished products are both really mine.

Also, anybody who gets my title gets 10 extra points.

Trailer

2011-10-03T20:17:00.000-07:00

Well everyone, I went to my first wedding (since April) 2 weekends ago! Not only did I go to the wedding, but I SHOT IT!!! Then, Taryn let me edit their trailer! I think it's a lot more fun to edit weddings that I attended - it's easier to choose music and edit something that will accurately portray the couple's wedding day. Anyway, If you want to feel like you were at this wedding, take a look!

BRIDE UPDATE** For some reason (oh, probably because he's the owner of the company) everyone thinks that Jeff is the only editor at Serendipity. Anyway, here is the email that the Bride sent to Taryn:
"Taryn this is too perfect!! We love it so much and can't thank Jeff and the rest of the team enough. You guys are the best!!"

Jessica + Zach from Serendipity Videography on Vimeo.

Love Me A Destination Wedding!

2011-09-21T12:27:00.000-07:00

Jon and Alicia are from Nebraska and made the wise decision to get married in Scottsdale in April. This is my first full highlight I did all by myself and I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. It's also the Half and Half video (with the Sony EXs and the DSLR), but, again, that doesn't bother me. PLEASE let me know what you think about this highlight as compared with others you've seen that aren't mine. I love feedback!

And the Best Looking Award Goes to...

2011-09-21T11:06:00.000-07:00

Adam and Katie's was the last wedding I went to as a coordinator last April. They are seriously the nicest and best looking couple I have ever met. If more people were like them, the world would be a better (looking) place.

Last week Taryn and Jeff took their family on a vacation to Lake Powell. Jeff was in the middle of this video, so I was the lucky one who got to finish it! Starting with only half the responsibility was a nice ice-breaker into making a 22 minute film - my first go at a Serendipity Highlight Film.

Taryn says she hates this Highlight because it's when we had 2 of our Sony cameras on a shoot, and only one of the DSLRs for only part of the time. We've now converted 100% to the DSLRs and only have 13 more highlights to get through before we won't have any more "ugly" footage! I actually don't mind it at all - What do you think? (And yes, I actually want to know.)

**Bride's reaction: "I just watched it for about the fifth time and I just wanted to say again how much I absolutely LOVE it! It keeps getting better every time I watch it and I wanted to thank you again for providing such a perfect portrayal of our wedding day. You are amazing and this is definitely the BEST thing that we invested in!! And to think I wasn't sure it I wanted videography…thank God I did!!!!!!! I love it SOOOOOO much!!!"

Sam and Leor's Save the Date

2011-09-09T16:52:00.000-07:00

Bam bam bam!!!!! You just got a two for one deal!!! I started this video last night and finished things up this morning. The fun thing about this is that not only did I edit it all, I ALSO shot over half of the footage!!! Who loves their job? I do! I love everything about this video. Enjoy!

Emily and Dustin's Love Story

2011-09-09T11:44:00.000-07:00

Alright friends, I told you I'd have a new video this week, and here I am to deliver! This couple has been together for the last 10 years! They're finally making it official this November, and they wanted Serendipity to do what we do best - tell their story! I sifted through about 5 hours of audio (the groom gave lots of details about things not included), and LOADS of b-roll shot by Jeff and Taryn. It was completely filmed on Cannon DSLRs which I love everything about (except the audio. What a pain). I'm really happy with the way it turned out, except that if it were entirely up to me, the text would be a little different. But, whatevs! Oh, and there is one explative in it, so be warned.

Enjoy Dustin and Emily's love story!

*UPDATE* I love getting feedback; Here's what Emily said about the video: "I LOVEEEEEE IT!!!! Thank you so much, it is so cute!" SCORE!!!

Getting Locked In

2011-09-04T18:15:00.000-07:00

Has anyone else noticed that my "Video Blog" has had a huge lack of one very important element lately? That's right - I haven't posted any videos in a LONG time. But, that should be changing this week, so keep posted, or just "follow" my blog and I think it emails you updates. I don't actually know for sure what it does, or the reason for following a blog, except that it makes me feel cool.

BUT, I know that the real reason all of you are here and reading this right now is to find out how the HECK I managed to lock myself in my garage yesterday. Know that I am slightly embarrassed about this, but I feel that it'll be for the good of people everywhere to know my sad tale, and to learn from my mistakes.

So, I just moved into the cutest little house in Gilbert, AZ. It's about a mile from where I work, and I have such fun roommates! (ok, well, I know that one of them is fun anyway. The other one is in California until this next week so I haven't actually met her yet, but Trisha (the roommate I HAVE met) tells me she's really nice and fun too.)

I moved in on Friday night, and got the essentials put away, my bed set up, met Tricia and talked with her for a while, then went to bed. Tricia went to work early on Saturday, but I had nowhere to be, so I got up around 9, went for a swim a the community pool 3 houses away, ate everything but the lettuce in my wilted Paradise Bakery salad from the night before, showered up, and finally, got settled in and put everything away, and found places for almost all of my stuff. (By the way, if anyone has a dresser or bookshelf they are willing to give to me, or sell for really chap, I'm totally open.) I had no food except for one sleeve of Ritz Crackers, so my plans for the day were to go to the store to get some groceries, and then to meet up with Emily and hang with her and her family.

...but first I wanted to look around the house.

Like I said, it's not very big, so there were only three doors that I didn't know what was behind them. I put my purse on the couch and looked in door number one: it was a closet. Under the stairs. Naturally, my immediate reaction was to think of Harry Potter sleeping under there, and what if that was the size of MY bedroom?! The second was a closet full of winter coats that I wondered whose they were, and in such a hot state, why there was so many. There was also a frisbee on the ground, and a big, inflatable hammer that said, "hammered" on it. I wonder which of my roommates had been "hammered."

The third door opened up into the garage! I hadn't been in there before, and so I was standing in the doorway looking around, and I saw a dresser that looked like it was in decent condition! That being something I still needed for my room, I wondered if there was anything in it, or anything wrong with it, and if Diana (the owner of the house who had just moved out) would let me use it.

So I went over to it and looked in a few of the drawers to find lost of pens and pencils, Middle and High School ID cards, and other junky stuff that you don't really ever want to throw away, but you also don't know what to do with. I made a mental note to call Diana and ask her if I could use it.

So I went back to the door to get back into the house and it was locked.

I turned the knob and it didn't give. I tried again harder, and nothing. crap. Crap. CRAP!! As the realization that I could not get in settled, I banged on the door to our empty house, cursing myself for not having my keys in my pocket, or carrying my purse with me. I couldn't get into the house! I had locked the front door when I got back from swimming, and this door was not going to budge. What were my options? I put my hands in my pockets just to make sure that there weren't any stray house keys that just happened to be hanging out there, and I found my phone. LUCKILY!!! I looked around for the garage door opener button, and pushed it but nothing happened. I pushed it again and nothing happened. I held it down and pressed around on it, possibly pounding on it once or twice to make sure it wasn't just sensitive, and nothing moved.

Twitter update: 1:18 PM - @SporkSister: Home alone and I just locked myself in the garage of my new house. #whattheheckamIgoingtodo #nevercominginhereagain

I stepped back from the situation to do some analyzing, and came up with two options:
Option 1: I could try and break the door open. Ok, there is no way I am in any way strong enough to do that, and PLUS I don't have any money to pay for repairs.
Option 2: Call Diana (my land-lady, as it were) and ask her to come save me. I think she lives close, and it's Saturday, so she's not at school.

So, being the only person who had a key that I had the phone number of, I texted Diana:

1:19 PM - So... I just locked myself into the garage... How might I get out?

I looked around for something to sit on that wasn't dirty as all get-out, and found myself an inflated pool floaty thing, and so I laid on that. I wasn't too freaked out, because I figured that Diana would probably be able to come over in like, 5 minutes to free me, and all that would be harmed would be my pride. I checked the weather in Gilbert on my phone, which said that it was 103 currently - luckily it was a pretty cool day. The garage seemed to trap all of that heat and obviously had no AC blowing into it, and so I was starting to sweat. It was HOT in there! Minutes ticked by and Diana didn't text me back. Forget this.

At 1:32 PM I called Diana. She said she just barely had seen that I had even texted her, because she was with her family at their cabin because of the long weekend, and they had really spotty service. Not what I wanted to hear. I told her what had happened, and I could tell that she was trying not to laugh. I asked her to text me Tricia's number so I could call or text her to come out and save me. Diana told me that the people who owned the house before her had run something into the garage door and so it didn't work. But that if I needed to I could manually pull it up, and that it opened about half way.

1:37 PM - @SporkSister - The garage door is broken. Yep, I'm still in here. #seriouslythoughwhatamIgoingtodo

Diana Texted me Tricia's number:

1:40 PM - Hey Tricia, this is Sarah. I locked myself in the garage, and was wondering if maybe you were somewhere close, and in the position that you could come get me out. So embarrassing.

2:06 PM - lol, did u realize that u texted me instead of Tricia?

2:07 PM - hahaha, oopsie! Sorry Diana, but thanks for letting me know!

I am SUCH an idiot!!!!

2:06 PM - Hey Trisha, this is Sarah. So, I locked myself in the garage and was wondering if you were close, or otherwise in the position that you could come get me out? So embarassing.

The first thing that Tricia told me about herself was that she works 13 hours a day. She hadn't gotten home on Friday night until about 10, so I imagined myself having to wait in that oven of a garage for another 8 hours. Not a good option. She didn't text me back, and didn't text me back... So, after an entire hour of being in that garage I went over to the door and pulled up on it.

How many of you have ever done this before? Well, until yesterday I had not, but let me testify to you that garage doors are heavy. And Diana's testimonial that the "garage doors open half away" ended up being a GROSS exaggeration, because once I finally was able to pull them up, they only went up about a foot and a half before the bent part of the garage ran into the ceiling. I wasn't strong enough to hold them up for very long, and as soon as I let them go they crashed to the ground with what seems like 50 pounds of pressure.

Luckily, In the corner of the garage I spied with my little eye a grey plastic tote. I walked over to it and looked inside and it was full of tennis rackets! Good enough for me. I pulled it up to the g-door, bend over and grab the bottom of the middle of the door (because it was much harder to open it anywhere besides the middle) and pull it up as high as possible. It's not very high (again, only about a foot and a half), and so my butt is sticking out as I am shimmying over to the tote, moving my hands along the bottom of it so that it wouldn't crash closed. I awkwardly put my foot out and flail around a little to find the back of the tote and push it under the door. SUCCESS!!!!! But now I have to actually get out. I have never been good at limbo, so there seems to be only one solution.

So, imagine the situation: I am in this dirty garage that has got to be about 120 degrees, sweating, rolling on the ground under the garage doors that are being supported by a rubber tote onto the driveway.

This is where the hilarity of the situation really struck me.

I went to the side of the house that is in the shade and sat on the grass on what I think was technically the neighbors lawn. The grass is pretty scant and so I'm mostly just sitting in wet dirt. Great. A few minutes later their dogs start barking at me from inside their fence. I knew I hated animals for a reason. A few more minutes later I my foot starts to sting. I looked down and there was an ant on my foot. I brush it off. I felt another sting, and another.

2:13 PM - @SporkSister - Getting bitten by ants. #thefunneverends

I have never been bitten by ants before. But those things got me good. They sting and itch, and it hurts for a long time!!! I was wondering why none of my Twitter friends were worried about my situation. Did my phone not work? Was there Twitter interception? Luckily I soon got this update from my sister:

2:18 PM - @Philosophy11: @SporkSister um, are you going to survive? #dontwanttowitnessatwitterdeath

I had plans to hang out with Emily later in the day, but my day's plans were quickly changing.

1:52 PM - Emily, I don't know if you got my last Tweet, but I'm locked out of my house, so I don't know when I'll be able to come over.

1:55 PM - You still are? yeah, I just saw them. Are you ok? Do you still need to be rescued? Are you stuck in the garage?

1:57 PM - I was able to get out of the garage by opening it the whole foot and a half that it opens and rolling out under it. So now I'm just sitting in the grass. I don't have my wallet or keys and I'm starving! I texted my roommate who I met last night but I think she's going to be at work until late. hahahahaha, what a stupid situation.

1:59 PM - Do you need me to pick you up? Or wut are you gonna do?

I was torn. I wanted to hang out with Emily, but it's about a 45 minute - 1 hour drive from her house to mine. She was hanging with her extended family, and I didn't want her to come down and be almost there and then hear from Tricia... plus, I don't know the area well enough to know of anything cool to do while we waited that would be free.

2:02 PM - Well, my options are limited right now to hanging around until she gets home... I hate to ask you to come down because I know you were excited to hang with your family.

2:10 PM - Hmm... yeah. Can you have Jeff or Taryn pick you up so you don't die of heat exhaustion?

DUH!! What the heck was I thinking!!? I called Taryn - my awesome boss who lives less than 5 minutes away - and told her about the situation. She was more than willing to come pick me up and let me hang out at her place all day.

2:26 PM - @SporkSister - Update; I was able to pull up the garage door and roll out under it without smashing myself. Called my boss to come pick me up. #iamanidiot

2:29 - Hey girl im at work I don't get out till after 6 =/ ahh I'm sorry!!! The garage is easy to get out of if u can have diana or someone cly would! Sorry!!

2:29 - Hey Tricia, ok, so I was able to get out of the garage and my boss is going to come pick me up, and I'll hang out at her place. If you could just let me know when you get home, that would be awesome!!!

3:423 - Fer sure we need a spare key!!! Sorry girl!

2:44 PM - @SporkSister - An hour and a half later... Freedom! Food! Air conditioning!!!!!

So, there's the sad, pathetic story of my first Saturday living on my own. Luckily I didn't have to call the firefighters and have them bust me out of the garage. Luckily I didn't lock myself into a garage with a locked and running car in it. Luckily I am able to laugh at my own stupid mistakes and share them on the internet for my friends and acquaintances to read and call me an idiot, because honestly, WHO DOES STUFF LIKE THIS HAPPEN TO?! (For another story of my stupidity, look here.)

But, as they say, all's well that ends well. All's well that doesn't kill you. All's well that ends not in a hospital. Choose one, because they all apply.

Skype

2011-09-04T16:29:00.000-07:00

Jeff recently has come to know and love the art of Skyping. Why? Because when you're approximately 1025 miles away from someone that you love, the distance seems a LOT smaller when you can actually see their face. We've been doing this almost every night for the last week and a half:

So adorable!! I just love this guy so much!!

Bosie... State?

2011-08-27T00:05:00.000-07:00

The best (and in all reality, the only) vacation I took this summer was up to Bosie to visit Jeff!!!!!!! I met his parents who are super nice, got a passport, and did a lot of nothing, which after finals, graduation and three straight weeks of efy was AWESOME.

I don't know where my head was at, but I only took three pictures the entire time. I guess that means I can tell the stories behind each one:

So, the trip to Bosie is about 4 hours from Idaho Falls. When I had been on the road about 2 hours my car began to do this really bad thing where the RPMs would jump up, and the Cherokee would lurch forward. Not good. When this would happen I eventually figured out that I could turn off my cruise control and press the gas manually and it would stop for a while. But it's not something that I wanted to leave un-checked (especially since my check engine light came on soon after it statrted), so on monday morning we took the Chief to Auto Zone. The guy who checked it said that he came up with 8 different problems with my engine. Crap.

Luckily, 7 of them were individual fuel injectors, and all of them said that one possible reason they weren't working correctly was because of the 8th problem. This little part (pictured on the right. The lighter colored thing with the red wires coming out of it) cost me about $34. I don't remember what it was called, but we drove it over to Jeff's dad's house, and they installed it for me for free!!!!!

Next, here's Jeff and his dad (who is 6'10") installing it! What a bunch of handy men. As they labored under the hood, I cleaned the inside of my car with Armor-All, giving it a cleaning it desperately needed, and that I've been meaning to do for months.

So, the next picture doesn't really need explanation, but I'll tell the story behind it anyway. So, Jeff's birthday is August 30th, and so I told him that I would buy him new shoes because 1) he has a really hard time spending any money on himself, but 2) his shoes had holes in them. And they were really ugly.

So we went to a mall in Bosie one of the days I was there and found him the perfect pair of shoes; black Vans with white stitching and white rubber soles. Did I take a picture of them? Absolutely not. BUT, to 'repay' me as it were, Jeff took me to the 'Blue and Orange,' Bosie State store, where he helped me find my inner Bronco and bought me a jersey-type t-shirt. Anyone who knows me knows of my dire love for sports (sarcasm), so here we are, two die-hard Bosie state fans.

(As a small tangent, can we focus for a moment on how ridiculously names some schools are? Bosie is not a state. It might be the capitol of Idaho, but Idaho State University is something completely unrelated. Another example that I love is in West Virginia there is a Fairmont State University. What is the capitol of WV? Oh, it's Charleston. At least Bosie has one up on FSU. That doesn't even make any sense at all. Can anyone explain this to me?)

So, Jeff has beautiful blue eyes, but he does this funny thing in pictures where he squints his eyes really small. It's kind of adorable, but not so good for photos, so I just chose the best one of me... which isn't really saying much, because I look ridiculous here. Whatever. It's for posterity.

The worst thing was when I had to drive back home on wednesday night. My car was running GREAT with the check engine light now off, and I had my new shirt on, but I knew that I would have to go home and organize and subsequently pack my life away in preparation to come to Arizona. Plus, it's always hard to leave those that you love, but big sappy goodbyes aren't really my thing, and I try and avoid them as much as possible. BUT Jeff and I both have mission reunions to go to in Salt Lake the first weekend of October, so we'll have a small rendezvous (fancy French word) then. Horay for long distance relationships!! (Sarcasm.)

efy

2011-08-26T23:34:00.000-07:00

For three weeks after graduation I worked as an EFY Counselor. Especially For Youth (EFY) is a week-long ‘church camp’ as it were, for youth ages 14-18. I had 8-12 girls to look after each week, and girls groups were paired with a group of boys to create our ‘company.’ Here's a picture of my group my first week:

I went to EFY 3 times as a youth, when I was 14, 15 and 16 years old, and I have to say that being a counselor is at least one million times more fun. Why? Because the kids have all these rules they have to follow, and counselors can (to a certain extent) do whatever they want!!!

Another great part about being in charge is that you get to hang with the other counselors!!! The kids only got to be together for 5 days. But I got to spend time with these fine people for pretty much three weeks straight!

This is me and Brandon. Our groups were put together our first week, and for a few days our kids wanted us to get married (until I told my girls about Jeff. Then they just wanted me to marry him.) Your kids ALWAYS want to set you up! They are hilarious! In fact, I think that every week my girls suggest that I date my co-counselor. Anyway, it was our first week, so we obliged by posing for our 'engagements.' haha. The group of girls below I came to know really well. (From L to R) Audrey and I worked my second week on a musical program for everyone to watch. I was in charge of solos.

Essentially we put together an entire concert in about 6 hours' time, spread out over two and a half days. Pretty impressive, I know. Next is Rachel (also known as RacheyFace_) who I knew in the summer because she dated Jeff's roommate. On the end there is Chanae who was my roommate for two weeks, AND was my co-counselor (along with Joshua) during week 2!!!!! Such good times!!! I'm so clever to have posed with these people with this sign; My idea!!!

These are my week two kids. They were 14 and 15, and there were a LOT of them!!!

The thing about being an EFY Counselor is that you don't get a lot of sleep. We have to make sure our kids' lights are off by 10:30, then stay up a little later than that to make sure they stay off. We have to prepare devotionals and other lessons every day, so going to bed after midnight is pretty standard. We have to be ready to go with our girls at 7am, but we have a counselor meeting before that every morning at 6:40. So depending on how long it takes you to get ready in the morning, you might have to get up mighty early.

So, the first saturday after all of our kiddos went home, I was talking and laughing with Rachel at breakfast. Brandon and I had just been co-counselors, and in all reality he had no other friends besides me, so he came and sat with us as well. The three of us were slap-happy and were laughing SO hard, thereby creating a real bond. We became an unbeatable, unbreakable phenomenon known as the Dream Team. Who named us? I'm not sure. But let's not ask silly questions.

The Dream Team became the greatest thing about efy, and occasionally we would let other people into our group. When we had nothing else to do, or needed to escape the children, we would all find each other. The second saturday, all of the counselors were invited to go roller skating at a roller rink in Idaho Falls (did you even know that those places still exist?! Because I didn't). Being the only member of the Dream Team with a car, and having an eye Doctor appointment in IF earlier that day, I forced my cohorts to come into town with me, and we did all sorts of fun things:

We went couch hunting at Down East:

Tried on the biggest bug-eye glasses possible while RacheyFace tried on dresses:

and eventually did end up at the roller skating rink! Hey, get out of our picture! You're not on the Dream Team!!!!!

Around the third week we started getting burnt out on things. Here is us (along with an honorary, but not actual member of the Dream Team, Scott) NOT in class. We snuck into an empty class room in the Hinckley building but had to be really quiet so we wouldn't get in trouble.

And just to finish things up, here is my 16-18 year old 3rd weekers!!!!!!!!... but first, all 4 of us that were cos that week. 4 is a LOT, but it was nice to have a break every once in a while.

I feel like being an EFY Counselor is the closest you can get to being on a mission again. You're living in your own little world, and only focused on one thing. Food and housing is provided so you don't even have to worry about essentials. It's really an environment that fosters the spirit, and is a great resource for any youth who have questions, concerns, or doubts. It's one of the hardest but most rewarding things I have done all summer!

College Grad

2011-08-26T22:49:00.000-07:00

I always hat/ed when people with blogs that I follow didn’t post for a long time, and then update with a bunch of posts all at once (or within a few days of each other). But now I understand; blogging (or at least quality blogging) (… That’s right, I just called myself a quality blogger. Boo-ya!!) takes inspiration. You can’t force inspiration - you just have to let it hit you. BAM! Like lightening.

Boredom may or may not also play a huge factor in this decision; One might say that as I was sitting here in a bedroom that is not my own on my first Friday night in a new town with nothing else to do, that I was suddenly inspired to blog. Others might say I was just simply bored. I’ll let you make the decision for yourself.

But, that is not the topic of this blog!!!!

So, for those of you who missed it, I graduated college! That’s right, after 12 semesters (11 at Brigham Young University – Idaho, and including 1 semester at Lansing Community College in the Fall of 2004), 6 years and thousands of government dollars, my undergraduate education is now complete. People keep asking – Do I feel different? How is it not having to worry about school ever again?

Well, no, I do not feel different. I feel like the semester ended way too soon, and that my classes didn’t really matter anyway. I am very blessed to have had a job lined up for after graduation ever since April; otherwise I would have been dreading the day after graduation with fear, doubt and uncertainty.

I feel like the end of my schooling is just the close of a chapter of my life. (A very long chapter that began at age 5.) As it is, I’m happy that I’ll never have to worry about shoe-box dioramas or angry teachers who I was convinced hated me after one dirty look when the kid sitting next to me started talking to me and I didn’t want to be rude and ignore him. I won’t have to pull another all-nighter to cram for a test I forgot about, or to spend 4 hours in a basement to make a project instead of hanging with my boyfriend.

On the other hand, I’ll miss having fun roommates, and buying brand new school supplies and meeting people the first day of class. Signing up for way too many classes than I needed and then deciding which one(s) to drop became a favorite ritual of mine at the beginning of each semester, thus creating the illusion of more free time in my schedule.

However, It’s probably unlikely that I’ll never have to deal with these things again, because I’ll probably have to do all of these things someday with my children. I know that when I was living at home and in public school, my homework became my parent’s homework, and sometimes they stressed about it as much as I did. (That may or may not be true. I stressed out a lot over things that my parents knew didn't really matter.)

So, anyway, school for me is over!! I keep also getting asked if I’m thinking about Grad School. The answer is yes – I keep thinking about how glad I am that I have absolutely no desire to go! In my field of work experience is often preferred over a degree. Grad school is a completely unnecessary expense, and so I figure why bother? I’m a life-long learner, but don’t necessarily want to be a life-long student. It gets expensive.

So, to end, here are some pictures!!!

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention; One thing that I’m really glad that we were able to work out is that me and mom were able to graduate at the same time! And she was a University Studies degree, so she could basically choose what college to walk with. But she did have a communications cluster (the equivalent of half a minor), so we walked together.

They (mom and the rest of the family) left late (as usual) and got caught in graduation and construction traffic on the highway. We were supposed to be waiting in the gym on campus a full hour before anything happened; I was there on time, but mom was late. I still can’t decide who won out in this situation because she was worried about time and such, while I was bored and standing in a gym by myself for an entire hour. I was still pretty normal at this point....

Then the boredom started to set in. All I have to say is it's a dang good thing that I brought my camera to entertain myself with.

I'm really glad I wasn't wearing heels, because my feet started to hurt just standing for an hour in my flats!

Mom got there about 5 minutes before we walked in - perfect timing!!! However, she didn't have a hat, so I bought her this one that morning. Then she had to put it on:

This is during... convocation? Commencement? I can't remember which one is which. This is in the new million dollar (+) BYU-I Center. I think someone was speaking and was fairly boring, so we HAD to find a way to amuse ourselves!! There's no photography allowed in the auditorium... don't tell.

This next one is at the next part (whichever the other one wasn't) where we walked across the stage. It's easy to tell where I get my good looks.

Mom and I are now licensed thinkers. Obviously.

Jeff came and hung out with my sibs while I was doing all of this. Like the true sweet-heart that he is, he bought me flowers. Then we posed for the most awkward picture ever. I sort of hate this next picture, but I also feel that it should be preserved ...and shared on the internet.

So, congratulations to me, mom, and the other 2011 Grads. Farewell BYU-Idaho, and school in general. It's been fun.

Emmieleigh and Harry Potter

2011-07-19T12:43:00.000-07:00

E. K. Tranny, also known as Emmy loves kittens, came last week to visit me!!! I was her number one reason for coming, and she had absolutely no ulterior motives in the form of boys.

One of the highlights of the trip was going to see Harry Potter at midnight!! We went with our friends (see last post) to dinner at Red Robin, as is tradition.

My two favorite things about this picture are 1) KC's little boy face, and 2) the weird blue guy holding a yellow baby picture behind Emily.

Last year in November when Emily and I went to see the midnight premier of part one, we sat in the theatre for 2 1/2 hours before the movie started, no problem. So, we went to the Theatre around 10, and the lady at the ticket ripping booth said that we wouldn't be able to get into the theatre until 11:45. So we sat in the lobby for about half an hour, and people in costumes kept coming in and hanging out. Suddenly this employee comes in and starts yelling at everyone. Not in a nice, 'just to let you know' kind of a way, but in a mean 'I've told you all a hundred times and nobody is doing what I want them to do' kind of a way (which wasn't even the case). So he says, "If you have your tickets, you CAN NOT be in the lobby. Go wait outside around the building."

Question one: why didn't the girl who didn't rip our tickets tell us that we had to go wait in the line outside? A lot of confusion and yelling could have been avoided if she had simply been telling everyone with Harry Potter tickets they couldn't hang out in the lobby. It wasn't a problem at all, and knowledge is power.

Question two: What happened to that disgruntled yelling employee that made him so angry? Everyone was in a good mood except for the employees. They really needed to lighten up and understand that everyone there was there for a good time and didn't want to be or cause problems... Well, at least, we weren't.

So, we go outside and begin walking around the right side of the building, and pass all three sides full of people. We DEFINITELY went the wrong way around the building, because we ended up on the other side of the building as we started out going. I realize that description didn't make a whole lot of sense, so I drew a detailed picture using my Photoshop skills to better illustrate:

I'm so awesome.

Waiting in line was actually really fun. We took some cool pics lookin hot:

Havin Fun:

And bein awesome:

The group in front of us was a lot of fun too, and Kc got a new tattoo standing in line.

Death Eaters!!!

So, the way they organized things was they had the one huge line, then another line near the entrance of the theater (the second line is not pictured above). Every 10 or 15 or 20 minutes (I wasn't paying attention to the times at all) they called out a theater and everyone who had tickets for that theater could get in the second line and go in. I believe that in the beginning everyone actually stood in the line, but by the time our theater was called it was a mad dash into the building.

We got in and our theater (number 9 if you were wondering) was already full. One lame employee (where was the mean guy this time!?) said that there was no saving seats and that everyone had to move down unless the person they were with was actually there, and nobody moved.

In a related tangent, who saves seats at a premier like that? I mean honestly, if you wanted to be with a group, come together. If you needed to drive separately, why couldn't they have met up in that huge line for 2 hours? It just seemed so unnecessary and super obnoxious.

There weren't even two seats together in the room, let alone four in a row, so we went out into the lobby to reconvene. We scoped out the available theaters left, and Kc remembered that the girl in line behind us was waiting for Theatre 1 to open. So we went and stood by theater one. The timing was perfect that we went in right before the mad dash to that theater began, and got in before everyone. Our seats were awesome, and we all got to sit together.

I had a few qualms with the movie, but overall I thought it was pretty good. Kind of anti-climactic there at the end, but an alright ending to an alright series of movies.

Geopherigh

2011-07-19T12:38:00.000-07:00

To all of my family and friends, I would like to introduce you to my boyfriend, Jeff.

Me and Jeff at Rigby Lake

Jeff and I met last summer – our roommates met in a class and started hanging out; Jeff was his wing man, and I was Emily’s right hand. Jeff's roommate left in the middle of the semester, and Emily and I felt bad for Jeff, and worried that he didn't have any friends (even though that wasn't really true at all), so we would invite him to do stuff all the time. We hung out a bit last summer, then we all went on our ways.

Me, Emily, Jeff, and some of our roommates at Rigby Lake on Emily's b-day last year. I was not interested in Jeff at this time, as you can tell by my Miranda pose.

I ended up in Phoenix with Emily in the winter, and randomly at the end of the semester Jeff sent me a message on Facebook and said that we should hang out. I knew that he meant as ‘more than friends’ and I was down.

This is me working at Emeritus in AZ. I was sitting at this desk and logged onto Facebook when I first got Jeff's FB Message. don't tell my boss.

We started dating a little before mid-terms, and three weeks later I broke up with him – there were a lot of reasons why, but as soon as I got home I knew it was a mistake and regretted it. After a few long discussions and a week later we got back together! Horay!!

I think that Emily took this on the way to get Fro-Yo. I look like a gomer, but I still really like this picture.

He’s the biggest sweetheart and takes care of me so well. I'm going to Phoenix at the end of next month, but we are staying together and he's coming to visit me in October for my birthday! So excited!

A Funny thing Happened the Other Day

2011-07-14T11:30:00.000-07:00

So, I haven't been to my Friday only After Effects class in two weeks because I've been had a wedding to go to both days, and I figured that in the grand scheme of things, going to see two people I love be sealed for time and all eternity was probably more important than going to class. Plus, they were just work days.

So I've had a lot going on this week; my friend Emily is in town visiting from Phoenix (more on that later), I'm getting ready to graduate, and I have a lot of projects, papers, and finals are due. (By the way, does anyone else think that the last two weeks of the semester are pure torture? It's just disgusting.)

Anyway I thought that my final for the class - a Kinetic Typography project - was due next week.
I thought I would check the syllabus last night (Wednesday the 13th) just to make sure, and lo and behold the project that my teacher has given us 3 weeks to work on was due on Friday the 15th. BLAST!!!

So I ate dinner and ran to the Spori building on campus, and got it done in 4 hours!! Enjoy!!

Kinetic Typography from Sarah Hill on Vimeo.

"Maybe She Can See Into the fuTuRe...."

2011-07-05T11:51:00.000-07:00

I am feeling very stressed out today about a few things, one of them being school. After 12 semesters I am going to graduate from college and join the real world.

When I was an idiot 18/19 year old Freshman, I felt so bad for the girls in my ward (church congregation) who were single and graduating from college. What had they done with their time at school?! Why weren't they married!?? What was wrong with them!??!?!?!

And now here I am, almost 25, about to move to Phoenix, by myself, away from family, to join the workforce and become a real adult. I'm not scared at all about the future, because I know that I have been so so blessed, and that God has led me to have the experiences I need to got me to where I need to be. I am excited and just look forward to everything that the future has in store.

Flowers

2011-07-05T09:54:00.000-07:00

I have never understood those girls who hate getting flowers. You know who I’m talking about – the ones who say that flowers die, and why would I want something that dies in a few days, etc.

I’ve been thinking about flowers lately. I have been given flowers (from boys) three times in my life; Once in high school, once from a boy I was seeing, and once by an anonymous benefactor for Valentine’s Day. There’s something about getting fresh flowers that brightens your day exponentially; they just smell so good and are so beautiful... But I think that the best part about it is just knowing that someone else was thinking about you enough to put some thought into going to or calling a store, picking something out for you specifically, and giving or sending them to you. Really, I don’t even have words to express how magnificent it is. I mean seriously, just look at these for example:

How can you get something like this and not be the happiest person ever?! I think that the girls who say they hate getting flowers, are actually just girls who have never received flowers. Because it. is. AWESOME.

NEW POST!!!

2011-06-30T09:28:00.000-07:00

I hate that so many of my friends/blogs that I follow have not been updated in months. But, I feel like I can't complain about that unless I update my blog. So, here I am! With a new blog post!! I hope everyone sees and follows suit.

So, for my senior project I had to do a 50 hour project of my choice. I chose to do a promo for Serendipity because I just LOVE it!! I spent about 35 hours on this, and only had to make some minor changes. The video is going to have some better footage added (I only had about 2 1/2 weddings/brides/couples to work with) and put on Serendipity's website. I am VERY pleased with the way it turned out. So, enjoy everyone!!

College

2011-05-19T21:30:00.001-07:00

My entire college career has been working towards a goal; like all college students, all I’m looking for is a piece of paper saying that I am learned. For two years I was working towards the goal of being a teacher. For the last few I’ve been working to become a video editor, and effective communicator.

152 credits, 12 semesters and 6 years later I’m about to finish up my formal college education. However, this semester my goals are a little different. I’ve reached my goal; I got an amazing job offer at an incredible company working with great people. This semester is about, well, finality. I only need two classes (for my minor might I add) to graduate. However I needed 12 to get my Pell Grant, and 14 for my Academic Scholarship. So this semester, instead of working towards an academic goal, I’m working towards the goal of improving myself.

In all honesty have a pretty fluffy schedule. I’ve had a lot of people make fun of it – primarily myself. It’s not nearly as intense as I’ve gotten used to these last few years, but it keeps me occupied (well, that and my two jobs, etc). My classes include New Testament, Singing, Theatre Sound Design, Social Dance, Auto Maintenance, Theatre Props, After Effects, and my Senior Project. Now, although two are required, I feel like only one of these classes doesn’t necessarily add to my becoming a better person.

For the last while I’ve had a great desire to study the words of Christ from the New Testament. But I spend so much time in the Book of Mormon during my personal study that it’s hard for me to inter-mingle my books for studying. So although I’m very much over in my religion credits, I took New Testamament just to better understand the life, teachings, and attributes of my Savior.

I have two wishes in life that might in some way alter my body; First, I wish that my calves were smaller (no matter how much I work out, they just stay fat!). Secondly, I wish that I had a better singing voice. Some people – like my little sister – were born with beautiful voices that they can do a lot with. I however, was born with a less than average vocal ability. However, I am not completely tone deaf, and not the worst singer in the world, so I took this singing class in order to hone in whatever “natural talent” (however small it may be), as well as to increase my singing confidence. You can only do that by charging your fear, scaring the crap out of yourself and living to tell the tale.

Water Aerobics gets a lot of laughs when I tell people I’m in it, but I find it to be very enjoyable. One might even call it ‘bomb-diggity.’ True, the teacher seldom gives us enough time to do anything, doesn’t fully explain things, and then somewhat yells at us when we do things wrong, but nonetheless, I feel like it gives me a good aerobic workout, I’m becoming a stronger swimmer, AND it makes me aware of my swimsuit body before swimsuit season. It keeps you agile, and loose. Plus, you don’t feel the sweat, which is my least favorite part of working out.

Theatre Sound is required. Although I don’t love love love it, I think it’ll help me to use and expand my Audacity skills. Also, because of it I’m doing the sound for the play this semester – Waiting for Godot – and have been going to rehearsals every night for three hours. Rehearsals make me miss theatre, and wish that there was something being put on this semester I had wanted to audition for. Maybe I’ll do community theatre in Phoenix.

Social Dance is one of those classes I heard when I was younger that girls took to meet boys and go on lots of dates. So in order to shun all things that made the 18 and 19-year-old me look like I was desperate to get married, I avoided it. However, now that I’m older than all of the boys on this campus and have nothing to lose, I signed up. I learned that dancing is not a passion of mine, but that it can be fun, with the right partner (is there a life lesson in there somewhere? I’m not sure).

Since I’ve been driving (24 – 14 = 10 years), I have let other people (usually of the male species) change two or three tires, have run my car almost dry of oil at least twice, and generally taken every well running car I’ve every driven for granted. Ever since buying my Jeep last year I have been dedicated to it! I just love it so much; I want to take good care of it and make it last as long as possible. Auto Maintenance helps me to appreciate how an engine runs, and how I can keep it up. I can’t believe the things that go on in an engine so that I can get to where I need to go. I think this class has already – even in 4 or 5 weeks – really helped me the most.

Theatre Props is a pretty fun class. Did you ever know those weird theatre kids in high school? They may or may not have included the kids that made their own chainmail, fought each other with foam swords, wore capes or “cloaks” instead of coats in the winter, and are somewhat casual in their dress, appearance, and grooming. There are a lot of those kids in my class. Never a dull moment. And I’m learning how to do some cool things, so it’s a win-win!!

For those of you who have never heard of After Effects, let me enlighten you; What Photoshop is to pictures, After Effects is to Video. As a member of the Adobe Suite, AE has great powers only the cunning can unlock. I intend to cunnify my way through class, and unlock every mystery my teacher shows us how to do!!

My 50 hour Senior Project, my capstone class for all of the 150-some credits I’ve taken, must be epic. It must be clever. It must be relevant to what you want to do with your life. So I, of course, have chosen to do a promotional video for Serendipity! I should be getting footage from Phoenix in the next week or so, and beginning to work on things. This is by far will be my most time-consuming, as well as my most gratifying class. Video editing is not something that can be done half-heartedly, and takes one’s full attention. It can eat up hours at a time, and considering I am making something for a real company with real clients that may very well be featured on a real website that real people look at and decide if they want to invest real money into, you’d better bet your bottom dollar that I’m going to be doing a stellar job on it.

Add onto all of that 10 hours at the radio station, 15+ hours of rehearsal for the next 3 weeks, a calling, a social life, and editing wedding highlight films for Simply Cinema, and I am SWAMPED this semester.

BUT, at the end of the day, all of the things I am involved in are voluntary, and are making me a better person. I’m not used to that. But really, isn’t that what college is for?

Lauren and David's Hightlight Film!

2011-05-10T20:58:00.000-07:00

So, I have been back in Idaho going to school for about a month now, but that hasn't stopped me from editing for Serendipity!

Ok, well, technically I have been editing for Simply Cinema, Serendipity's little sister company for the more budget-friendly bride.

In either case, I'm still in the wedding scene. Taryn sends me a hard drive with all of the footage in it and I put it together at my leisure (within reason, of course).

So, this is my first ever Highlight Film!! (All of my other ones are just and 'trailers' of Serendipity's 25 minute films However, with Simply Cinema, this 8 minute version is all they'll get. Well, you know, besides their ceremony, First Dances and Toasts edited in full. ANYWAY...) Lauren and David had a lot of really cool things at their wedding; they did everything at his parent's house, her dad married them, it rained a TON that day (it was my last Saturday in Phoenix, so I know first-hand), and instead of having people sign a guest book or a photo, they had them sign wine bottles, of which they will drink on their 1st, 5th, 10th and 20th anniversaries. I think that if I drank alcohol, I would totally do that instead of... you know, whatever else.

They seem like a super fun couple, and I wish them all the best!

Skype

2011-05-05T09:27:00.000-07:00

On sunday as I was falling asleep on the couch I received a text message from my mother (presumably sent to all of my siblings) that we would be having a Skype party later that day. When I woke up I was half an hour late, but figured out my login and jumped into the conversation.

Ben jumped in after Daniel and his family logged off, but I didn't take a picture of that.

Skyping is a funny thing. I think I was on for the better part of two and a half hours and I really can't think of anything that was really interesting that was said. But, like most of our family get-togethers, it was nice just 'being' together.

Ill

2011-05-04T21:31:00.000-07:00

I have not been feeling very well today. It started yesterday but I pushed it aside. I haven't been around anyone that I specifically know was sick. But maybe I just haven't been getting enough sleep. Lack of sleep doesn't usually make me sick though. Well, I guess I'll know better tomorrow. In other news, I really like how Ill just looks like a roman numeral 3.

In more news, this post is worthless, and I should really be in bed right now.

Purple

2011-04-09T23:00:00.000-07:00

I went to this wedding - The colors were really vibrant (purple is going to be HUGE this year). The bride was a bit stressed out, but the groom was adorable. My favorite moment in the video is starting at 0:42. He really loves her. Cute.

5 Wedding Dresses

2011-04-09T22:53:00.000-07:00

These people... What can I say? This lady had 5 wedding dresses!!

this trailer was started by me, then (due to server errors) the middle was done by Ryan (another editor) and then I finished it up. Enjoy.

Polynesian Dancers

2011-04-08T11:49:00.000-07:00

I put this video together in about 4 minutes, so it's nothing super special. The couple whose video I'll be posting later today had a polynesian wedding ceremony, (I'm still not sure why, except for the very reason that they could. Another good question is why did the bride have three dress changed during the reception. Who knows?), and had this performance in the middle of the ceremony. The company who provided the dancer - Applause Entertainment - contacted us yesterday and asked if we could post a short excerpt from the performance for their website, so here it is!

Polynesian Dancers By Applause Entertainment from Serendipity Videography on Vimeo.

Hobbies

2011-04-08T11:24:00.000-07:00

I was thinking last night about hobbies. You know when you meet someone new, and they ask you, “So, what do you like to do?” This has been a very hard for me my entire life to answer these kinds of questions. When I was young my days consisted of school, homework, and TV consumption. The occasional book has always been enjoyed, but nothing substantial or worth mentioning. It wasn’t until I was a Senior in high school and I got a car that I started doing things; play practice, work, and hanging with my friends.

College came and the homework load was a huge adjustment. I can’t say I handled it well, what with living with fun roommates who liked to watch TV and go out and do random things, as well as FHE Brothers who lived just down the road.

As I came to be a better student I spent more time on campus doing homework, but I still usually came home and vegged out in front of the TV at night. Roommates became live-in friends, so it wasn’t ever hard to find something to do or someone to talk to.

Serving as a missionary you have no time to yourself, and when I came home I realized (as most missionaries do) how much garbage there was on TV. That, coupled with the fact that my apartment my first semester home didn’t have a television in it, has really broken me of my TV addiction.

Now that I’m into my senior and upper level classes (along with lots of editing classes I didn’t own the programs for and had to do entirely on campus), I’ve spent more time on campus the last year and a half of school than I probably have the rest of the years combined. On my off-tracks I’d be working at least two jobs, and usually work at both every day. That doesn’t leave for a lot of down time.

So, I’ll be graduating in July, and starting my job in August. I was thinking the other day about how different my schedule will be. I’ll go to work from 9 to 5 (or whenever), then I’ll go home…. and then what?! I need some hobbies. I don’t want to waste my life away in front of the TV. I’ve been a fan of scrapbooking ever since my Senior Year of High School, but it’s hard to scrapbook life without big events like weddings, missions, etc. I’ve always liked quilting ever since I learned how to in 9th grade, but it’s hard to work on a project without a separate sewing room. ( Like scrapbooking, it’s almost not worth it to get everything out to only work on it for a few hours. To make it worth it it has to be at least an all-day ordeal.) I own a really pretty guitar that I have neglected for WAY too long (although I have the best of intentions), so maube I’ll dedicate myself more to that.

What other hobbies are there? I don’t even know what else there is. Excessive exercise? Nah. Swimming? Not really my thing. ….. after that I’m at a loss. Button or stamp collecting are the kinds of things that 1) are lame, and 2) don’t take a lot of time.

There’s a lady at the Senior home I work at who just turned 99 last month. She’s mostly blind, but spends her days crocheting, and making really cool sculptures at the Blind Center in Phoenix. I need a hobby so I can live to be really old… but actually, I don’t know if I want to live to be that old. What if the world in 2085 is ridden with war, chaos, and inhumanity. No thank you.
But old age aside, I still need some hobbies. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Invasion of the Zinja

2011-04-06T12:24:00.000-07:00

I’ve been wanting to blog lately, but haven’t been able to think of anything worth saying. I’ve been reading a bit of my older sister’s old blog posts (I don’t think she’s updated since January). She inspired me to post more pictures on my blog (because, as a personal blog that primarily only my mother reads, pictures and stories are all she’s looking for. I’m not trying to make any money here.) but my camera is completely dead, and for the life of me I can not find the charger that I KNOW I have somewhere in my small room. (Inevitably it’ll turn up when I start packing this weekend. So annoying.)

So, because I have nothing to write that’s worthwhile, I’ll tell you about my dream last night. It was a doosie!!!

As dreams go, the beginning had something or other to do with my High School Drama teacher, Amanda. The world was being taken over by Ninjas, which at first I thought was really cool, but then I decided I did NOT want to be a part of that. And then the ninjas turned into zombies, becoming Ninja Zombies… Or maybe Zombie Ninjas, I’m not quite sure. (Either way, I’m calling them Zinjas.) So the world was being taken over by these Zinjas that could fly, but – if I remember correctly – they weren’t too smart or strong or fast. I know this because in my dream I ventured out to go to the grocery store (obviously), and as I was getting my shopping cart a bunch of grocery store patrons (who I’m pretty sure were only zombies [not ninjas]) tried to attack me, but it was a really slow attack and I think I just pushed them and ran away. But in their defense, I think they had only recently been zombified. They were probably still just getting used to it.

The main part of my dream came as I was hiding out in some dark apartment with some of my friends (only one of whom of whom was a real person/ a person from my real life), when I decided that I would rather die than become a Zinja, and so I was deciding how best to commit suicide so they couldn’t have my body. Jumping off a bridge and crashing my car into a building were my top two options. Naturally I decided to get onto Facebook to see what was going on in the rest of the world, and I saw a posting from my friend Geoph. He had decided he didn’t want to be a Zinja either, so he had jumped off the top of a movie theatre. He (Geoph) posted a picture of himself falling off an MGM Movie Theatre, with a bunch of people standing on the ground watching him. Also in this picture was a flying Zinja, racing to catch Jeff so he wouldn’t die. Also posted were pictures of Geoph, laying on his back with the back of his head opened and his brain gone. Evidently Geoph had been saved by the Zonja, who then ate his brain, thus turning him into a Zinja, and allowing him to post it all on Facebook (which even in my dream was funny to me).

I woke up with the song “All we wanna do is eat your brains” stuck in my head.

Explanations? The only thing I can think of is that I’ve been watching a lot of “Heroes” lately (and when I say ‘lately’ I actually mean a few weeks ago), and much of what I saw looked like it could have been inspired from that; I was a Zombie at the Zombie Apocalypse last October in Rexburg, but I haven’t looked a tpictures or anything of that for a while. But I did watch an episode of “Ask a Ninja” yesterday for the first time in a long time.

So, if dreams say a lot about you, what the heck does this one say about me??

International Love

2011-04-05T19:52:00.000-07:00

This couple met online (which is actually very common!) - She is from Canada and he is from South Africa (but living in Canada for some reason). They dated for I don't know how long (not very long I think), then decided to get married - 12 days later they were in Arizona for their wedding!!! I love her dress, and I love his accent, and I love that they Skype'd his mom for the ceremony, who couldn't buy a ticket from South Africa in 12 days, and who stayed up until 3AM to watch her son be married halfway across the world. Enjoy.

Hospital Love

2011-04-04T21:13:00.000-07:00

So, this couple seemed really mis-matched to me when I first saw them; really pretty girl with a kind of nerdy guy. But then I listened to their interviews and thought that their story was really cute; They both worked at a hospital and had their eye on the other for a while, but both were too shy to say or do anything about it. Finally one of their mutual friends (who also worked there) told him that she really wanted him to ask her out!! Ahhh.... young love. 'Tis a beautiful thing.

Jamie & Samer At Desert Botanical Garden from Serendipity Videography on Vimeo.

LA Wedding

2011-04-01T19:22:00.000-07:00

This is one of our LA weddings. We did this bride's sister's wedding a little while ago, and so we came highly recommended (of course). I don't think that this tops my other trailer, but it's definitely in the top 5. We had LOTS of DSLR shots - basically the entire thing is made up of the DSLR because Jeff had to load the XD shots onto our other hard drive (the first 13 Terabyte one is full), and didn't tell me about it, so I thought there wasn't anything else!

So, usually an editor watches their stuff through about a million times before posting. But the network in the office was being RIDICULOUS and SUPER slow - it was really unwatchable. It would play for about 3 seconds, then pause, but eh music would (sometimes) keep going, and when the video would catch up it would be 4 or 5 shots down the timeline. Super annoying. So although I got the gist of the video, I ever actually watched it the whole way through until it was uploaded to Vimeo.

Anyway, Taryn did a great job shooting, Jeff did a great job loading, and Jane and Kyle did a great job looking awesome and getting married.

Sanctuary!!!!!

2011-03-30T00:11:00.000-07:00

I attended this wedding this weekend. Taryn edited it a little, but here's the write-up I wrote for the Serendipity Blog:

Susan and Chris are from Chicago and made the wise decision to leave the 30 degree weather and come to the Valley of the Sun for their destination wedding. With the sun setting to the west of Camelback Mountain, The Sanctuary with it’s private and exclusive feel made it the perfect venue for this intimate ceremony and reception. 26 of Susan and Chris’s family and close friends all flew in just to see these two lovebirds tie the knot and make it “official”. It was easy to see that these two belonged together, especially when Chris said in his interview, “Who knew that a text message from a co-worker would end up like this?”

I was able to shoot a little for the first time, both on the DSLR and on the Sony XD!!!!! I'm not very good, but my favorite shot is of the flowers/couple by the blue wall - yeah, I shot that.

Susan and Chris at The Sanctuary from Serendipity Videography on Vimeo.

Grace Ormonde

2011-03-30T00:05:00.000-07:00

On my road to becoming a small business owner, I have entered into my first right of passage; the Cocktail Party.

On Monday Taryn and I ventured to some fancy hotel in Phoenix to a VIP - invitation only event, hosted by none other than Grace Ormonde herself.

Now, if you – like myself – had never heard of Grace Ormonde (pronounced Are-mond), it is a really ritzy magazine full of celebrity/billionaire priced vendors or other ideas for glamorous weddings. So far the magazine has mostly only covered weddings/vendors in New York or California, but they have now decided to branch out to Arizona. Who knew that Phoenix was full of amazing resorts and spas, and that people fly here for weddings all year long (well, minus July and August when (I’m told) it’s just WAY too hot to even be outside for any amount of time)? Oh, that’s right, LOTS of people knew that, but It took Grace a few years to hear it through the grape vine.

Anyway, only the best Phoenix vendors were invited, so of course Serendipity Videography had to make an appearance. We were the only Videographers invited, and the good news didn’t stop there; Grace (who is actually a person, too) chose a wedding to feature in the Fall issue, and we just happened to have filmed that wedding. That means that we get to be on the Grace Ormonde “Platinum List” (meaning we’re one of her ‘favorite’ vendors), are one of two wedding vendors in our category in the state allowed to advertise in the magazine, and we’ll get really great rates on advertising in the magazine, which Taryn is still thinking about.

All of that aside, my first cocktail party was very interesting. (Applicable tangent ahead:) They always serve a full dinner after institute, and when Melissa and I go (which actually has only been twice) we pretty much just get our food, eat as fast as possible and peace out of there. We might stop to talk to a friend or relative of Melissa’s (because I have few or none in the state, let alone any that go to institute), but we are out as soon as possible. The reason? Large groups of people make me really nervous and uncomfortable!! Especially when I’m expected to meet new people. I don’t like all the pressure it creates. I have a hard time looking people in the face, making eye contact, or saying hello. I sound like a total awkward butterfly but it’s just what happens sometimes.

That being said, the entire purpose of this event was to mingle and to meet new people!! However, I felt much different than I did at Institute, or other church events; less like a piece of meat, and more like a young professional. We just mingled with vendors that Taryn already knew, and ate really small servings of really fancy food, and even met the woman herself. She was really nice!! It’s too bad I don’t drink, because there was an open bar. When the lady came around and asked if I wanted a drink I just asked for water! Haha.

The best part for me was meeting the people I had seen from The Special Event events (Gala and lunch) that I had edited. I would see people I know that I knew and be like, “Oh! You did the Gala event!” Or, “Oh, In Love With Metallic’s was awesome!!”

Anyway, over-all it was a fun night and I look forward to many more!!

Lack of Experience

2011-03-26T14:55:00.001-07:00

When I was a Freshman in College I was barely 18 and the youngest in my apartment of 6 girls. As students at BYU-Idaho we got paired up with a guy’s apartment 1) to have Family Home Evening (FHE) every Monday night, and 2) to have someone of the opposite gender we could get to know incase we needed something. The boy’s apartment we were with that semester had 5 or 6 occupants; all were all 21 or older and I think had all recently returned from serving as Missionaries for the church (which I know now doesn’t automatically mean anything – If you know what I mean). It was my first experience spending any large amount of time with boys that were three years my senior, although the difference in maturity was not much different.

It’s mostly because of my perspective now that I can look back and think about how stupid they were, and how embarrassed I am of how I acted around them. Farting jokes and bathroom humor were the norm. Jokes about immorality and rule breaking were actually laughed at. I acted like a fool so they would accept me, and they still didn’t like me much (go figure).

Why is it that girls act so silly when boys – especially older boys – are around? They act like idiots! The answer for me was that I thought that’s what they wanted – for me to joke around, to be their pal – and that would make them want to date me.

As I grew older I realized something very important; I actually don’t want to be liked by boys like that. I don’t want you to talk to me about your bodily functions, or to see the film of when you ate a gallon of applesauce and threw it up all over the table in your high school cafeteria. I’m not into sneaking into places without paying, making fun of people, cracking crude jokes or making inappropriate comments.

I have a good friend who once told me his theory; “Girls only like/date guys who treat them like crap.” I disagreed at first but I’ve seen it so much that I am beginning to agree with him. So what’s the problem here? It is that girls have such low self-respect that they lower their standards in order for idiot boys to like them? Is it that guys can’t treat girls with a little more respect than they do to their younger brother? I’m always interested to look at my world and at my actions and think about why I acted in a certain way. This one I’m pinning on sheer lack of experience.

My Life of Crime

2011-03-22T13:52:00.000-07:00

So, like so many others, my life of crime started with a wedding.

Well, two weddings actually; On Saturday March 19^th I had two weddings to go to: one for work and one for fun – my friend Jackie was getting married to my friend Creed. I left in the morning and met Jackie and the Fuller Family at the Temple. The sealing was awesome, and I hung around for some pictures and for the lunch after words before racing off to work in Gilbert.

Unlike most of the weddings I work at where we just meet the bride and wedding party at their location, we had been asked by Taryn to meet at their house to pick up the equipment. It was convenient for me as well because it gave me a perfect opportunity to change out of my dress and into my black pants and black Serendipity shirt.

Taryn and Jeff were in Tucson for the weekend shooting a wedding down there, so Ryan – another editor – was there when I went over and was telling me that he was going to be house sitting for them so that someone would be there, and the Videographers could drop off their equipment. He also said that he would be there that night.

So I go off to my wedding and am texting Mike and he gave me directions to the Hotel the bride was at, and when I get there I suddenly have no service – full bars, but the dreaded “No Service” notification on my screen. What the heck is up with that?! (I blame T-Mobile) So, my phone is not working – no calling or texting in or out.

So the wedding was fine – but what made it great was that I was able to get off at 7:00 – just in time to go back and party at Jackie and Creed’s reception!! I was still in my black clothes and wanted to change back into my skirt and heels, and the reception location was literally about 45 seconds away from Jeff and Taryn’s house, and Ryan had said that he was going to be there. So I drove over, pulled up to the house, and Ryan was nowhere to be found – the house was completely black. But, as an employee who works in their office I have a key to their home, and knew that neither one would care much if I stopped in to change clothes when they weren’t home.

So I gather my things in my car, get my keys out and unlock the screen door. As I was fumbling to open the door (there was no porch light on) I thought, “Wait, don’t they have an alarm to their house?” “Yeah, I think so, but it’s never set, and Ryan was the last one to leave – he probably didn’t set it.”

So I unlock the front door and all I hear is “Beep…….beep……beep……”

Shoot.

I started to consider my options; 1) I could leave. The police would come, think that the house was actually broken into, alert Jeff and Taryn and they would be afraid for their home and their children for the next few months. they would tell me this story, talk about how afraid it made them, and I would have to pretend I didn’t know anything about it and lie to their faces the rest of my life. I did not want to pursue this option. 2) I could call Taryn and ask what the code was. Oh crimony - my phone was broken!!! PLUS Taryn and Jeff were working, and might nit be able to answer their phones at that moment. PLUS, they both have T-Mobile, so if MY phone wasn’t working correctly, theirs might not working as well (if a tower was down or something, which has happened before). 3) I could guess the code.

I ran into the laundry room where the security box is and saw the countdown: 16….15….14…. and all I could think of was when my mom got her security system installed and the man was explaining to us that if we put in the wrong code it would automatically call and dispatch the police to come. AHHHHHHH!! My options were very few (literally I had no options right now), and time was literally ticking away.

I started frantically to run around the house looking for a rouge cell phone and found one charging on the cupboard. I had no idea whose it was or why it was there, but I opened it and found Taryn’s number on my phone and started dialing it when…

WEEOOOWEEOOOWEEOOOWEEOOOWEEOOOWEEOOOWEEOOO

If you’ve ever been in a home when the alarm goes off you can attest that this is not a pleasant or comforting sound. I was already freaking out and shaking, thinking that the police were going to come and handcuff me off to jail. I was a felon! I broke into someone’s home!! I was going to do hard time!!!

I finished putting Taryn’s number into this phone, pushed the send button, and it didn’t go through!!! Ahhhhh!!!! What was I going to do!?!?!??!???!?

It was then that the home phone rang. I forgot they even had a home phone, because, lets face it, not many people still do these days. I knew it would be the security company calling, so I answered and not so calmly (I really must have sounded QUITE pathetic) explained that I was an employee of theirs and had stopped by for just a moment, but that I didn’t have the code or the security word. The lady on the phone was really nice and asked for my name and said that she would make a few calls.

So, I’m sitting in this home that is not mine with the alarm blaring, wearing all black and waiting for something to happen. I figured I might as well change back into my skirt (the police might be less likely to take in a girl who has a skirt on), and so I went into the bathroom to change. I was shaking so bad with fear and adrenaline. I just kept clutching onto their phone and just sitting…. waiting… trying to block out the sound, and suddenly…

Silence!

The alarm was off!! Some miracle had happened! (or rather, I assumed the lady had talked to Taryn and told her I was there, and Taryn gave the go-ahead to turn it off. I found out later that that was actually not the case.) So I did what anyone in that situation would do – I grabbed my stuff and LEFT!!!! I locked the front door and realized I still had their home phone in my hand, but I was NOT about to open that door again, so I just put it in between their screen door and front door and peaced outta there!!!!!!

On the way to the reception I felt like I was running from the police. I kept seeing cop cars and getting really stiff.

On the plus side, I caught the bouquet!!!

So, that is the story of my life (aka 5 minutes) of crime. I think we can all agree that I would make a lousy felon, especially when it comes to breaking and entering.

Are Boy Names Better than Girl Names?

2011-03-21T12:01:00.000-07:00

This lady has huge false eyelashes. The photographer took a lot of pictures of her in lingerie jumping on her hotel bed. Very strange. I left those out of the video. She is Peruvian I think she said, and he is jewish. I think he looks so boyish and cute when he's putting on his bowtie - adorable. And she walked down the isle to "Sunrise, Sunset" from Fiddler, which I thought was really cool!! Congrats to Victoria (Bride) and Tracy (Groom) (who both have girl names)!!! It's not as good as Zach and Tyeler's video (who both have boy names), but it'll do.

Victoria and Tracy at The Ritz Carlton from Serendipity Videography on Vimeo.

The Peak of my Career.

2011-03-17T18:53:00.000-07:00

Guys, seriously.

This is the best video I have ever made. It looks AMAZING thanks to all of the cameramen. I love the song, I love the shots, I love the cake; Am I crazy, or does it look like something that could be on a famous wedding video website?! I don't even know how that happened. Probably all of the DSLR.

Does anyone know who Zach Potter is? I guess he plays on a football team - the Jaguars I think? Anyway, this is him. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did making it. I don't know how I'll ever do anyhting better than this. I'm not even graduated from college and this might be the peak of my career.

Take two extra seconds and push the full-screen button. Believe me, you won't regret it.

Tyeler & Zack at The Paradise Valley Country Club from Serendipity Videography on Vimeo.

A Little Taste of India

2011-03-16T08:34:00.000-07:00

I went to this wedding this weekend - it was so neat to see a full-out Hindu ceremony and to get a little taste of the Indian culture (figuratively and literally - the food was awesome)!! I only got yelled at by one lady ("No, do not ask us questions about 'how do you know them,' This takes too long to explain! Just let us talk into the camera!" I hope you read that to yourself with an Indian accent.), and had to stop myself from swinging my hips along with all of the cultural music for the sake of 'professionalism.' They have really neat traditions. The bride was actually white, but she looked amazing in her red, detailed and heavy Hindu wedding dress. (The skirt literally weighed 11 pounds. I held it.).

There are a few cool DSLR shots in this one, but our guy with the DSLR camera was only at this wedding for an hour, so the footage was quite limited.

Alexis & Nishant At Montelucia from Serendipity Videography on Vimeo.

Hate Mondays? Well, Stop.

2011-03-14T10:16:00.000-07:00

Why do people hate Mondays so much?

Sure, the weekend is over, ‘play time’ is done and the work week starts over again, but really, Mondays are no different from any other day of the week in anything other than its placement. You go to work, to do your work, and you go home. Mondays are exactly the same as any other weekday.

And yet all over this country people go into work on Mondays with the worst attitudes. (Does anybody know if other countries have the same distaste and unnatural hate of Mondays? I’d be interested to know.) They’re grumpy that they can’t sleep longer, or party harder and come in yelling at their employees about not feeding the fish over the weekend, or leaving the keys hidden in the back of the desk where they’ve been kept safe for the last two months. Can you imagine what life would be like if the weekend was even one day longer? I imagine that people would love it at first, but in the end not only would it totally throw off our calendar, but I bet people would get a lot less done. All adding another day to the weekend would do is give us another day to melt our brains in front of the television while we put off doing our yard work. Can you imagine if businesses closed down for three days? And I’m positive that people would STILL curse Mondays.

If it weren’t for the work week, the weekend would have no significance anyway. We should be GLAD when Monday comes around, because if there were no reason to work, there would be no reason to play. Additionally, we should stop yelling at/treating our Front Desk Concierge like they are an idiot when they haven’t been at work since Friday at noon. I imagine she doesn’t like it, and it makes her want to quit.

Just sayin’.

Second Try

2011-03-09T09:52:00.000-08:00

Ok, well this is my second try with the DSLR. Editing went MUCH faster, but still a lot of rendering time was needed. There is a lot of the DSLR in this one, and I think it turned out really nicely, but we had to scrap a lot of the really cool shots because the bride looked so unpleasant. (She's on the right track, baby she was born that way. Lady Gaga aside, she seemed really nice!!!) Just your average Jewish wedding under a chuppah.

So my question to all of you is this: Can you tell which shots the DSLR are? What are your favorite parts of the video?

Jennifer & Lyle at The Hotel Valley Ho from Serendipity Videography on Vimeo.

Quantum... Terror?

2011-03-07T09:21:00.000-08:00

I don’t like watching scary movies, and this weekend I realized why.

Usually when I’m lying in bed I like to think about my day or maybe my plans for tomorrow. When I get tired of thinking I start to count my heartbeat, which lulls me off to sleep (better than counting sheep!) What I don’t like to do while I’m laying in bed is to jump at every sound, to have my heart race, and to be afraid to get up in the dark for fear of there being some man dressed in black with a knife ready to slice me open.

Last Saturday I was home alone and watching Quantum Leap. Usually this show is very, uh, non-threatening, with Sam taking down a member of the KKK, a corrupt politician, or an entire gang of motorcycle riders. (If you’re not familiar with the show, I hope this last sentence just convinced you to look into it.) However, in the episode “Dreams” in the 3rs season, Sam leaped into a cop who left him with some childhood memories. The man –Jack – had just arrived on the scene of a crime; a murder where the mother of a family had been killed, cut apart, and her heart stolen, and these childhood memories keep popping up. (Look at these pictures!! totally creepy, am I right?!)

Now, I wouldn’t say that I am a forensic-show junkie. However, my first semester in college every week we watched about 5 hours of CSI, so I wouldn’t say that I’m afraid of these types of things. But for some reason, this episode on this night at this time, being home alone, REALLY freaked me out. So much that I HAD to stay up until about 12:30 and watch another episode, one where Sam leaped into a con-artist. Much better.

So right now I make a resolve; I promise that I will never again watch a scary movie… or at least not after 2PM. And NEVER by myself. And if I do I promise that I will do my best to make fun of it the entire time (because really, there’s a lot to make fun of in scary movies, if you’re in a situation to.) They do strange things to my brain. I don’t like it.

TSE Lunch

2011-03-05T15:53:00.000-08:00

More of The Special Event!! This luncheon was held during TSE, and included the theme of "In Love with Metalics", and a speaker who gave and Oprah-esque "My favorite things" presentation - wedding 2011 style. for the first time I got to choose my own music! I really like the fast cuts and short clips I used. Good show everyone.

Taking a Step Out of the Ordinary

2011-02-26T09:00:00.000-08:00

Until very recently I felt like I had to use this Blog as a professional-type page to post my videos. Almost as an online resume, so my future employers could see all of my amazing work (haha). However, this last week I was offered a full-time job at Serendipity starting in August (after I graduate) as a full-time editor, assistant to the owner with, well, lets say opportunities to expand with the business.

Because of this, and a few other things, I feel liberated from my self-imposed blogging confinements. I can’t promise that my postings will be consistent, or even interesting, but they will definitely be more lax.

I have two things on my mind right now: the first one is Senior living. Currently (as in as I am typing this) I am on the clock at Emeritus Senior Living Center – an Assisted Living home for the elderly. I feel a very small tinge of guilt for my being paid to blog, but on the other hand I literally have nothing else to do; My job is to answer phones, and do other tasks that are assigned to me by the directors. However, no directors are here at the moment, and the phones are not ringing. I brought some books to read, and I am always willing to do a bit of texting, but I feel like this keeps me more aware of what is going on around me. This also seemed like a better option that staring off into space, or taking a nap in the back room.

Also, as a side note, I have on pink sparkly jelly shoes and am feeling pretty good about that.

The second thing I have on my mind is the movie Inception. For my online Humanities class we had to watch a movie and apply Aristotle’s six principles of story to it. Inception is as movie I was wary about watching because of its rating, but after having friends whose movie standards I trust recommend it to me, as well as looking it up on KidsInMind.comI decided to go for it.

Wow.

Wow wow wow. That’s all I can even say about it. It’s a movie that is so psychological and mind blowing that I can’t get it out of my head. I watched it Thursday night, and stayed up to write the paper. (It wasn’t actually due until Friday, but I wanted to write it as ASAP as possible, so I could describe it correctly.) I didn’t go to bed until nearly 2AM, and had to get up at 6:30 to make it to work on time, so admitently I didn’t get much sleep, but even so, the strangest things kept happening that morning, and I couldn’t help wondering if I was still in a dream.

Example: I was listening to the radio as I was getting ready and the traffic report included an incident where somebody (I recall him saying it was either a semi, or very large truck) drove into a family’s pool. The man reporting said that it was the 5th time it had happened to this family (that someone drove into their pool), and the driver’s only complaint was pruny thumbs.

This is a very strange report, and one might expect morning radio announcers to comment and make fun of it. But nobody acted as if anything was strange about it. Am I the only one who thinks this is odd?

Anyway, back to the subject at hand; The one and only complaint I had about the film was that everyone’s dreams seemed so normal. My dreams are not nearly so common – I always dream about stupid stuff, like I’m a bear protecting my family who lives in a white tent in the forest, or I’m on a mini train and have to protect the balloon that powers the whole thing (both real dreams of mine). People morph and transform into other people without question, and my home is never the place that I actually live. Other than that I give it about 10 thumbs up. Great job especially to Leo, who I‘ve always thought was a really good actor, and to the kid from 3rd Rock from the Sun, who I always thought was really attractive.

Our First DSLR Hybrid

2011-02-26T08:43:00.000-08:00

Recently Serendipity boutght some Cannon DSLR photo cameras. Evidently recording things on a photo camera is the new big thing in videography. (You would think VIDEOgraphers would only want to use VIDEOcameras. Go figure.) A lot of videography shops have fully converted and are only shooting on the DSLRs, but the audio on them stinks and the batteries only last so long, so we figured out a way do to a hybrid with both the DSLR AND our Sony XD cameras. However, the conversion takes FOREVER and you have to re-render every time you move a clip on the Final Cut timeline. It's kind of a nightmare, and I was the lucky one chosen to forge the way.

Anyway, the point of all of this is to tell my story - usually a trailer like this takes about 2-3 hours to get perfect, including transitions, audio, color correcting, having it make sense, etc. However, this being Serendipity's first 'Hybrid' viedo, it took me about 8-10 hours to finish this. I felt like I was walking through mud up to my waist; It was so difficult because the DSLR footage effects everything, and makes it all run SO SLOW. That, and the fact that I did the whole thing to a song that just was not working, so I essentially started all over after about 5 hours.

But in the end it's the bride that we want to please, and Alexis emailed us and said,

"Awesome!!! Thank you again!!! I honestly cannot stop watching the Trailer! Absolutely love it! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!!! Alexis =)"

Mission accomplished.

Alexis & Max at L'Auberge from Serendipity Videography on Vimeo.
Also, you might recognize the song as the EXACT SAME ONE as I used in the Gala Awards video. And in my defence, Taryn chooses all of the songs for us to use. I didn't mind too much.

Switchin' It Up

2011-02-11T18:22:00.000-08:00

So about two or three weeks ago some of the Serendipity videographers went to "The Special Event." I still only partially understand what exactly it was, or what it was for, but I got to edit it! I love the song choice, and how well things worked out with the timing and spacing of the video. My favorite part of the video is... well, I love a lot of parts. But I REALLY love the dancers behind the screen at 1:33, and the spinning trampoline guys at 2:01. Great job everyone, and thanks to Taryn for letting me switch it up out of the wedding scene!

TSE Gala Event from Serendipity Videography on Vimeo.

Amanda and Jason at the Hyatt Gainey Ranch

2011-01-31T21:42:00.001-08:00

This is the first wedding I coordinated; I went this last Saturday to the Hyatt Gainey Ranch - a huge resort/golf course in Scottsdale. The bride was so happy and excited to be getting married to her groom and it was SO nice to be an actual part - however small - of the excitement. My favorite part of the entire video is at 1:02 when he sees her for the first time in her dress, all dolled up. So cute.

Congrats Amanda and Jason.

**UPDATE: Here is what Amanda had to say about the Trailer:
"Jason and I have watched this trailer over and over and over, and we cry every single time! We both CANNOT wait to see the whole thing!"
Aww, thanks Amanda!

Amanda & Jason At Hyatt Gainey Ranch from Serendipity Videography on Vimeo.

First Officially Unofficial Trailer

2011-01-24T22:38:00.000-08:00

As promised, here's the first trailer I worked on. and remember, I only did a little over half of it. I think I changed some things starting playing around with things at 1:37, and right around 1:57 it's all me. Fun times!!!

Sherry and Matt at Villa Siena from Serendipity Videography on Vimeo.

Wedding Trailer

2011-01-24T22:31:00.000-08:00

So, I got this awesome internship at Serendipity Videography this semester. I've only been here for three weeks, but I've already learned so much! They do what they call "Wedding Trailers" to get the couple excited about their longer film, and to let them see a little of what will be coming. So, today I was allowed to do my first entire trailer. (I did the second half of another one last week. I guess I should post that one, too.) I LOVE doing it!! I worked on it for a little while, then really felt like the video transitions should match the music. I think it turned out so well. And the only things I had to change from the origional was to slow one shot down and to cut a urinal out of another (seriously goom, was there no better place to hang ou before the ceremony than the mens bathrooms?)

Anyway, enjoy! Oh, also, the song is by One Republic.

Allison & Bryce from Serendipity Videography on Vimeo.

Sam's Senior Project

2010-10-20T09:01:00.001-07:00

My Sister Samantha had to do a Senior Project this year. I was volunteered to make a video so she wouldn't have to do a 10 minute presentation. Good thing I love to edit! Enjoy.

Lucky

2010-08-19T17:47:00.000-07:00

Emily and I made this while waiting for our friends to pick us up to go float the river (so please excuse the immodesty). All we had was a camera... and a dream. Ok, that's not true. All we really had was a camera. Although I think it's a pretty accurate portrayal of living with Emily. The audio I used was a bit odd, and it cut off at the end so I had to make due with what I had.

This is our little homage to Brittany... and Miranda.

That's How I Beat shaq

2010-08-19T16:44:00.000-07:00

I made this video for the final in my Final Cut Express class. I did it on campus and something didn't save right, so the video won't upload to youtube. I uploaded it onto Facebook, but it altered the dimensions, so that's why it's all screwy!

Anyway, it's just a silly video but it was a lot of fun to make! It's a lot harder working with groups than it is with individuals. Thanks for everyone that helped - especially my star Emily Transtrum!

Sam's Senior Project

2010-04-13T18:23:00.002-07:00

Final Cut

2010-04-13T18:23:00.001-07:00

This is a second cut of my Parents as Teachers project (from below), this time with interviews from actual participants in the program! It was very interesting to find out what actual participants thought/felt about the program.

Parents as Teachers

2010-04-07T16:44:00.000-07:00

I don't know what the deal is with these videos. for the life of me I can NOT make them any smaller! Annoying because I WAS able to do it with my other video... oh well. If you're having trouble seeing it, just go to YouTube I suppose... Anyway, here is another look at the Parents as Teachers program. A more persuasive look. A little more heart-felt emotion and music. Enjoy!

Parents as Teachers

2010-03-30T16:13:00.000-07:00

In today's economy, and with Idaho's educational funding going down, parents may want to look into one program the Madison County school district has implemented. This is a national program that is proven to work. Enjoy, and expect to see more about it next week or so!

Lyme Disease

2010-03-16T19:07:00.000-07:00

Well, I really am not 100% satisfied with this package. There is SO much more information out there that I couldn't even begin to put in. Lyme Disease is easy to treat when detected early. However, it is infamous for being misdiagnosed. Those that aren't treated right away can be severely affected by it. Often doctors have to put their license on the line to treat those with cronic illness and pain. It's a really sad thing.

Rexburg's TVs

2010-03-02T19:53:00.000-08:00

Have you ever wondered what sort of an impact things like Televisions are in a college apartment? Last Semester we didn't have a TV, and I did so well in all of my classes. We got new TVs in December, and this semester is a LOT different. I did a small study on how some people feel about televisions in their apartments. I hope you enjoy it!

Jenzebar

2010-02-16T18:55:00.001-08:00

Well, here is my first news package! I had all of my video clips done by last week, but something happened and half of them were lost in the abyss of Apace! So I had to go out and re-interview my IT guys and new students. Oh well - if nothing else it was great practice!

I really wish I could have made this longer. there was so much good information, especially given by Brother Stone and Brother Kunz. but, that's the life of a journalist, I suppose!

Enjoy!

My Interview With Cristina Perez

2010-01-22T07:41:00.000-08:00

This is the first on-camera interview I have ever done. The dimensions are a little off, but, oh well ... Enjoy!!