Digital Media & Branding

The first thing that must said about The Chronicles of Narnia is that they are in fact made for children. This is an epic series for young imaginative minds and I believe the author, C.S. Lewis did this with purpose. In my opinion Lewis had set out to present deep and timeless truths by using allegory that may or may not be timeless itself.
That being said, I will now do my best to review this movie as a movie….not a retelling of the book, but a retelling of the timeless truths that C.S. Lewis intended to convey. I will also briefly say, that I believe the voyages in the book were much richer and more meaningful than the movie portrayed. I think that the writers who transcript the novel to a screen play made some silly changes that didn’t need to be made. So if this were a review of how well the story was told, it would not get the same ratio of stars.

But this is a movie review, and alas, it is time to review the movie!!

The director was Michael Apted who’s other movies include Coal Minor’s Daughter, Gorillas in the Mist, The World is Not Enough, and a few other films that give him credibility. Apted and his team did a great job setting up the shots that included a slew of complicated CGi characters. The actors reacted well to those characters and you very quickly forgot that they were CGi.
Reepicheep is one of Narnia’s most noble characters who fervently seeks after adventure and honor. He has the heart of a lion and the stature of a mouse. As a matter of fact, he is a mouse! To truly fall in love with Reepicheep I would suggest reading the book or finding a radio drama of the chronicled stories. I was impressed that this fully CGi character wasn’t EVER distractingly CGi. Even in the Lord of the Rings, the amazingly constructed Gollum was many times obviously a CGi character. I have great respect for the 3D artists that made these characters come to life.

SHOULD YOU WATCH IT IN 3D???? No! Spend that extra money on a soda or candy! I’m not an anti-3D person. I think there is a time and a place. This movie did not benefit from 3D.

The acting was done well and you will either love to hate our new character Eustace Scrubb or you will just hate him! This was a GREAT cast! This little guy has a face that drips with bitterness and pride yet has the acting chops to make you feel like he’s “work in progress”. And you better get used to that face, because his character is the lead role in the next Chronicle.

This story is more about Lucy and Edmund making that transformation from children to young adults. Lucy gets most of the plot line in the movie and it is quite skewed from the true story from C.S. Lewis. However, these modern storytellers kept the same over all idea of our characters who are charged with making the right decisions under great temptations.

In short I believe that this movie was VERY well done and as a stand alone movie it is a great night at the cinema that your kids will enjoy as well as you adults! Just look past the subtle changes in the story line and quick moments of bad acting and you’ve got your self a 4 star movie!! Hope you go out and enjoy it. Please feel free to leave your thoughts about the movie below. Agree with me! Disagree with me!! As long as we’re still talking!

October 1st was a great day to get married. We shot a Korean/Christian wedding and it was a blast. This was our first wedding that an actual catastrophe occurred! No worries, it wasn’t on our end….but somehow the bouquets went missing! Not just the bride’s, but all of the bride’s maid’s bouquets too! While many brides would have lost their cool, turned a bright angry red color, and strangled anyone within a 20ft radius, Hye Young handled it like a pro! She never lost her smile and even though the ceremony started almost an hour late, it was still a beautiful wedding.

The big day was held at Global Harvest Church ( A New Song Church) in Plano, TX and the pastor translated his English to Korean. This obviously made the ceremony twice as long but 3 times as meaningful. It’s easy for us American’s to forget the beauty of another language and the rich culture that can be attached to it. We saw a few Korean traditions that we were not aware of before this day and we left with a sense of enrichment. We were also reminded that the things we see in our traditional weddings here in the states have deep meaning behind them each of them and it would be a terrible thing to forget that. The reception was held at III Forks in Dallas, TX and that’s where many of the traditions took place. All in all this wedding reminded us of the beauty behind tradition, family, and culture. Thank you to this wonderful family and we at Memories Films wish you guys a life filled with laughter and love!

It is now the second day of the last month in this year! As I think back on 2010 I can recall some of the toughest days in my life swirled with some of the most exciting times. Storied Productions has seen major growth with the launch of Memories Films . We will total around 18 weddings in 2010 and we have higher hopes for 2011.

Just as any new company we have had some growing pains and hard lessons to learn. I believe that 2011 will be the year that Storied has a chance to get comfortable in the rhythms that have been set by the enormous work load we experienced these past several months. This will be the year that we really implement that old cliche, “Work smarter not harder.” So what can you expect to see from us in the next 12 months?
Lets be honest. In this industry things can change without warning. Our goal is to create a company that will stand the test of time and we can’t do that without big dreams and hard workers! We’ve been blessed with both! You will see us make quiet strides to streamline our internal efficiencies and produce a greater volume of shows, weddings, commercials, and websites. You will see a modest attempt to get our business known by our beloved Dentonites (Denton, TX). It is important to us to develop long lasting relationships with local business owners as well as residents. If you watch carefully, you will see Storied Productions rise to the next level of professionalism as we take what we’ve learned and apply it to each client, story, website, or communications set before us.

Mark Twain once said, “If you hold a cat by the tail you learn things you cannot learn any other way.“Well we’ve been holding this cat by the tail since August 2008 and we don’t plan on letting it go! The continuation of education is something highly regarded around here and we aren’t really talking about degree programs and certificates. Those things have their place in the world, but I’m talking about learning from life experiences. We take each production and learn something new. You will see us become even more knowledgeable this next year and if 2010 has taught us anything, we know that 2011′s education will come with a large dose of humility!
We would be honored if you chose to follow us as we take on 2011 with a healthy dose of confidence merged with a healthy dose of fear and humility. On that note, feel free to leave your comments on our blog and visit our facebook page!
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We’d also like to make a quick shout-out to our new friends at A Different Perspective Photography. What a great crew of photographers to work with! We recommend them to anyone looking for photography work! Tell them Storied Productions or Memories Films

September 25th was a busy busy day for Memories Films! Xavier and Tiffany’s wedding started at 10 am and we arrived at the groom’s house by 7am and it was a rainy Saturday morning. Even though it was rainy and early the groom and his guys greeted us and we quickly got to work. One of our videographers stood out in the rain while protecting the camera just to get that great shot of the car in the garage. That sort of shot would have been too intimidating for some videographers…but he is fearless and it shows in his work! We’re lucky to have him… Thanks Jorge!!

We were also lucky enough to have the ceremony at a familiar chapel called The Marty Leonard Chapel in Ft. Worth. We were concerned because the clouds and rain were really taking away our light, and that chapel is made of mostly windows. It turned out to be some really nice footage despite the lack of direct sunlight.

You may expect a family like the Carter’s, who’s most well known legacy is in regards to starting the Dallas Maverick’s Basketball Franchise, to be unapproachable. Nothing could be further from the truth. We were honored to be chosen among the Dallas/Ft. Worth Videographers to capture the wedding of the franchise founder’s grandson. Each person in this family as well as the Bride’s family were all great to work with and incredibly nice! I don’t think I ever saw Natasha, the bride, without a smile on her face and Lee, her Groom, was full of nervous energy as he tried to contain his excitement.

We shot this wedding at Dallas Baptist University where their family have been alma-maters for several generations. This location was beautiful! Their chapel is less than a year old and all the natural light flooded into the rooms to make for some breathtaking shots.

We decided to showcase the exit sequence to show a little different side of our wedding videos. It’s not a traditional warm fuzzy feeling as the music of Cat Power serenades the romantic night sky with beautifully contrasting bokeh in the background. As the editor, I was hoping to bring a little more weight to the romance that many videos lose with using overtly “happy” music. I wanted to bring attention to the deep intimacy that marriage represents and I thought that this dramatic sequence would help do that. I would love to know what you think about it!

It was a warm Ft. Worth Morning as the crew and I pulled up to the labyrinth of streets that surround the Ft. Worth Club in downtown Ft. Worth. What a beautiful interior and a welcoming staff! They really know how to take care of their vendors at this venue. We were served gourmet sandwiches and some of the best cookies I think I have ever had…just don’t tell my mother I said that! Read more…