It is with great pleasure that McKenna Video Services announces that our new website is up and running!
We have been working real hard at getting this revision "live" to the web. We still have to complete some minor tweaks to some code and we still have to get videos uploaded, but we now can give our customers more information than what they were receiving under our "flash" version (we call it MVS 1.0).
Additionally, we will now be able to easily post news and press releases about the company, make changes to product and service offerings, add and delete referral partners, etc. Future changes to www.mckennavideo.com will include an opt-in newsletter and "search" features.
And don't forget that in addition to www.mckennavideo.com we also manage www.mvsweddings.com and www.chrismckennaphotography.com (shameless plugs :-) ).
We look forward to continuing to serve you!
Chris McKenna
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Right is right....
"Right is right, even if everyone is against it; and wrong is wrong, even if everyone is for it."
- William Penn
- William Penn
Friday, April 18, 2008
New website coming soon
Good evening.
We are now winding down our work week, yes it is late, but we have a lot going on here at McKenna Video that is keeping us busy. Not the least of which is a complete makeover to our website.
Flash-gone! HTML-returns!
While we have had many of our customers offer positive comments about the look and feel of our flash site, we found it extremely difficult to manage and update with relevant and updated content. So we made the hard, ok painful decision late last week to ditch the flash version and return to HTML.
While this may upset some of our hardcore fans, we know that you'll love what we're doing with the new site. Here is a preview...
This site will be much easier to navigate, to find information related to our services, to find our press releases, and to find people that we know and recommend.
Our plan is to have the site go live, minus the video demos (i.e., portfolio) by May 1. Stay tuned.
God's blessings.
Chris.
We are now winding down our work week, yes it is late, but we have a lot going on here at McKenna Video that is keeping us busy. Not the least of which is a complete makeover to our website.
Flash-gone! HTML-returns!
While we have had many of our customers offer positive comments about the look and feel of our flash site, we found it extremely difficult to manage and update with relevant and updated content. So we made the hard, ok painful decision late last week to ditch the flash version and return to HTML.
While this may upset some of our hardcore fans, we know that you'll love what we're doing with the new site. Here is a preview...
This site will be much easier to navigate, to find information related to our services, to find our press releases, and to find people that we know and recommend.Our plan is to have the site go live, minus the video demos (i.e., portfolio) by May 1. Stay tuned.
God's blessings.
Chris.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Why Uncle Charlie's wedding video won't make you happy
Or cousin Steve, best-friend Jim, or the friend-of-a-friend for that matter.
We have seen many despondent former brides (i.e., just married) over the last couple of years asking us to do something with the video that an amateur shot for them. Some of the problems that we have seen range from bad or inaudible audio to uncontrollable camera shake, from severe backlighting (causing silhouettes) to an out-of-focus subject. While we sympathize with these people a lot, 9 times out of 10 there is not too much we can do to make their video better.
Here is a rundown of the top complaints that we hear for former brides:
1) I can’t hear our vows;
2) There is too much ambient noise (i.e., babies crying, guests talking, etc.);
3) The picture is too shaky;
4) The video is hard to follow;
5) The camera man missed my bouquet toss;
6) There is only 1 camera angle.
We have noticed that these are becoming a bigger and bigger problem and, quite frankly, occurring with far too much frequency. While a lot of people want to have their wedding video taped, a lot can’t or don’t want to pay for it. When we encounter people that fall into this category, we encourage them to try and put a dollar figure on never being able to relive your wedding in a way that you deserve. They usually can’t because no dollar figure could ever be placed on that.
You want the best photographer for your wedding, the best locale, the best caterer. So why not the best video? Explore all your options for video and don’t settle for Uncle Charlie.
Visit MVS Weddings for more information.
God’s peace and mercy,
Chris
We have seen many despondent former brides (i.e., just married) over the last couple of years asking us to do something with the video that an amateur shot for them. Some of the problems that we have seen range from bad or inaudible audio to uncontrollable camera shake, from severe backlighting (causing silhouettes) to an out-of-focus subject. While we sympathize with these people a lot, 9 times out of 10 there is not too much we can do to make their video better.
Here is a rundown of the top complaints that we hear for former brides:
1) I can’t hear our vows;
2) There is too much ambient noise (i.e., babies crying, guests talking, etc.);
3) The picture is too shaky;
4) The video is hard to follow;
5) The camera man missed my bouquet toss;
6) There is only 1 camera angle.
We have noticed that these are becoming a bigger and bigger problem and, quite frankly, occurring with far too much frequency. While a lot of people want to have their wedding video taped, a lot can’t or don’t want to pay for it. When we encounter people that fall into this category, we encourage them to try and put a dollar figure on never being able to relive your wedding in a way that you deserve. They usually can’t because no dollar figure could ever be placed on that.
You want the best photographer for your wedding, the best locale, the best caterer. So why not the best video? Explore all your options for video and don’t settle for Uncle Charlie.
Visit MVS Weddings for more information.
God’s peace and mercy,
Chris
Monday, April 14, 2008
DVD's and fingerprints: not a good match
Have you ever owned a DVD disc, or CD for that matter, that stopped working after a time? "It worked before, but now it doesn't," you say, "and my player still works fine with my other discs."
We receive a lot of calls from individuals that experience this type of problem and they want us to fix their disc. Our first response is a question back to them, "are there a lot of fingerprints on the back side of the disc?" The usual response is in the affirmative.
You see, contrary to popular belief, a disc is not an indestrucable, error-free form of digital media. All discs need to be free of dust, scratches, fingerprints, peanut-butter and the like in order to work correctly (lasers in the players need to read the information contained on the disc and obstructions prevent them from being read correctly). Burnable, duplicated, and home-media can be more suseptible to errors than factory replicated discs if they are not treated with respect.
This is generally as easy problem to remedy-clean the disc of fingerprints and nine times out of ten this will resolve the issue. Cleaning is a matter of using a disc cleaning solution (usually found in your local electronics store) and essentially wiping the fingerprints away. The motion to follow is NOT one of rubbing in concentric circles like waxing a car, but rather a straight line from the inner hole to the outer edge. Simple! One word of caution-only use wipes only designated for this application. Wipes that are made of wood products (tissue, toilet-paper, kitchen wipes, etc.), can actually scratch the disc and should be avoided!
Scratches, on the other hand, are something completely different. That, however, is a topic for another post (BTW-this is a huge problem with rental discs).
God's peace,
Chris.
We receive a lot of calls from individuals that experience this type of problem and they want us to fix their disc. Our first response is a question back to them, "are there a lot of fingerprints on the back side of the disc?" The usual response is in the affirmative.
You see, contrary to popular belief, a disc is not an indestrucable, error-free form of digital media. All discs need to be free of dust, scratches, fingerprints, peanut-butter and the like in order to work correctly (lasers in the players need to read the information contained on the disc and obstructions prevent them from being read correctly). Burnable, duplicated, and home-media can be more suseptible to errors than factory replicated discs if they are not treated with respect.
This is generally as easy problem to remedy-clean the disc of fingerprints and nine times out of ten this will resolve the issue. Cleaning is a matter of using a disc cleaning solution (usually found in your local electronics store) and essentially wiping the fingerprints away. The motion to follow is NOT one of rubbing in concentric circles like waxing a car, but rather a straight line from the inner hole to the outer edge. Simple! One word of caution-only use wipes only designated for this application. Wipes that are made of wood products (tissue, toilet-paper, kitchen wipes, etc.), can actually scratch the disc and should be avoided!
Scratches, on the other hand, are something completely different. That, however, is a topic for another post (BTW-this is a huge problem with rental discs).
God's peace,
Chris.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Tom & Carole: Coincidence or Providence?
We had the priveledge of filming the wedding of Tom and Carole Smith yesterday. They were married at St. Theresa's Catholic Church in Federal Way, Wa. 
What a great story in that these two have found each other and are now joined in holy matrimony.
Prayers were definately answered in that our weather could not have been nicer for this great event.
Congratulations and best wishes to Tom & Carole. May you have many happy years together.
God's blessings,
Chris & Lynette.
What a great story in that these two have found each other and are now joined in holy matrimony.
Prayers were definately answered in that our weather could not have been nicer for this great event.
Congratulations and best wishes to Tom & Carole. May you have many happy years together.
God's blessings,
Chris & Lynette.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Where do your customers come from?
Good morning.
Yesterday, I had the good fortune to be a honored guest at a luncheon sponsored by the Tacoma Executive Association. During that meeting, I met a lot of business professionals from the south Sound region as well as getting an eduction in commercial real estate--which was very interesting. Did you know that there are 5 different categories of commercial real estate: office space, retail, industrial, multi-family (5 or more family dwellings), and land.
Anyway, I was asked numerous time where my customers come from. Not necessarily the source or how they heard about McKenna Video Services (direct mail, yellow pages, internet, etc.), but what areas we draw from. Certainly, most of our customers come from the local area: Puyallup, Sumner, Orting, Puyallup, Tacoma, Edgewood, Gig Harbor, Graham, Federal Way, Auburn, Kent, Renton, Olympia, Lacey, Bonney Lake, and Buckley. But as I was thinking about where our customers are, I am also reminded that we have had a number of customers from outside the immediate region and how we have worked with them and served their needs.
Although we are not a mail-order company and our websites are not set-up to handle internet orders, we can work with customers via mail (and sometimes fed-ex and UPS). Using these methods, we have worked with people from all over our state (Washington) and other states including Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Colorado, Indiana, Florida, South Carolina, and even New York.
The benefit to you? We are here to serve you in a very personal manner. We are not a mega-corporation that has invested millions into an impersonal online ordering system. We do not sell pre-packaged and pre-arranged transfer and keepsake packages like most of those companies do. We work with each of our customers to complete their video project with individualization, personalization, customization, and the highest level of customer service possible.
Can those other companies do that?
God's blessings to you.
Chris.
Yesterday, I had the good fortune to be a honored guest at a luncheon sponsored by the Tacoma Executive Association. During that meeting, I met a lot of business professionals from the south Sound region as well as getting an eduction in commercial real estate--which was very interesting. Did you know that there are 5 different categories of commercial real estate: office space, retail, industrial, multi-family (5 or more family dwellings), and land.
Anyway, I was asked numerous time where my customers come from. Not necessarily the source or how they heard about McKenna Video Services (direct mail, yellow pages, internet, etc.), but what areas we draw from. Certainly, most of our customers come from the local area: Puyallup, Sumner, Orting, Puyallup, Tacoma, Edgewood, Gig Harbor, Graham, Federal Way, Auburn, Kent, Renton, Olympia, Lacey, Bonney Lake, and Buckley. But as I was thinking about where our customers are, I am also reminded that we have had a number of customers from outside the immediate region and how we have worked with them and served their needs.
Although we are not a mail-order company and our websites are not set-up to handle internet orders, we can work with customers via mail (and sometimes fed-ex and UPS). Using these methods, we have worked with people from all over our state (Washington) and other states including Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Colorado, Indiana, Florida, South Carolina, and even New York.
The benefit to you? We are here to serve you in a very personal manner. We are not a mega-corporation that has invested millions into an impersonal online ordering system. We do not sell pre-packaged and pre-arranged transfer and keepsake packages like most of those companies do. We work with each of our customers to complete their video project with individualization, personalization, customization, and the highest level of customer service possible.
Can those other companies do that?
God's blessings to you.
Chris.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Why video for your wedding
We here at McKenna Video Services are tooling up for another great year of video production. Two years ago, we decided to do something that we hadn't done before: we opted for a booth at the Tacoma Wedding Expo. We were privileged to talk with a lot of brides about the possibilities of a video production of their wedding. And while a great deal of them were receptive to the idea, many were not. And so as we get ready for another weddings season, we find motivation for this blog.
In talking with brides, we find that their top three priorities is a wedding/reception site, a dress, and a florist, followed by photographer and caterers. Video usually ranks somewhere along the bottom. Why is this? Is it because of the cost and budgets can get real tight when planning a wedding? Is it because most people have their own video camera, thus giving Uncle Charlie the ability to shoot your wedding and present it to you as a gift? Is it because when weddings were invented video was not around, in other words, tradition? It's probably a little bit of all these, and possibly a little bit more. But let me take the next few moments to talk about the three aforementioned reasons.
Tradition. Yes, it is true that when weddings were invented video wasn't around. The same can be said for photography for that matter, yet you'd still want to have your wedding photographed, wouldn't you? How about the carefully thought-out flower arrangements, or the DJ for your reception? The fact of the matter is technology has evolved over the years and so have weddings. Most people, even those that steadfastly refuse to have video, appreciate the fact that they have "moving pictures" years later. No medium can capture the fun, the excitement, and the emotion like video can. Think of it this way, someone says or does something funny at your wedding or reception and everybody laughs. SNAP-you have a picture. Priceless. But can you hear those that were photographed actually laugh as you turn the pages in your album to that particular page? Can you see and hear the exact moment that the laughter turned into hysterics? Can you hear the comment that made them all roll on the floor? Not so with photographs (and these comments are coming from a photographer), but with video, the likelihood of capturing those particular moments has increased exponentially.
A recent study commissioned by WEVA International states that 98% of all surveyed newlyweds recommend video to future brides. Interestingly, brides don't fully appreciate the value of video until after the wedding. Before the wedding, only a little more than half of surveyed brides considered video a "Top 10" service in comparison to other wedding-related services. After the wedding, however, the number climbs to 75%.
Do you or someone you know own a video camera? Just about everyone does these days. Technology has made them very affordable. And guess what, your Uncle Charlie has just offered to tape your wedding and give it to you as a gift. What a nice guy!!! But wait, consider a couple of differences between a professional videographer and uncle Charlie before accepting your uncle's offer and foregoing a professional. First is equipment. A professional videographer will have invested thousands of dollars into professional equipment vs. the three hundred dollar model your uncle shelled out for his. A professional will have numerous high-end cameras (giving you a better picture and possibly even different angles), appropriate microphones ('wiring' up the groom so you can actually hear your vows), and lights when needed or as appropriate just to name a few. Training is another big difference. A professional videographer will know how to use their camera and will know what all the buttons actually do (once again for a better picture). And since they will be removed from the action of the day, a professional will actually be in place to get the best shot (given certain limitations placed on them by a priest, pastor, minister, confines of the location, safety, etc.). The final big difference is in the edit and delivery of your production. While there are some very easy-to-use and inexpensive video editing programs available, they just do not live up to the form and function that professional video editing can deliver.
Cost. Yes, video can stretch your budget a little. But consider the cost of a video production over the life of your marriage. If your video costs two thousand dollars, and you spread the cost over 5 years, that boils the cost down to just four hundred dollars a year-certainly affordable for any budget. Planning on staying married longer? The cost, amortized over the life of your marriage becomes a lot less expensive with each passing year.
And many years down the road, how can one apply that cost to having your children witness your marriage? As the Visa commercials tell us: it's PRICELESS!!! Most couples do not want to skimp on their photographer, their florist, their caterer or any of the other wedding "must haves", so why skimp on a video? If you choose to have your wedding videotaped, don't cut corners here either. Your wedding day is the biggest day of your life. It is the desire of McKenna Video Services - MVS Wedding Productions to make sure that the day doesn't end when the lights go out and the guests go home. You should be able to enjoy this day and the memories that are created on this day for the rest of your life.
God's blessings,
Chris
http://www.mckennavideo.com/
http://www.mvsweddings.com/
http://www.chrismckennaphotography.com/
In talking with brides, we find that their top three priorities is a wedding/reception site, a dress, and a florist, followed by photographer and caterers. Video usually ranks somewhere along the bottom. Why is this? Is it because of the cost and budgets can get real tight when planning a wedding? Is it because most people have their own video camera, thus giving Uncle Charlie the ability to shoot your wedding and present it to you as a gift? Is it because when weddings were invented video was not around, in other words, tradition? It's probably a little bit of all these, and possibly a little bit more. But let me take the next few moments to talk about the three aforementioned reasons.
Tradition. Yes, it is true that when weddings were invented video wasn't around. The same can be said for photography for that matter, yet you'd still want to have your wedding photographed, wouldn't you? How about the carefully thought-out flower arrangements, or the DJ for your reception? The fact of the matter is technology has evolved over the years and so have weddings. Most people, even those that steadfastly refuse to have video, appreciate the fact that they have "moving pictures" years later. No medium can capture the fun, the excitement, and the emotion like video can. Think of it this way, someone says or does something funny at your wedding or reception and everybody laughs. SNAP-you have a picture. Priceless. But can you hear those that were photographed actually laugh as you turn the pages in your album to that particular page? Can you see and hear the exact moment that the laughter turned into hysterics? Can you hear the comment that made them all roll on the floor? Not so with photographs (and these comments are coming from a photographer), but with video, the likelihood of capturing those particular moments has increased exponentially.
A recent study commissioned by WEVA International states that 98% of all surveyed newlyweds recommend video to future brides. Interestingly, brides don't fully appreciate the value of video until after the wedding. Before the wedding, only a little more than half of surveyed brides considered video a "Top 10" service in comparison to other wedding-related services. After the wedding, however, the number climbs to 75%.
Do you or someone you know own a video camera? Just about everyone does these days. Technology has made them very affordable. And guess what, your Uncle Charlie has just offered to tape your wedding and give it to you as a gift. What a nice guy!!! But wait, consider a couple of differences between a professional videographer and uncle Charlie before accepting your uncle's offer and foregoing a professional. First is equipment. A professional videographer will have invested thousands of dollars into professional equipment vs. the three hundred dollar model your uncle shelled out for his. A professional will have numerous high-end cameras (giving you a better picture and possibly even different angles), appropriate microphones ('wiring' up the groom so you can actually hear your vows), and lights when needed or as appropriate just to name a few. Training is another big difference. A professional videographer will know how to use their camera and will know what all the buttons actually do (once again for a better picture). And since they will be removed from the action of the day, a professional will actually be in place to get the best shot (given certain limitations placed on them by a priest, pastor, minister, confines of the location, safety, etc.). The final big difference is in the edit and delivery of your production. While there are some very easy-to-use and inexpensive video editing programs available, they just do not live up to the form and function that professional video editing can deliver.
Cost. Yes, video can stretch your budget a little. But consider the cost of a video production over the life of your marriage. If your video costs two thousand dollars, and you spread the cost over 5 years, that boils the cost down to just four hundred dollars a year-certainly affordable for any budget. Planning on staying married longer? The cost, amortized over the life of your marriage becomes a lot less expensive with each passing year.
And many years down the road, how can one apply that cost to having your children witness your marriage? As the Visa commercials tell us: it's PRICELESS!!! Most couples do not want to skimp on their photographer, their florist, their caterer or any of the other wedding "must haves", so why skimp on a video? If you choose to have your wedding videotaped, don't cut corners here either. Your wedding day is the biggest day of your life. It is the desire of McKenna Video Services - MVS Wedding Productions to make sure that the day doesn't end when the lights go out and the guests go home. You should be able to enjoy this day and the memories that are created on this day for the rest of your life.
God's blessings,
Chris
http://www.mckennavideo.com/
http://www.mvsweddings.com/
http://www.chrismckennaphotography.com/
Lets give this a try
Hello world. Hope that this post finds you well.
We've known about this thing called "blogs" for quite a while, but honestly, we've never really invested the time to learn about it and what we can do with it. We've had a lot on our minds lately, some of which we'd like to share with the world, so we thought that we'd venture out into this arena and create our own postings.
First, an introduction. We are McKenna Video Services. We are Chris and Lynette McKenna. We started this company in 2004 and were up and operating in 2005. We are now in our 4th calendar year in business and we are happy to have made it this far. Operating in Puyallup, WA has had its challenges, but we love what we do and will push through those. In 2007, we formed MVS Wedding Productions (http://www.mvsweddings.com/) to focus on wedding video and photos. And earlier this year, Chris McKenna Photography (http://www.chrismckennaphotography.com/) was launched.
McKenna Video Services is a full video services and production company located in Puyallup, WA. Our video background began over 20 years ago and over the years we have continued to hone our editing and shooting skills as technology has evolved. We are currently members of the Association of Video Professionals (http://www.aovpros.com/) and WEVA International (http://www.weva.com/) as well as a handful of business memberships including the Puyallup/Sumner Chamber of Commerce.
Besides video production, which can be quite expansive (including weddings, corporate training, web video, trade show video, memorials/funerals, etc.), we also create photo video keepsakes (montage), transfer 8mm and 16mm film to DVD, convert video tape (VHS, VHS-C, S-VHS, 8mm, Hi-8, beta, mini-dv, and mini-dvd) to DVD, DVD/CD/Video Duplication, convert videotape to digital media (Quicktime .mov, Windows Media .wmv, and Flash .flv), limited digital media recovery, slides and photographs to .jpg, and many other services. If you don't see it listed here, that doesn't mean that we don't do it, but if we don't chances are we know someone who does. And all of our services can be customized, personalized, and individualized to create exactly the video that our customer wants-something that the competition won't do.
We plan to use this forum to help educate our customers and to share our thoughts on certain subjects. In the next week or so, you may see a number of posts from us as we plan to share some positive customer comments with the world and share press releases that haven't made it onto our website as they should (we're still looking for a good webmaster if you know one).
God's blessings on your day.
Chris.
http://www.mckennavideo.com/
http://www.mvsweddings.com/
http://www.chrismckennaphotography.com/
We've known about this thing called "blogs" for quite a while, but honestly, we've never really invested the time to learn about it and what we can do with it. We've had a lot on our minds lately, some of which we'd like to share with the world, so we thought that we'd venture out into this arena and create our own postings.
First, an introduction. We are McKenna Video Services. We are Chris and Lynette McKenna. We started this company in 2004 and were up and operating in 2005. We are now in our 4th calendar year in business and we are happy to have made it this far. Operating in Puyallup, WA has had its challenges, but we love what we do and will push through those. In 2007, we formed MVS Wedding Productions (http://www.mvsweddings.com/) to focus on wedding video and photos. And earlier this year, Chris McKenna Photography (http://www.chrismckennaphotography.com/) was launched.
McKenna Video Services is a full video services and production company located in Puyallup, WA. Our video background began over 20 years ago and over the years we have continued to hone our editing and shooting skills as technology has evolved. We are currently members of the Association of Video Professionals (http://www.aovpros.com/) and WEVA International (http://www.weva.com/) as well as a handful of business memberships including the Puyallup/Sumner Chamber of Commerce.
Besides video production, which can be quite expansive (including weddings, corporate training, web video, trade show video, memorials/funerals, etc.), we also create photo video keepsakes (montage), transfer 8mm and 16mm film to DVD, convert video tape (VHS, VHS-C, S-VHS, 8mm, Hi-8, beta, mini-dv, and mini-dvd) to DVD, DVD/CD/Video Duplication, convert videotape to digital media (Quicktime .mov, Windows Media .wmv, and Flash .flv), limited digital media recovery, slides and photographs to .jpg, and many other services. If you don't see it listed here, that doesn't mean that we don't do it, but if we don't chances are we know someone who does. And all of our services can be customized, personalized, and individualized to create exactly the video that our customer wants-something that the competition won't do.
We plan to use this forum to help educate our customers and to share our thoughts on certain subjects. In the next week or so, you may see a number of posts from us as we plan to share some positive customer comments with the world and share press releases that haven't made it onto our website as they should (we're still looking for a good webmaster if you know one).
God's blessings on your day.
Chris.
http://www.mckennavideo.com/
http://www.mvsweddings.com/
http://www.chrismckennaphotography.com/
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