Bliss Collection Honors: Washingtonian Bride and Groom
The members of The Bliss Collection are always so proud when other hard working members are acknowledged for their excellence!
Washingtonian Bride and Groom has listed some of our beloved members in its latest issue! Why exactly is this an important honor?
Well…
According to wedding planner Myrna Hyman, “I found out that one finds themselves on this list based on votes from colleagues in the industry, which I think is pretty special.”
Miles Stiebel of MSE productions added ” MSE Productions is listed in the most recent 2012 Washingtonian Bride & Groom under Music & Entertainment. MSE Productions has been recommended by the Washingtonian as “One of the Best” for over ten years. This publication has become a fabulous resource for brides and grooms planning their wedding.”
So…which members of The Bliss Collection were listed?
Jessica Piscitelli (videography), Kristi Odom (photography), Myrna Hyman (wedding planner), Miles Stiebel (DJ services), Kelsey Thompson (photography, one to watch)
Congratulations, everyone!
More Bliss Collection Honors: Wedding Wire’s “Best Of” List
Great news, Bliss Collection members! Sooo many of us were listed on yet another prestigious list: Wedding Wire’s Best Of!
Susan Smith was listed under the category of Wedding Planners.
Myrna Hyman was listed under the category of Wedding Planners.
Kristi Odom was listed under the category of Photographers.
Kelsey Thompson was listed under the category of Photographers.
Jeanna Hilton of Stonewall Golf Club was listed under the category of Venues.
Miles Stiebel was listed under the category of Music and Entertainment.
Jessica Piscitelli was listed under the category of Videographer.
Congratulations to everyone! This is an awesome honor!
Bliss Member Wedding
By Jessica Piscitelli Robinson
As you can imagine, I have a lot of friends who work in the wedding industry, and only one wedding to go around. Choosing vendors from among my friends was very difficult, but I ended up with the best wedding team a girl could ever hope for.
I have listed everyone I worked with with at the end of this post. They were all fabulous and I highly recommend every one of them, so please follow links to their websites and hire them for all of your weddings.
But I need to say a few words about the Bliss Collection members, because Bliss was a wonderful resource for me for planning my wedding.
In the following video, I made sure to include live audio from both the procession and the recession because Eric Waters, a guitarist with MSE Productions, did such a fantastic job. I married a Robinson so the recession song was particularly key and, even though it wasn’t on his playlist, he learned it especially for my wedding.
As you can see, I shortened the video of the ceremony considerably. Not so in the Blu-Ray disc we have at home. It was such a beautiful ceremony that I kept in almost every moment for our own video.
Jessica Pi and Kristi Odom Team Up
By Jessica Piscitelli, Jessica Pi Productions
In the words of the bride…
“Enlisting Jessica Pi for videography was a last minute “splurge” and I could not be happier with that decision! I’ve heard/read that so many brides regret not having a videographer to capture the day and I decided that was one regret I didn’t want to have.
Jessica was recommended to me by my amazing photographer, Kristi Odom, and I was extremely lucky that she happened to be available on such short notice! Jessica was awesome to work with – even though we didn’t get a chance to meet until my actual wedding day! Upon waking up the morning after the wedding, my first thought literally was, “THANK GOD WE HAVE VIDEO TO RE-LIVE THAT AMAZING DAY AND SEE ALL THE THINGS WE DIDN’T HAVE TIME TO SEE/APPRECIATE YESTERDAY!”
Check out this recap of their beautiful day.
Read More
Post Wedding Post
Jessica Piscitelli, of Jessica Pi Productions, explains what happens with your video after your wedding!
One question I get asked a lot is what’s involved in editing a wedding video? The short answer? A lot!
The first thing I do is contact the happy newlyweds. I talk to them, post honeymoon, about the day’s events. Were there any moments that stood out that absolutely have to be highlighted? Were there any people whose actions might need to be downplayed? Did you love every word the priest, rabbi or officiant spoke, or could we cut out that section about exactly how many children you should be having? And, of course, what music do you want for all the montages in your video?
Once I get a few simple, but important, answers to how you want your wedding video edited, I capture and log all the footage. This basically just means I go through all 4, 6 or 8 hours of footage I shot, get it all into my editing system, and organize it by which camera, what part of the wedding day, and what type of footage it is.
Then comes the fun part. When I edit a wedding video, I really am trying to tell your story. I open the first montage with an establishing shot to set the stage – whether it’s a shot of the program, a shot of the church, or a shot of the bride’s house – this is where this story begins. Then we introduce all the main characters and establish what they are doing before the moment when the wedding march begins.
The ceremony pretty much writes itself. After finding out how much and which parts of the ceremony the couple would like included, I just have to choose the best shots for each second of footage, and, of course, level the audio from the microphones on the grooms lapel and around the room.
Check out these two clips from an outdoor ceremony at Whitehall Manor. The first shows just one camera angle and is unedited.
The second one shows the edited version utilizing both camera’s footage.
Read More
Bliss Members in the Washingtonian
The Bliss Collection selects members based on their professionalism and reputation, so it should come as no surprise that several members of the Bliss Collection have been selected for the Washingtonian Bride & Groom Best of 2011 list.
Congratulations to the following members for making the Washingtonian Best of 2011:
Bridal Attire
Maureen Chandler – Blush Bridal Boutique
Videography
Jessica Piscitelli – Jessica Pi Productions
Wedding Planners
Myrna Grosman – For All Occasions
Bliss Members at Bristow Manor
“One of the best things about being a member of the Bliss Collection is that you get to refer colleagues who you trust and admire for their professionalism, and who you know will take good care of your client. In this case, Jessica and Mike did just that!” – Myrna Grossman
Jessica Pi Productions recently finished editing a wedding planned by the wonderful Myrna Grossman, of For All Occasions. Myrna planned a beautiful wedding at the Bristow Manor Golf Club and Jessica Pi Productions was there to capture the sights, sounds and style.
Michael Alvarez, an associate videographer with Jessica Pi Productions, captured the ceremony and reception. Here is a short clip from the wedding video.
Myrna had this to say about the wedding:
“Jen and Frank were a full plan. I worked with them for over a year after meeting them at a bridal show at Bristow Manor. They were delightful to work with every step of the way, having their definitive ideas of what they envisioned their wedding day to be, yet, always open to suggestions. I just finished watching Jen and Frank’s video and loved it. Thanks so much.”
Filmmaker vs. Videographer
By Jessica Piscitelli – Jessica Pi Productions
I think I’ve always enjoyed telling stories, in one format or another. And so I went to New York University to study the art, history, theory, and technique of crafting stories through the visual medium of film. After graduating with honors and a BFA in Film and TV Production from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, I began my filmmaking career. I worked on feature productions like Happiness, Pollock, and Ghost Dog, alongside such directors as Todd Solondz, Ed Harris, and Jim Jarmusch. You can view my profile on IMDB.
These days, and for more than 10 years, I’ve chosen to tell more personal stories as I capture and preserve the emotion, romance, and details of one of life’s greatest celebrations. I am a wedding videographer.
Every production benefits from my education and experience in the film industry, as well as from my passion, creativity, and technical skills. Despite that, you’ll notice that I do not bill my current work as filmmaking. The videos are cinematic and narrative, but they are videos, not films. Read More
Why Go High Def?
Jessica Piscitelli, of Jessica Pi Productions, started offering HD packages to brides this year. Over time, she has found that most people still have a lot of questions regarding how to decide between HD or standard video for their wedding video production.
Here are some answers to the most frequently asked questions about HD.
What is the difference?
Quite simply, High Definition(HD) is better quality. HD is a bigger image (standard size is 720 x 480 and HD varies but is usually 1920 x 1080), HD has more lines of resolution (think higher thread count), and has a higher color depth(deeper shades of color are visible).
Please note the two example videos below were compressed for the web and so neither is at it’s optimum playback – but you can see some of the basic differences from these examples. Read More