Fat Cat Updates

The last few weeks here at Fat Cat have been incredibly busy. We always say this, but recently, things have been flying at us at a whirlwind pace more so than usual. We'll try to catch you up on the happenings here and leave you with a few words of wisdon if we can.

As you all may have read we were recently featured in EventDV magazine, a videographer trade magazine. Not only were we interviewed for one of the stories, but we happened to make the cover. We received many comments about this and thank you all for your kind and supporting words! About the time the magazine came out, I had been under strict rules and agreements not to share one of my latest projects I was involved in. I had been asked to be a judge for WEVA's Creative Excellence Awards. WEVA is the Wedding and Event Videographers Association and has thousands of members all across the world. Each year they hold a competition to find the most creative videos produced this past year. There are 5 new judges each year and I was humbled to be asked to judge this year after receiving our very first CEA last year, a Finalist Award for The Lane Love Story we shot in Little Rock, Arkansas for Thomas and Jenny!

The judging involved receiving over 100 videos to view in various categories and judge on a point system in multiple categories, both technical and creative, and then choose my top 3 or 4 videos to bring to a final judging with the rest of the judges in Chicago, Illinois in late July.

After this somewhat daunting task, I flew to Chicago July 21st to meet the other judges and we all took nearly 4 days to review all the judges top entries in all the categories. WEVA Education Director John Zale treated us wonderfully and even took us to Navy Pier to hang out, gave us a great tour of the city including a trip up to the top of Sears Tower and I quite enjoyed the "real" Chicago style pizza! As soon as I returned home, there was no time to rest as we prepared for the Bridal Fair July 26th as well as Nate and Andrea's wedding the same weekend! Special thanks go out to our intern Michelle who graciously stayed at the office that week for a few 12 hour shifts!
It was the following week that really knocked the wind out of our sails. One of our very close friends husband had a sudden hospital stay over the next weekend. What was thought to be Crohn's Disease with an overnight hospital stay for evaluation suddenly took a shocking turn with emergency surgery and a resulting diagnosis of cancer. Needless to say we spent several hours with our friends in SICU at the hospital. Please keep our friends in your prayers as they start a rough road of treatments ahead.

Our friend also owns a small business so we travelled to Nebraska to help her with some things during the down time. We spent a day in cornhusker country and after a long drive that Saturday night, we arrived back in town and stopped by the studio at 2:30 am to grab a few items, head home, had enough time to run through the shower and then head out again to the airport for a 7 am flight we had to Florida Sunday morning. I hadn't pulled a 24 hour day in many years. But I wouldn't have changed helping our friend in a million years. (No need to say thanks, D- we love ya! MWAH! )

The Florida trip was for our yearly WEVA conference usually held in Las Vegas. The CEA winners are announced opening night and is followed by three days of various seminars and classes regarding the world of video, business and marketing, etc. When I was asked to be a judge, Barry and I were also asked to be on a marketing panel for one of the classes. We were very excited to be there and I was the judge who was able to hand over the winner of The Gold Award of the Theater Category to my friend and mentor, Danny Sayson from Vancouver, Canada. After attending several classes and gathering up more ideas to grow the business, we were able to take Thursday afternoon to hang out with our great friends Mike and Karleen of Starring You Productions in Richmond, Virginia at Universal Studios. That was definately TOO short of a night, but oh it was so much fun! We needed it. Karleen and I are so similar it's almost scary! We thoroughly enjoyed seeing all our friends from all across the country and meeting new ones! Congratulations To Steve and Laura Moses of Vantage Point Productions in Southern California for winning the Gold in Demo Category, you guys rock! (Thanks for the gift as well, I appreciate it! You are both so gracious)

After that late night at Universal, we headed back to the hotel and packed and had about 2 hours of sleep before heading back to the airport last Friday morning at 4 am to head home in time for a rehearsal that evening for Matt and Allyson (post to follow). Life just never stops, it keeps coming at you about 90 mph. The sleep schedule was eerily familiar to us already :)

In a nut shell it was fitting to end the whirlwind of emotions on a roller coaster at Universal, as this is how life has felt recently. In between all this trying to knock out the upcoming weddings that are due, film Love Stories and weddings and prepare for the upcoming wedding in Denver, Colorado with T&J Studios, Baby Fare and The Chamber of Commerce EXPOVENTURE! All I can say is "wow."

Until next time blogstalkers, take care of yourselves and those around you who you love!

(Pictures in order are: 2008 CEA Judges at Navy Pier, Chicago (that's me in the middle- haha :). Chicago's finest horsemen. Me and my mentor and really great friend Danny Sayson receiving his Gold CEA. Me and my homegirl Karleen from Richmond, Virginia- love you girl! Barry and Steph enjoying the Awards dinner at Expo. My awesome friends Belinda and Tom Young from Tennessee whom I met last year at a seminar in California. Tom, Steph and Rolando from Texas- we all met at the same seminar in California! Mike and Karleen getting a first hand look at a working green screen at the After Dark Party (was that not a fun night!? I need some more of that pink wine!) Judy Handley from the Wichita contingent, taking photos of the green screen fun! Me and Tyff in Victoria, Kansas last month in our scrubs before bed (we were watching the CEA entries, ya I know, this picture doesn't really fit, but I thought it was cute. We will be travelling together again at the end of the month to Denver for a wedding and eXtreme session in the mountains!! CAN'T WAIT!)

"A diamond is a chunk of coal that made good under pressure."