Margaret Ellis is really cooking now.  She recently kicked off a cookbook of Gambian-Inspired recipes called West African Perspective.  Now she’s launched her Classik Kitchen website with monthly video recipes.  You’ll want to check it out.

Cooking is More Than Food

For Margaret, cooking is more than a list of ingredients turned into a meal.  Cooking was the heart of her home back in Gambia, where everyone enjoyed the process of food preparation, even her father.  Though most men in Gambia spent their all free time with their friends, Margaret’s dad made time for family, too.  Margaret credits her mother’s cooking for the good times her family had in the kitchen.

When Margaret came to the States, she incorporated her mothers recipes and traditions into her own American home.  When she compared her family to the families around her, she noticed her own family seemed closer. She believes the recipes and practices she learned in her mother’s kitchen are what made the difference and tied the family together.  So she decided to share those traditions with others.

 Videos are More Than Recipes

For the month of September, Margaret introduced a tasty dish called Chicken Wing Soup.  It’s one of her favorites for a Friday night supper, because it rejuvenates and energizes her.  She invites the audience into her kitchen, along with a friend and a niece as they make the recipe.

Margaret’s cookbook embraces modern recipes as well as traditional West African dishes.  This month’s video recipe is a quick and easy stew made with familiar ingredients you’ll find at the corner grocery store, but the book also has traditional dishes straight from her mother’s kitchen.  Readers will enjoy a wide variety of choices.

As the food cooks on the video, Margaret chats with her guests about her recipes, her traditions and her philosophies.  She shares advice for romance and child-rearing, all the time she’s explaining delicious variations for the stew she”s making.  Foodies will enjoy the cooking, but anyone, foodie or not, can enjoy the kitchen banter.

Drop By Margaret’s Classik Kitchen

LeniCam is proud to be a part of this project.  We encourage you to visit Margaret’s Classik Kitchen via the miracle of the Internet.  We had a wonderful time recording the cooking sessions in her home and we know you will enjoy watching them.  We also know you’ll love her cookbook, so go to her website now to order your own.

Video Sports Action Now for Upcoming Sports Banquets

One of the best parts of any sports banquet is the highlight reels – those videos showcasing the best moments of your season.  Why else would you get all dressed up and eat banquet food?  Of course you want the opportunity to share the great moments of your season with your teammates and loved ones, one more time.

Sports Videography

Smartphones have changed the world.  Sports videography used to require special equipment, at the very least a consumer-grade videocamera, but nowadays all you need is a smartphone.  And those videocameras?  So much smaller and affordable than they used to be.  Still for the best quality videos, nothing beats a professional videographer with a professional-grade HD videocamera such as LeniCam Video Productions uses to record all of our videos.

Whether you hire a professional videographer, have a staff videographer or use videos taken on smartphones by your fans, on your banquet night you want a slick presentation of the videos where every player gets a moment in the spotlight.  Even if you don’t hire LeniCam to record your games, we can still help at the end of the season as you get ready for your banquet.

The Big Yellow Circle

Though it takes every player on a team to win a game, in sports videography it is sometimes difficult to see all the heros.  The viewers focus naturally follows the ball, but sometimes the game is actually won elsewhere.  When LeniCam Video Productions edits your video for your banquet, regardless of who took the video, we can emphasize the contribution of every player with the use of a yellow circle.

At the beginning of a play, we can hold a frame for a moment and direct the viewers’s eyes to a particular player by highlighting them with a yellow circle.  Then the viewer will focus on the highlighted player rather than follow the ball.  Every player can have their moment in the limelight at your banquet.

Start Recording Now

Only one thing can keep you from have entertaining season footage to show at your sports banquet and that’s not having any footage to show.  If you need a sports videographer, then we’d love for you to contact us.  We’ve developed proprietary equipment that allows us to get all the action from the sidelines without having to jostle through players, coaches and fans.  Sports videography fees begin at $170 per game and for many of the teams we cover this cost is shared among the parents, making it very affordable.  Our editing services range from $50 to $125 based on whether we choose the segments to be shown or someone from the team.  Each yellow circle is $10.

Contact us today to get your team’s schedule on our calendar.

Thanks to Recital Video Grandmother Gets to See Granddaughter Dance

What’s more fun than seeing small girls in tutus dance?  It’s truly a delight, whether you know any of the dancers or not.  If one of those tiny tutu-ed miracles is your daughter or granddaughter, the pleasure is magnified a thousand-fold.  For several years now, we’ve had the privilege of producing the annual recital video for Sway Dance Center, but this year’s recital gave us the opportunity to do something very special – something that reminded us why we do this at all. 

Sway Dance Center

Sway Dance Center, in North Richardson, offers premium dance training to all kinds of dancers, whether the goal is to make dance a profession or just to dance for the pure joy of it. Sway’s classes include Jazz, Tap, Ballet and Hip Hop classes for anyone from three-year-olds to adults.  At Sway, dance is about more than steps and pointe.  Their goal is to “focus…on character and discipline to improve the overall well-being of our students through positive reinforcement.”   They  assume “every student is capable of achieving their goals as a dancer” and their job is to “provide a nurturing atmosphere and a dance education that will last a lifetime!”  That’s the kind of organization we love to work with.

Production Time

The production of a LeniCam video takes time, because the raw video and audio must be edited and mixed to create the Hollywood-like quality our customers expect.  We tell our clients we’ll be delivering their finished video in 6-8 weeks, but we’re amused by how many call us immediately after their event and ask how soon we’ll be through.  What seemed reasonable beforehand becomes unbearable afterwards.

A Different Kind of Call

This year, after Sway’s annual May recital, we got a different kind of call.  This call came from the father of one of the tiny dancers.  The dancer’s grandmother had not been able to attend the recital, because she was dying from cancer.  The prognosis was not good and if the recital video wasn’t available until 6-8 weeks had passed, this grandmother would never see her precious granddaughter’s performance.  Was there anything we could do?

This request touched the heart of our founder and producer, John Lenihan.  He started this company because he understood the profound emotional impact of milestone moments.  Preserving and sharing memories is our primary mission.

As much as our producer wanted to move up the time of delivery, he knew he couldn’t scrimp on the amount of time and effort devoted to the Sway recital video.  After all, Sway Dance Center is one of our most important clients and all of their dancers expect and deserve our very best.

As we discussed the situation with the caller we realized this dad didn’t care about seeing the whole video.  He just wanted to show the segment highlighting his daughter to his mother, while he still could.  John was able to provide the father with excerpts from the raw footage which included his daughter.  We sent the excerpts just in time.

After we took care of this special request, production of the Sway Dance Recital Video continued.  The complete video was available on schedule and we’re very proud of it.  As part of our services to Sway, we even assist with the sale and delivery of videos, which allows Sway to focus on dance.

What milestone moment is coming up in your life?  A wedding, birthday, anniversary, mitzvah, sporting event, recital or even a funeral?  Whatever your milestone, even business milestones, LeniCam Video Productions wants to help you preserve your memories and share them with others.

Claudia v15 highlight v9

Claudia and Jared at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church and Bent Tree Country Club

“It’s almost time,” Claudia said as she sat before a fireplace waiting for her wedding ceremony to begin.  Elsewhere in the church Jared enumerated all the things he loved about his bride.  Claudia and Jared were married at the beautiful St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in the historic Lakewood area of Dallas.  Their reception was held at elegant Bent Tree Country Club.

Claudia and Jared’s wedding day was a miracle of logistics coordinated by wedding planner Colleen Harkins.  The first vendor to report for duty was hair and make-up artist Brittany Jones.  She helped Claudia get ready at the bride’s parents’ house, while the guys dressed at the country club.  Then Romantic Remembrances conveyed the bridal party to the church in a limousine and the groom’s party in a bus.

Upon arrival at the church the wedding party was adorned by glorious floral arrangements from Garden Gate – bouquet and corsages for the ladies and boutonnieres for the men.  The florist provided arrangements for the pew ends, as well.  Meanwhile, Christopher Walker of Christographer  ( Formerly Lucky Pro Photography) captured the still shots while we were shooting audio and video.

At the appointed hour, the music of St. Thomas Acquinas’ legendary pipe organ filled the air as the father-of-the- bride walked Claudia down the aisle of the magnificent church.  Claudia looked stunning in a strapless, shirred-satin, fit-an-flare gown with crystal accents at the empire waist and just above the knee.  As Jared escorted her to the altar he couldn’t resist telling her how lovely she looked.

After the wedding, guests headed to Bentree for cocktail hour where other vendors had everything ready.  Linen Hero provided the table and chair covers, Absolute Entertainment set up the lighting and a Creative Events had a photo booth waiting.  Meanwhile Christopher took the post-wedding photographs.  Then Romantic Remembrances transported the couple, the bridal party and their families to the country club.

A little Italian flavor entered the celebrations after the wedding party was announced by the Ice House Band.  For the First Dance the bride and groom swayed to the sounds of Al Martino singing “I Have But One Heart.”  The Italian flavor continued as Claudia danced with her dad to the “Godfather Waltz.”

After Jared danced with his mother to “What a Wonderful Life,” the bride and groom finally got a chance to relax and enjoy dinner.  After dinner they slipped away for a wardrobe change.  This time Claudia had on a smooth satin shirtwaist dress with short, full skirt, accented with a sequined belt.  Now she could really enjoy the high energy sounds of the live band.

When the celebration were over, the cake cutting, the bouquet toss, the garter toss and all the dancing, Claudia departed the country club through rows of sparklers and rode away in a vintage Daimler to Hotel ZaZa where their honeymoon suite awaited.

Behind the Scenes with LeniCam Video Productions

Two Lenicam videographers arrived at Claudia and Jared’s wedding an hour and a half before the ceremony.  There’s a lot to set up to properly capture a wedding.  We had videocamers, tripods, lights and audio equipment to manage.  We also took the opportunity to coordinate with the other vendors and the church’s wedding coordinator, so things will go smoothly during the day.

One of the cameras we set up was our custom-designed proprietary camera with remote control.  This one-of-a-kind equipment allows us to have a camera recording at the front of the church.  Because no other Dallas Wedding Videographer else has this equipment, we are the only ones who can get footage at the front of St Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church.

Once everything was in place the cameramen split up to capture the pre-wedding activities, so later Claudia and Jared could enjoy watching the first part of each other’s wedding day together.  For the ceremony, one videographer stood at the back of the church for shots from the audience’s point of view, while another camera was hidden out of site near the front to get the close-ups during the ceremony.

After the ceremony, one camera leap-frogged ahead to the reception, while the other stayed behind to capture the fun of the photo shoot.  After the photos the second cameraman joined the reception.  With two cameras at the reception, we were able to keep one camera focused on the bride and groom, while the other camera went around and captured well-wishes from the guests.

When the night is over, we take all the audio and video footage back to our studio to create a wedding video for the couple, their family and their friends to enjoy for all the days of their marriage.

We Sweat the Small Stuff So You Don’t Have To

May and June may be the most popular dates for weddings, but every season is wedding season.  The rich warm colors of autumn create beautiful wedding days.  Perhaps you’re getting married this fall and you haven’t really considered whether to hire a videographer or not.  We’ve got good news.  It’s not too late to book a Dallas Wedding Videographer.  

Benefits of an Autumn Wedding

Each season has its own charm, but autumn weddings benefit from a beautiful array of color:  rich warm colors like pumpkin, spice and gold; deep hues like eggplant, ultramarine and evergreen; and gorgeous neutrals like charcoal, umber or ecru.  These splendid colors can be used to create remarkable wedding palette.

Autumn offers many themes, too.  Imagine invitations with a border of falling leaves.  Calla lilies, orchids, roses, snap dragons and delphiniums are just a few of the flowers which are in season.  Sit-down dinners with pumpkin soup, signature drinks made with warm apple cider or hot chocolate or a groom’s cake covered with candied pecans are fall food choices that will get your guests salivating.  Then send your guests home with a favor they’ll enjoy like apple butter, maple syrup or decorated pine cones.

Many brides discover more guests are available in autumn, because they don’t have to work around family vacations, graduations and other weddings.  The real bonus is the savings a bride can get because there’s not as much demand for venues, wedding planners and other wedding-only vendors.  Often a venue will offer deep discounts rather than have an empty date on their calendar.

Perhaps as you’ve been planning your fall wedding you’ve discovered some of these discounts.  Perhaps you really wanted to have a professionally produced wedding video, but you just didn’t see how you could afford it.  Maybe you’ve found just enough in the budget for a videographer or someone has come forward and offered it as a gift.

If you think it’s too late

Dallas Sports Videos Use Yellow Circle to Showcase Heroes

In team sports, the guy with the ball is the one everybody watches, but it takes the whole team to win. Many heroic maneuvers can be completely overlooked because someone else had the ball. In a LeniCam Sports Video a bright yellow circle can change that.

Highlight Your Hero in Scholarship Films

College is expensive, so many parents don’t wait around to see if a scout is going to discover their superstar.  They bring their superstar to the attention of the schools their child is interested in, by sending videos to prospective schools.  Our yellow circles can help.

In most sports there’s a positio

n which naturally gets more attention.  In football, for instance, they always snap the ball to the quarterback.  No yellow circles are needed for someone to follow what the quarterback does with the ball.

If your sports hero’s maneuvers aren’t as obvious, getting them the attention they deserve could require a little technology.  If you just send a video and tell them your child’s number, it could be difficult for the coaches and scouts to follow the action.  Many times when the play starts the potential hero of the play is positioned in a way that makes it impossible to see his number.

Using a yellow circle to highlight a receiver, before they get the ball, or a great block by another player can change the viewer’s perspective immediately.  LeniCam Video Productions, Dallas Sports Videographer, inserts the yellow circle around your player at the beginning of the play and holds the frame for a moment to capture the attention of the viewer.  Then as the play progresses the viewer follows your player, rather than the guy with the ball.  It will be easy to see your hero in action.

Hire Us to Record Games or Use Footage You Have

We’re sports videographers, so we’d love to record your games.  The price is $170 per game and often several parents will join together to cover the cost.  However, if your team already has video or you record the games yourself, we’ll edit them for $50 – $125.  Then each circle added is $10.

If you’ve got a sports hero in your family, give us a call and we’ll help you get them seen by the people that matter.  Your investment now could make your child’s scholarship dreams come true.

Senior Follies!  Show Girls and Show Tunes!

The Spectacular Senior Follies at Richardson’s Eisemann Center

Who says young folks get to have all the fun? Ned Startzel and The Spectacular Senior Follies certainly don’t believe it’s true.  These young-at-heart senior citizens have only retired from their 9-5 jobs, not life. You can see them do their stuff this weekend at the Eisemann Theater in Richardson, TX.

How It Began

Ned Starzel was retired and one of his favorite things to do each day was read the newspaper.  One day he read an article about Mark Carroll, a popular pianist here in the DFW Metroplex, in the Senior Section and felt a call to action.  In the article, Mark has shared a wish he’d been cherishing – a talent showcase for senior citizens in the area.

Ned shared the same dream.  Though he’d pursued a typical professional career for most of his life, back in Pennsylvania, during his college days, he was active in theatrical productions, musical composition and performing.  The performance bug had never really died.

So Ned called Mark.  Mark agreed with Ned that something needed to be done, but Mark was just too busy right then to pursue the project.  Ned understood, but wasn’t going to let him off the hook that easily.  Two years later Ned contacted Mark again.  The rest is history – a great history.

Seven Year of Excellence

The Spectacular Senior Follies were featured in a recent article in Celebration Magazine.  Here are some some excerpts from the article about the Follies:

• “Cast members are from Broadway, Las Vegas and local theater and dance groups, including The Tap Dazzlers and Class Act Tap Company and features many other surprise guests.”
• “[Ned Starzel], the oldest performer in the Follies at 97, was a vaudeville performer as a kid.”
• “Also in the cast are Dallas’ favorite storyteller, Rose-Mary Rumbley, Jackie Troup Miller, whose fame started as a tap dancer from the golden days of MGM musicals, vocalist and showstopper, Lillie Madison, along with dancer Joe Cutaia, and many of your Follies favorites, including a visit from the Follies’ own Marilyn Monroe from Hollywood.”
• “[T]he Follies is directed and choreographed by Broadway Tony winner, Michael Serrecchia.”
• “The Follies artistic director, Dee Anne Meece, started out as a jingle singer for many national companies and later was featured in many equity theater musical roles.”
• “Andy Michlin, musical director, has worked with show business giants like Tom Jones, Lisa Minnelli and Linda Carter. Andy was also a member of the New Christie Minstrels.”

As you can see, this is not your grandmother’s local talent show.  Lenicam Video Productions, your Dallas Events Videographer, is pleased to be a part of the production this year, recording the Saturday performances for a souvenir video DVD.  Tickets are still available just click here.

Ah!  The kiddos are back in school.  For about five minutes you thought you were going to have a little more time to yourself.  Then the emails started.  PTA, Parents Night, rehearsal schedules, equipment lists…before you know it report cards will be out.  And sports?  What’s your child’s sport?  LeniCam Video Productions, Dallas Sports Videographer would like to know.

The Importance of School Sports

Public School Review lists 10 reasons it’s important for your child to participate in school sports:

• Community Representation
• Fitness
• Improved Academics
• The 3 P’s: Practice, Patience & Persistence
• Teamwork & Cooperation
• Positive Mentors
• Social Relationships
• Time Management
• Success Mindset

This is a good list, but most parents and kids have their own list.  These list probably include an absolute love for a sport regardless of skill, a good friend that plays a sport or a special gift in a particular sport.

Capture Those Memories

Whatever the reason for your child’s participation in a game or event, capture those memories in a professionally produced video you and your child will cherish forever.  LeniCam Video Productions has been capturing memories on video for twelve years and many of those videos have been played out on the sports fields of the DFW Metroplex.

Whether you are thinking ahead to a sports banquet, a college recruiter or just the possibility of showing  a video of your child to your future grandkids, now is the time to record those memories.  When your child is twenty-something it will be too late.

You’re Not Alone

Many of our sports video clients are proud parents or grandparents of a budding athlete.  They recognize the unique value of their child’s experience or see a talent that might turn into a college scholarship.  However, other clients are coaches, booster clubs or just a group of proud parents who join together to share the cost of the videos.  We can deliver the footage in a variety of methods, from raw footage online to a customized BluRay disc.

LeniCam Video Productions, your Dallas Sports Videographer, would love to hear about your future Olympians.  Let us know what you want and we’ll work with you to provide it.

So you wanted to help out.  You offered to join a committee at your child’s school.  Now you’re stuck with planning an event and you don’t know where to begin.  If you need a Videographer in Dallas TX, then we can make your job easier.

Been There, Done That

What kind of event are you planning?  A live performance, a banquet, a sporting event or a graduation ceremony?  Those are just a few of the events we’ve captured for schools all over the DFW Metroplex.  In fact, we’ve been recording events and occasions for twelve years now and in that time we’ve learned a thing or two about school events.  Chances are we’ve even been in your school.

School organizations pose a different proposition than recording a wedding or producing commercials.  To begin with, many districts require special credentials.  We’re already registered with some of them and if we’re not, we know what documents will be needed.  But that’s only the beginning.

Whatever your particular event may be, it will have its own set of special needs.  Because of our experience we already know what it will take to produce a high quality video of your event, so we can help you decide what’s needed and what would just be a waste of expense.  Then there’s working with a group of children.  Whether its tiny ballerinas or exuberant graduating seniors, we not only have experience dealing with them, we love the opportunity to be a part of their school days.

Contact Us Early

Even if your committee is not 100% sure whether videography will be part of the budget or not, you should contact us early in the planning process.  A few simple considerations in your logistics could make all the difference in the quality of the completed video.  If you wait until the last minute to consult with your videographer, it may be too late or too expensive.  We’re happy to provide the information to do it right long before you actually write us a check.

Video Sales

According to the number of people involved in your project, the cost of producing your event video could be defrayed or completely covered by video sales.  Parents, grandparents, relatives and friends love to share the successes of the kids in their lives. But don’t worry, you won’t have to schlep around with a box of videos in your car or worry about taking a check.  Just send everyone to your page on our website and we’ll take care of the rest and delivery is free.  We’ll be able to give you a record of your video sales and might even be able to pass some profit on to you.

The bottom line is this, you don’t have to know a thing about videography to end up with a great video of your child’s special event.  All you have to do is call us and we’ll help you be a hero.

What do you have planned for today?  Picnic? Parade?  Cleaning out the garage? Well, LeniCam Video Productions, Dallas Videographers will be out at the lake.  We’re taking a well-deserved break to enjoy some good times together.

How Labor Day Began

The United States Department of Labor says, “Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.”

A Tale of Two McGuires

In true American fashion, there’s a debate over who actually invented Labor Day.  Some say it was Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a cofounder of the American Federation of Labor.  He said the day should be set aside for those “who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold.”

Others say it was Matthew McGuire, a carpenter who served as secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York.  That theory is gaining ground, because his union was actually the first to hold a Labor Day event.  You can actually go here to find out more about the two McGuires and vote on who you believe started this tradition.

A Festival of Recreation and Amusement

The first proposal of the holiday, by Matthew McGuire’s Central Labor Union included plans for a street parade, followed by a festival of recreation and amusement.  That first festival was Tuesday, September 5, 1882 and was quickly adopted by other labor organizations.  The State of Oregon was the first government entity to make it a legal holiday on February 21, 1887.  Other states were quick to adopt this popular legal holiday, so the US Congress made it an official holiday on June 28, 1894.

This festival of recreation and amusement has become the official end of summer for most of us and we don’t think about the holiday’s roots.  School is starting, the weather is changing and Halloween costumes are on sale.  We turn our attention away from summer fun and plan for the coming months.

If the future months hold a special occasion or event for you and you want to capture with professional videography, we hope you’ll give us an opportunity to be your Dallas Videographers.