Ted, or T-Man as I call him is perhaps the most important figure here at Atlantis 9. Our very own non-plaid wearing Clark Kent, Ted was Caleb's and my teacher for Digital Cinematography back in our film school days. He taught me how to hold my first camera, how to find my way around a non-linear editing machine, but most importantly, he taught me how to be professional. Yes, it's true; we weren't always such debonair pillars of politeness. It seems like just yesterday, my class at Full Sail University was trying to coerce a poor, young, unpaid actress that she didn't need pants for the scene that she fights off a gunman. That's when Ted stepped in: "You can leave your pants on." Wow. He said it so cool, so... Ted. Ted's a cool guy. Cool under pressure, cool to talk to. In fact, it doesn't matter what sort of craziness is going on, when Ted walks into the room you know... you know that everything is going to be alright.

Ted, we salute you! You have been with us since the beginning, through good times and bad, for richer and for poorer. If ever there is something you need my friend, call on us, and we'll be there, as you have always been there for us. Thank you. You are the man.

Your loyal amigos,

Keith, Caleb & Vinnie

Photo by Spectacle

Here at Atlantis 9, we're all amazing at what we do.  Keith Roddy is an editor and camera man extraordinare,  Vincent is a super Tech, and I, Caleb Morgan, am pretty good at sales and great with a camera.  About a year ago we set out to set up the best videography company in Orlando, and we did just that.  We've filmed more weddings than we can count, and we did it relatively incident free.  We started with zero dollars, and no contacts or real experience in the video industry. Even though it was rough starting up, and God knows we picked a tough time to start a company, we've survived. 

Most people don't know that when we started Atlantis 9, we all lived in the same house.  It was a sacrifice we had to make money wise, and even though we knew it would be taxing to work and live under the same roof, we had no choice.  Now that we have more money, and more roads to travel down, we're moving out because all of us need the space.  This change is going to allow for us to work more efficiently, and it will conclude the social experiment that's been our lives for the last year. I can say that I couldn't have made it without my friends Keith and Vincent.  Lol if I had lived and worked with anyone else I would have murdered them a long time ago!

I can definitely say that I was the first one to crack.  My grudges, stubbornness, and animosity towards my coworkers and friends has made me(as I imagine) pretty much impossible to work with.  But as we prepare to move, and as we brainstorm about the future of our company, I can feel the cloud of emotional frustration lifting.  I'm almost back to my usual charming self!  The future of Atlantis 9 is a bright one.  We have weddings lined up, and new business ventures in the works.  As January approaches(it will be here sooner than you think!), I am looking forward to the new year. I know it will be a successful one, especially with all of our friends and partners that have helped us along our path.  Richard Johnson has been a great friend and inspiration to me, and Bill and Alex McCoy have taken us in directions we never could have dreamed of.  Our friends Val, Ki, Shawn and Michele Vincent, Michelle Lucas, Ted, Bruce Reynolds, Justin Day, Maisa, Full Sail, and everyone else(you know who you are!) mean a lot to us, and we are grateful to have all of them in our lives.  As the employees of Atlantis 9 move up in the world of video, and as we take on new opportunities, we know that our future is sound through the experiences we've gained by meeting all of the best people.  

So this blog is really long.  I'm going to wrap it up by saying thank you once again to everyone, especially Keith and Vincent.  I'm grateful that you've become like family, and hope that you will forgive me for my childish ways and crazy attitude that I've displayed in the past.  We are going to go places no one can even imagine, and I can't wait. NOW GET BACK TO WORK!  

Project Wed is a place for vendors and brides to come and get some fresh ideas for weddings and events.  The blogs cover everything from cool new event venues such as Universal Studios, to creative photography and videography. This week the new blogs from Heaven Event Center, Tagas Productions, and Kaleidoscope are up and running.  Check out Project Wed and see what they have to say!

The reason Atlantis 9 films free engagement sessions is to earn trust.  Without trust, there's less of a chance to capture real moments. Just to be clear, an "engagement shoot" is the photo session engaged couples have with their photographer pre-wedding. We film these sessions for free to get to know the bride and groom better, so on the wedding day they're already comfortable with us being around.  A couple weekends ago, for the first time, we filmed a wedding without ever having met the bride.  I hated it, and we will never do it again.  It was weird, and I could sense the difference between that bride and the ones that we film engagement shoots for.  It was stiff, unrelaxed, and forced.  Even though everyone was pleasant, there was still no chance of that bride and groom completely being themselves around us.  It's not their fault, I mean I know if some stranger walked up to me with a giant camera and was like, "Hey, I'm gonna have this thing pointed at you for the next nine hours, so just act like yourself!", I'd act weird.  When we film engagement shoots it lets everyone, including the photographer, shift into their comfort zone.  We get way better wedding footage with the brides who have already been around us for awhile.  So if you're a couple hunting down vendors, ask your videographer if they film engagement shoots.  Your video will be better for it if they do, and you'll get more out of their service. 

This couple was obviously comfortable with their photographer.  Wedding pictures are so much better when that's the case.

Ever have a day where everything that can possibly go wrong, does? For us, that day was yesterday.  Atlantis 9 has a flawless record of being on time, never missing a moment of a wedding, and never having equipment failure.  However, on August 8th, aka Hell Day, our perfect record was marred.  We had a simple task. FIlm the ceremony and the toasts at the reception, then go home.  The ceremony started at 4pm in Kissimmee, which is about fourty minutes away from us, so we packed up our gear and left at 2:30pm.  That's enough time, right?  Nope.  A car accident on 417 had us completely stopped for about an hour.  When we passed the wreck it was  3:36pm, and we were still half an hour away. At 4:00 we were just about there, and it started to pour down rain.  All of you who live in Florida know what that means, traffic stopped because nobody can see.  So there we were, stop and go, about 20 minutes late for the ceremony. When we finally got there the ceremony was almost over, but we set up really fast and filmed the tail end.  After the ceremony was over, the mother of the bride came over to me and gave me a scolding, telling me how we missed her daughters special day and how it was all our fault the wedding was ruined.  What exactly do you say to that? I told her there was traffic and that we left really early, but she wasn't having any of it. I felt really bad, and almost wished it was my fault just so I could justify how awful I felt. But ok people, every once in awhile things happen that can't be helped.  Atlantis 9 does not regulate traffic accidents, nor do we control the weather.  That's why we have an "Act of God" clause in our contract.  If a hurricane blows our car off the road, it's not our fault if we can't make the wedding.

Yesterday we also a perfect example of why it's important to bring 2 cameras.  When we showed up to the church, one of our cameras got switched to SD for some reason and when SD is turned on, the HVX burns the user interface into the footage.  The ceremony footage from that camera is useless, and that is why we have two cameras.  Had there only been one, we wouldn't have any good footage of the ceremony at all.  Everyone here at Atlantis 9 is just thankful that yesterday is over.  Today we are working tirelessly to get that wedding edited and out of our lives for forever.  Lol I don't know if I should even be posting this blog. Pointing out one of your companies disasters isn't necessarily a good business decision.  But I feel that it's important to show everyone an example of a wedding disaster that can happen despite any amount of planning.  If it happens to you, don't let it ruin your day.  The fact that you're getting married is way more important and special than any wedding vendor.  Lol even if it's us, I guess....

P.S.  In the midst of our frustration and scurrying about, we left our 8mm camera at the church and have to go pick it up tomorrow.  That was the cherry on top.

The Project Wed glow party at Heaven Event Center was a blast.  There were hundreds of wedding vendors, facepainting, and great music.  It was definitely one of the biggest wedding vendor parties in Orlando this year, and we raised over $1,000.00 for Brides Against Breast Cancer.  If you weren't able to attend this time around, be sure to make it next time.  I'd like to thank the vendors involved with projectwed.com who made the party possible:  Heaven Event Center, Spectacle Photo, Tagas Productions, Kaleidoscope, Anna Cakes, Universal Studios, Wolf FX, Girls Night Out, Room Service, and Brides Against Breast Cancer.  These vendors are fantastic.  Make sure to check out their websites and see what they're all about. 

Here are some pics from the party!

Project Wed is an online community of creative wedding vendors in Orlando.  The site is a constant blog that is designed for brides and vendors to go to to get ideas for anything from catering to videography.  The vendors involved are great, and tomorrow is their first networking event at the Heaven Event Center.  It's going to be a blast, and over 200 people have already RSVP'd.  The party is for everyone, so if you haven't signed up make sure you do!  All of the proceeds go to Brides Against Breast Cancer, it's a blacklight party, Universal Studios is unveiling their new wedding website, and it's open bar.  You can RSVP by clicking here, or by emailing caleb@atlantis9.com.  See you there!

Atlantis 9 does more then just weddings you know.  We also do commercials, short films, business demos, depositions, etc. Basically we are structured to handle any kind of video project that comes our way.  We've filmed commercials for companies such as Universal Studios, Above and Beyond Limousine, Project Wed, Spectacle Photo, Harmony Golf Preserve, and more.  We don't normally advertise this because we believe that it's important that it's clear that weddings are our main focus.  If you're engaged it's important that you find a vendor that advertises a single specialty, otherwise you could end up going with a vendor that does everything but isn't especially good at any of them.  We love filming weddings and it is our passion, but through our work we are presented with opportunities to work on other film projects.  We believe that this makes us a bit more diverse, and allows us to bring in other aspects from creative heavy projects into our weddings.   Using techniques and ideas used outside of the wedding world is very important, and it enables us to make our wedding videos unique and stylish.  

We just got back from filming a wedding in Carson City, Nevada.  It was awesome!  It was definitely different from filming here in Orlando, the weather was way nicer.  The terrain was kind of a pain to make interesting though, after all it is just a desert.  But we got amazing footage, and their photographer Rich Johnson(who was also hired to fly out from Orlando) got great shots.  We love traveling to work, it gives our portfolio so much more variety.  It's always nice to change it up sometimes. 

Mary Ann is from Nevada.  She always was hotter than Ginger......

This is going to be a short blog, but an important one.  Most of the time couples decide to go with a traditional wedding even though they don't want one for the sake of safety.  They worry that a wedding theme that's different and something they'd actually enjoy is to embarrassing, or it would be to hard to set up, or others wouldn't enjoy it.  This is a mistake.  We just filmed Bill and Alexandra McCoy's wedding at Groove, and the wedding was fantastic.  The theme was "Till death do us part", and they had stilt walkers, a skull wedding topper, and lots of black and red.  They hired the chef from Universal Studios, the one who does the cooking for the premieres of the rides, and he made chocolate scarabs from "The Mummy" that were filled with caramel.  The event was nothing close to traditional, and it was awesome.  All of the guests had a great time, and it was a blast to film.  It was probably the most fun I've ever had at a wedding.  After the wedding Alex said she wouldn't have done it any other way, and that she was happy that her wedding day was really hers and Bills.  So when your wedding day comes around, make sure the day is yours.  Forget other people's opinions and all that.  Let other people get married their way, so you can get married yours.  The picture below is from their wedding.