San Francisco Indie Film Festival

Is it that time of year again?  Time for the 11th Annual San Francisco Independent Film Festival from Feb 5 - 22.

The buzz is the opening night film Somers Town by Shane Meadows may be an Oscar contender. It was hailed as the best British film of the year and received the top award at the 2008 Edinburgh Film Festival and won the Best Actor award at the Tribeca Film Festival. It follows two teenage boys on little adventures around town and is a story of the social environment in London. It started out as a short film that eventually grew into a full length feature and was shot in just 17 days.

Another topical film is Abraham Obama in which a street artist creates an image that merges Lincoln's and Obama's faces and in a grassroots campaign, slaps up posters across America to get Obama elected.  I guess it worked.

For more information or to buy tickets, click here.  

Let 'Em Eat Cake Coquette

Who doesn't love cake?  And who doesn't love Gabreille at Cake Coquette? Gabrielle is vivacious, smart, witty, creative and sweet. She has had plenty of experience baking cakes, first as a student at the California Culinary Academy, then as pastry chef at the W Hotel in Seattle, then at Cake Divas, a prestigious cakery in Los Angeles. 

It's hard to decide which is my favorite flavor - the dark chocolate cake glazed with coffee Kahlua syrup and filled with mocha buttercream or the light lemon cake with tart citrus syrup layered with smooth citrus creme. And it's even harder to decide which is my favorite design. From elegant to whimsical each cake is unique and special.

And now, I'm not the only one who has discovered Cake Coquette.  Gabrielle's work will be featured at the prestigious Gump's Wedding Chic Bridal Show on Sunday, February 8. Visit and taste!

Want a Good Video Tip? Go See a Good Movie!

Q: Do you have to have an expensive camera to shoot good video?

A: Go to the Disposable Film Fest to find out!  Films from all over the world shot with amateur video camcorder devices such as cell phones, point and shoot cameras, one-time-use video cameras and web cams will be shown at the Disposable Film Festival tonight through Sunday night in San Francisco.

These days, you can get a cheap video camera and teach yourself how to video. That opens a world of possibilities you wouldn't dream of taking with an expensive camera. Now you can get really creative and launch a camera attached to a bunch of balloons and see what happens. Imagination is the only limiting factor.

But is it worth watching? If not, throw it away.

Contest Giveaway - Free Trip to Tahiti

Do you remember when Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry said "You gotta ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky?  Well do you?"   Well if you do, run don't walk, to...

Wedding University

Sunday, Feb 8, 11 AM - 5 PM

Four Seasons Hotel Silicon Valley

$25 for 1 person | $40 for two people

You could win a honeymoon stay at one of three luxurious Four Seasons Resorts including Lanai and Bora Bora!

Some other great reasons to come:

1.  Learn tips and honest practical information from a full slate of the best of the best wedding professionals in the Bay Area.

2.  Sample delicious food and wine supplied by the incomparable Four Seasons Hotel.

3.  Get lots of great decorating ideas.

4.  Learn to dance in one easy lesson.

And here's a chance to win two free tickets to the seminar compliments of The Flirty Guide. Enter to win before February 1. If you know of any engaged couples tell them about Wedding University and Tahiti - you really wouldn't want to keep it to yourself, now would you? :~) Hope to see you there!

DIY Do It Yourself

What is DIY?  Well, it's just the hottest trend this year!  There is a thirst for DIY knowledge, and numerous websites and communities have sprung up to meet the demand.  Almost 3% of queries online start with "how to", making it the most common search question. I blush to mention what the Top 10 queries are, but here goes:

1.  How to tie and tie (we can give you a how-to on that, based upon two grooms' preparations :~)

2.  How to have s*x

3.  How to kiss

4.  How to lose weight

5.  How to write a resume

6.  How to levitate (ooooookay)

7.  How to draw

8.  How to get pregnant (see #2 and #3)

9.  How to make out

10.  How to make a video

Well now, we can help you out with #10 in our Movie-Me Seminar on Sun, Feb 22.  See top of the left sidebar for details.

Obama Inauguration in High Definition

We were glued to the TV this morning watching President Obama being sworn in.  What an exhilarating moment!  You could see 1000's of people being swept up in the moment.  When was the last time that happened, in a good way?

We lived in Washington, D.C. for several years and believe me, The Mall is a huge area. And to be filled with so many people?  The experience must have been indescribable for those who were there.  Simply historic.

It made me reflect back on the last time a President was sworn into his first term of office. Technology has made remarkable leaps since then.  One of the most obvious to us, watching a large high-def TV, was how crisp the picture was.  But then, the director switched to some of the cameras covering the crowd which were recording in standard definition and yuck! the picture was noticeably poorer.  Lots of pixilation, and hard to see any details that we had just seen so clearly.  The standard definition was quite clearly inferior to the high def. 

So, when considering how you'll be filming your wedding, make sure you watch the images on a standard def TV and on a high-def TV.  Because is a relatively few years, high def will be the new standard.

3 Keys To Better Exposure

What is exposure? 

Exposure is controlling the amount of light entering the camera.  

Why is exposure important? 

It's necessary to have good exposure in order to capture good quality images.

How do you know whether to use the auto or manual exposure setting?  

If the entire scene is evenly lit like the image on the left, then the auto exposure setting is fine.  But if there is a discrepancy between the lighting on your subject (people or objects) and the lighting on the background, then it all depends on what you decide is the focus of the shot.  

Example #1:  Background is Brighter than the Subject

Let us say you have a bunch of people in the foreground, in the shade and the area behind them is in bright sunlight.  If your camera is set to auto exposure, the people's faces will be dark without much detail because they camera is trying to "average" the dark and the bright spots of the image. 

So, you would have to set the camera to a manual exposure, focus on the faces and select an exposure that allows you to see the details in the people's faces.  You will lose detail in the background because the background will be overexposed.  It's not ideal, but that's all you can do.

Maybe you want the lush landscape behind the people to be the focus.  If that is so, the people in the foreground will be silhouettes in order for the background to be correctly exposed.

Here's an example where auto exposure would have made the bride's face too dark.  By setting the exposure to manual and compensating for a bright background, we can see the bride's face.

Example #2: Background is Darker than the Subject

Let us say you have a spotlight on a bride and groom as they dance their first dance together. Most auto exposure systems will overexpose the subject (the couple) to compensate for the dark background.  So in this case, you would switch to manual exposure and bring the exposure down so the couple is well exposed and let the background go dark. 

What are three ways to get a better exposure?

TIP 1:.  Change your angle and composition so you don't have a bright background.  Make the foreground and background as equal as possible in terms of lighting.

TIP 2:  Zoom in or get closer so that the primary subject fills most of the frame.  Therefore, the lighting on the background is not an issue.

TIP 3:  Add supplemental light to the foreground subject.

What is the key to good exposure?  Understand how YOUR camera responds to different lighting situations and experiment with different settings to get the best results.