A Year Since Fr. Patrick 'Paddy' Martin Passed Away

posted by Wendell on 23 April 2011 at 7:47 PM
It has been a year since Father Patrick 'Paddy' Martin passed away on April 23. He died two months after our baby was born. We were waiting for him to go around and greet people as he usually did so we can introduce him to baby Shawn but he was already too weak to get up during that time. Fr. Paddy has touched many lives whether he knew it or not and ours were among those.
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Farewell to Fr. Patrick Joseph 'Padi' Martin

posted by Wendell on 30 April 2010 at 6:17 PM

Today, we attended the requiem mass for our wedding celebrant Fr. Martin. There were about sixty Redemptorist priests who took turns to bless his coffin with holy water. Fr. Martin died at dawn Monday, the 26th of April. He is survived by his sister Maureen who stayed with him in the remaining days of his life.

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1st Wedding Anniversary

posted by Wendell on 21 June 2009 at 11:27 PM

We celebrated our very first wedding anniversary in very simple ways. We have to save for our future expenses.

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Congratulations to Engr. Frederick David & Mrs Ma. Jocelyn"Joji" Chiong

posted by Ivy on 15 May 2009 at 8:42 PM

Tuesday, May 12, 2009 was another grand celebration for the family. I was my Uncle Freddie and Auntie Joji's silver wedding anniversary. Family and friends gathered at tthe Archbishop Chapel to witness their renewal of vows. It was so nice to see familiar happy faces like those of Auntie Janet who was their Maid of Honor who just arrived from USA, Florida with his brother Joey and his family. I was also delighted to see Patricia looking real pretty in her fancy flower girl's dress. And of course Auntie Susan and Uncle Noel and the rest of the clan. A reception followed at the Grand Convention Restaurant after the mass.

As you may all recall, Engr. Frederick David Chiong was one of our principal sponsors and her wife Mrs Ma. Jocelyn Chiong was also one of our readers during our wedding. For me, witnessing the celebration of their 25th wedding anniversary was truly an inspiration. And as Wendell and I is about to celebrate our first wedding anniversary this June, we hope that we too could reach the same milestone that they had achieved as a couple.

Congratulations Uncle Fred and Auntie Joji and may you have many more years of married bliss.

Almost in Full Circle

posted by Wendell on 07 May 2009 at 8:58 PM
Finally!!!!!! We are done with all the video edits in all parts. All we need is to do some finishing touches which would include the interactive DVD menus, DVD cover design, and the end credits Wendell and I have been working intensively in it for the past three weeks. Its amazing to see how collaborative work can make a difference not just in terms of speed but also in artistry. We have almost come full circle and we can't wait to have it released in DVD and to share it with family and friends who have been asking for a copy. And what perfect timing, our first anniversary is drawing near. I guess this would be a great way to refresh and share this special memory.

So this is marriage.

posted by Wendell on 27 April 2009 at 1:03 PM

After finding out that many are waiting for the wedding dvd, we have managed to gain more time in edit work than there used to be and significantly increase the amount of video clips finished per week. Thanks to Ivy's directorship and relentlessness at keeping at it, it went continously and smoothly. The recent video releases for the last two weeks are results of true collaboration between Ivy and me. She was there all the time to supervise the musical score, scene sequences and timing. The pages for the recent videos has not been written yet as our priority is to release all of them in DVD format as soon as possible. You can find the most recent video releases by clicking here.

I admit that my past performance in mastering the learning curve of multi-camera video editing had been slow, sporadic and too step-by-step. Any changes in technique to easier ones took time to be decided by trial and errors. I am glad to have gained such a skill and experience which others do not see as anything valuable or necessary now.

Bad Materials

One of the things which greatly slowed down the editing process is the quality of the videographers' shots. One of them took shots so shaky and jerky it requires a lot of stabilization. This is the most difficult aspect of editing as video is panned and cropped almost frame by frame to compensate for the shake. Along with the shaky camera, there were irregular zoom ins and outs that are too fast and too frequent in a span of several seconds. This, too is compensated for by animated cropping. I often use a video stabilizer software to automatically hold still the shaky shots but it is only applicable to certain clips where loss of some picture information is negligible.

Dark shots are common but these are easily adjusted with software filters. Along with brightness adjustment is color balancing. A lot of hours went into experimentation with color and brightness adjustments during the learning stage.

Another thing to make up for is the videographers' composition which can be too centered, too far or taken from eyesore angles.

The most frustrating perhaps is the segmented shots of the videographers. It is difficult to assemble together a seamless and coherent video where speech plays an important role when all that the videographer took are little parts of it. We ended up including every little scrap of good and not-so-good shots we can get.

All of the aforementioned video material limitations certainly blocked the creative flow of video editing. I have failed on my part to brief the videographers which events to take completely and what kind of shots to make. We thankfully have the music to go with slowed down scenes to patch some missing parts. With all these work, it takes about eight to twelve hours to complete one video clip of less than five minutes. It took much longer than that while experimenting in the learning phase of the project.

People say that we should have spent more on a more professional videography studio and that proves a good point in saving time. The bulk of the budget has been for the sake of the guests to have a nice reception venue and not on documentation. It was a gamble to trust videography to a cheap video studio and a few artist friends. I am thankful for their contribution and was expecting only little from them as our budget was little. Before the wedding, I was only bracing myself for the work to be done to edit the video in the best way possible out of what they will come up with. I value most what was learned from this experience and have never considered it a waste of time as others may see it.

Work Hazards

As it seems that we owe everyone an explanation at our failure to release the videos at expected time, aside from the learning time and plain laziness, here is an explanation which hindered the video editing project in a big way:

Only one computer powerful enough to edit the raw video files is available and it is at my room in Pit-os. It is not allowed to run at the same time with other computers at Ivy's house for reasons that I do not wish to elaborate. I had to leave Ivy and stay in Pit-os for at most 4 days a week to work on the video project. The rest of the week, I go back to Ivy and just work on this website. We are limited to work at Ivy's computer only during the day as we give way for someone else in the house to take over it every afterwards. So the rest of the time, we are left without a computer to work with. If I remain awake during the night, it is wasted on reading novels or Jughead comic books. We also have to give up day work on weekends as well and Ivy is left gardening or cleaning things while I go back to Pit-os.

This has been going on for almost a year now. After several arguments, we recently have a solution:

For the last month, We gained worktime whenever I bring my computer over to work with and replace Ivy's computer during the day. This meant disconnecting all the attached cables to the computer in Pit-os, pack it in a cardboard box, walk through the neighborhood to handcarry the box to the side of the road some 200 meters away and hail a jeepney. At Ivy's house, the process is reversed. Everyday, I carry down my computer to replace Ivy's computer. Power, mouse, keyboard, speaker, and network cables are disconnected and reconnected, nevermind the wear and tear.

For the last couple of weeks, Ivy came over to Pit-os and helped out in the direction of the wedding videos. This accelerated the creative process in a way and produced faster results. Recently, I have decided to give up the computer and just leave it at Ivy's house so she won't have to come over. I have an old computer in Pit-os which I can use for the meantime for web editing only.

Ultimately, we need our own home or office to work in, away from getting in the way of other people and of others getting in the way of us. This is something we cannot yet afford. All I ask of everyone including myself is a little patience. Expectations will be met. All in overdue time.

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Wedding Video: First & Second Reading and Responsorial Psalm

posted by Wendell on 20 April 2009 at 10:19 AM
Ms. Jasmine Beboso reads the First Reading from the Song of Songs.

This video includes the First Reading from the Song of Songs read by Ms. Jasmine Beboso, the singing of the Responsorial Psalm by Mrs. Carmelita Omayao, and the Second Reading by Mrs. Myrna Vanguardia. All psalmists are members of Marian Apostolate of Stewardship and Service (MASS).

Watch and listen

Audio Noise Reduction

Speech audio is much clearer in this video edit with the help of a noise reduction software. Thanks to a recommendation and advice by experienced video editor and videographer Emmanuel 'Maning' Iradel. He was one of the freelance videographers of our wedding and has contributed much of the more professional shots in the Pixelsplasher wedding videos.

Emmanuel 'Maning' Iradel
Tungkil, Minglanilla, Cebu
Cell#: 0928.3295516
Website: http://maningpaolo.multiply.com

You can view a bit of his works at his website. Besides editing videos, Maning also edits wedding albums.

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