Charles Lauren Films: The Blog

This is an excerpt from the Winter Festival Concert, a two hour video we produced for the Department of Music at CSULB. We had a blast filming it- and the President had requested that Charles Lauren Films film it, so we we’re pretty thrilled about that too. Please enjoy the following presentation of The Winter Festival Concert by the Department of Music at CSULB.

This is a marketing video we produced for the College of the Arts at California State University Long Beach. They will be using this video to attract top students from around the nation to come to “The Beach” and also to attract donors to give funding that is desperately needed to the College of the Arts. The College is the largest and most comprehensive publicly supported arts college west of the Mississippi. There are 6 departments in the college, Art, Dance, Design, Film and Electronic Arts, Music and Theater Arts. This video focuses on the College itself and the Department of Music. As the year progresses we will be filming all the other 5 departments and showcasing their talents and tributes as well. Being a fellow Alumni of the Department of Film and Electronic Arts- we were totally psyched to be able to bring notoriety and publicity to our Department and the College of Art as well. So with that, enjoy the following clip and Go Beach!

Last week we had the honor of filming at the Trump National Golf Club at Palos Verdes Peninsula…but before all of the fanfare and partying was to take place, the groom- Stephen- had to pass “the test” back at his bride’s house to see if he was worthy enough to marry Yenyao. The following is a video clip of what sort of ordeals he had to go through before he could see Yenyao and take place in the tea ceremony at their home with their families. It is quite amusing how far one man will go for the love of his life…

We have seen a few cake smashing incidents. More commonly, the groom knows that his only chance of a great honeymoon is to keep his bride looking good – a tasteful dollop of frosting on the nose or cheek is acceptable. Also, if you are a guest at a wedding, don’t throw cake at the groom because he is your ex. Thank you.

9 times out of 10 when we are with a bride as she is getting her makeup and hair done, multiple people will call her cell phone asking what time the ceremony is, how you get there, what kind of gift to bring – this is distracting and out of place for a bride and she will start to regret inviting you. Please watch this clip.

David and I got to film a wedding in Palm Springs this weekend! We had originally filmed Gabe’s sisters wedding in Santa Barbra- so when Larry (Twilight and Gabe’s Dad) invited us to come back for a weekend at the Hyatt Grand Champions, in Palm Springs we couldn’t refuse.

As always Jessica, the bride looked stunning thanks to make-up artist Keturah, who did everyone’s makeup for the event. Keturah travels, but is based in the Palm Springs area and we hadn’t worked with her before. Let’s just say she made bridal getting ready about as fun as it gets- and she is a dear friend of Jessica’s, they have known each other since high school- so it made it that much better.

Stay tuned for a clip from the event in about a week- we have something special we are working on for Jessica and Gabe….

David and I couldn’t wait to write a blog on Debbie and Mike’s wedding! The magic all transpired at the Earl Burns Miller Japanese Garden and as always with the Garden the venue sparkled! We love this venue… Lynette’s team of planners always pay special attention to every detail making sure it’s just perfect for when the couple enter for the reception! And with George at DJ Connection playing the tunes it doesn’t get much better for a swinging party with the Koi of the Garden. Take a look… the music was suggested by Debbie herself whose quite the techno party buff! Congratulations Debbie & Mike!

Possible Spoiler Alert!!! If you haven’t seen Wicked yet, I may indeed ramble about something that you might not want to know about yet- so watch out!!!

Perhaps we are a bit on the end tail of this entire phenomenon. Let’s just blame it on not getting out much. A friend of ours who was a groomsman in our wedding this year bought us tickets to see the Broadway Musical, Wicked for our wedding present.
As filmmakers we weren’t quite like everyone else exiting the Pantageous Theatre on Hollywood Blvd. People kept saying Amazing, Wow, Didn’t You Love it? to all of their friends. We did indeed love it, but it was more than just “love”. It is amazing how so much analysis if given the opportunity could be put into these 3 little hours of time. Tackling such issues as social classes, activism for the less fortunate, and how the Good Witch really almost controls her kingdom in a fascist way. This all tells us that there is more to OZ than meets the eye.
It’s amazing how some of the post popular things in life are taken from something that has already been invented. Of course this story doesn’t stick to the previous invention of anything that was written in the 1900s story by Frank Baum – perhaps that’s what’s so good about it, I never did like that fake wizard anyway!
Nevertheless- I can’t really do this musical justice unless I write a 10 page analysis on it’s implications in society and so many of the themes that are present. I also know that although you might not get bored, on a blog no one really wants to read that- so I leave it at this… go and see it, it’s probably better that way. And always remember Green Is Good.

A side note-It’s amazing we didn’t see this musical before hand, come to think of it- we were acquisitioned by Brian Gimmillaro the coach of the Volleyball Team at California State University to make a banquet video on the volleyball team using a song from Wicked! This was over 2 years ago, we should get more of a life, I knew I liked the soundtrack then- anyway, here is a video clip that we did for the Volleyball Team before we even knew what it meant to be Wicked!

Last month we filmed the Nuestra Imagen Awards for the Long Beach Community Hispanic Association. This is their 11th year and we have been with them almost from the beginning. This is a fundraising dinner to get grants and scholarships for the Latino Youth. They get internships, education and jobs while in high school and most move on to college. Even though there is a large board, the Executive Director Jessica Quintana and Lupe Velasco pretty much run the entire organization. Every time we stop by to drop things off or pick up pictures for slideshows, there is nothing but a flurry of kids, calls, confused citizens, kind of like our office.

This clip is from the event, Mayor Bob Foster had to leave early because of his eye problems that precluded him from reading our cue cards on a shoot earlier in September. Hopefully he is all back to normal now and can use our telepromter to its fullest potential! Bob Foster is a really funny guy and has gone along with lots of crazy projects that we have done with him. I will post some of those in the future.

Since Laura Richardson is now a Congresswoman, we thought we would look at a video we made for her last December. At that point in her career, she had just been elected as Assemblywoman. How times change in 9 months. That is a meteoric rise! This video looked at the projects she took on as a City Council Member in Long Beach. Each councilmember and community groups she worked with were used to structure the story. Her mother and sister, who are rarely seen also appear with comments of love and affection. We used many of the skills we use to fashion Love Stories to make this video. Biographies about political leaders and corporate executives have a story to tell, just like the story of love between our couples! Enjoy!