This year’s event is Thursday, October 27th from 6-9pm, at the Four Seasons hotel in downtown Seattle. This year’s goal is to raise $75,000 to grant wishes for adult patients with life-threatening illnesses and their families, and ZinchukFilms is doing it’s part. We are donating a full wedding film package to the cause!!!

Last year, Taz and Channy won an extra-special Love Story film and it was so fun telling their story, which was shown at the wedding of their dreams.  This year we decided to up the ante and donate our ‘Vintage Fusion’ wedding film package—an over $2,500 value!  It includes up to 8 hours of wedding day coverage on high definition film AND vintage Super 8 film.  We will edit the events of the wedding day into a cinematic film that lasts up to 15 minutes.  This is an exciting way to remember the sounds and moments that made your day really special!!

This is an awesome opportunity to get your wedding cinematography taken care of AND to know that your money is going to a great cause!!  We hope you can join us on Thursday – get your tickets online or at the door.  It will be an awesome evening with free drinks, yummy food, fun entertainment, a LIVE AUCTION, and the chance to win some really amazing stuff!!

We look forward to seeing you!!

We formed this group about a year ago as a place for wedding filmmakers from around the world to share their best work. We try to place a few outstanding films as “featured” on the right side-bar. It’s a great place to gather ideas and inspiration–Alex visits every morning with his morning coffee.  If you are a filmmaker, aspiring filmmaker, or film-lover, we encourage you to stop by and join our group!

2)  ZinchukFilms vimeo channel.

If you’re new to ZinchukFilms and want to get a sense of the work we do (or just want to find a beloved video you saw a year ago) our vimeo channel is a great place to view the work we have done over the years. You can even subscribe to be notified when a new video is posted!

We hope you all have had a wonderful weekend!  We have been enjoying the autumn Seattle weather and just a little Thai take-out.  If you have a second, stop by our Facebook page for new pictures and updates.  If you like what you see, we’d love if you’d “like” us and become our friend!

Click here to visit our Facebook Page.

When we unveiled our new brand, we were asked about the bird.  Where did it come from? What does it mean?

We began brainstorming for our re-brand last spring. We knew we needed not only a name for our business, but also a visual representation that would be easy to remember. Over dinner one night we literally sketched every idea that came to mind. At that time, a family of swallows were living  just outside our door and they brought us so much happiness.  That was one idea that was drawn on the paper and it was the one that persisted.

Swallows are symbols of loyalty and home in many cultures. For sailors, they are a symbol of travel as well as returning home.  Swallows are beautiful creatures of nature with a rich symbolic history that we really felt represents what ZinchukFilms is about.

Both Alex and I have traveled extensively,  and living in Seattle we are both far from our childhood homes.  We create a home where ever we are together, but we never forget where we have come from. Many of our couples come from far away but have found love in each other. There is a simple beauty in that.

Swallows are loyal, we are to our clients.   Over the years, we have realized that it isn’t our style to film by the hour–we are there for our couples for their entire wedding day.  It is important to us to tell their love story from beginning to end, and our new full coverage packages reflect that.  And as we have become friends with our couples, it is a great joy when we are able to work with their friends and relatives as they celebrate their special events. We love to see the families of our couples grow as they have children and settle into their lives.

Finally, we love nature. As a girl from Montana, I have always had a special love for wild creatures and the swallow represents that wild freedom that both Alex and I treasure so much about the Pacific Northwest. That is why we are working hard to make our business as green as possible: from online bookkeeping to recycled print products and packaging, ZinchukFilms is conscious of how we use resources and create waste.

There is no one simple reason why our  little turquoise swallow represents us; rather, it is a feeling in our hearts that comes from many different factors. But we hope that by glancing upon our little bird you will think of us and what we do.

Finally *** As promised, I have a winner from our Re-brand Giveaway!!**

We were so busy last week with Get Hitched, Give Hope and our final wedding of the year, that I didn’t have time to post. And so .. .drumroll . . .the winner of the $25 itunes giftcard is . . .

Erin! Send me your address by Monday and I’ll get that gift card sent out!

Congrats–and thank you to everyone for the “likes” on our new Facebook page and for all the supportive comments!

We are so excited to be participating in the 2010 Get Hitched, Give Hope! They’ve set their sights high–they hope to raise $50,000 for the Making Memories Foundation, which is dedicated to granting wishes for stage IV breast cancer patients, while continuing to support, educate and increase awareness of breast cancer.

ZinchukFilms has donated a Love Story film to the event’s silent auction! This story of “how you met” is shot in a 3-4 hour session which can include interviews, creative shots, or even an entire film script. Many of our couples have shown this special film at their wedding reception.

Our love stories are valued at $1000, and can be converted into a credit in that amount toward a ZinchukFilms wedding package.  We will be showing Love Stories and Wedding Films at the event, so be sure to stop by and see what we are up to!

For more information about Get Hitched, Give Hope, visit their website or come by the event at the Four Seasons Hotel tomorrow night!! There are a ton of great vendors at the event along with great food and entertainment. It will be a night to remember!

Until then, it is one awesome “toy” to play with!

So when Max showed us this gorgeous Browning double-barreled shotgun, we knew it would be a fun afternoon. They even got us girls out to shoot (and I wasn’t too bad a shot!).

Enjoy this short clip of our fun in Wasilla, Alaska!

We had a fun opportunity to do something different this week and film Tom Douglas interviewing celebrity chef Mario Batali in Seattle for Seattle Met Magazine. It was fun to hang out with a bunch of Seattle foodies and capture the hysterical conversation between Douglas & Batali.

We’ve put together a series of videos for SeattleMet, and yesterday Batali’s take on kids & veggies got top billing:

Don’t you just love Seattle Met’s new logo??

You can find more video excerpts from the interview on the Seattle Met blog “Nosh.”

My favorite part? Douglas & Batali’s discussion on the future of cookbooks with new devices such as the iPad. It actually got me thinking about how I use technology in the kitchen, and I love Mario’s idea to have an iPad app where he not only gives you recipes but demos them. Wanna learn how to cook from Mario Batali? There’s an app for that

A big thanks to Seattle Met for bringing us in to capture the evening and to Kim Ricketts Book Events for putting the event together. It was held at Tom Douglas‘s fab Palace Ballroom–a gorgeous venue for events (and weddings!).

I approached this shootout as a chance to set aside all of my “knowledge” and really allow myself to humbly spend time with my camera. I tend to be a natural light shooter, taking advantage of the sun whenever I can. But weddings often last past sunset and Seattle rain often forces photo shoots inside so I knew I needed to get to know artificial (and my dear flash) a little better. My experimentation resulted in a lot of bad photos, but I think that the good photos are some of my best yet. I learned a lot about directing my flash and using ambient light–not to mention making new friends and having a fun afternoon!

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Event Organizers- Emma and Josh of emmajane photography
Venue Host- Hotel 1000
Models – SPA models: Tyease and Warren, Kiran, Christy and Kristian, Kayla.
Makeup- Sheila Birashk
Hair- B.B and Brittany of Absolut Hair
Gowns and Accessories- La Belle Elaine’s
Flowers- Candice at The Petal and the Stem
Cake- Sugar Rush Baking Co.