Cody Mahan

Alright, so as everyone knows, Apple has released the iPad – and with it, a whole new platform to make some killer sweet apps for. Me and the fellas have been discussing what this might mean for us, whether an update for Wordinator, or a few new apps that take full advantage of the platform. Brainstorming will be happening over the next few days and weeks and development soon after, but if you have any ideas for us, feel free to shoot them to us using this form:

Get it while it lasts!

Four new packs just got approved today for Wordinator!

Farts!

SightWords Levels 1, 2 & 3

Check these out and snag them from within the app today!

We’ll be working on the last two SightWords packs and submit them soon.

For Everyone…

An app which puts a ton of fun, ridiculous and educational sounds at your fingertips. Its a soundboard with a few extra goodies.

- Create your own custom packs and record the words yourself from within the app. (requires a mic, if you don’t have an iPhone)

- Modify pitch on the fly! Make the words super slow or fast. This brings much joy :)

Comes standard with 3 packs:

Koalafied: completely random, but quite fun assortment of words for all occasions.

Lunch Lady: A tribute to the lunch ladies in the world… Y’ant taters?

Beat Box: For all those who wish they could beat box, we make it a little easier!

New packs will be produced on a regular basis (whenever we come up with a new one!) and can be purchased in the app’s internal Pack Market. A demo video can be viewed from within the app for each new pack that we add.

For Parents & Teachers…

Use Wordinator as an effective learning tool! Check the Pack Market for packs that help teach kids their letters and vocabulary for various grade levels. Or, record your own custom packs for cases we haven’t covered.

Greetings thou bootless, tickle-brained lout! Welcome to this page, thou unmuzzled, hasty-witted gudgeon!

I bring you iNsultFree: The Free & Ad-Supported version of my Shakespearean Insult Generator; Originally an internet meme, now repackaged for your convenience in this sweet app which will allow you to custom pick or generate randomly from 125,000 possible combinations, with more to come in future updates. You can read it off in a snooty manner to those in your company (or to yourself if you feel you deserve it), or email/text it using copy/paste to a pal.

So, my saucy, fool-born varlot… snag it, use it, love it and send me emails with ideas for words to be added.

And if you give it a bad review, I will likely use it to insult you… ; )

2010 was a fabulous year! Thanks to all of you who helped make it so

2011 is shaping up to be even better… Drop by our booth at the Dallas Bridal Show on January 29 or 30 to get a sneak peak at some of our new offerings, such as custom video invitations!

Watermark Community Church opened their new chapel a few months ago. Leigh Montgomery, a member of Watermark’s staff, and Adam Sandwick chose the Watermark Chapel as the setting for their wedding. If I could describe their wedding in a few words, it would be: simple, earthy, beautiful, and one of a kind.

The pond area out in front of the church served as a great setting for the photographer to capture all of there smiles. The chapel is conveniently situated next to the Loft, which is a large room overlooking the pond area that served as the reception room.

While many brides and grooms choose a traditional route and serve cake and punch or wine, Leigh and Adam went a totally different and delicious route! Cupcakes, M&M’s, Skittles, cookies, and hot tamale candies were just the beginning. The also had a yogurt shop bring in their cart of frozen yogurt and serve each guest from a variety of flavors and toppings!

Probably my favorite part of their refreshment options was the coffee bar. Crooked Tree Coffeehouse (crookedtreecoffeehouse.com) brought their crew and took orders ranging from regular coffee to rich caramel macchiatos. I just love the smell of coffee….

Overall, Leigh and Adam’s day was delightful and they really make a beautiful couple. Best wishes to them! And here’s some highlights from their day:

Blue and yellow flowers, vintage lace dress, cowboy boots, and even a kilt adorned the bride and groom as they were married on March 6th, 2010. Many ears perked up as they heard the familiar sounds from the Braveheart soundtrack as Garrett and his groomsmen walked across the stage.

The white sheer fabric cascading in the background provided the perfect backdrop as Garrett stood still and smiling, awaiting his lovely bride. With soft brown curls falling across her shoulders and the perfect lace neckline to frame her smile, Alana walked down the isle to marry the love of her life.

Yellow lemons filled the vases on the tables and homemade picture frames painted in blues and yellow sat nearby. Each table had a couple of disposable cameras for the guest to take candid shots.

The Bride’s cake had a homey and soft feel as it was decorated with blue and yellow flowers over the ivory icing. Garrett’s cake, however, caught everyone’s eye. A 3 foot block of gray icing resembling the texture of a rock wall was the bottom half. On top laid a cake in the shape of a guitar. The whole thing resembled a rock climbing beast with fake moss and pebbles decorating it. A small figurine was even strategically placed to represent a rock climber. It was impressive and quite a sight to see!

Overall, the wedding day was filled with lightheartedness, tender moments, lots of laughter, and the fun and goofiness of Garrett and Alana. Cody and I thoroughly enjoyed shooting their wedding. The most important thing was for us to capture them enjoying this day as it really happened and I think we did well.

This past weekend was a whirlwind, but nonetheless filled with fun. Cody, our friend Jonathan (who happens to be an up and coming photographer and graphic designer), and myself traveled down to Camp Highland Lakes near Austin, TX for the Hot Hearts Conference 2010.  Each year, youth from all over Texas come for a 2 day retreat filled with worship, concerts, sports, hanging out, and messages shared about Jesus Christ. All photos are courtesy of Rod Cordsen. He is an amazingly talented photographer and you can find him at: cordsenphotography.com

This camp is really where Cody first began his training for being a videographer. He worked there an entire summer back in 2006 and filmed and filmed and filmed and edited and edited and edited. It was a tiring, almost never ending process, but the joy it brought to the many smiling faces that came through that camp made it all worth it.

Now, he and Jonathan have been recruited each year for the Spring Hot Hearts gathering, and I got to join them for the first time! It’s quite entertaining to observe the array of responses a videographer receives when he or she surprises those to be filmed.

Some of the teenagers eat it up entirely. A camera is pointed at them and it becomes their chance to flip their hair, smile from ear to ear, and wave hello like a celebrity. It becomes their opportunity to playfully push each other around and wrestle around on the grass….maybe do some handstands or in a non chalant manner, pretend like they don’t even care we are filming them.

For others,  this moment is frightening and they literally run away from us as if we smell like we haven’t showered in a week.  Like I said, while the weekend is tiring and intense, it remains quite entertaining.

The best part of the weekend is to know that these youth are getting an opportunity to hear messages about Christ, and learn about their worth in God’s eyes.  I am sure these teenagers come from all kinds of backgrounds, and many are desperate to find purpose for their lives and know that they are loved. They learn about this here…they hear great truths.

After arriving late Thursday night, we spent the Friday storyboarding, began filming lots that evening, Cody and Jonathan stayed up to 3 am editing, and then Saturday we burnt the DVDs and it was time to show these youth awesome moments from the weekend before we all parted ways.

Good times, great people, all equaling to quite a swell weekend.

Last week Kasey and I went out to try some new equipment, and the video below is the result! The park we found is right up Belt Line in Richardson, or maybe in addison. Its a great place, and I think we’ll be taking a few couples there for shoots of the story!

Enjoy! And leave some comments to tell us what you think!

The Wedding Dress from Cody Mahan on Vimeo.

Hi all – I was doing a bit of research online and came across this useful article on How to Hire a Wedding Videographer.

From the article:

Most brides spend months, if not years, dreaming about their wedding day – visualizing an event that will be as unique and sparkling as a snowflake, dazzingly unlike any wedding before or yet to come, utterly fresh and magical. They may invest hours upon hours searching for the perfect wedding ring.

Yet when those brides look for a wedding videographer — to capture a living record of that remarkable day, which they will be looking at as long as they’re looking at their wedding rings (even if not as often) – most brides follow a very predictable pattern:

• They lump their search for a videographer along with shopping for other vendors, such as caterers, florists, and limousine companies.
• They wait until after choosing a photographer before locating a videographer.
• They give little thought to what they want their wedding video to actually be like; they just want to know it will be done.
• They make their final choice by price.

There is an old axiom in entrepreneurial circles: “Observe the masses – then do the opposite.” That also is good advice for any bride who wants a quality video of her wedding day. Hiring a videographer isn’t just a matter of ticking off a check box somewhere on the prenuptial To Do list. For that matter, settling on the lowest bidder is no formula for securing a video that enthralls generations of viewers.

Sounding good? Read more of the article here.

We’ve been upgrading our equipment of late, and I decided to try my hand at some custom builds. This baby is a shoulder mount, glide track, and tripod mount all in one, and it makes me happy. It took me a couple weeks to come up with the design and to build it, and I had a little help from a fine fellow at Lowes!

We got a chance to use it for the first time this past weekend for a wedding, and the ability to go hand-held in a ceremony is wonderful. Some of the angles we achieved were astounding, and although not as steady and a tripod, still vog worthy!

Good times this past weekend! On Saturday, we hung out with one of our couples getting married in July at the Old Red Museum in downtown Dallas. Cool venue! We got to see all its insides while we mapped out the videography.

Afterward we spent some time at starbucks with some friends and played scrabble – they insisted that they hadn’t played in years, but they still owned us. Then, I took Kasey out to get some sushi from one of our favorite places in celebration of our love. This had nothing to do with Valentines day…

That night a buddy from San Angelo crashed at our place, and spent the next day with us, which was awesome! We went to church, made some lunch, and then packed up to head to a Chinese New Year celebration at a friends house in Grand Prairie. The main tradition is to eat, and I was very traditional. Gonna have to work out a little harder this week.. Homemade dumplings and various kinds of seafood  which we individually cooked in a hot pot in the center of the table – amazing. We sang, played on the piano, and I did some handstands. Good times were had by all, and now I really want to go to China.

We had some record breaking snow in Richardson this past week! It was beautiful, and after snowballing each other and building an obligatory snowman on top of my car, we decided it was time to film a little video we’ve been wanting to do for a few weeks now.

Some background; we love Glee – its one of shows that we can both appreciate in full together. And, I’ve been told in the past that my life is basically a Disney movie, and its true; you won’t go a day in the Mahan house without hearing one of us bust out in song for some reason!

Enjoy!

Degying Fravity from Cody Mahan on Vimeo.

And the fast version….

Degying Fravity – Fast Version from Cody Mahan on Vimeo.