It's Summer Summer Summer Time!

Happy Summer! Hope you're all enjoying some time off with family and friends. Summer is an interesting time of year in the world of Bar & Bat Mitzvahs. So many people want to have their B'nai Mitzvahs before school's out, and then things slow-down a bit while everyone's on vacation.

At the same time, families having their B'nai Mitzvahs this Fall and Winter are realizing it's time to get all those plans finalized. This issue of Mitzvah Mail is all about making your planning process easier. In "Tools of the Trade", you'll find three great apps to keep you organized without becoming buried in piles of paper. And best of all, these apps aren't just for mitzvahs, and you'll continue to use them long after the big day!

In "Why Have a Theme?", we'll talk about party themes - do you really need one and how do you pull one off well.

This issue's featured vendor is videographer Andy Hirsch from Blue Moon Productions. I recently interviewed Andy and got some great education on the latest in video technology, filmmaking, and how to choose the right videographer for you.

Enjoy and please feel free to forward to a friend!

Things

($9.99 on iTunes)

Things is an awesome Task Manager app that's easy to use, yet has several powerful features to keep all your "To-Do" Lists organized. Things Cloud (Free) keeps your To-Do's updated across all your devices automatically.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/things

Dropbox

(Free on the web)
Dropbox is a free service (unless you want to send a massive number of files back and forth) that allows you to share photos, documents, files, and videos between members of a group and have access to them from the cloud. Great for sharing ideas with your event planner, vendors, and anyone else involved in your event. You can make your file link private, but I wouldn't recommend sharing anything confidential since it's in the cloud. Also, make sure you have backup copies of your files somewhere else.
https://www.dropbox.com/

If you've used any other planning apps that you love, please let me know and I'll share in a future issue.

Videography - An Interview with Andy Hirsch, Blue Moon Productions

Like a lot of us, I wasn't sure if I wanted to hire a videographer for my daughter's Bat Mitzvah. I already had a great photographer and was trying to stay on budget. I finally decided that having live action video/audio of our once-in-a-lifetime event was worth the price, and I knew just who I wanted to hire - Andy Hirsch of Blue Moon Productions.

Calling Andy a videographer really doesn't do him justice. Andy is a formally trained filmmaker/cinematographer who brings the story of your day to life in the most beautiful high definition way. I recently interviewed Andy and he was a wealth of information on what makes a great Bar/Bat Mitzvah video, and how to choose the best videographer for you. Here's a re-cap of our conversation.

Q: What advice would you give someone looking for a videographer for their Bar/Bat Mitzvah?
A: Decide what you want - do you want a standard recording of your service and party shot by one person, or do you want a creative film shot from different angles and edited with special effects and music?

Q: What's the 411 on today's video technology?
A: With today's newest HDSLR cameras, we have the ability to create high-definition films of unsurpassed image quality. Using multiple cameras, we can shoot to edit meaning we can weave together footage to tell the story of your day as true filmmakers. The final product is a beautiful video with emotional impact.

Q: As we're planning our B'nai Mizvahs, it's sometimes a challenge deciding where to allocate our budgets. Any advice with regards to video?
A: Just like photography, or any other services, you usually get what you pay for. A one-person videographer who records your event and gives you the recording straight out of the camera is not going to charge the same as two videographers who record from different angles, getting both wide shots and closeup details, and spend hours editing footage, syncing audio, and adding music to create a keepsake film.

Q: What do you love most about what you do?
A: I love the art of filmmaking, and I love how the latest technology allows me to be more creative than ever before.

To see Andy's work, visit his website at: http://blue-moon-productions.com

Check out the highlight video Andy created for my daughter's Bat Mitzvah here: