In case you missed it, my little brother Steven made it into the semi-finals (Top 24) with AscenDance on America’s Got Talent. They gave another awesome performance so I’ve got my fingers crossed that they make it through to the next round!
Good luck Steven!
NEWS FLASH!
We interrupt your not-so regularly scheduled programming to bring you an urgent announcement! My little brother Steven, who has a background in music, gymnastics, dance, and (partially thanks to me) rock climbing, has recently joined a “rock climb dancing” group called AscenDance that has made it into the Top 48 on America’s Got Talent! Check out their most recent performance:
Go Steven!
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He's very cute! Is he available?
Well, as usual it’s been months since our last update, and much has happened since then! So here’s a quick rundown of everything that’s been happening in the last year or so.
As you know, last June we adopted a new baby, who we lovingly call “The Big One.” Okay, not really. But I had been eyeing this baby for over a year, so when it was finally available to us employees at a discount, it was mine, all mine all ours. With the purchase of a few more lenses to round out our collection, we’re definitely getting more serious with our hobby. We’ve set up a brand new photography page (powered by SmugMug), which I think will do a much better job showing off our forays into photography.
We kept ourselves busy for three months or so last year making a little movie and revamping our website and creating a new wedding page to announce our upcoming nuptials. And since then, we’ve been quite busy preparing for said nuptials. Planning a wedding from overseas is no easy task, but we’ve had the help of an awesome wedding planner and managed to squeeze in a two-week visit to Southern California last Christmas for some face-to-face wedding planning and some much needed family time. Here are some photos of a typical Wong Christmas:
I’ll end this blog with some photos we’ve been working on. In February, we had the honour of attending our first Australian wedding in Melbourne, that of our good mates Andrew and Elisha. We also attended our first Aussie Bucks and Hen parties (but what happens in Inverloch, stays in Inverloch). We had an awesome time and it was a good chance to catch up with old friends (wow, we’ve been here long enough to have “old friends”). They didn’t have an official photographer at the reception, so we got to play photographers. Here are some of our favourite shots from the special night:
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First off, we want to say a big hello to all the random people who have stumbled upon our little save-the-date video. We’re quite overwhelmed by all the love coming in from the vast expanse of the intertubes. And we appreciate all your kind words and even enjoy reading the hysterical comments by the haters.
If you are friends or family and have no idea what we’re talking about… it seems that our video is going viral:
The Huffington Post
Boing Boing
Offbeat Bride
We’ve been getting a lot of questions about the video, so we thought we’d take the opportunity to answer some of them. First off, our video was NOT done professionally (except for the voice-over, more on that later). Second, this was NOT a high budget production, except for the use of a nice DSLR which we already owned. And as should be obvious, this video was only ever intended for friends and family.
This started off as something that was going to be a small project, a video announcement that we would shoot in a weekend. But as we started working on it, we started coming up with more ideas and were having more and more fun with it. And as you can tell, we just got carried away.
We wanted to do the most over-the-top action movie trailer parody we could think of, so we had to have the big movie-trailer voice! But who did we know who could pull this off? How can we process the voice to make it sound like the “voice of God”? After some research, we realized that the only way to really pull it off was to hire a real voice actor. We found Larry Wayne and sent in our script full of every cliche we could think of. He liked the idea and agreed to do it for a VERY reasonable cost. Once he sent back the audio file, we were blown away! Now, how could the video live up to the standards set by the voice-over?
So we figured… what better way to achieve the epic effect we were after than to walk away from explosions? But renting a green screen studio was just not in our budget. How about a green wall? After some flickr-ing, we found this green wall, not far from us! With the help of street view, we tracked down the building and started filming!
Everything that was obviously not from a movie we filmed ourselves (with some help from our friend Matt), using a Canon 5D Mark II. It was all edited using Premiere and After Effects on a regular PC. We did most of the title and text effects ourselves, except for the intro 20th Century Fox spoof. A template for that was created in Blender by some cool guy on the internet called Blazer003… we just followed his tutorial.
As for the “evil” cat, she is actually very sweet; her name is Eski, but unfortunately she’s not ours, but was graciously lent to us by our friends Ian and Sam. The grand piano scene was made possible thanks to a colleague Peter, who allowed us an hour in the recording studio where he volunteers in his spare time. The Vietnamese subtitles were done by another colleague, Son, whose mastery of the Vietnamese language far exceeds my own.
Maybe we’ll post some behind-the-scenes footage some day, but for now, we’ll leave you with these screenshots:
Uncooperative cat!
Falling on my butt in front of strangers.
Butting heads… ouch!
Trying to look cool while walking away from a green wall in slow motion!
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Hands down the best wedding invite ever! Thank you for giving us a glimpse into your life and reminding us all what love looks like. All the best.
Inspiring. Adorable. Fun. Moving. Awesome. Thanks!
Dudes. Awesome work. Have a great life together. And extremely well done putting up all this information about it all . Well done Well Done. Trent
Congratz guys! I'd also like to know what the name of the song after the fox introduction is. I've heard it in so many trailers and what not, but there's no lyrics so it's hard to look up. Thanks 
i to stummbled across your "save the date"
video and i must say ,, it is the most original invite idea i have ever seen, it was wonderfully done, and i loved it, congrats on your up coming wedding and i hope you have an exciting life togther…
That's just brilliant! Awesome.
Congratulations and best wishes on your upcoming wedding and beyond.
Found it here:
http://www.weddingbells.ca/blogs/fashion/2010/02/07/an-epic-save-the-date/
You guys are great – found your link here today:
http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/the-25-most-epic-ads-that-arent-1984.html
Ha! Congrats.
LOVE the video!
All the best,
Houston, tx
I don't know you guys, but after seeing this video, I wish I did! I'm in Washington, D.C., and after viewing, I posted it on my facebook page for ALL to view! I couldn't stop laughing! You guys did an EXCELLENT job!
May God bless your union. I hope that you also do a video when it's time to have your first baby! ("Look Who's Talking," "Daddy Day Care," and "Adventures In Babysitting" are some movies that come to mind to parody.
Good luck guys, and God speed.
Congrats…
I really like your wedding trailer. I found your video on youtube, while i was trying to look for ideas to make my wedding montage interesting. BTW, my fiancee and I will be getting marry on 10-2-10.
Excellent work!!!
Joe
This was an awesome video! I just stumbled upon it as well, but loved it! Congrats!
Absolutely amazing! You two are extremely creative and talented! Great job, and Congratulations on the wedding!
Congratulation from France !
Hey Guys!
CONGRATS on the publicity, and on putting together a REALLY cool video.
Really nifty post to show how it's done too.
You look like quite the world travelers as well.
We'll be in Australia this summer after South America through April.
I'm sure you're inundated at the moment with email and comments, so I'll stop, but congrats again, and well done.
Warmest,
Jonathan Kraft
http://www.CarrieAndJonathan.com
(Currently in Quito, Ecuador)
All the best… You've made me smile and chuckle with glee as I look forward to my wedding!
Just read about this in NW magazine Australia (Feb 8th Issue)
Love Love Love it
Best wedding invite ever, so funny!
All the best for the epic date.
- Bonnie
hi guys i absolutely luvved your video!
all the best for your "big day."
Best wishes for your upcoming marriage! Hope you'll put together a "Making of" video, as well as a sequel. A fan from the Internet living in Montreal, Quebec (Canada)
aMaZiNg!!!!
May your creativity continue into your wedding & marriage!
Biggest Blessings & Marital Bliss to YOU!
Jenny Fox Shain, artist & photographer from
Atlanta, Georgia
From Heidi in Germany….
Both of you are creative geniouses! Absolutely stunning video! You should be videographers making movie trailers. Congratulations on your wedding in October 2010.
Dude, nice vid, you guys should put up a paypal account and have people donate to your Honeymoon fund. Best of luck with the marriage.
-One of those randoms
Jeff and Erin,
Congratulations to you both. This is by far the best save the date video I've see. Best wishes on you upcoming wedding and life together.
WOW! I am so impressed about your video! It is soo cool with couples who think outside the box when it comes to their weddings! I wish you a very happy marriage and a long and happy life together.
Thanx for inspiering other couples!!
Zarah, Ystad Sweden
Well done you guys, isn't the internet just amazing. Best wishes for a long and happy marriage you look very happy together.
I just want you to know that for the past week, whenever I feel down or blue I just fire up your trailer and in four minutes I'm all grinny and happy and cheered.
Thank you!
(And if you don't mind my asking: exactly what is the height difference between the two of you? As a tall woman myself I've always felt uncomfortable with men who were not as tall as I am… and I see now how I've robbed myself!)
Wow I wish my invitations were this awesome! I found your video trough break.com.
BRAVO to your AMAZING video! A friend shared it with me! Wow! – a true labor of LOVE indeed which is also an indication of what your partnership is all about! I wish you nothing but the best!
Great video. It is also to be found on an newspage here in Iceland. You sure have become famous.
Congratulations to you both.
That is simply awesome! Best wishes to both of you, and thanks so much for sharing this with all the "people of the internets" 
So Creative & well done. You are such a cute couple. Can I be your wedding photographer. I love you two!
Congratulations to you both!
…
Found this recently through a shared link to the huffington site.
you said…
"as you can tell, we just got carried away."
Nonsense. It is a wonderful sharing of your message of love . . .even if you did not mean to share with the whole world..!!
Great messages like this make all the 'ugly' found on the Intertubes worth enduring.
Very nicely done. Godspeed on your journey of a lifetime..!!
…tom…
.
Best wishes!
We are watching the video here in Sweden. It's spreading through Facebook.
/Marcia
I'm a Canadian wedding photographer and I must say I loved watching your video! I'd save the date for your wedding. Congrats! Have you thought about going pro with videography?
Could you guys post a song list? I know I've heard the epic funk song following the Fox Fanfare, but can't remember what the original source was…
Your video is fantastic!!! I found it on a Swedish site for short clips!! So you are famous around the world…
Hope you will have a happy wedding!
/Sofia in Sweden
A friend in Canada shared the link with me, here in Georgia, USA… it's surely circling the world Congrats on your upcoming wedding!
We are from Montreal, Canada, and we love your video! Long live to you two!
HI! Found your video through swedish press (http://www.aftonbladet.se/). GREAT VIDEO. Have a very happy wedding and life togehter! /Tove
Very cool video, guys. It made it onto Good Morning America today. Congrats on your pending nuptials and best of luck for a long and happy life together.
I saw your video yesterday and I loved it! I tried to show my fiance last night but its been taken down – gutted 
Hope everything goes well on your big day! xx
Aww I'm so bummed that I can't your video anymore. I watched it 3 times yesterday. YouTube says the video is now private. You two are so creative. Share your talents with the world. I wish you both the best – most fun and loving – lifetime of laughter, warmth, and happiness together.
You two are a fabulous couple. Best wishes for a long and happy life together!
Congratulations on the video, it made my day. Have a very nice wedding (and life, of course), and don't forget to post the sequel
Greetings from another stumbler who happened to came across.
Jeff & Erin, I know Larry personally and he is a wonderful guy. I am glad you guys were able to make an awesome video with his voice. Also here here to making videos with Adobe products!
Matt
I found your video through NBC Los Angeles (http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local-beat/Jeff-and-Erin-82616442.html). It has since been repost on Facebook walls.
Wishing you both the very best when your wedding day finally arrives!
Cheers,
A person of the Internets
The peoples of the Internet will happily send you wedding presents – just set up a paypal account or amazon wishlist before all the buzz dies down.
Happy Wedding!
Enrico (Italia)
That's really amazing! I seriously thought it was professionally shot!
Congratulations!
Dear Jeff and Erin,
Congrats on your upcoming nuptials.
What a great video! Looks like you had a lot of fun with it and it was very well done. Can you give a title for the song you used in it? The one that overlapped when Erin was playing the piano.
Dear Erin and Jeff,
You two are FABULOUS.
Love,
Your Wedding Planner
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LOL you guys rock!!!! ^_^
I was laughin my arse off…. I am into this kind of stuffs too and I just find the video is very amusing! Keep it up and Yes about the Logo, it's because they can only move forward. I got to do my citizenship test soon. that would be one of the questions ;p
Blown away by the video (found through The Huffington Post) … doubly so to see the Sydney skyline and the monorail and realize you're Aussies!! Simply BLOWN AWAY!!
So imagine how dumbstruck I was to find you've both taken Australian citizenship, having the good/mis fortune to be yanks before that. Both my wife and I are dual AU/USA citizens too.
Good onya both! Hope you have a great life on both continents!
Good for you! I saw your wedding save-the-date video (courtesy of a tweet by Guy Kawasaki), and I was blown away. Your work on the video was superb. I just HAD to know more about you two. Yes, it's bit voyeuristic, but you have yet another fan to cheer you on with your life together.
Live your life together with no regrets. But from what I can tell, you're doing just that. Congratulations!
And Australia chose those two animals because neither can walk or move backwards, so they must always move forward, so they symbolise Australia progessing ahead.
Congratulations!
One of the best events in summer is the Sydney Festival. Each January the city performance venues are booked out with all kinds of musical, dance and theatre talent for a month-long series of events. Many of these events are completely free! We checked out the opening night of the Sydney Festival, aptly named “Festival First Night” that took place amongst the city skyscrapers and in the botanical gardens. We were treated to various kinds of free musical entertainment, and a glorious sunset:
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I enjoyed the video and now these photos! Beautiful….
Beautiful photos of Vivid Sydney
Wow! How did you post the photos like that? They are awesome!
Part I • Part II • Part III • Part IV
View Album
After leaving Uluru and Kata Tjuta National Park, it was time to make the 500 km journey back to Alice Springs, this time along the main highway. Although there was less to see along this leg of the circuit, it was far from a featureless desert wasteland. A lookout along the Lasseter Highway offered us this view of Mt Conner:
And a view of one of the many dry lakes in the region:
We made sure to catch every sunrise and sunset during this trip. In fact, its quite possible that I saw more sunrises on this trip than I had in my entire life thus far! So we couldn’t miss the opportunity to watch the sun’s last rays light up the sandstone cliffs of Rainbow Valley:
After the sunset, we setup camp at nearby Jim’s Place, a tiny roadhouse 90 km south of Alice Springs. Jim’s Place has become a bit of a tourist destination after Jim discovered his pet dingo’s amazing musical talents:
You’ll have to watch the video below, with sound turned on, to see why Jim’s dingo has become famously known as “Dinky the Singing Dingo”. Before we started recording, Dinky was actually playing the piano himself!
Next morning we arrived in Alice Springs, where we would spend our last day in Central Australia. Here’s the view from Anzac Hill:
At the nearby Alice Springs Desert Park, we got up close and personal with some of the soaring wildlife throughout the desert region.
Below is a video montage of our driving adventures through the outback of Central Australia. We had a great trip, but it seems that no trip with us is a trip without incident. Watch carefully (especially around 2:35) and you’ll see a wildlife encounter that was too close for comfort!
Well, we’re finally to the end of the posts on Central Australia. There’s a lot that’s been happening in Sydney and we’re way behind, so come back soon to check out whatever we get around to posting next.
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by Jeff Wong
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