14th Annual Creative Excellence Awards Announced
August 30, 2004
Sarasota, FL - The WEVA International 14th Annual Creative Excellence Competition Award winners were announced at the Special Awards Presentation on the opening night of WEVA EXPO 2004, the world’s largest convention and trade show for professional videographers. Awards were presented in over a dozen wedding and event video competition categories to honor work produced by professional videographers nationally and internationally.
“This year, many competition categories produced winning results from videographers who were first-time WEVA award recipients, not only in the US, but also from as far as Hong Kong and Singapore,” said WEVA International Director of Association Communications Dan Argenas.
The list of the 2004 WEVA Creative Excellence Competition Award winners and the list of the 2004 recipients of the WEVA Special Awards of Recognition are posted on the WEVA International website at www.weva.com (click on “Awards”). Argenas pointed out that during the pre-convention production of the Creative Excellence Competition Awards there were omissions made in this year’s newly added category of Wedding Highlights Production. There was actually a tie for the WEVA Bronze Award in this new category, said Argenas, as well as three WEVA Finalist Award winners.
“The production omission in the Wedding Highlights category was an unfortunate administrative error and we have notified the recipients,” said Argenas. He added that “the oversight will be officially corrected shortly on the WEVA website.”
The additional award recipients in the Wedding Highlights category include Blue Skies Video Productions (Corona, CA) for the Yeargan Wedding, which tied for the best of category WEVA Bronze Award, and the three Finalist Award winners: Sight & Sound Events (Las Vegas, NV) for the Younani Wedding; Shaka-Brah Video Productions (Portland, OR) for the Robinson Wedding; Elysium Digital Productions (Tustin, CA) for the Casas Wedding.
In total, 52 WEVA Creative Excellence Competition Awards were presented to professional videographers worldwide for their best of category entries in this year’s 14th annual international competition. WEVA Gold, Silver, and Bronze Awards were presented in each category. Finalist Awards were also presented in several of this year’s categories at the discretion of the competition judges.
Before the awards were presented, the winning entries were played in their entirety during the special WEVA EXPO 2004 Creative Excellence Video Fest on the opening night of this year’s convention. The opening night gala, sponsored by Sony, also included complimentary food and beverages for all attendees, who were able to compare the new video styles and new techniques ushered in by the high caliber of artistry displayed in this year’s competition entries.
The 2004 competition’s record-setting 13 categories included new, and newly revised, categories, such as Wedding Highlights Production and Photo Montage Production. Other categories include Wedding Love Story, Corporate Event Coverage, Wedding Pre-Ceremony Production, Wedding Ceremony Coverage, Wedding Post-Ceremony Production, Wedding Reception Coverage, Concept Video Production, Wedding DVD Authoring, Wedding Short-Form Production, and Wedding Demo Production.
Argenas related that the category for Wedding DVD Authoring was eliminated from the competition when it failed to receive the required minimum number of entries. “Every year WEVA International makes changes to the Competition categories. Category elimination has happened only once or twice in the past 14 years, but it’s unpredictable. The entry fee gets sent back to each applicant, but it’s still disappointing to see the elimination of any category. This category, like all of the others, will be reviewed for 2005. WEVA, as always, welcomes suggestions from all members regarding the categories for competition.”
Judging for the competition is completed by a select panel of professional wedding & event videographers in a two-step process: a preliminary and final round of judging that requires over a month to complete. The judges this year included Ande Martineau (My Wedding Film), Dan Watson-Bey (East Hill Video), La Donna Moore (La Donna Video Artistry) and David Steward (Flashback Video).
In addition to posting the WEVA 2004 CEA recipients online, the complete list of winners will also be published in the next issue of Wedding & Event Videography magazine, due to be mailed to all WEVA International members before the end of September.
“The 2004 WEVA Awards Presentation was an exciting kick-off for the entire convention,” said Argenas. It’s very impressive to see so many first-time WEVA CEA recipients among this year’s award winners. Everyone is already looking forward to next year’s competition!”
Argenas said the official entry form for the WEVA 15th Annual Creative Excellence Competition Awards will be posted on the WEVA website later this year.
WEVA International is the largest non-profit trade association for professional wedding and event videographers. The association is dedicated to advancing the professional interests of wedding and event videographers worldwide through continuing education, technical support, group benefits, advocacy committees and professional development training. For more information regarding professional videography and WEVA International activities and membership, visit www.weva.com or contact the association office at 941-923-5334 or email [email protected]. |
