Ties That Confide: Reception Wishes

''The following is about a wedding video. For the Stationery Voyagers minisode, see "Ties That Confide." For other uses, see Ties That Confide (disambiguation).''

Ties That Confide: Reception Wishes is a short documentary film made to commemorate the August 23rd wedding and reception of Jill and Trevor Paul of Parchment, Michigan in 2009. Along the way, it also documents the written wishes of several wedding reception guests. TTC:RW is a tie-in piece to "Ties That Confide," a minisode of Stationery Voyagers, and was completed at 1:30 AM EST on Monday, January 25th of 2010.

Production
Pre-production of this video began almost as soon as writing for "Ties That Confide" wrapped up, with the Dozerfleet founder having to make a trip to Big Rapids just two days before the wedding in Portage took place. He stayed there with his and Trevor's shared friends Kat and Mark Gerke, who were themselves in the process of getting a new house.

Still photo footage was saved to a Nikon P60 camera, before being transferred to a Buffalo 500 GB hard drive for storage. From there, production was considered, reconsidered, and halted several times. Production time had to compete with various other projects that the Dozerfleet founder was preoccupied with, such as Ciem 2, Stationery Voyagers, Blood Over Water, Ferris State Live, and Ferris in Focus, as well as a Dozerfleet video demo reel and a remake of 3-13. Early morning on January 25th of 2010, the project was finalized and uploaded to YouTube around 2:45 AM EST.

The AVI version became foundational to creation of a video DVD, one which was set to be mailed to Jill and Trevor along with a data CD containing the film in WMV and MOV formats. That same CD contains original picture stills, intended for them to have be developed into a photo album (or added to their pre-existing ones.)

Video
There was no easy way of gathering video for this piece. Images were stored initially in large JPEG files by a Nikon camera, then were scaled to fit widescreen dimensions. Plans were at one point to create an HD video out of the existing footage for TTC:RW. However, that plan soon fizzled out when problems developed with the Dozerfleet founder's copy of Adobe Premiere. Footage was then re-scaled and re-cropped to account for 720x480 dimensions. Bad lighting conditions in the reception hall meant that some footage was very dark, and not all photos fared well under Photoshop color correction procedures. A small number of photos were simply excluded altogether from the film's production.

Transitions between stills happen almost exclusively with cross dissolves, while beginning and ending sequences feature more keyframe fades. Title quotes dissolve in and out of photos with keyframes, the quotes lasting just long enough to be read on-screen. To improve text legibility, the lowest third of every image, where white text is stored; gets covered by a "black glass panel" in a manner very similar to the DSHW 2.0 techniques employed for Ciem 2 web pages.

Music
Due to having the January 2010 Dozerfleet intro added in, TTC:RW automatically includes in its soundtrack a royalty-free tune by artist Kevin MacLeod (not to be confused with the political figure.) "The One" by Gary Allan features briefly at the film's beginning, introducing Kindelberger Park and those present. Events soon progress to the reception hall, with the visual and thematic segue containing a clip from "Dark Horse" by Amanda Marshall. The film ends with the majority of Yankee Grey's song "There's Only One," which adds to the atmosphere of fidelity that is implied throughout.

Guest wishes
The following quotes were written by guests for video inclusion, as their "best wishes" for bride and groom :
 * "'Best Wishes to the Bride and Groom...' &mdash;The Goodes"
 * "'To a long and happy marriage! Best wishes!!!' &mdash;The Hills"
 * "'Trevor and Jill: We are so happy you have found one another! Two pieces of advice: Jill - Always give Trevor words of affirmation and let him be your hero. And Trevor: Always, always put the toilet seat down - especially at night!' &mdash;Linda Hamlet"
 * "'Trevor and Jill: May you always be on time and never get lost.' &mdash;Steve Hamlet"
 * "'May the Lord bless you and your family.' &mdash;Rod Kim"
 * "'Trevor, I do hope that in all the good times you have with Jill, that you always remember Who loves you most.' &mdash;Mark Cargill"
 * "'Dear Bro and new Sis: May this journey be all you hope it to be. May there always be a smile on your faces, food in your pantry, and may you dream sweetly of each other for all time. Don't go to bed angry&mdash;Let God take the wheel when He needs to and all will be well!' &mdash;Lisa Hill"
 * "'Hey Trev!!! Hope you and Jill have a good life together! It's really awesome to see you with someone who makes you sooo happy...  PS: Dom is like your little twin!' &mdash;Carmyn"
 * "'Hey Uncle Trevor! Congrats! Hope you have a very happy life with Jill.' &mdash;Jada"
 * "'Congratulations Jill and Trevor! May God bless you! May your future be as the glow on your faces today!  God bless you both!  Wish you the best.' &mdash;Amy and David"
 * "'Hey Girlie-Girl! We've been friends since middle school and you've been an awesome friend. You've always made me laugh, and I'm so happy you've found someone to make you laugh.  Here's to you and Trevor.' &mdash;Kristy Rodriguez"
 * "'Be happy!' &mdash;Love, Olivia"
 * "'Hey Trevor and Jill! May you always find happiness and love in each other's arms! You both are awesome, and I couldn't be happier!!! Take care of my Jilly, Trevor!' &mdash;Best wishes, Michelle Strausberg"
 * "'To Trevor and Jill: We are so excited and extremely happy for the both of you. Love each other for all you are worth! Never let go of the ties that bind your hearts (and love) together.  Be the best that you can for one another, and I would expect nothing but an eternity of love.  Forever and after.' &mdash;Best wishes, Kat and Mark"

The video ends with a snapshot of copies of Jill and Trevor's signed marriage license, followed by the text narration: "And so the real adventure begins..."

Critical reception
Response was overwhelmingly positive to this video, from all but a few viewers. One day after its YouTube release, Sony Music Group decided that the use of Yankee Grey music, while fair enough use for Americans, did not fit their criteria for fair use in Germany. The video was blocked from that country. Reactions from reception guests were mixed, as some of them were embarrassed to have not remembered signing papers permitting their wishes to be used in the video. The bride, Jill, had the following to say on her Facebook page:

"'Thanks David for making me a wedding video!!!!! Everyone check out the YouTube link on my page...!!!'"

Takedown
The video ran from January of 2010 until Sunday, November 11th of 2012. It was pulled from YouTube around 2:01 PM EST, along with This Video Contains Jar Jar. Both videos were put in Ivan's Vault as part of an effort to explore new venues for Dozerfleet Studios outside of YouTube - a plan which ultimately didn't pan out. Neither video has been deemed warranting of a re-release as of yet.