The Charles Lauren Story
The Charles Lauren Story
Who Is Charles Lauren?
These days, the real Charles Lauren is island hopping in the Bahamas with his Antilles G-21 Super Goose. It seems one could also find him telling tales (probably of weddings past) at Sloppy Joe's in Key West. Sometimes you can see him whale watching from the balcony of his house near Lahaina, and going up and down and up the Côte d'Azur with the Cranchi Atlantique 50 that he won with a very lucky hand, if you know what we're saying. Come to think of it, you'll probably be doing one of those things on your honeymoon!
SERIOUSLY?!?
No, we just think that stuff is cool to do. Charles Lauren is a state of mind, not an actual person!
The name Charles Lauren Films is taken from the company owners' (a.k.a. husband and wife super-team) middle names. Kelsey and David thought, "why not use our middle names? It would be easier to spell than our last names and sound more interesting than our first names!" Now you know. The abbreviation for Charles Lauren is CL, so we coined the term Capture Love, which is what we will do at your wedding! Not only will we Capture Love, but also the Life and Party of your wedding day. So Call Us, what you have to lose...except Love (-;
1. Easy to spell.
2. The abbreviation for Charles Lauren is CL...and CL stands for Capture Love.
Charles Lauren = CL = Capture Love.
3. That's what we set out to do, so we like it!
David and Kelsey started working in the motion picture industry very early - David when he was 13 at the City of Lakewood's Public Access TV station. Instead of doing homework, he would direct live TV shows about pet adoption, political shows, concerts. He would also edit, and edit. Back then it was just Linear Editing on U-Matic machines. Creating the kind of videos we create now would have been impossible. It would have taken months of full time editing to create one of our Chronological videos.
Kelsey began when she was 18, working as a Associate Producer with Huell Howser on his show, California's Gold and Visiting with Huell Howser. After coordinating with some of the characters around California, how much work could a wedding be? Ya, we know, that was a funny thought.
After college in 2004, they hit the ground running. Focusing their creative energies on finding the best way to use Mise-en-scène and Eisenstein's theories to tell the very personal, but universal stories of families coming together at a wedding.
In 6 months they had most of the next year booked. Since then, there has never been a day when a wedding wasn't coming up to shoot and a past wedding hasn't been coming down the editing pipeline. They built systems and brought in talented shooters and editors to round out the company. There have been many offices and studios, but only to serve as great places to showcase our work - and give our clients time to see how cinema and weddings were made to be together.
We want you to see how magical a wedding film can be. Through the juxtaposing of vows, toasts, conversations, music, dynamic imagery and candid moments, a new understanding of your day, your life, love and relationships appears.
Come see the Difference that Love Makes for yourself!
About Kelsey
About Kelsey
Kelsey began her interest in documentary television when she was hired as an Assistant Segment Producer for the hit PBS TV show California's Gold with Huell Howser. Already dabbling in filmmaking techniques with her high school sweetheart David, she was on track to be a top producer. The only question was, "what to produce?" She could continue traveling and making shows for TV, with a grueling schedule and no time for anyone; or she could become an entrepreneur and produce wedding films.
This was a good idea, after all, she would be making films about her favorite subject, Love. So she started Charles Lauren Films with David and never looked back. Most of her Hollywood friends scuffed at the idea, feeling wedding videos were beneath them, but for Kelsey, it empowered her. A new story every week, different people, different cultures coming together, and finding a way to film it was killer cool! Mixing narrative structure with creative images to tell the story of a wedding day is her passion.
Kelsey does most of the editing - her favorite thing. She also films and meets clients in the initial booking stages - with a smile on her face! If you've received an email response to your inquiry, she probably wrote it, no templates here!
About David
About David
David found out in 1994 how cool it was to use technology to communicate the stories of events. While working at Lakewood Public Access, he made David's Town, a 50 episode show going around to community events with a "Multi-Cultural Emphasis" the business card said. He quickly started doing independent and contracted projects for his school district, local business and eventually the Arts Council for Long Beach, the City of Long Beach, Lakewood, non-profit groups and the Los Angeles School District. Finding ways to be involved in the stories of the community was apparently very prevalent in his work.
He went to California State University, Long Beach and majored in Film. Check out some pictures from those early shoots with Kelsey in the slideshow below. He still maintains his ties with the University, working on projects all over the campus, including Advanced Media Production and the College of the Arts.
While in college, he spent time working at Sony Pictures in the post-production department, being a tiny small part of The Patriot, Charlie's Angels, The Kid and others. After graduation he started Charles Lauren Films with Kelsey.
David does a lot of the shooting, online editing, mastering, digitization and keeps everything running. No down time allowed over here!
