I don't have any idea who started this tradition in the first place, but since I was a freshman I would watch the upper class men completely ditch our school's sadies dance and go the short 4 hour bus ride to Disneyland. It got to the point where our school doesn't even have a sadies dance anymore because everybody would just do this (and I can totally see why)! We left Vegas at around 5:00 am (we were supposed to leave at 4:30 but one of the drivers was late), drove to California, and arrived in the happiest place on Earth at around 9:30 which gave us 14 hours to wait in line, ride rides, take pictures, eat churros, and destroy our feet before we departed at 12:00. It was so much fun but I was more tired than I had ever been in my life. We tracked it on our phones and it turns out I walked 11 miles and burned 3,000 calories all on nothing but 5 hours of sleep and a couple churros. I guess that's Disney magic for ya. It was such a hustle I had a hard time getting any pictures or videos but I tried hah! Here's the outcome of what's left of sadies 2016: (video at the bottom of this post)
sadies with my ladies. This is the classic pier picture we took last year
this was the only shot of our whole little group that we got and of course it was BLURRY... oh well its the memories that count
It's been a little while since I've had the chance to post/vlog/pay any attention to this little blog of mine but I'm back with some big things to present to you and a special announcement!
First of all, I've been super busy catching up on editing and uploading but I finally have this little gem to show you! There's actually a really funny story that goes along with this video- Elder Riley Hodson was supposed to land at 10:45 on Thursday, February 18 but in a series of unfortunate delays, his plane didn't come in until around midnight! We were all a little tired and weary from waiting at the airport so late but you could still feel the excitement and energy as Riley saw his family for the first time in 2 years! I would happily get 4 hours of sleep every night if it meant being constantly surrounded by families full of the spirit!
This vlog shows a compilation of things from the past week including some behind the scenes of filming Elder Hodson's video!
My last announcement is CRAFT CAMP! Me and one of my best friends were accepted to go on a service tour to Thailand this summer so in order to raise the funds we are hosting a craft camp for little girls! If anybody in the Las Vegas area is interested then email me at: madipritt@yahoo.com for some more details. It's going to be super super fun! The video below shows a little sneak peek of what we will be doing!
What a night! It feels like my life lately has practically revolved around Mr. Panther dance practice, planning, video making, and tech supporting but tonight was finally the night! I am so beyond blessed to have been a part of it. Every year, it is my high school's tradition to have a "Mr. Panther" (panther is our mascot) pageant to find out who the top boy at the school is. The senior class student council is behind ALL of the planning and preparation. The 7 of us girls worked our hearts out to get sponsors, find advertisers, print flyers, print posters, buy sashes and flowers, film videos, choreograph dances, get pretty dresses, and keep the boys in check. The 10 boys worked so hard too! I applaud their commitment and dedication to helping make this the best Mr. Panther I've ever seen. It feels like just yesterday I was a little freshman swooning over the senior boys and wishing I was as pretty as their escorts. Now I'm there. Don't blink guys. By far the hilight of the night was when Bethany Bulloch (our amazing class president) quoted our advisor, Mr. Read's famous line, "This is your senior year guys! Just take it all in and enjoy it!" The other best part was when the hostesses announced Mr. World Wide was the winner and all of us, the boys, escorts, and theatre techs started dancing on stage to the Jellyfish Jam from Spongebob (its in the vlog if you care to see it hah!). It felt like we were all so united for those few minutes and all on the same nostalgic page about our high school days nearly coming to an end. It is so fulfilling to do big projects in student council like this. The preparation is such hard work and in the moment it is really rough, but on the actual night it always seems to pay off when I'm on the stage and seeing the audience's reactions to what we sacrificed so much time for. I feel like student council has truly given me the high school experience!
we spent a lot of time getting ready (both for the night and on the night)
saved snapchats from when we were getting all primped to film a part for the video (linked at the bottom of the post)
how to get the perfect high POV picture (a step by step manual by Madison Pritt):
1. put your camera on a tripod at the top of the stairs
2. set up the self timer to go for as long as it can (in my case, 10 seconds)
3. press the button and run down those stairs as fast as you can and take your position. Be sure to act natural
4. run up the stairs to see how it turned out.
5. after completing step 4, if you aren't happy with the results, repeat steps 2-4
All of the girls originally got dressed up and went to Bethany's house so that we could shoot essential parts of the intro video (another video linked below hah!) but while we were there we obviously had to have a little photoshoot too.
more getting ready
such a golden group!
There were two things I absolutely loved about these couple of minutes- the first is that Bethany thought to say a prayer before we all went out. Of course everyone joined in. It was so touching and powerful to know that our Heavenly Father hears our prayers and seeks to answer them no matter how seemingly insignificant they might be. Learn more about that hereThe second thing I loved was that after our little prayer, when it was time to have a cheer, Easton Bunker led everyone in saying "I'm doing this for Madi Pritt!" It was so flattering to know that the boys recognized how hard I (we) worked on this night.
I seriously was so so happy with how happy the video made all the boys. Probably the best feeling of this whole thing was one of the contestants (Mr. Not So Average Josh) saw me with my camera gear on the first day shooting and exclaimed, "WE GET A MADI PRITT VIDEO!?" I was so confused because he did not seem like the kind of person to know anything about that part of me and I was even more shocked when he went on to talk about how the Winter Wishes video was his favorite. I was so flattered at this unexpected compliment. It just goes to show that you never know who's watching. I'm so grateful to know that my videos are appreciated by more than just 16 year old girls hah! My other most flattering experience was getting a call on a random night from one of the boys asking if he could have a sneak peek of the video. I told him to feel free to come over and at about 10:30 after hearing a knock at my door, I found 6 of the boys in addition to him dying to see the video again. The amount of confidence in my little projects has increased tremendously through this opportunity and I am so grateful for it!
CONGRATS TO THE WINNER, JACOB JUDD (formally known as Mr. World Wide)
Even surrounded by all these boys I couldn't forget about mine! Jacob was the sweetest throughout this entire time. He was so patient when my whole schedule was consumed with preparing for the night and made it a priority to come out and see the work we did!
celebratory shake shack afterwards (we went in our dresses straight from the show with no shame)
Holy cow there was a lot of videoing that went into this evening! Treat yourself to not one, not two, but THREE videos about this crazy night!
If you watched my last little vlog you know that a few days ago I was out and about filming a birth announcement for one of my sweetest friend's older sister. A few weeks ago I actually was talking to my friend about when they were finally going to have babies and she spilled the secret to me. I was so flattered when they wanted me to make a little birth announcement for them too! Up until the point they came home from their ultrasound I thought they were having a baby boy but the ultrasound was actually wrong! The doctors told them it was an 80% chance of baby boy Johnson but the unexpected ended up happening. Thank goodness we decided to film after their appointment hah!
This was such a special holiday season. I had so much fun doing our annual tradition of building the snowman on Christmas Eve and I was lucky enough to be joined by such great company. Me and Hannah were joking that we will probably look back on this video next year when our boys are on missions and everything is different and be so sad. I'm so glad that I have these videos to keep track of my memories and to look back on though.
For one of my Christmas presents, Jacob bought me a copy of the movie It's a Wonderful Life. While we watched it together on the night of Christmas I couldn't help but cry a little bit about the fact that Jacob will be long gone in some foreign & unknown place next year at this time. I'm so grateful for all of the blessings that I have been given this Christmas time. I'm grateful for wonderful friends and for Jacob and the great time that we are having right now. It's scary to not know what the near future holds but I know that whatever happens will be for a reason.
This holiday season, the Palo Verde Student Council set out to grant the wishes of their fellow classmates. We advertised and gathered everybody's wishes during the weeks prior to winter break. In 5 days we granted over 100 student's winter wishes. Especially this season, there are so many examples of people performing grand and extravagant efforts for people who truly are in desperate times & really, truly need it. Still though, granting these little wishes gave me and all of student council such a sense of fulfillment and was a wonderful way to get into the holiday spirit.
The Fellows family asked me to take their family pictures and I was also just feeling so so inspired to make a video for them too. The day of I asked them if it would be okay if I did some videoing along with taking pictures and they were so on board. This cute family is so perfect and makes my job so easy. Their pretty blonde hair and blue eyes would literally make any video look stunning but I'm lucky I got to capture it all. I love Jen, Steve, Eliza, Ab, & Liv with my whole heart!
After much thought and procrastination I decided that I would share the story behind this little video because it is quite a good one. My friend Abby's older brother had been serving a 2 year mission for our church in Jackson, Mississippi. During the summer Abby called me and booked me for December 2. At the time it honestly felt like a lifetime away (but somehow it crept up on all of us so fast). Me and Abby had become even better friends through Priscilla Davis photography and from an unfortunate run in with the police in July (that's is a story for another day though hah!). Fast forward to December 2 and I'm so excited to do their video. I have my equipment all set up and ready to go and show up to the Lord's gorgeous home 20 minutes early. We did a few interviews there and shot a few clips then headed off to the airport. We were already running a few minutes behind schedule but it didn't matter too much. Abby drove to the airport with me and as we had to stop at literally every single red light we got more and more worried. Abby texted her other brother who was waiting for Elder Lords in the terminal past security checkpoint and asked him to stall a lot just in case we didn't make it on time. Her brothers are apparently the hugest goof balls out there so he teased us a little bit that Elder Lords had already landed as we were racing to the airport. After taking the wrong exit and several panicked calls from Abby's mom, we made it to the airport. Abby and I ran as fast as we could down the stairs in the parking garage to catch up with her family that had driven in the other car. The only problem with this was Abby was boosted with the adrenaline of the thought of her brother coming home and I was carrying my camera bag, stabilizer, and tripod so you can imagine the distance that was between us hah! Finally we caught up with the nervous Brother and Sister Lords & Lords siblings. I didn't have a chance to get very steady shots of them walking in and was still a little bit panicked from the scare of not arriving in time so my body could NOT stop shaking. Thank goodness for stabilizers. We ended up having plenty of time to stand in anticipation and Elder Lords returned with honor shortly after.
I'm so excited to present this video mostly because I spent SO much time editing it. I ended up cracking and finally investing in photoshop, light room, and VSCO video filters and even though it cost me 3 videos worth of money I could not be happier with my investment (I am such a nerd sorry). But get excited for future videos everybody! VSCO filters are the icing on the cake.
I just want to take the time to say how much I love this job, too. More and more people have been hiring me to capture their special days and it both flatters and humbles me that others enjoy what I do. I am so grateful for the opportunity to spend the happiest days of people's lives with them. The joy is so contagious and I can't help but be both spiritually and mentally uplifted whenever I create a new one. It's so fantastic to think that this is just the beginning. I say it all the time but I really am both nervous and excited to find out where I will be a year from now.
*if you're interested in hiring me I have a list of video pricing HERE>>
It was such a joy to be able to film this missionary come home to his sweet family. Honestly missionary homecomings are my absolute favorite. The spirit is so strong and the happiness is so genuine. It's hard to feel that sort of joy any other time. Even without knowing the missionaries personally I can still feel the spirit they possess, the love for the people that they dedicated the past 2 years to serving, and the love their families have for them. With that said I present to you Elder Hart's homecoming video!
Brought to you by popular demand, I present to you the homecoming video.
This past weekend has been full of such wonderful memories (that you can read about here & here). I hope that this little video helps me (& everybody) remember the crazy stressful, yet so rewarding, time that we had creating this year's float and the incredible time we had going to the dance. It's the beginning of the end.
Inclusive of Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington DC, New Jersey, New York, and Ontario, Canada this trip was a once in a lifetime experience. It made it even better that I got to experience all of it with some of the best people I know as my travel buddies. This video hardly does the incredible time we all had justice.
It was such a joy to be able to film Morgan and Brad's wedding. I was so so happy when she contacted me last minute and I was free to do it. These two are perfect for each other and I could seriously feel their love through the lens.
School ends tomorrow and naturally it wouldn't be complete without a hilight video to sum up the year. This video has been in the works for a solid 9 months and I'd have to say it's one of the best by far.
A few things that have happened to me since August 2014 when all this junior year madness began:
-I turned sixteen and with that got all of the glorified privileges that come with sixteen hood; dating, driving, car ownership, etc.
-I got to have the time of my life at homecoming (freshly able to date and the best first high school dance I could have ever asked for)
-I got (and quit/was fired from) my first job ever at Billy's Barbecue. (But then was temporarily rehired to make a promotional video so no hard feelings)
-I met and became close with a whole group of new people- and it's safe to say that because of this particular occurrence my life will never be the same again
-I lost some of the best friends that I have ever had (which absolutely sucks and is something that I do not advise to anybody)
-I found myself and started making more videos. (Megan + Jaren and Share Goodness were both huge milestones)
-I developed a new appreciation for off roading and hikes
That's all I have time to say because I really need to be studying for my finals for tomorrow but I hope that my little tid bits of life lessons were somewhat helpful...
I am so happy Megan and Jaren wanted me to be a part of their special day. These two are perfect for each other in every way & made my job pretty easy.
A few weeks ago I, with the help of Lexi, had the most wonderful opportunity to help Megan and Jaren tell their story. These two are absolute delights and it was such a joy to be around them and listen to how they fell in love. And it absolutely elates me to think about how they and their families will cherish this video.
This past long weekend I went on the funnest trip to Disneyland. And let me tell ya, I was happier than a bird with a churro crumb over there. It was so much fun to be in Disney and even more fun to be surrounded by some of my favorite people in the universe. Earlier in the week Eliza sent us a random text one morning throwing it out there that we should make this happen. Some convincing of the parentals and the purchasing of a ticket were basically all it took. My Monday and Tuesday were filled with obnoxious screams and contagious laughs as we rode tower of terror at least 10 times and ate an uncountable number of churro bites.
the world needs more people like my friends.
as we went around the park the reoccurring question was asked, "Disneyland or photoshoot?" (knowing me, photoshoot) but why not both?
The most amazing thing I've ever tried in my life: pear soda. Whaaaa?
Also, not pictured but we basically lived off of churro bites. If i had a dollar for every time we passed up a churro stand, I would have zero dollars. If I had a nickel for every time I found cinnamon in my shirt, I would have a couple nickels.
Last night was, without a doubt, one for the books.
For weeks the guys had been planning & keeping nearly all of the details of our evening a secret. Being teased that we were going to Del Taco for dinner was pretty much a daily occurrence. But we were all pleasantly surprised as the night went on.
we received this little message at the beginning & headed out to the BRAND NEW (like 2 day old new) mall feeling so hopeful and excited for what the evening was to bring.
Dylan & Jacob win for best ties. Me and Syd don't mess around.
⅝ of the girl gang
homecoming wouldn't have been complete without polaroids.
I had the most wonderful time + the most wonderful date. Thanks, Dylan, for being such a gentleman and giving me the best time. Last night was unforgettable.
And I really just couldn't resist throwing the 2 seconds of video we managed to get into this little gem...
