Beautiful Easter Wedding in Seattle

A Beautiful Easter Wedding in Seattle

RJ McHatton and the Inventive Productions Team were commissioned by Stacy Kvam and SK Wedding and Event Design of Seattle to shoot and produce a unique documentary film about the wedding of two wonderful people from Moscow who were gettting married in Seattle on Easter Day. For the first time in many years Easter Sunday was landing on the same day for many different kinds of religions. That is why Elena and James chose to be married on Easter Sunday. Family and friends from all across the globe travelled to Seattle for this joyous event. Like a cinema verite movie or more like a classic Fellini movie with such interesting characters, our documentary of the wedding day experience turned out to be a real life magical moment. You can see the Dwyer Wedding Movie Trailer here:

Bob Frause interview - CEO of Frause

Director RJ McHatton with Bob Frause

We were asked to go interview Bob Frause at Frause in Seattle for the Puget Sound Business Journal’s “Best Workplaces” video project. Bob is the CEO of a PR company named after himself in Seattle. I was very impressed with Bob’s philosophy about the importance of ethics and treating people right. Bob is a great guy who really believes the secret to success is to have a great attitude and to always serve others. You can learn more about Bob and his team at www.frause.com

Cleo & Carroll Shelby - Automotive Racing, Aviation Legend - Friend of Johnny Myers

Cleo & Carroll Shelby with Director RJ McHatton

All you need to do is type in the words “Shelby Cobra” into youtube and you will see first hand the incredible Automotive classic cars that Carroll Shelby has designed and built ever since in the 60s. Cobras and Vipers and more. Carroll has been an aviator since the 1930s when he paid one dollar to fly in a bi-plane. During WWII Carroll was a training flight instructor for the US Army Air Corp. He has been flying all through out his career.

We were there to interview Carroll Shelby and his beautiful wife Cleo for our documentary “The Flying Man: Life and Times of Johnny Myers.” Carroll and Cleo have become great friends of Johnny Myers over the last dozen or so years. They had spent time with John up at his ranch in Merced, California and on several other trips, including one at the giant Oshkosh Aviation Celebration. Cleo told some great stories about how John Myers was very inspirational for her learning how to fly. John was a major influence to her. Carroll talked about his friendship with John Myers and how they really respected each other. He said that John was so humble, that it took a lot to get John Myers to talk about his legendary flying skills. He talked about John Myers’ sense of humor and his always being a gentleman.

I really enjoyed meeting and interviewing Carroll Shelby and his wife Cleo. They both remind me about the importance of appreciation. Carroll talked about how he has some other man’s heart in his chest. He had a heart transplant many years ago. He said he was very appreciative of every moment he has on this earth. Cleo and Carroll talked about how they met. They are a great couple. Carroll told me so awesome stories about his relationship with his father. How his father had encouraged him to go for his dreams. The message for me is to try to be a better “encourager” to others and to be more “appreciative” of life.

Thank you Cleo and Carroll Shelby for a fantastic time together.

To learn more about our new documentary “The Flying Man: Life and Times of Johnny Myers” go to

www.flyingmandocumentary.com

You can learn more about Carroll Shelby at www.carrollshelby.com

Here is a great artist rendering of Cleo with Carroll Shelby.http://www.kevingearyportraits.com/Gallery/pages/CarrollShelby.htm

Paul Thayer - Friend of Johnny Myers "The Flying Man"

Paul Thayer watching a video of his good friend Johnny Myers

RJ McHatton with Paul Thayer

We drove to Southern California to interview Paul Thayer about his friend Johnny Myers for our documentary “The Flying Man.” Paul is a great guy. He sat down with me and we talked about how he met Johnny Myers. Paul was a Fighter Pilot during World War II. He served in the North Africa campaign and then was quickly sent over to Guadacanal. After the war Paul worked at an airline where he met his wife Margery. Paul eventually got a job as an insurance sales man. Then one day Margery saw an advertisement that a company was looking for Test Pilots. Over 1800 people applied for the job but Paul Thayer got the job. That is where Paul met John Myers. Thayer worked under John at Northrop. Paul talked about how great a man Johnny Myers was. He said that Myers was a man of integrity. Paul told me some great stories about how he and Johnny Myers flew a P-61 Black Widow one time. He talked about how John Myers nearly died during the testing period of the Flying Wing. Paul told some great stories about how he and Johnny Myers and Jack Northrop worked together. We talked about how in later years John Myers became a successful businessman. He talked about some of the clubs they both belonged to over the years. Paul told me how much John loved his wife Lucia and how painful it was to lose Lucia.

Everytime our discussion went to stories of flying, Paul’s eyes would light up. I could tell that Paul loved aviation. He talked about Johnny Myers love for fast cars and fast boats. He also talked about John’s love for his dogs. I was really impressed by my interview with Paul Thayer. He is a very nice man. I have learned that Paul once was Under-Secretary of Defense under Ronald Reagan. I asked him about Ronald Reagan. He said that Reagan and John Myers were similar in many ways. I asked him if Johnny Myers was a good guy. He said that he was more than a good guy. He was a remarkable man. Thank you, Paul Thayer, for letting me interview you for our documentary.

Oren Barker - Pilot of P-38 in WW2 - Shot down

RJ with Oren Barker.

Oren Barker enlisted in the Army Air Corp and served in the European campaign of World War II flying the P-38. The P-38 was called the "Lightning" by the Americans and the "Devil" by the Germans.

Oren grew up in Olympia and was very excited about learning how to fly. He was trained with the Stearman bi-planes which allowed him to learn how to do rolls and spins and to do some dog fighting. It wasn't long until Oren saw real combat with the super fast and deadly P-38. On his first combat mission over Belgium his P-38 was hit by flack in the gas tank. He is lucky his plane did not blow up. On one of the big battles in December 1944 Oren was shot down and ended up spending over two years in a hospital. He was knocked unconscious when he crashed, so he has no memory of the day he was shot down. But he was lucky that in one of the hospitals he met his future wife and they were married almost fifty years. I really enjoyed meeting Oren and interviewing him for the Library of Congress program called the Veterans History Project. We have volunteered to interview as many World War II vets for free as we can get. So if you know of a veteran from WWII, tell them to give me a call. After the war, Oren came back to the Northwest and worked in the insurance business for over 30 years. We are lucky to have had guys like Oren serve over there for us. He sacrificed a lot for all of us.

Alice Tsukuno - Video Biography

RJ with Alice Tsukuno and her son Steve

It was really a special day for me to meet Alice Tsukuno and her son Steve. We drove over to meet Alice at her new home in Seattle to record her video biography. Her son Steve had purchased the Video Biography for his mother at an auction benefiting the Eastside Domestic Violence fundraiser.

Alice did a super interview. I learned so much about how life was in Seattle in the years prior to World War II. Then Alice told me how she and her family were evacuated to camps during the War. Her parents lived in Seattle so they were sent to camps in Puyallup and then to Idaho. Alice got married to Junior whose family lived out of town, so she and Junior were sent to camps down near Fresno. Then she and Junior went to live in Chicago until the end of the war, working for a family for $45 per month.

After the war, Alice and Junior came back to Seattle and opened up a grocery store, which they had for over 28 years.

I was very inspired by my interview with Alice. She is a kind and articulate person who lived a wonderful life during some interesting times. She has no regrets and just appreciates her time spending with her children and grandchildren.

Jun Young - Microsoft

Jun Young - Director of Communications, Windows 7 team

I really enjoyed my interview with Jun Young. We met him at his office at the Microsoft campus. We were there to interview Jun about his experience working with Artitudes Design for a customer testimonial video we are making.

Karen Ridlon -- Founder of Eastside Baby Corner

Karen Ridlon--Founder of Eastside Baby Corner

Producer Bill Maxwell and I drove over to Issaquah to interview Karen Ridlon, founder of Eastside Baby Corner, for the Bellevue Chamber of Commerce's annual Eastside Business Awards. The Eastside Baby Corner had been nominated under the Non-Profit category.

Bill and I were totally surprised and impressed with Karen and the wonderful team of volunteers working diligently there at Eastside Baby Corner. I had never heard of EBC before this meeting. EBC has been around over 18 years. The warehouse was full of volunteers and lots of clothing, toys, etc dedicated to the needy kids we don't think about sometimes. Karen told us that the EBC focuses on the needs of kids from birth to the age of 12. EBC works to organize and distribute materials to over 100 other non-profit agencies around the Puget Sound area. Some of the agencies benefiting from EBC's work is Hopelink and Head Start. Items distributed include things like baby formula, car seats, beds, cribs, bedding and diapers. My eyes grew big and started tearing up as I saw the incredible enthusiasm from the volunteers and how this EBC was really making a difference. I asked myself "How could I not have heard of EBC before?" You can learn more about the Eastside Baby Corner at www.babycorner.org

Barbara and Bob Balkema Video Biography

        Bob and Barbara Balkema

We are proud to be producing the Video Biography of 

Bob and Barbara Balkema.  This is a the very inspiring

story of two people who really care for each other.

Bob and Barbara might seem young to make their video

biography, but in actuality they are the perfect age.

They can tell their story while they can remember it,

while they are still living it.  They plan to update their 

video biography every five years or so.

Rick Peterson Interview

                      Rick Peterson

We are making a video biography of the Life and Times of Michael O'Brien of Everett.  Not too long ago Michael O'Brien was the proprietor of one of the longest lasting Ford dealerships in the Northwest, in Downtown Seattle.  Commissed by his son Scott O'Brien, we did a great interview with Mike.  Now we are interviewing some of his long time friends and family.  Rick is Mike's good friend and brother-in-law.  Thanks Rick for letting us interview you for Mike's video biography.

The NEW Fighting Seabees Movie

The New Seabees Documentary Film


Award-winning director RJ McHatton was going to make a movie about his sister Patty and her experience serving her nation as a Navy Seabee in Iraq. Then the word got out and RJ started getting calls from Seabees from World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf Wars. The calls were very emotional and powerful. Everyone told RJ that there really needs to be a real movie made about the Seabees.

So RJ McHatton has taken on the task to create a new documentary film about the NEW fighting Seabees. Using interviews with the men and women who have served as a Seabee, our goal is to tell the history and human story of the Navy Seabees.

History of the Seabees WORLD WAR II KOREAN WAR
SEABEES IN SOUTHEAST ASIA AFTER VIETNAM
DESERT SHIELD/DESERT STORM IRAQI FREEDOM
AFGHANISTAN

We need your help! If you are a Seabee, we need your Story!

To see a video clip from our movie, go to http://www.seabeesmovie.com/

To be interviewed for this documentary film, please contact

RJ McHatton
Inventive Productions LLC
(425) 284-1900
http://www.inventiveproductions.com/