07/16/2025
7/15/1996: A mere 29 years ago, we took a leap of faith and Roaring Mouse Productions was formed.
It wasn't first. Prior to RMP, we had a very short-lived business called Ink Blot Productions, which, as I recall, had only 1 real project to its name: we shot a trailer for a movie of Jason's 1990 script, "Born to Darkness" with several theatre friends, video colleagues, and family. Loaded up the cars, drove to SoCal, and shot at a very inexpensive shooting space, aka a p**n studio. (We thought it looked familiar - ha!) Unfortunately, we were at the downturn of the vampire movie era... and before the next vampire movie era.
When we began RMP, both Jason and I kept our normal jobs and worked RMP at nights and on weekends. We assumed $80,000 in camera gear leases (advanced technology hadn't yet brought down the prices on gear). We assumed the lease on the studio, which at that time included the front office, the back studio, a kitchen, and then a huge space with a cyclorama wall where "you could shoot car commercials", etc. But the car commercials never came.
We started with primarily weddings, bar mitzvahs, special events, and just two repeat business clients.
Back then, editing was A/B on a chronological timeline. Editing software for people like us was just starting out. Not much more advanced than my grandpa's self-made wooden board with a film slicer on it.
Duplication was 20 VCR stacked decks linked to either the Beta deck or MII deck. To make multiple copies, I'd load 20 blank VHS tapes into the decks, cue up the source deck, then stand back and use a remote to begin the recording on 20 decks at a time. Duplication was real-time, so a 3-hour event took 3 hours. Paper VHS cases were formed like pizza boxes and printed labels from sheets were applied.
And, at the end of the first six months, we had $113.48 in our checking account. And I was curled up in a corner.
We stuck with it. We grew to doing non-profit, for-profit, music videos, dance recitals, and the occasional special event (one of our original clients from back in 1996).
An initial advancement in technology brought camera prices down. We had a couple of large clients (Agilent, HP, etc) who went from hiring us... to deciding they could do it in-house because camera prices dropped... to deciding they didn't want to do it themselves.
On the other hand, we had companies who took us all over. We shot building implosions in Las Vegas to racetrack construction in SoCal to infrastructure in Mexico City.
One of the favorite "customer service" stories written about us was when a client needed their video for a major meeting in Diamond Bar, but due to last minute changes, we didn't make the overnight Fed Ex pickup time. We couldn't make it to Fed Ex at Oakland Airport before they left, so I ended up getting on a plane, flying down to Ontario, renting a car, and driving the video to the meeting.
Mike Sloat moved back from Los Angeles and started collaborating with us.
Nick was born in 2004 and we brought him to work with us every day.
But by 2012, both advanced technology and the Great Recession had hit us hard. We down-sized again to a smaller unit. But we didn't give up.
The fires hit, and we replaced over 300 DVDs of years of dance recitals for our dance families.
Then COVID and... well, we've got a charming little backyard studio now!
All in all, though, we've worked with truly amazing people on large and small projects... from an actress' simple demo reel to 100s of hours of elearning math video content all close-captioned by hand to a 2-city 9-camera live performance... and made lifelong friends.
The hard work the non-profits do is inspirational and so necessary.
The talent and motivation of the bands, dancers, and theatre people is incredible.
The for-profits are filled with creative, intelligent teams doing good things.
And those who come to us with their dreams make us feel like we're contributing to a well-rounded, kind-hearted society.
Thanks to all who have been part of this wonderful ride! Here's to another year and reaching 30!!
