DP Productions was established in 1996 in St. Cloud, Florida. For five years I did production and post-production working with other freelancers in the Orlando area and doing much on my own. In 2000 I went to Columbia, South Carolina to teach video production at Columbia International University staying there for six years. Production work slowed down drastically during that period and this website functioned mainly to introduce prospective and new students to their professor. During the summer of 2006 I moved back to Florida and re-entered the freelance market, this time mainly doing camera work for corporate clients. Now I am working a staff job managing an in-house daily TV show at a high-end retirement community in Fort Myers. There will be little outside work and far between for the forseeable future, but once in a while I just might jump on the right side project if it comes along. So, this site is becomming less and less about a company and more and more a historical record of a person who always was the company anyway. So there you go. And below is some verbiage that has been on this page for about ten years now. What it says is still true, although everybody is doing it now. It's not unique anymore. Times have changed and this is just the way a lot of work is done these days:

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We specialize in shooting on the new Digital Video Cassette format, which yields quality similar to Betacam-SP (which has been the standard of the broadcast industry and what I shot on for 10 years.) We have access to Betacam if necessary, but after 10 years of schlepping the big cameras around the world, I'm now in love with the diminutive new technology. It has been difficult for people familiar with Betacam cameras to accept the fact that the quality from such a small camera could compete with the traditional behemoths. But word is finally getting around that DVC is really that good.

We edit on a desktop NLE (non-linear editing) system, which is a souped up computer with some special hardware and software. Video is digitized onto large hard drives and then can be edited in a way similar to the way words are edited in a word processor. Character generation, unlimited tracks of audio, and effects of all sorts can be added to the program. The final result is recorded to a Betacam-SP master tape which is used for duplication, (usually VHS copies.) I have edited projects in rooms costing up to a half million dollars over the years. The system we now own cost us less than one video tape recorder in some of those systems, but is more capable than any other editing room I have ever used.

Our philosophy centers around using the new, relatively inexpensive yet high quality tools to keep overhead lower, but applying the skills and experience gained from college and graduate school training, 26 years of full-time work in film and video production, and six years of teaching it at the college level squeezed in. I can provide a high level of production value that only comes from experience, but you don't pay for exorbitant equipment cost. The result is a very good bang for your buck. If you can't see the difference, why pay the difference?

Our methods also realize savings in what are often hidden costs (when comparing Betacam vs. DV production). Tape stock cost of DV is 25% of Betacam-SP. Crew cost can be drastically reduced. While it is virtually impossible to travel alone by airline with a Betacam shoot package, I can travel alone with everything necessary for a DV shoot. This is because of a very practical consideration: I can move myself and my gear through an airport in one trip. Most Betacam shoot packages cannot be moved in one trip by one person.

The most hidden difference is the time required to change from one set up to another. Lightweight DV gear allows much quicker changes and moves between venues. The responsiveness possible approaches home video. This is impossible with Betacam. DV means many more shots made in much less time.