How I Got Started in the Video Profession - by Mark Schulze

Many students and young professionals approach me wondering how I got started in the industry of video production. I've been involved in the profession so long now (nearly 30 years) that my story is almost mythological. I started my own company, Crystal Pyramid Productions, in 1981, after graduating from UCSD. I had reached my decision to go into video production after leafing page-by-page through a copy of the Yellow Pages. Most young people may not know exactly what this is because you can now find everything you need on the Internet.

Anyway, when I had reached the "V's" I knew that Video was truly the career for me. The way I got started was to intern while a student in college. Then, when I had become a businessman - which entails a bunch of paperwork and official certification - I began offering my services to nonprofit companies at reduced rates. I also placed small ads in local publications. I gave up my weekends to shoot lots of weddings, Bar Mitzvahs and other special family events.

Eventually I began making a name for myself. I collected testimonials from people and created demo reels from clips off of finished videos. Little by little my company rose, along with the help of my partner, Patty Mooney, whom I met in 1982, to the place where we are now - a high-echelon, award-winning broadcast and corporate video production company.

Looking back, I realize that my rewards were not the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, but that they were embedded in my path from the very beginning. To those bright and shiny students who want to enter the realm of video production, I say, make sure that video production makes you happy. It's the kind of work that requires a lot of manual labor, responsibility, constant decision-making and sometimes long hours. It also pays in the dividends of meeting all kinds of great people, seldom working in the same location twice, and the pride of creating art that will probably outlive you.

In the above photo you'll see a production still from one of my very first productions, "Get Smart About Toxins." It was a video for the Environmental Health Coalition about the dangers of toxic waste (paints, varnish, battery acid, etc.) to waste collectors. I had a chance to direct waste collection personnel, Paramedics and representatives from the Fire Department. To my knowledge, the EHC is still using that video today.