Tony & Lori Melendez Started a Video Production Company with Home Video Studio 14 Years Ago!

After fourteen years with Home Video Studio, Tony and Lori Melendez have advice for people looking into becoming a Home Video Studio owner: "This is a good time, for people, to go into business for themselves. If you have a passion for video,  Home Video Studio is the best way to do it."

Tony and Lori Melendez at 2016 Hanley Awards

Tony and Lori Melendez, Home Video Studio owners from Amherst, Ohio, reached a  milestone in their Home Video Studio career last spring. Tony puts it like this, "Robert (Hanley, founder and president of Home Video Studio) told us that the day we bought a Home Video Studio we'd never forget the date," says Tony, "and he was right! We decided to become studio owners on May 11, 2002 and we have always cherished that day."

That makes Tony and Lori fourteen year veterans with Home Video. 
Tony and Lori’s involvement with Home Video Studio came by way of a “happy accident.” Tony was a freelance videographer who picked up the phone looking for some advice.

Tony explains, "I had taken on a wedding job and was looking for some technical support and I happened to pick up a Videomaker magazine and saw an ad for Home Video Studio. I was hoping to reach a video expert and soon I was talking to a stranger named Robert Hanley who not only pointed me in the right direction for my technical problem but advised me on some pricing as well."

Of course Robert also advised him of the benefits of affiliating with Home Video Studio and after that call one thing led to another. Tony and Lori were attracted by the notion of being in business "for yourself, but not by yourself." They attended a "Show N Tell Saturday" in Indianapolis and on a red-letter day in May they became studio owners and have enjoyed the income, support, expertise and camaraderie that successful Home Video Studio owners enjoy ever since. 

“You have to have a vision, you have to have a picture of the future you want." 
- Tony Melendez

What are some of the keys that make for this success and longevity? If you're looking for secrets or shortcuts there are none (except for Home Video Studio itself). Tony and Lori simply exhibit that age-old traits that work:

“You have to have a vision,” says Melendez, who started his business in his home and operated out of it for nearly eleven years before moving into a studio store, “you have to have a picture of the future you want.”

Tony and Lori at Getaway 4 in 2004

Tony and Lori have worked as a team their entire married life. Tony spent his career as an educator - teaching and coaching – and, until 2011, ran his business alongside these demands, first on his own and then as a Home Video Studio owner. "A mentor told me when I first started teaching not to put all my eggs in one basket," says Tony. Some teachers paint or clean windows on the side. I liked video so I started my own video business and worked it in the evenings, on weekends and in the summer." Lori, who has a background in marketing and also ran a successful daycare, has partnered with him from the beginning.

Together Tony and Lori took the daily steps necessary to fulfill their dream. It wasn’t an accident.  It was planned and cultivated.

Tony and Lori have also won many Hanleys, international awards for creative excellence, at the HVS Annual Getaway held each year. Among these honors are Studio Owners of the Year, Rookies of the Year, Best Video Production, Best Wedding, Best High Concept Video, Best Sports Scholarship Video, Best of Show and Studio Store of the Year.  

Want to start your own Home Video Studio? Call 1-866-7141956 or go to www.myhomevideostudio.com. 

Learning The Art of Video Editing...

Studio Owners David Cason and Scott Doelling

This week at Basic Training in Indianapolis... our two new students – David and Scott will be taking their first classes in video editing. Both David and Scott are a study in contrasts. Scott has been an award winning news videographer for the past thirty years. He has a keen understanding of the mechanics of both video production and editing.  David has always been interested in editing and production, but has yet to edit his first frame of video. David was in the Air Force for twenty years and then was a Pastor until he retired.  I imagine that most of you reading this are somewhere in between Scott and David as far as experience in video. It not your experience that counts, it is your desire to have the experience that makes the difference.

So how do we teach David and Scott editing? How will we teach you? Let me ask you some questions. Do you like learning? Are you a life-long learner? Do you have great anticipation of producing/directing and editing? If you answered yes then learning the process and techniques of video editing will be a fun and rewarding experience. You’ll find yourself really enjoying it. By the way, David is 62 and Scott is 48.

Home Video Studio has a very tried and true method of teaching video editing. We start first with the basics and the fundamentals of editing on a timeline. At Basic Training we will take you through our two-day course on Adobe Premiere Pro. If you are like Scott – you have some experience - then you will be refreshing yourself on editing, timelines, keyframing, etc and… learning the HVS method of post-production. We have a lot of tricks of the trade that we’ll share with you.  Now if you are like David, everything is going to be brand new.  It is going to be even more exciting. You may be apprehensive at first – a little nervous… but once you get the lay of the land, you will find that editing with Premiere Pro is a breeze.

I remember my first true editing experience. While I had edited some Super-8 projects in college, I hadn’t ever done any professional editing. My first editing job was editing job a fifteen-minute 16mm film which I edited on a Moviola flatbed editor. I read a few books and basically I taught myself film editing.  This was back when you had to literally cut and paste!

Learning to edit today with Adobe Premiere Pro is in one way very similar to my old Moviola flatbed days. First we teach you the mechanics of editing: how to import your video and audio; how to find a clip and place it on the timeline; how to make an insert edit, etc. You’ll make your first few practice projects and you’ll begin to understand the editing process. Eventually you’ll learn keyframing, color correction and other advanced techniques.

Once you have basically learned to fly… you can begin and finish a project and you understand the process; then you will start doing work for paying clients. What you will find when you are editing real projects for real people is that you will learn so much more quickly. Your understanding of editing and your editing capabilities will increase dramatically. You’ll be come a real editor!

The next part of our training on video editing comes into play after you have been running your studio for a while – usually three to six months.  You’ll attend a major training and take core classes on editing and post production.

Every March, Home Video Studio puts on a six-day training called Advanced Training.  When you attend Advanced Training you will move to the next levels of editing – hopefully mastering the all of the techniques we teach. You will also begin to integrate other Adobe programs – Photoshop, Audition and After Effects as well as plug-ins by other companies into your editing tool box. You’ll leave AT with a lot of new knowledge and go home to your studio where you will begin to use all of the new techniques that you have learned. Once again you’ll be editing real projects with real paying clients. Now your videos for these clients take on a new level of sophistication. Your projects become more professional. They present themselves on a new level. You the editor; are becoming an artist.

Artistry - learning the art of video editing is an interesting concept. This is what we teach at the Getaway in July. The Getaway is our five-day annual convention and training. Can we teach art? Yes. Can we teach you to be artistic? That depends on you. We can and do immerse you in both video editing and video production classes -  with a twist – you are now making your own projects with complete control – from concept to creation.  You’re working in the HVS backlot. You’re shooting and editing with no recipe. Professionals from around the world are teaching, guiding and helping you learn the “art” of editing. It is really fun and it really works. It’s total immersion. I have seen so many of our studios that started with zero editing experience become masters of the art after going through the HVS system.

So when I landed my first film project, I was both scared and excited! I had never even touched a 16mm camera! Secretly, I wondered if I would even like editing. And if I did like it, would I be good at it? Many of you reading this are thinking the same thing. Can I do it? Will it work? Will I enjoy the business and will I become great at it? Will I get a return on my investment? I had these same questions. What I found out was that once I was into the process of editing my first film, I began to feel comfortable. I liked it! I really enjoyed editing. Before I knew it, I was editing TV commercials, corporate films, my own feature film and a lot of other projects. I became a great editor. 

Denise & Robert Hanley

Then I became a great teacher.

I’d like to be your teacher – your mentor. We have a great teaching team at HVS. It’s not just me. There are many professionals who will teach you all facets of editing, production and running a studio. There’s a lot to Home Video Studio. That’s why we charge big bucks. Taking on a new studio is a huge responsibility. You’ll be a bit scared… up and until you sign your agreement. That's natural. After you come aboard everything changes because you have committed yourself to learning.  You are involved!  You are a studio owner and your are becoming a Producer/Director/Editor. You have a new career! You have a new chapter. 

Will you like editing? Will you enjoy the business? There is only one way to find out for sure.  You’ve got to make that first call to me and eventually you have to give yourself a chance to succeed. Life is for the living. We have a great group of studio owners who will help you succeed. Some of them will become your best friends. 

Call me anytime. We can chat about you and your dreams and making those dreams a reality. Let’s discuss film, movies and this wonderful business.  

Oh… I will keep you updated on Scott and David and their progress. Our next Basic Training starts in late October and we have another one in November. Join us. 

May be Force be with You. 

Robert Hanley
Producer/Director/Editor
President & Founder Home Video Studio

317-358-5932

Wanted: Assistant Motion Picture Producer

Robert's Drive In circa 1981

In the Spring of 1981 I owned and operated a Drive-in restaurant called Robert’s (influenced by George Lucas’s American Graffiti of course…). I was sitting at the counter drinking a malted one day and happened on to a classified ad in The Commercial News – Danville, Illinois’s equivalent of the New York Times (several times removed).

“Wanted: Assistant Motion Picture Producer.”  The ad seemed to jump off of the page! Of course I called the number in the ad immediately. Joe Larson answered the phone (I have changed his name for this article) and explained that he was an amateur super-8 filmmaker and he wanted to shoot weddings for profit. And…he wanted a partner.  I drove to Danville the next day and we decided to start our new business together.

There was one huge problem. Joe turned out to be a talker and not a doer. Most of our meetings consisted of Joe laying out issues of American Cinematographer and other such magazines and then swooning over the equipment and gear. “Look at this crane… wow… here’s a new  Chapman dolly. Months went by and we had not shot one frame of film!

One day, out of the blue. I got a call from Bill Massey, one of my father’s friends who was big-time into the Indiana Lions organization. Bill had read about our fledgling film company in that same newspaper – The Commercial News. Bill explained that the Indiana Lions Eye Bank wanted a new documentary about their eye bank – shot on 16mm - fifteen minutes long. This sounded like a real production and it was! It was also so much better and freakingly more awesome than shooing weddings on super-8 film. And yes, I just made up the word freaklingly. Get over it.

I raced over to Joe’s house that evening and surprised him with my good news.

Joe was not excited. He was not thrilled. With a forlorn look on his face he explained the realities of professional film production (his realities). We would have to rent the equipment, cameras, lights, mikes and crew. We would have to learn how to use all the new gear and then somehow get the film edited. For that we would need something called a Moviola – a huge desk-like metal film professional editing machine. Essentially Joe told me all the reasons why we could not pursue making this film for the Indiana Lions Eye Bank film. It was over our heads according to Joe.

I was stunned by Joe’s flat out rejection of this cool new project.

But I wasn’t really surprised once I started to consider it. While Joe was scared of learning new gear and striking out on a 16mm film production, I was super excited! This was going to be my opportunity!

That's Me with my Arriflex BL 16mm Camera!

Six months later, I was sitting in my mobile home (Denise and I lived in a mobile home at that time) editing my first film “Our Goal is in Sight.” A huge Moviola filled the living room (Denise freaked out at first) and there were 16mm film clips hanging everywhere, even from the ceiling!

Fear held Joe back from pursuing his dream and moving forward. Fear is what holds most people back from pursuing their dreams.

Fear of failure and fear of change.  Some are just flat out scared. This is natural. You have to get past the fear to accomplish what you want to accomplish.

Getting started is the key. Finding a mentor is essential. Then you need a system and a plan.

What I have always found is that once I actually committed myself to a goal that I wanted to achieve… any fears I had vanished almost instantly. This is true for most people. I have seen this over and over in Home Video Studio.

I do hear this a lot: “Once I start, I will commit 110%.” That always irritates me actually because anyone can say that. Talkers are talkers and doers do.

Once you make a decision to start a new business or do anything new really, you then have a different feeling. It’s like adrenaline.  A new strength flows through you and this helps you get your new thing off the ground.

If You want to hear the rest of my story – what happened after the eye bank film (it was a success) download or listen to my free audiobook: “How to Start and Run Your Own Home Video Studio.” CLICK THIS LINK.  I share a lot of the HVS plan in this book.

It does take a bit of courage to start a Home Video Studio. The first real step is to come to call me.  Call me anytime at my cell 317-358-5932.

I made a call in 1981 that changed my life.

By the way, Joe was right on one thing. I had to learn a whole bunch of things! One of them was how to get that Moviola through a mobile home door! All of it was a blast!

May the Force be with You!

Robert Hanley

Producer/Director/Editor

President & Founder Home Video Studio

Video Production Training - Start A Video Production Business

Once you start with Home Video Studio we will take you through our twelve month training program covering everything from back office operations, to marketing and advertising to production and post-production. It's exciting! It's fun! 

Basic Training – Five days in Indianapolis. 
Focus on: Basics of getting business, pricing, editing and beginning producing/directing/editing classes.

Advanced Training – six days in Indianapolis.

Focus on: Core Classes and Electives. This is our mini-college of video production and post production – Classes on Premiere Pro, FCP 10, Audition, Photoshop, After Effects, Lighting, Greenscreen, Sound, Production (Documentary Style Production, Events, Web Shoots, Weddings, etc), Selling, Sales and Closing, Advertising, Marketing, Pricing, Production & Editing Theory, Software Shortcuts and more.

The Getaway (our annual conference) - five days, this next year in Tucson, AZ. We continue our  Core classes and electives plus we have on-location studio backlot shooting and production classes for the entire five days. 

Once you start with Home Video Studio there is something going on every week training wise. This week we have three events. 

Join us! There is still time to register for our next Basic Training in early October.

We have a Show 'N Tell Saturday Seminar on October 1. 

We have studio owners from all over the United States, Canada and even Stockholm, Sweden. 

Change your life. Change your lifestyle. Join us. 

Our next Show 'N Tell Saturday is in Indianapolis on Saturday, October 1. Call for details: 317-358-5932. 

Our next Basic Training class starts on Monday, October 3rd. You will learn how to start and run your own video production company.

We have room for one or two more students. Call or email if you would like to know more about our program and attending this training.  Call me anytime on my cell 317-358-5932 or email me at robert@homevideostudio.com.

Let’s get started!

Robert Hanley
Producer/Director/Editor
President & Founder Home Video Studio

Download my free audio book:

"How to Start & Run

Your Own Home Video Studio."

Click here to download

Take Action! Call or email today!

317-358-5932 - 866-714-1956