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Title: Maria Keckan and Neil McCormick
Date(s): 2020-08-10
Contributor(s): McCormick, Neil (interviewee), Keckan, Maria (interviewee), Spohn, Benjamin (interviewer)
Description: In this interview Keckan and McCormick talk about their careers pre-Cinecraft, their early time at Cinecraft and the changes that have happened in the film production industry since they purchased the company in 1984. Before coming to Cinecraft, Keckan worked as a producer making medical education films. McCormick joined Cinecraft in 1977 after attending graduate school at CUNY. He has always been interested in filmmaking. McCormick talks about evolving film production technology from joining...
Show moreIn this interview Keckan and McCormick talk about their careers pre-Cinecraft, their early time at Cinecraft and the changes that have happened in the film production industry since they purchased the company in 1984. Before coming to Cinecraft, Keckan worked as a producer making medical education films. McCormick joined Cinecraft in 1977 after attending graduate school at CUNY. He has always been interested in filmmaking. McCormick talks about evolving film production technology from joining the company in 1977. Both Keckan and McCormick talk about the challenges of buying the company and upgrading the existing equipment. Their troubles were financial and personal as existing employees were wary of the new management. McCormick provides a start to finish descriptions of some of the productions he worked on including Where the River Enters the Sea and Sohio Today and Tomorrow. They talk about some of Cinecraft's more recent developments, and how production has changed since the 1980s. McCormick explains that Cinecraft had always specialized in sound and producing high quality sound recordings to accompany their films. McCormick explains how the work Cinecraft does has become less segmented as one person can do multiple jobs, and that company employs more people now than it did in 1984. Both Keckan and McCormick talk about the importance of e-learning to Cinecraft's current work. Keckan explains the her son, Dan, is responsible for driving the growth of e-learning to the point of where it has become Cinecraft's largest source of business. McCormick offers his thoughts on digital media and the importance of non-destructive editing allowing for multiple lossless cuts. Keckan talks about some of Cinecraft's work with non-profit organizations. Keckan and McCormick talk about their philosophy of running a business and working with clients as the company hits 80 years in operation. They talk about how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted work at Cinecraft. They talk about their future hopes for the company, and how Keckan's son and his business partner have expanded the company from local, to national, and then international.
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Collection ID: Cinecraft oral histories (Accession 2021.206)
Hagley ID: MariaKeckanandNeilMcCormick08102020
Collection: Cinecraft Oral Histories

Title: John Culley
Date(s): 2020-07-16
Contributor(s): Culley, John (interviewee), Spohn, Benjamin (interviewer)
Description: In this interview John provides a biographical sketch of his parents, the founders of Cinecraft and elaborates on the company's Ohio roots. He explains how his father was a self-taught multi-talented man, who worked as a jeweler before moving to Hollywood, California and starting working in the film industry both as an actor and in production. After his experience in Hollywood, Culley's father moved back to Ohio in order to start his own industrial film production company. Culley describes...
Show moreIn this interview John provides a biographical sketch of his parents, the founders of Cinecraft and elaborates on the company's Ohio roots. He explains how his father was a self-taught multi-talented man, who worked as a jeweler before moving to Hollywood, California and starting working in the film industry both as an actor and in production. After his experience in Hollywood, Culley's father moved back to Ohio in order to start his own industrial film production company. Culley describes the early days of the company and how his parents met. Both were working in the film business at the time. Culley tells stories about growing up with a growing family run business, including work he did there as a child and young man. Culley explains how technology changed over his time with company and provides an in-depth description of sound editing, and technology from the 1940s and during the time he worked there in 1960s and 1970s. He also talks about a job he held at CBS in Cleveland Ohio, a position held by his twin brother and his younger brother. He explains the working relationship between Cinecraft and a scriptwriting company called Storycraft. He also talks about the importance of 16mm film and teleprompters in Cinecraft's productions. Culley talks about how Cinecraft built and maintained relationships with advertising agencies.
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Collection ID: Cinecraft oral histories (Accession 2021.206)
Hagley ID: JohnCulley07162020
Collection: Cinecraft Oral Histories

Title: James "Jim" R. Haviland
Date(s): 2020-09-14
Contributor(s): Haviland, Jim (James R.) (interviewee), Spohn, Benjamin (interviewer)
Description: In this interview James Haviland tells stories about his grandfather, Robert "Bob" Haviland, an early producer at Cinecraft Productions in Cleveland, Ohio. Topics discussed include the elder Haviland's brief career as a professional tuba player and other life stories. Haviland talks about his grandfather's background in audiovisual work and the jobs he held before joining Cinecraft. Haviland also describes his grandfather's approach to his work at Cinecraft and how he got the job. Haviland...
Show moreIn this interview James Haviland tells stories about his grandfather, Robert "Bob" Haviland, an early producer at Cinecraft Productions in Cleveland, Ohio. Topics discussed include the elder Haviland's brief career as a professional tuba player and other life stories. Haviland talks about his grandfather's background in audiovisual work and the jobs he held before joining Cinecraft. Haviland also describes his grandfather's approach to his work at Cinecraft and how he got the job. Haviland explained that his grandfather preferred the stability of having a regular job over the instability of working on movies in Hollywood. Haviland also shares how his grandfather traveled to Los Angeles, California in order to secure Hollywood actors for Cinecraft productions. He also talks about his grandfather's role in syncing audio and film together, especially 16mm. Haviland retired from Cinecraft in the 1970s. He had a film studio in his house and made films in his retirement.
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Collection ID: Cinecraft oral histories (Accession 2021.206)
Hagley ID: JimHaviland09142020
Collection: Cinecraft Oral Histories

Title: Bob Schneider
Date(s): 2020-09-17
Contributor(s): Schneider, Robert A. (interviewee), Spohn, Benjamin (interviewer)
Description: In this interview, Robert Schneider answers follow-up questions from his first interview on August 5, 2020. He goes into the creative process on some of Cinecraft's productions, including a directorial job for the U.S. Navy after the original producer, Bob Haviland suffered a heart attack. Schneider continues to talk about working with Haviland, including his unique method of organizing projects with a system of colored pencils. Schneider contrasts this to his organization method, which...
Show moreIn this interview, Robert Schneider answers follow-up questions from his first interview on August 5, 2020. He goes into the creative process on some of Cinecraft's productions, including a directorial job for the U.S. Navy after the original producer, Bob Haviland suffered a heart attack. Schneider continues to talk about working with Haviland, including his unique method of organizing projects with a system of colored pencils. Schneider contrasts this to his organization method, which imitated Gene Rodenberry's index card system that he used on Star Trek. He also talks about how he learned to do the job watching Ray Culley on the job. He talks about doing live action sound work when sharing works in progress with clients. He compares this experience to working as a disc-jockey. Schneider talks about how recording and television technologies changed over time.
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Collection ID: Cinecraft oral histories (Accession 2021.206)
Hagley ID: BobSchneider09172020
Collection: Cinecraft Oral Histories

Title: Bob and Nancy Schneider
Date(s): 2020-08-05
Contributor(s): Schneider, Robert A. (interviewee), Schneider, Nancy (interviewee), Spohn, Benjamin (interviewer)
Description: Bob Schneider discusses his background in photography and video. He explains that his interest in these fields came from his grandfather. He joined Cinecraft in 1964 and began work after serving in the U.S. Army. In addition to working at Cinecraft, Schneider also worked as an independent DJ. Schneider provides a detailed overview on recording technology dating to the 1950s and 1960s. Nancy Schneider talks about her work at Storycraft, a sister company to Cinecraft. She worked on a radio...
Show moreBob Schneider discusses his background in photography and video. He explains that his interest in these fields came from his grandfather. He joined Cinecraft in 1964 and began work after serving in the U.S. Army. In addition to working at Cinecraft, Schneider also worked as an independent DJ. Schneider provides a detailed overview on recording technology dating to the 1950s and 1960s. Nancy Schneider talks about her work at Storycraft, a sister company to Cinecraft. She worked on a radio program called Salespoint, a program Westinghouse used to keep their traveling salesmen up to date on the company's products. Both of the Schneiders explain that Cinecraft was the top production company in Cleveland and they talk about how Cinecraft compared to other local production companies. They explain the relationship between Cinecraft and Storycraft.
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Collection ID: Cinecraft oral histories (Accession 2021.206)
Hagley ID: BobandNancySchneider08052020
Collection: Cinecraft Oral Histories

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