I know, I know; you’re probably thinking, “Whoa, with a big important national-sounding name like that they must be thousands of employees in thirty-six States, including Alaska and Hawaii, …and growing!"
Well, …actually, it’s just me. Sorry. But let me tell you why that may be just what you’re looking for!
I’m John Dzwonkowski, the Founder, Owner, President, Treasurer, Janitor, and only employee of American Corporate Communication, LLC; and I first would like to thank you for stopping in here and taking a look at what I might be able to help you with. I have two services to offer you: professional writing and editing, and professional, broadcast-quality videography.
All the Write Stuff!
I am the Editor of the American Senior Gazette newspaper, a senior-oriented newspaper that reaches nearly 40,000 seniors bi-monthly. In my former life as a writer/videographer for a large local home health care company, I wrote, laid out, and published a long series of semi-monthly company newsletters, some written primarily for the employees, and others primarily intended to entertain and educate the home care patients and business associates we served. Of course, I was called on to write or edit numerous company publications, either for marketing or educational purposes, as well.
I love putting pen to paper, …or finger to button, perhaps. I can bore people to tears with lengthy discourses on the various forms of irregular verbs, for instance. I have a brother who is the editor of the editorial page of the Detroit Free Press, and another who is a high school English professor. Can you just imagine the excitement of our holiday family get-togethers? I absolutely cherish drawing vibrant, colorful pictures with the words of our language.
Let’s Go to the Movies!
On the other side of the company, nothing to me captures the thrill or meaning of a moment in time the way a well-done video can! And that’s why I’ve spent the last 13 years learning pretty much everything I could about this fine art.
Over those years now, I have written, shot, edited, and produced a whole bunch of corporate videos for my former company, and those, along with the various activities of my three kids, are what got me hooked on the power and the magic of high-quality videography. Many of my video projects have been in the area of senior home health care. However, I’ve also produced a good number of sports videos for various high schools and athletic clubs, more school “event” videos than I can count any more, and a large variety of video “photo albums,” that are really an absolutely delightful way to sit back and relive some pretty enjoyable events, parties, …or maybe rites of passage, as the case may be.
In the last couple of years, I have come upon a great number of seniors who have asked for help in producing what we have come to call a “Video Legacy,” a video that preserves for those who would come after them some of their thoughts and images on where their lives have taken them, and how they have viewed their own journey. And that has led, of course very naturally, to the 5-10 minute “Life Memorials” that I am always so deeply moved to produce as a keepsake perhaps at a funeral service.
But I Have My Own Video Camera!
So you say you have your own video camera. Excellent, are they a riot, or what?? That’s how I started out as well, and it’s a terrific way to begin!
However, did you ever wonder why those home videos we all produce are sometimes really not all that interesting? Or why sometimes they give us motion sickness, or we can never hear what they’re saying, or the background noise drowns out what we’re trying to hear, or the people in them seem so off-color sometimes, or way too bright, or thrown into silhouette because that noonday sun behind them is so doggone bright? Did you ever find yourself thinking, “Man, this is a little long; “ or “When are they gonna get to the interesting parts?” Well, …I have too.
The difference, in the very first place, is in amateur against professional equipment – lighting, sound, the camera, and the editing equipment used. Secondly, it has an awful lot to do with know-how and experience. It’s always amazing to me how much there is to learn in any field. Well, videography is no different. Why do we have our wedding pictures, or graduation pictures taken by professionals? Why don’t we just take a few ourselves? Hmmm, I think we know why. And videography is very much the same thing.
I’ve also acquired for myself professional lighting and sound equipment, and a Canon XL1S prosumer video camera, Videomaker Magazine’s #1 pick for the last two years running. For what it’s worth, it is a 3CCD workhorse, which, for you, means clear, crisp video that can easily be used even for network or cable tv commercials, and certainly for web video as well. The camera has been used to produce a number of national television commercials, and even a Hollywood movie or two. Not bad. But now I’d really like to use it for your projects! That way I’ll be able to pay for it!
So Why Should You Turn to Me?
Well, I’m just me, so I’m not too terribly expensive; but I’m pretty good at what I do. I love this stuff, both the writing and the videography!
Because it’s usually only me, I may well be your best bet to get started with using high-quality video to promote your business, or just to showcase some of the better moments of the lives of your family and friends. While video shoots and the editing process can be rather long, tedious affairs, often quite a bit more so than most of us realize, nonetheless, my overhead is still quite low, so I can keep my prices pretty much in your ballpark, or find a way to tailor what I can do for you in order to remain within your budget. My own budget is not yet into the trillions either, so I feel I have something in common with anyone who’s running a business and has to answer to his CPA every year. We may have something in common here.
A Little Personal Background
For what it’s worth, I’m not quite a senior citizen myself, but I’m certainly a “junior senior,” with a heart and soul closely allied with that Greatest Generation of Tom Brokaw that I have come to respect and to serve over the years.
I do have a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology from Loyola University of Chicago, and a Master’s Degree in Theology from the Maryknoll School of Theology in Ossining, New York, where I studied for 9 experience-packed years (college and grad school) for the Catholic foreign mission priesthood. I did spend 6 months in Bolivia, and 1 year in El Salvador, Central America, as a sort of internship with the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America (Maryknoll), and would have been ordained to the priesthood if only I had remained for one more academic year. On my return to the States, however, I discovered this minor subclause, something about celibacy, that I came to realize just might be a little over the top for me.
I now have a wonderful wife, Cindi, and three terrific kids, each of whom allows me to live a life of a whole lot of fun, and absolutely no regrets.
In my spare time, I’m very proud to say that my wife and I have built our entire home ourselves, renovating our original from the ground up, and then even adding a second story recently. I also coach a lot of youth soccer with the Livonia Soccer Club, having captained my team in college; and continue to teach religious education in my local parish. Finally, my family and I operate a second, small, seasonal “business,” called “Scripture on Stage,” with which we offer to various local churches a 90-minute live, full theatrical presentation that we call, “An Evening with Simon Peter.” It is a retelling of the passion and death of Jesus Christ from the close-up point of view of one of his closest friends, the Apostle Simon Peter. The family does all the sound effects, music, props, and stage lighting; and I add a beard and a pair of sandals and try to help people to laugh a little, maybe leave a tear or two behind, and generally try to bring the story, the era, and the person alive for them.
I like to think that my work and my family activities help me to remain pretty closely tied to my spiritual roots, and that is what has influenced me so much to see how I might help in the areas of hospice and the seniors’ Video Legacy, in particular. It also causes me to think that, if I treat you fairly and respectfully as a customer, then you might also treat me in the same way. Here’s hoping we might work together some day to help one another to reach whatever goals we’ve both set our hearts and minds on achieving!
John Dzwonkowski
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