RogerHead AboutAbout RogerV

How can this page not seem self indulgent?

Here’s a little history:

  • I founded a video production company while in high school, then sold it at age 20 to a competitor. It was pretty low budget stuff, in rural MN – everything from wedding videos to micro-budget commercials, talent shows, fashion shows… the only reason I started it was to get closer to directing. By the time I was 21, I’d directed over 200 projects or shows, though probably 140 of those were daily TV news in St. Cloud, MN.
  • SmallPromo 180x300 AboutI started 3D animation about age 19 and went to work for companies like DNA Productions in Dallas (on “Santa Vs. The Snowman” for Steve Oedekerk, a Christmas special sold to NBC), Rainbow Studios in Phoenix (now part of THQ, the video game company) (worked on Microsoft Basketball, a feature pilot for John Woo, a show for Lego, Age of Empires II, etc.), some tiny shop in Charleston WV (doing “Letter TV” for PBS).
  • While in AZ, between projects I resumed school for fine art, and had a gallery show of cubist and italian futurist paintings.
  • In 1999 I started Toonshoppe, an animation company, then crashed it in the dot-com-bust. I’m at peace with that now, and in truth I had plenty of talent but not enough business training. We had a 12 picture deal with Atom Films, and produced work for Pop.com (sold to Dreamworks), Entertaindom (sold to Warner Bros), Starz, Urban Entertainment (for John Ridley, specifically, who directed “Undercover Brother”). This was a fun time and I worked with some great people, but we closed shop about 2002. During this time we almost merged with “Digital Film Labs” and I helped with some low budget feature CG effects.
  • 1 DFL belly 300x162 AboutAbout 2002 I moved over to real estate for personal reasons and cash flow (kid on the way + animation studio closed) – well, that proved good timing, and I quickly gravitated toward real estate marketing and real estate media (i.e. TV shows about real estate topics).
  • I started “Swift” in 2010 to unify a few disconnected brands and now run Swift Marketing, Swift Web Designer, Swift CRM, and about 10 other Swift branded B2B projects. We have a great little team of very talented people.
  • ascension small 219x300 AboutMy heart’s in storytelling, so as my business grows and doesn’t need me as much (we have a great team), I’m moving back into entertainment.tslogo wired 300x253 About