Hello World!

Welcome to the first blog post of our all new website.

I am sitting in my office in Newton Center on a beautiful spring day listening to the sound of sets being built in our studio. It’s an exciting time here at CRMG.

Where to begin?

This new website – our third in the past decade – represents a new stage in Charles River Media Group’s development. We started off as a very loose collaboration of media professionals. Some were freelancers, others were crammed into offices in Revere and Brookline, MA. Our recent expansion into our Newton Center facility provides us a controlled environment to both film our own projects and rent affordable to others. New staff is working and have been hired to complete current projects and expand into new sectors. Our capabilities are now limitless.

More importantly, our human network is strong. Whether it’s our work with new CRMG personnel, new freelancers, or new companies, organizations, and businesses, the relationships we have built and maintain amongst all of us is, in my opinion, our greatest strength. When you move past the technological tricks and glitz and past the budgets and timetables, it is ultimately the willingness by everyone to create an outstanding and effective creative product – regardless of sector (business, corporate, TV, non-profit, political, etc.) – that is our greatest strength.

Many years ago, when I first started the business, I went to the Small Business Administration for some of their free advice. I met with two retired gentleman who had run various retail businesses. They asked me to explain my business model. They listened in horror as I described my desire to create an organization dedicated to the following principles: 1) Create high quality productions regardless of sector, 2) Provide flexible costs to accommodate clients’ budgetary restrictions, 3) Establish the company as a national brand, and 4) Foster the creative film works of CRMG staff and collaborators.

The SBA thought I was nuts….and they were right….but it worked. I disregarded their advice to focus solely on car commercials or corporate presentations, and tried to do it all. That’s why we have perhaps the most diverse client list around.

Where we stand.

We are currently finishing up edits for various non-profits and corporations. We have a few television commercials to wrap up as well as some productions about to begin. Our creative work – the feature film “Marranos” – is nearing it’s end. The sets that we are currently constructing for the final remaining scenes will also serve as flats for future commercial use in the studio.We are also in the early stages of developing new models for feature filmmaking and have various scripts and treatments in the pipeline.

What’s next?

One of my favorite television shows, The West Wing, featured Martin Sheen as the President of the United States often asking, “What’s next?”

Even though we are expanding our resources and our client base…

Even though an election season is heating up and the airwaves will be busy with activity…

And even though the recession will (hopefully) soon be in the distant past…

We don’t exactly know the shape of CRMG’s future.

Isn’t it exciting?

-Don Schechter