Profile: Mark Guarino, Guymark Studios
Mark Guarino was practically born into the audiovisual industry. His father was the chief engineer who put New Haven, Connecticut’s ABC affiliate on the air in the late 1940s. Later, his father, along with a partner, started a film production company named Sleeping Giant Films. Throughout their childhood, Mark and his brother Guy would tag along with their father, and help out however they could. After graduating from college, they became full-time employees, and after their father retired, they bought the business, renaming it Guymark Studios. At the time, the industry was evolving from film to video, and Mark and Guy evolved with it – jumping into nonlinear editing with a Media 100 system. To this day, multiple Media 100 systems form the backbone of Guymark Studios’ video production.
Guymark Studios produces live shows with audiences ranging from 150 to 5,000 attendees. They provide staging, technology, live video, produced video roll-ins, computer support, sound, and more. In addition, they create brochures, TV spots, corporate image videos, and sales and training videos, and supply sound systems, projection, technical and A/V support, and video capture services for seminars and symposiums.
“We use Media 100 for all of the TV spots, documentaries, corporate image and sales pieces, point of purchase videos, training videos, and how-to videos that we create. We even use Media 100’s audio suite for radio spots,” Mark comments. “In addition, for the live shows we produce, we create hundreds of roll-ins with Boris RED, many with a combination of animated text, still images, effects, and videos. Then, we play back with Media 100, and it really shines. Media 100’s ability to isolate the timeline, record and source windows, and edit suite window makes for the perfect playback environment.”
Mark values Media 100’s easy-to-use interface, including the ability to customize the desktop workspace, and regularly takes advantage of Media 100’s “Make Program from Bin” script. He explains, “If I need to line up clips or photos that have been sized to fit my program resolution, all I need to do is put the clips or photos in a bin, and run this script. The clips or images in the bin move to a new program with a dissolve between each clip.”
Over the years, Guymark Studios tried a variety of video editing applications, but they never stopped using Media 100, and they still come back to it over other editors. They are now beginning an on-going series of tax law continuing education programs, and Media 100 will play a key role in packaging and delivering the product.
Mark concludes, “We have four Media 100 systems and we are now running the latest version, Media 100 Suite v2.1.8. On top of being a great video editing tool, the community of Media 100 editors is vast and resourceful, making my experience with Media 100 even more enjoyable. Simply put, for us, Media 100 is the best.”