You probably know Videogenic Corporation as a test commercial production house.

But president Dave Greenham would rather you knew Videogenic as a one-stop commercial production house.

And you would not be alone if you did. Videogenic is slowly but surely moving into commercial production, building on its solid reputation for producing test commercials from animatics and photomatics to rippomatics and live testing for consumer research.

A 15-second Sony Discman spot playing on the giant Jumbotron screen at the SkyDome stadium in Toronto, or two one-hour tv specials produced last autumn for the Worldwide Church of God now airing on Vision tv, are two recent projects by Videogenic.

And Ford, Procter and Gamble, Yorkdale Mall and General Motors are just a few customers coming to Videogenic for full commercials, product or location shots, shot on film or video.

This shift in focus for Videogenic has been a long way in coming. The company was founded in 1980 by Leonard Gladstone, with the backing of Don McLean and The Partners’ Film Company. The strategy of devoting a facility to testing commercials was clearly a gamble.

But the gamble paid off.

By the mid-1980s, the company had two edit suites running day and night, pumping out test commercials. Well over half the commercials that made it to air began as animatics or ‘rippos’ produced at Videogenic.

By now, Greenham had become the company’s president and lead shareholder. Videogenic was producing a few corporate videos and low-budget commercials. But test spots were by far its bread and butter.

Now all is changed. The recent recession and a steep drop in budgets for commercials has seen to that.

The volume of test spots done at Videogenic, as in the advertising world as a whole, is down. That means Videogenic is taking up the slack by moving in new directions, not least doing a growing number of commercial revisions and corporate videos.

Of course, most every other player in the commercial world is doing the same.

But Videogenic seems well positioned to seize on circumstance and thrive as it changes.

For one thing, the facility has always worked to tight budgets. Even during the go-go 1980s, agencies never spent heavily on test commercials when conducting consumer research. The big bucks went into actual production, and still do.

That means it takes no stretch for Videogenic to become a low-cost producer, the secret to success in lean times. ‘Our quote is a realistic quote,’ Greenham argues.

What is more, Videogenic is already known in the agency community. Other fledgling production companies now in the market that claim they too can provide high production values on tight budgets have fewer contacts or less name recognition.

Videogenic is just not well known for shooting commercials.

Greenham and producer Angie Colgoni admit it has taken effort on their part to gain the confidence that they too could step forward and do a commercial when the opportunity rolled round.

A few years ago, they would have stood back.

But no more. A recent facelift of the Videogenic logo, displaying a Herculean image in contrast to the facility’s plaid predecessor, is proof.

Videogenic has also moved into commercial production to satisfy creative impulses within the facility’s 10-strong staff. ‘It’s fun to visualize something and then see it on screen,’ says Greenham.

Technology is also at work here. The facility’s two edit suites sport much edit equipment that has done many a dog-year’s amount of work without interruption.

But the digital age is at hand and Greenham walked away from nab in Las Vegas last month knowing he will invest in an AVID 8000 edit suite. And if business keeps picking up, there will be more than a few digital on-line suites in the facility before long.

But where are the star commercial directors to be found within the Videogenic facility?

From Partners’, no less. The relationship that Videogenic has with Canada’s premiere commercial production house means the Richmond Street West facility has in recent months drawn on such top-drawer directors and dops as George Morita and Stanley Mestel to helm its spots.

Of course, Greenham is eager that loyal agencies know Videogenic is not baling out of animatics and rippomatics. ‘We are changing and we like to be perceived as not only doing test commercials. At the same time, we should still be seen as the cornerstone of test commercial production in Canada.’