Perry Cowen helped get the Dead End Kids (aka Bowery Boys, East Side Kids, Little Tough Guys) as star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Click here to find out more.
PERRY COWEN
This page is a continuous work in progress.
Video Samples are coming soon. Check back often!
With a move to Minnesota in the early 1990s, Perry directed and edited national & international news programming, including spots for VH-1, USA Network & Showtime; and he shot & edited news for a local network affiliate. He also started Maverick Productions and Once Upon a Time Video Productions.
Perry’s work has earned awards in all major areas of video production: commercial, corporate & event videography. Nationally recognized for Video Biographies, Perry has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Minneapolis Star & Tribune, Southwest Journal and Minnesota Business & Opportunity magazine, among other publications.
Besides running his companies, Perry is a frequent seminar presenter, to groups of individuals and corporations, on the subjects of Advanced (video) Shooting Techniques and (video) Editing.
Below, is a chronological view of Perry Cowen's career, along with several video samples. These samples are in the the Macromedia Flash and Apple Quicktime formats. Be sure you have these players before you attempt to view any clips.
PERRY COWEN: MY CAREER IN VIDEOGRAPHY
My first video camera.
My passion for filmmaking began when I used a super-8 film camera to create stop-motion animation with my Star Wars action figures. I was nine.
If I'd only known what I could sell those toys for on ebay, I never would have ended every movie with fiery destruction.
In 1979, my dad got a used, professional VHS video camera that was tethered to a recording deck by a six-foot multi-pin cable. The way it worked was, when you were done shooting, you unplugged the camera from the deck, and hooked that deck to the tuner box - which was already connected to the TV.
With this, I made movies to send to my grandparents.
Stop Motion sample:
coming soon
1981 vacation video: coming soon
Producing home videos.
In 1984, after shooting my first wedding (for $50), I decided to become a professional videographer. Many weddings, events and price increases later, I felt I was ready to move into television.
My first TV station.
By 1987, a seasoned professional, I set out to concour Hollywood. My skills, talent and confident attitude immediately landed me a job -- as an unpaid intern -- at KDOC-TV56, an L.A. market station, based in Anaheim, CA. I swept floors, helped build sets and tried to learn every job that involved a piece of electronic equipment.
Several months later, I got a chance to run a studio camera during a live newscast. I couldn't see how it could get much better; but by the end of that first year, I was directing commercials, news, talk and variety programs - for free.
1981 vacation video: coming soon
In 1990, I was happily making minimum wage and working part-time; but, after earning a Creative Writing degree from the University of California, Long Beach, KDOC finally upgraded me to full-time.
Besides working on a variety of shows and shooting news, during the summer of 1991, I produced, wrote and hosted Saturday Afternoon Theater, a behind-the-scenes talk/interview show. A highlight of this program was helping to get the Dead End Kids (aka Bowery Boys, East Side Kids, Little Tough Guys) a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
During the KDOC years, my work earned:
Emmy, Golden Mike & Orange County Press Awards
A segment of the Emmy Award winning Newswatch56 special, Asian Gangs: Terror in the Streets can be see here (coming soon).
Sadly, in 1992, KDOC ceased production on all original shows and just aired paid programming. At this point, I thought it would be a good idea to experience living somewhere with extreme seasons - temporarily - so I moved to Minnesota.
In early 1993, I landed a job at All-News Channel, a 24-hour news programming division of Conus Communications. There, I directed/technical directed and edited half-hour national & international news programs, including spots for VH-1, USA Network & Showtime.
Director / Technical Director / Editor (videos coming soon)
All News Channel no longer exists.
The above logo is a link to the Wikipedia page.
Conus Communications still exists an an archive site.
In 1994, missing the action of being in the field, I also shot & edited news for the local UPN affiliate.
KMSP-TV
The above link is to KMSP in it's current form as a FOX affiliate. When I worked there, it was a UPN affiliate.
ENG Photojournalist / Editor
In 1994, I gave up my jobs to devote full attention to obtaining a loan to buy a $70,000 state-of-the-art non-linear editing system, called a TurboCube. Just for reference, much of the price was in hard drives, which were $1000 per gigabyte - versus today, where they are around .50 cents per gig. To show how far digital editing has come, the capabilities of iMovie & Windows Movie Maker blow the TurboCube away!
To keep affording Top Roman noodles, I got a job selling camcorders, VCRs and TVs at National Camera Exchange. Within a few months, I learned my strenghts did not lie in retail sales. However, I got the loan, and the equipment, and started producing a few videos.
Towards the end of my year in retail, I was asked to fill in as a video class instructor. After teaching one class, I was asked to take over teaching all the classes. Over the years, I have created a Advanced Shooting Techniques and Digital Editing courses, which I still enjoy teaching on a monthly basis. This instruction has also lead to my being asked to present seminars to corporations.
When I started Once Upon a Time Video Productions in 1995, I primarily planned on shooting weddings, bar/bat mitzvahs, making tributes, etc. Word of mouth was good and I kept very busy. Along the way, I won a Creative Excellence Award from WEVA (Wedding & Event Videographers' Association, Int'l.), and some local awards from my peers in the MPVA (Minnesota Professional Videographers' Association). You can see a list of all the awards here.
See the above menu bar for more details.
While the name Once Upon a Time Video Productions worked well for event videography and biographies, it wasn't working well for corporate videos. So, in 1998 I started Maverick Productions. Specializing in corporate, promotional, marketing, instructional & historical videos, the company took off; and soon Maverick earned several awards and accolades:
Maverick Awards Include:
Telly
Bronze Quill Award of Excellence
Bronze Quill Award of Merit
Golden Reel
Clarion
To find out more about Maverick Productions, LLC, and view samples, click here.
