Ravenswork Studios, Venice, CA

Ten years ago this week, I closed the Ravenswork Studios facility in Venice, CA. We supplied sound services for thousands of TV and radio commercials, documentaries, and films, creating and pushing sounds together into something meaningful. I’d been trying to shore up the business for years, but it was failing for several reasons, competition, and the changing business landscape being the main ones.

A business isn’t the environs; it’s the people, the relationships, and the work. Our clients: editors, agencies, and filmmakers were the heart of Ravenswork, walking through our doors, week after week, year after year. And if clients were the heart, then employees were the soul. I want to mention a few, in no particular order, Katherine Morgan, Ashley Bartell, Eric Ryan, Scott Burns, William McGuigan, Edgar Maldonado, Chris Canning, Leif Davidsen, Kirk Carrison, freelancer Johannes Hammers, and many others. Without you, the place was just a building full of gear. I miss you. I can’t leave out my wife, Donna, for her unfailing support and for showing up every Monday morning to throw her arms around the place by adorning it with fresh flowers. Oh yeah, and the dogs, dogs were always welcome, Dolly, Chopper, and all the others.

There were countless good times, lunches and dinners, and mountains of high-quality work that came out of Ravenswork. My mantra was, “Do what you do best and offer it,” and in that spirit, we donated sound services to numerous charities, non-profits, and public service announcements. I’ve never been able to get over closing Ravenswork. But going through the photos, it dawned on me that the bitter end, shutting the place down and watching my employees walk away for the last time, was dramatically overwhelmed by 14 years of life well lived. The alchemy of perspective adding sweet to the bitter.