Films: The industrial market demands more than boring footage on ‘How to Work a Widget.’

Say “corporate/industrial film,” and images of an expressionless man in a suit starring in, “How to Work a Widget” may come to mind.

But, after making a heart-rending film about terminally ill children and filming a go-cart running wild on the freeway, Jeff Goldschen knows better.

Goldschen, 31, is president of Creative Reel Productions in Woodland Hills, a film and video outfit that specializes in corporate training and educational films. Goldschen founded the company 12 years ago while attending Cal State Northridge at an age when most film students are dreaming about being future Spielbergs. Since then, he has completed more than 160 productions.

Call him the

Wunderkind of the industrial-film biz.

“I knew from the beginning what I wanted to do,” said Goldschen from his Ventura Boulevard office. “I realized early there was a market out there, and that I had the ability to perform a service that had more benefit than pure entertainment for the masses.

He views his work as beneficial, he said, because he sees the films as tools to train or educate viewers, whether they are employees of a company or individuals who just happen to see them.

According to Goldschen, corporate film making is a $9-billion industry that utilizes state-of-the-art techniques with budgets running about $1,000 to $2,000 per finished minute. Annually producing and directing about $500,000 worth of short movies and videos for such clients as Security Pacific, Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles and Shell Oil, Goldschen and his staff of six assistants average about 15 productions a year.

Many companies rely on in-house film production departments and, Goldschen said, Creative Reel has turned down offers to join some companies in that capacity. It’s important for Goldschen to stay independent, to ensure he can continue doing what he wants with film.

That’s where the go-carts come in.

“I was up in San Francisco with my family a couple of years ago and saw this machine at an arcade,” Goldschen recalled.

The machine, called an SR-2, is a stationary amusement ride that holds as many as 12 people. It’s a combination theater and roller-coaster, equipped with a video screen and hydraulic pedestals that move and shake the interior, giving riders the sensation of being in the driver’s seat of a vehicle performing dangerous, electrifying stunts that they see on the screen. The SR-2, which is popular in Asia, is similar to Disneyland’s Star Tours attraction.

Goldschen contacted the SR-2 manufacturer, Doron Precision Systems in Binghamton, N.Y., and offered his services. After first turning him down, Doron gave him the go-ahead to produce “Golden Gate Thrills,” which featured a wild romp through the San Francisco Bay area on motorcycles, trolleys and speedboats.

“He was very enthusiastic, and the timing was right,” said Don Wenzinger, entertainment program development manager for Doron, which consequently hired Creative Reel to make three more action-packed films. “If he’d have called a year earlier, we would never have used him.”

The mild-mannered Goldschen doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who would send a motorcycle through a fruit stand at high speed, but he did in “Cycle-Censation,” another one of his Doron films. He also planted a camera on an out-of-control dune buggy in “Dune Demon” and fulfilled a whimsical childhood fantasy in “Go-Kart Blast.”

“When I was a kid, I used to ride go-carts and think, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to drive off the track and onto the street?’ “‘ Goldschen recalled. “I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s had that fantasy.”

Goldschen’s three-minute joy rides had an average budget of $50,000 and required making special camera mounts and shock systems to maintain the point of view of the vehicle operator. As a result of the efforts of technicians and stunt drivers like Greg Brazil, Creative Reel’s films have become the preferred selections in Doron’s library of stunt films available to the 150 SR-2 owner’s around the world, according to Wenzinger.

“The ones Creative Reel have done are very popular. Jeff knew how to take the concept and really make it work,” Wenzinger said.

It may seem unlikely that a company such as Creative Reel would venture into making stunt films, but Goldschen said the first film he ever made--and the one that got him his first job--was an action documentary on hang gliding that he put together while a student at El Camino High School in Woodland Hills. It caught the attention of a member of the Mexican government who hired Goldschen to make a promotional film on sports fishing and other tourist attractions of Baja California. The film is still shown at fishing and outdoor sports conventions, Goldschen said.

“It was truly a snowball effect,” said Goldschen of his beginnings. “You just have to get one film out there and get the right people to see it.”

After enrolling at CSUN, Goldschen formed Video Expressions--renamed Creative Reel last year--and acquired jobs throughout his college years. After graduating, word of mouth brought him more clients. He also began teaching film production courses at UCLA and at his alma mater.

UCLA is where Gene Munger of Shell Oil went in 1981 to search for a filmmaker to do a piece about oil production for the company’s Wilmington Manufacturing Complex in Carson.

“It was just supposed to be about what goes on in our refinery,” said Munger, Shell’s West Coast manager of public affairs. “Jeff was the instructor for an extension course and agreed to do it along with his class.”

While working on the project, Goldschen and his students were struck by the close relationship of Carson residents with the plant. Instead of simply explaining the refinery process, Goldschen and his class created a more personal, seven-minute film focusing on the local residents and how they interact with the huge, sprawling plant.

“It’s still the keystone of our communication program,” Munger said of the film that is shown to community groups and refinery tours as well as Shell employees. “It’s just as current today.”

Goldschen is most proud of his work with Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles and the National Cancer Institute, which hired him to create two productions that portray how leukemia victims and their families cope with the disease.

“The first one was from a child’s point of view and the second from the parents,’ ” said Goldschen, who worked with medical professionals on the project. “It was a very enlightening experience for me, very sad, and ultimately fulfilling.”

“It’s a very effective film,” said Patricia Woody, project coordinator for the hospital. “The children are only between the ages of 3 and 12, but they respond to it.” Woody said the films are shown nationally and have also been dubbed in Spanish.

Most of Creative Reel’s assignments don’t have the kind of high-powered content of the leukemia documentaries, and Goldschen is routinely challenged to make tedious tasks such as filling out bank forms interesting. But, according to Goldschen, even the most mundane subjects have many possibilities for creativity.

“What’s wonderful about it is that we can play off of anything. We don’t have to have an executive just talking on camera. We can play out a scenario,” he said.

“Mad on Arrival,” a film he created for Security Pacific Bank, is one example. To illustrate how tellers can defuse situations involving irate bank customers, Goldschen filmed three skits in a style reminiscent of “Twilight Zone,” in which actors playing enraged bank customers storm up to the teller demanding service.

In one of Goldschen’s latest projects, also for Security Pacific, comedian Ruth Buzzi plays a 4 1/2-inch Internal Revenue Service agent who comes to the aid of a bank employee struggling to fill out a complicated new tax document.

“You can watch ‘thirtysomething’ and see there’s a message. It’s entertainment, but they’re still giving you a message,” Goldschen said. “We can do the same thing with our films.”

Although Creative Reel is nestled in Hollywood’s back yard, Goldschen is in no hurry to join the big bucks, high-risk entertainment industry. But he does think feature films are in his future.

“Eventually, I’d like to make small, esoteric films,” he said, citing Sidney Lumet’s “Twelve Angry Men” as the type of drama he prefers. “Single location, wonderful cast, wonderful script, those are the kind of projects we’d consider.

“I really believe that film is a very effective tool.”