Rising Star Among Corporate-Video Producers : Don Brown has built his Orange business from a one-man shop to a full-service production company with big-name clients. Now, he’s going international.
With titles like “Chain Saw Safety” and “Respirators and How to Use Them,” Don Brown Productions won’t win an Oscar any time soon.
But the Orange-based production company is cashing in on the growing demand for corporate safety and training videos. Founder Don Brown also is positioning the privately held company for what he envisions as an increasingly lucrative foreign market.
Don Brown Productions, which opened its doors in 1985, has grown from a one-man shop to a full-service production company with 18 employees. The company’s video catalogue now has nearly 750 titles that will generate an estimated $3 million in 1993 revenue.
The company produces safety and training films for numerous corporate customers, including Texaco and Beatrice-Hunt-Wesson, and business groups, such as the California Chamber of Commerce and the Los Angeles Safety Council.
Insurance companies are Don Brown Productions’ main source of revenue. Insurers hand out the safety and training videos to customers in an attempt to reduce accidents and injuries.
More than 90% of the company’s videos carry generic titles--such as “Safety Tips for New Supervisors,” “Bloodborne Pathogens,” and “General Office Safety”--that are suitable for use by most employers.
But Don Brown Productions also creates specialty videos for employers with specific needs. One company recently ordered a video that explained how to “dump sugar into a vat safely,” Brown said.
Before forming his company, Brown was a safety director for Pep Boys, the automotive parts retail chain. His 31-year career in corporate safety programs included stints as safety director for fast-food giant McDonald’s Corp. and as a safety consultant for several large retailers.
Brown used videos to communicate with store managers and employees at Pep Boys “because it is a cost-effective way” to deal with far-flung locations. “You simply can’t be at every store, and there are always people who are sick or on a different shift,” Brown said.
Brown elected to remain in Southern California in 1985 when Pep Boys consolidated its operations in Philadelphia. He started Don Brown Productions and moved full-time into video production.
The company, located in an industrial park in Orange, boasts a staff that includes camera operators, editors, a computer graphics specialist and a scriptwriter. Brown ties its success to the fact that “everyone knows how to do everything.”
Brown said his videos incorporate safety tips and programs “that I know I’d want as a director of safety programs.”
Customers credit the company’s success to Brown’s corporate safety experience. “He’s always willing to rework things and make it work out for the customer,” said Priscilla Ross, manager of product development at the state Chamber of Commerce in Sacramento.
Don Brown Productions is producing a 12-part training program and video on sexual harassment for the chamber to distribute to its members.
“Videos are an extremely costly thing to do but Don and his people give us the quality we need at a price that’s affordable,” Ross said. “That’s important because if our members can’t afford (the videos) it doesn’t do any good.” Brown charges $60 for a generic video; custom-made videos can cost $4,000 or more.
Videos are growing in popularity among employers who want to educate employees about safe working habits, according to Bob Gehrke, executive director of the Training Media Assn. in Frederick, Md.
“There’s a wide market for videos . . . especially when it comes to safety and federal (Occupational Safety and Heath Administration) mandates,” Gehrke said. “Small companies can’t afford to have all the expertise on hand, but through the (video) medium they’re able to demonstrate the correct way to handle materials.”
Brown is also positioning his company to share in the growing overseas market for safety and training videos. The company translates safety and training videos into foreign languages.
Brown has also joined forces with Stephen M. Lopez, a consultant in Laguna Niguel who specializes in international business. A new company, Don Brown Productions International, has been formed to produce videos that American companies can use to build overseas business relationships.
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