If you’ve been to our studio, you may have noticed that we’ve got nameplates over the doors to each of our rooms. You enter into our lobby and from there can either go into our editing room where our our video work takes place or our showroom where we consult with our clients regarding their projects.

But in the back of the studio is an area we simply call “The Amelia Room.” It’s where we do much of our slide and audio transfers as well as some green screen production work. We took the name from our very first customer, Amelia Yokel, who, as it turns out, is a filmmaker in her own right.

Back in 2014, we took a chance on this business, believing that we could provide a needed service to our community but not really knowing if the community would respond. We gambled and made the considerable financial investment in the equipment and support structure and believed for the best.

The very day I picked up the keys to our chosen location, long before our equipment arrived, I was at the studio wiping down the walls, sweeping up cobwebs, and scrubbing the baseboards in preparation for our opening in a couple of weeks. In my eagerness to let people know we were coming, I had already listed our business information with Google, thinking it would take a while for it to come to the attention of the general public.

So imagine my surprise when a car pulled into our driveway. We had no signage, no furniture, no video equipment, no phones… just me in a t-shirt and shorts holding a dirty rag. And yet, here comes Amelia walking through the door carrying boxes.

She had found some 6000 feet of film that her grandfather, locally renown environmentalist Bernie Yokel,  had taken during his travels around the world.  She wanted to preserve it to a digital form. And despite the fact that there was nothing she could see that indicated that I was a legitimate business as yet, she trusted me and gave me the job. 

I will always remember that leap of faith and be forever grateful to her. She could not have possibly been aware of this but receiving a sizable order before I was even open for business  convinced me that I had made the correct choice and could make Home Video Studio of Mount Dora a viable and successful business in our little home town. Amelia gave me support to follow through on my dream. I figured the least I could do in return was to name a room after her.

Michael Ondrasik and Home Video Studio specialize in the preservation of family memories. For more information, call 352-735-8550 or visit http://www.homevideostudio.com/mtd.