AV SYSTEMS INTEGRATION ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE, VIDEO CONTENT CREATOR, MEDIA TECHNICIAN

From an award-winning filmmaker to a hard-driving sales engineer and business manager, Marc Barry Finkel can turbo-charge your next opportunity.

Marc Barry Finkel earned a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences degree in Journalism and Communications from American University in Washington, D.C. Upon graduation, he began his career writing and producing video segments for C-SPAN, the Cable Satellite and Public Affairs Network. He later joined a production crew that covered live hearings on Capitol Hill. After a year at C-SPAN, Finkel transitioned to the CNN news bureau in Washington, D.C., where he held multiple roles, including editor, technical director, studio engineer, camera operator, and segment producer. His work earned recognition within the local production community, and he often took on high-profile freelance projects during time off from CNN.

Jim Robinson, owner of Image Management—a video production company—invited Finkel to serve as lead editor on a PBS documentary, Chemistry of Fire. Soon thereafter, he joined Image Management full-time, playing a key role in producing commercials, local programming, and corporate videos. After several successful years at IM, and with the help of two colleagues, Finkel launched his own production company and quickly secured several prominent clients, including The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The company soon developed a strategic relationship with Jean Kennedy Smith, founder of Very Special Arts (VSA), an organization dedicated to helping people with mental and physical challenges. VSA provided the opportunity to produce a short video about a blind violinist performing with the Paris Philharmonic Orchestra, a public service announcement with Phil Collins and renowned hitmaker Lamont Dozier (Holland, Dozier, Holland), a video presentation featuring Alvin Ailey and his dance troupe, and a training program shot entirely in the People’s Republic of China for VSA International.

The success of these programs led to three broadcast projects with Finkel serving as producer/director. The first, A Very Special Arts Story, was narrated by Academy Award winner Cliff Robertson. The second, A Child is Waiting, featured the legendary actor Burt Lancaster. Finally, Finkel teamed with Hollywood veterans Gary Smith and Dwight Hemion for the live NBC special, From the Heart, hosted by Michael Douglas.

Recognizing his creative production and organizing skills, Ed Baruch, a program executive at WDCA-TV20, invited Finkel to co-produce and direct a weekly talk show centered on the Washington Redskins (now the Commanders). Baruch also selected Finkel to collaborate on a one-hour special featuring former NBC’s original Tonight Show host Steve Allen and, finally, a two-hour special recorded live-to-tape special at the Bally’s resort in Las Vegas. The Ninth Annual Rhythm and Blues Awards featured performances by Janet Jackson, Cameo, and Luther Vandross.

TECH SALES

TRANSITIONING FROM PRODUCER TO SALES ENGINEER

After living and working in Washington D.C. for nearly 10 years, Finkel relocated to New York City to join Silvercup Studios, a film and television production facility in Long Island City. Working as a Grip, he developed an expertise in film lighting and an appreciation for set design and art direction. However, the long days, unpredictable hours, and low wages at Silvercup led him to reevaluate his career. Driven to monetize his technical expertise and production knowledge, Finkel chose a more stable, financially rewarding career in Tech Sales, joining the Broadcast Store (BCS), a specialized reseller of broadcast production gear and a leading video engineering designer and systems integrator.

After two years as Sales Manager of BCS’s New York City office, Finkel was promoted to Vice President of Sales and Marketing, which necessitated a move from New York to Glendale, California. In his new executive role, he led a diverse sales team across Glendale, CA; New York, NY; and London, U.K. He significantly expanded BCS’s marketing efforts, launching the monthly newspaper, The Preferred Shopper, and tripled the volume of on-site events for clients. He also led a major expansion into the digital editing and special effects finishing market. Finkel’s obsessive focus on digital enabled BCS to become the first independent reseller of Avid Technology’s Media Composer for film and video finishing and Pro Tools for multi-track audio editing and mixing in Hollywood. Shortly thereafter, he was factory-trained to operate and demo Avid’s entire line of production systems.

Recognizing that the future of post-production would be computer-based, Finkel moved a few short miles away from Glendale to Hollywood. New Media was an innovative company, a Hollywood-based reseller that recognized the coming desktop digital revolution long before others, focusing exclusively on selling, educating, and servicing digital editing and graphics solutions. There, Finkel established a reputation as an authority in Avid systems, 3D graphics software, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe After Effects, network RAID storage systems, and digital color correction. He also cultivated a distinguished clientele that included CBS, Universal Pictures, Fox, and numerous leading independent production companies. Under Finkel’s leadership, the sales team consistently exceeded expectations, with annual revenue surpassing $20 million dollars.

Finkel’s formula for closing new business garnered the attention of Moviola owners Joe and Randy Pascal, one of Hollywood’s oldest and most respected film, video, and lighting solutions providers. He was recruited to lead their newly awarded Avid Premiere sales franchise. Within months, Moviola emerged as the nation’s leading Avid Reseller. Once again, Finkel got the job done, personally contributing 8 million dollars in sales in his first year and leading his team to unprecedented success. A year later, Finkel moved to Las Vegas to take on his next and greatest challenge.

EXECUTIVE MANAGER

MANAGEMENT AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT EXECUTIVE

In 2002, Finkel sold his home in West Hills and relocated to Las Vegas. He partnered with Morgan Cashman, President of Cashman Photo, to form a business focused on documenting weddings and special events for most of the prominent hotels and casinos along the Las Vegas Strip. That venture became known as Cashman Professional.

The Cashman name had tremendous brand equity in Las Vegas. Well known to most local hotel executives, Cashman Photo was uniformly considered a reliable and professional service provider, financially stable, and a generous donor of services to many charitable causes in town.

Twin brothers Morgan and Harris Cashman arrived in Las Vegas in 1966, the year Caesars Palace was finished by Fountainbleu Developer, Jay Sarno and opened to the public. The brothers ran a photography business in Miami Beach and took pictures with their new Land camera, the precursor to the Polaroid. Their most successful location was the Fontainebleau, the shiniest and most glamorous resort on the beach. With the Fontainebleau’s success, Sarno’s next venture was even more ambitious: a Roman-themed, over-the-top creation he named Caesar's Palace, which would catalyze a host of new resorts that eventually occupied both sides of the world-renowned Las Vegas Strip. The Cashman brothers went all-in on Las Vegas, establishing photo concessions in practically every resort on the Strip, and Caesars Palace became their anchor operation. They took pictures in nightclubs, elegant restaurants, concert venues, on roller coasters, in front of green screens, and even at a dozen retail stores that offered novelty photos. After meeting Morgan Cashman for the first time, I could see my future, and its name was Cashman.

The second part of the name (Professional) communicated that this division wouldn't take novelty pictures; our mission was to deliver a refined photo and video experience. Skilled artisans created our photographic services, dedicated to producing imagery that transcends mere documentation and becomes a timeless work of art.

Las Vegas is the wedding capital of the U.S.; wedding chapels are ubiquitous. Even today, you can find at least one chapel in every major hotel. Many independent chapels also offer everything from Elvis-themed weddings to drive-through weddings where you stay in your car while reciting vows. In 2009, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority estimated that more than 100,000 weddings were performed in Las Vegas. That same year, Cashman Pro successfully recorded more than 18,000 weddings and events. Cashman Pro captured about one in five weddings performed in Las Vegas that year and for several years thereafter.

While at Cashman, Finkel cultivated a strong interest in cutting-edge digital printing technologies that could produce high-quality images more swiftly and efficiently than the company's conventional chemical-based printers. He first saw an HP Indigo in Phoenix at HP's invitation. Using ink that behaved more like liquid ink than dry toner, it was fast, efficient, and environmentally friendly. But the secret sauce was its ability to perform on-the-fly text and image replacement fast, and spit out fully collated booklets seconds later.

In 2007, Finkel demonstrated the impressive capabilities of this new technology by assembling a team of photographers to capture the wedding of celebrity jeweler Leor Yerushalami at the Red Rock hotel. The ceremony took place on a floating stage in the center of the main swimming pool at 3:00 p.m. At 5:00 p.m., wedding guests made their way through the casino, up two floors, and into the grand ballroom for the reception. Once everyone was seated, each attendee received a meticulously crafted, perfect-bound wedding album featuring images from the ceremony they had just witnessed two hours earlier. Finkel’s team expertly curated over 2,500 high-resolution photos into a breathtaking twenty-page layout. He then printed, bound, and assembled these pages into a treasured keepsake album, which we distributed to everyone present. As guests flipped through the pages, they were awestruck by the quality and delivery time of their photo albums, their expressions reflecting genuine shock and wonder.

Enthralled by the potential of digital printing, Finkel next set out to build a business around the Indigo. He looked around and found a company that was doing some interesting things with 6 Indigos in Idaho. He put together a group of Investors and acquired The Digital Lizard, a digital printing company based in Hayden, Idaho. The company later expanded with a second location in Las Vegas and emerged as a leader in variable data digital printing and on-demand production. In 2010, Finkel signed a contract with Shutterfly to produce 80% of all their photo calendars, amounting to nearly 2 million unique photo calendars per year. Interestingly, about 70% of the orders arrived between November 15th and December 25th, people were making calendars online with Shutterfly’s calendar-making tool and then sending them to friends and family for Christmas. To produce 1.4 million calendars in less than 30 days, Digital Lizard ran three 8-hour shifts back-to-back, 7 days a week, to meet Shutterfly's stringent delivery policies. His team got the job done even when temperatures dipped below zero and the roads were clogged with snow. In 2011, Finkel sold that business to Creel Printing. Digital Lizard continues to grow and has since added another location in New Jersey.

Having achieved success in Video, Print, and Photography, the next goal was to create a product that seamlessly combined the best elements of these media into a remarkable multimedia offering. At Modern Media Enterprises, Finkel developed a range of Video in Print products designed to engage audiences in ways no other marketing tool could. Utilizing compact 4.3", 5.0", and 7.0" LCD screens, Video in Print products were designed to play video content automatically when pages were turned.

Recipients of these innovative marketing materials were captivated by the unique experience of viewing a video within an elegantly designed brochure or greeting card. To design and make these products, Finkel traveled to China to source miniature LCD screens, paper-thin speakers, mini and micro USB ports, and lithium batteries. He secured two design patents and one utility patent for these Video in Print creations, receiving overwhelmingly positive feedback from marketing professionals and the promotional products industry alike. The company developed custom presentations for notable clients, including the Chicago Blackhawks, Eli Lilly and Company, MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment, Wynn Resorts, and the well-known rock band Matchbox Twenty.

By 2020, COVID had severely reduced resort travel to places like Las Vegas. During this time, Finkel worked primarily from home, engaging in data analysis and market profiling for Scientific Gaming. He crafted targeted promotional marketing strategies for the Maverick Group of hotels and the Tuscany hotel primarily. By 2021, as Covid restrictions began to ease, Finkel transitioned back to tech sales, taking on an executive role with TV Pro Gear, a video systems integrator and reseller based in LA, and he has continued along this path with Ford AV and LMG in Las Vegas. Finkel recently captured a 6 million dollar contract with Caesars Entertainment for a complete Lighting and LED refresh at The Colosseum.