Paul C. Janssen

Paul C. Janssen has been working in video and film production since 1997. Growing up in a small Amish town in the Midwest, Paul fell in love with video production after his grandmother let him borrow her VHS video camera when he was just eight years old. With his younger brother, Dan, Paul started making home movies and premiering them to family and friends. Wherever there was catchup, tin foil and smoke bombs, there was Paul in the middle with his camera. As he got older, Paul started educating himself professionally in video production and filmmaking. It was during that time that Paul built his first non-linear video editing system. At the time, non-linear video editing computer systems were nearly non-existent. After graduating high school, Paul started advertising his talents locally. He began shooting weddings and local events. To his surprise, family, friends, and neighbors starting hiring him to shoot their events more and more. By collecting and passing out business cards at each job he took, Paul began to network with wedding photographers and DJ's and his wedding & event video business took off. Because video and editing work was so sporadic where he lived, Paul took on work as a "full-time" as a graphic designer for a local newspaper. It was during that time; Paul stumbled across a newspaper article on a local filmmaker close to where he lived who was shooting his first full-length feature film. Paul was encouraged by his family to contact the filmmaker, and he did. The two met, had dinner and turned out to have a lot in common. It wasn't long before Paul hired on as his "assistant cameraman" for the next project. From then on, Paul was able to work with the filmmaker on numerous commercials, short films, and feature films. Paul used the opportunity to continue networking - passing out and collecting business cards at every production he worked on. Through networking, Paul was introduced to a local seasoned TV and Film producer. The producer, filmmaker and Paul worked together on dozens of projects. Soon after that, the producer called Paul about a video producer job opening for an actual studio. The producer was working for the studio as a consultant. Paul was invited to come and interview for a video producer position. Finally, after working 5 years as a graphic designer, this was the job Paul had always hoped to get. Paul interviewed and was offered the job a few days later. It was working there, that Paul's skills as a video photographer and video editor expanded into producer, director, and writer. It also gave Paul another opportunity to network with more people working in the same field. A few years later, the company closed. Yet, because he had never stopped networking, Paul found work as a video producer at another production company just down the street. However, only a couple months into the new job, Paul was involved in horrible, near-fatal, car accident that left him in a medically induced coma. Paul's doctors did not expect him to survive. They explained to Paul's family that he may never come out of the coma and if he did, would most likely suffer brain damage and may never be able to do some of the things he had done before. Having suffered severe lung damage, a stroke and a heart attack, Paul came out of the coma six and a half weeks later. Paul would go on to spend another seven weeks in a rehabilitation hospital and another two months in out patient physical therapy. Yet, with unstoppable determination, painful physical therapy and massive support of his family and friends, Paul returned to work only six months after a car accident almost left him for dead. A few months later, Paul left Ohio to take on a full-time videographer and video editor job with the national broadcasting network CBN. There, Paul sharpened his videography & video editing skills, co-produced two short features depicting his near-fatal car accident and produced & edited one short feature documenting the genesis of the sports chaplain ministry. It was another life-changing experience that Paul could have never imagined finding himself in. After only about a year and nine months, Paul and his wife began to talk about starting a family. Wanting to start their family close to their own, Paul and his wife moved back to Ohio taking on a job as a full-time video editor for a direct-marking firm. A year later, their first son was born.