Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrew Volk.
Thanks for sharing your story with us . So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Combing visuals with text, images and music is my passion. I’m fairly certain it all stems back to the spaceships and submarines I built in my grandmother’s basement out of cardboard, paperclips, buttons and whatever objects I could find, decorated with markers, pencils and paint. Being a creative person was just my natural path in life and one that led me to study painting and printmaking and eventually, earn a Masters degree in film making.
After a long, rewarding career as Senior Television producer in the corporate world, I started Volk Media Design in 2002, producing, directing and scripting video programming for a wide variety of clients in the academic, corporate, social services and medical sectors.
Over the last 20 years, I’ve had a parallel career as a music journalist. I’ve played the guitarist since age 17. In the late 1980s, I became fascinated with the world of the steel guitar – a variation of the standard guitar where the instrument is played flat on the lap, parallel to the floor and notes and chords are sounded using a steel bar slid along the neck of the guitar. This interest led me to author of more than 10 books of interviews and musical arrangements devoted to the steel guitar. I’ve also been a contributing writer to Acoustic Guitar Magazine and The Fretboard Journal. It’s been a fun ride!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Over the fifteen years of building my own business, I’ve had to learn to adapt to a diverse group of clients and needs in the technological, financial services, medical and social service sectors and weather the realities of project work, which tends to either fill your plate completely or leave gaping holes in your schedule.
I’ve learned to budget with pinpoint accuracy, hire and fire crew and collaborators and do whatever it takes to deliver excellence to the client – such as learning a new software product from the ground up in order to deliver an animation in three weeks.
Please tell us about Volk Media Design.
At Volk Media Design, we tell stories using video. Creativity with cameras, editing, lighting, graphics, animation and music are all important but only when they’re all used in service of telling a compelling story. The technology of film making is moving at lightning speed, yet the fundamentals of telling a good story stay the same.
Using our creativity, years of experience, and understanding of how to structure content for television, we help our clients tell their story via sound and images that will explain and inform, motivate and move an audience. Working with non-profit clients in the medical and social service fundraising sector has been particularly rewarding as these video stories can truly change hearts and minds and hold a light up to what’s best in us as a society.
Our clients tell us that our background in fine arts and music gives our programs a distinctive look and feel that stands apart. We enjoy incorporating graphics and animation that are elegant and clear but we make it a point of honor to avoid flying elements around on-screen unless they serve the story.
What are you most proud of?
We’re proud that the programming we’ve created for clients has helped New England’s largest day homeless shelter better serve its population; has inspired young clinicians to make a difference in their medical professions, helped musicians better understand their instrument and physicians learn to better communicate with families, to deal with stress, and manage a crisis in the operating room.
In the world of music, it’s been very gratifying to hear from musicians that I’ve helped them better understand their instrument and its history and have had a hand in preserving the oral histories of seminal steel guitarists whose stories might otherwise be lost to time.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
As a child, I would join my grandmother each Summer on the New Jersey shore. Having the time to explore the shoreline, swim and enjoy the general vibe of a beachfront community made a lasting impression on me as a child and spending time with on Cape Cod with my family remains a source of relaxation and renewal.
Contact Info:
- Address: Volk Media Design
20 Wentworth Road
Canton, MA 02021 - Website: volkmedia.com
- Phone: 781-562-1480
- Email: aevolk@comcast.net
Image Credit:
1. Using Crisis Checklists, Sara Goldhabert-Fiebert, MD
2. Andy Volk, steel guitar lecture at Music Emporium, Lexington, MA
3. On-set with Liberty Mutual
4. On set with Ariadne Labs, End of Life Conversation – Physician Education
5. Still from “Impact Practice” video, MGH Institute of Health Professions
6. Still from Physician Assistant program video, MGH Institute of Health Professions
7. Still from “End of Life Conversation”, Client: Ariadne Labs
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