Producing national television shows with a small staff and a much lower budget than big production companies in Los Angeles, MadStache, an Evansville-based video, animation, and web development company, is a displaced hub for talent and expertise. The company’s beginning was equally unlikely.
A chance meeting with a local producer in 1994 landed Dennis Gage a role in a commercial for an Evansville law firm — and a whopping $25 paycheck. With a background in marketing and a doctorate in chemistry, Gage was director of product development at Mead Johnson, but went on to partner with the producer to develop and host a television series about America’s love affair with the automobile. Taking a second mortgage on his house to fund the production of the first season made Gage co-owner of the production company, and resulted in a significant career change.
Now in its 17th season, “My Classic Car” is one of SPEED Channel’s highest rated programs and is available in 84 million households in North America.
In addition to “My Classic Car,” MadStache has a number of other national TV series and specials to its credit. Since Gage became sole owner of the company three years ago, he has sought to balance the company’s portfolio with an increased emphasis on production services for local, regional, and national clients. “There’s no reason we can’t bring this same level of national broadcast expertise to corporate videos, training videos, commercials, and web development,” says Gage. “We have state-of-the-art equipment as well as an extremely creative and seasoned staff.”
Sheila Perkins, vice president of sales, has been with MadStache for 12 years and welcomes its broader focus. “One of the things that truly set us apart from anyone else in the region is our 3-D animation capabilities,” she says. “Animation is a powerful tool and can be used to demonstrate things that can’t be shown any other way, but most importantly, we can seamlessly integrate any of our capabilities to meet clients’ needs. MadStache works with any size budget to either bring our clients’ ideas to life or to develop new concepts for them from the ground up — from ideation and storyboarding all the way through to finished production.”
“Really, we’re storytellers,” says Gage, “and we’re very good at it”
With a background in chemistry, it’s no wonder that Gage and his crew have boiled this all down to a science.
Visit www.MadStache.com to see examples of their work and the services they can provide for your company.
