Ever since he was a small child, Chris Craddock had a fascination with the mechanics of how things worked. Particularly in electronics and more specifically in the process of recording. As soon as he was old enough to get his hands on a 45 RPM record player, Chris began listening intently to music, dissecting it in his mind and picturing himself in a recording studio putting it all together. By his early teens he acquired his first reel to reel recorder, and later his first 8 track recorder and by the time he was in high school, his first cassette recorder. Each time he experimented with recording music and sounds...and trying to achieve what he thought at that time was "hi quality"

 

The seeds for VisualCraft were planted sometime back in the mid 1980s. While working as a Technical Engineer for Texas Instruments in Dallas, Tx , Chris decided to fulfill his childhood dream and began taking a course in 24 track studio recording from famed Dallas Producer/Engineer Phil York. Simultaneously, he was also exposed to his first video camcorder. His early video productions included skits performed by puppets for the church he was attending. He was again fascinated by the combination of sight and sound and the tricks that could be used in post production to assemble everything. Many times he'd create the soundtracks doing all the voices himself, while enlisting friends to help with the puppeteering.

 

By 1990, Chris was working part-time for a local Dallas TV show "Sunday Nite Showtime", featuring the Dallas Cowboys. It was here he aquired a taste for live production as an audio engineer. Later this same year, a pioneering video technology company named NewTek produced the first affordable computer video production tool to date. Chris was hooked. He visited his local bank, bought a NewTek "Video Toaster", 2 cameras, video monitors, a wireless microphone, and started the company now called "VisualCraft".

 

Equipment was replaced every few years as the tools got better and the demand for Chris's work grew. By the mid 1990s, while still working for Texas Instruments, he was also videotaping over 100 weddings per year. Other work included videos for schools and church functions. In 1997, he created training films for Southwestern Bell and The Window Wardrobe.

 

It was 1999, when after nearly 20 years with Texas Instruments, Chris left behind the lonestar state and moved to Atlanta, Georgia. Atlanta is now home to Chris's family and VisualCraft. He now works full-time in the world of video production. In fact, it's no longer just simply video, as Chris also manages the multimedia department for Projections, Inc., a veteran in corporate communications company since 1979.

 

VisualCraft is still alive and well, and Chris functions as the owner/operator, but he also has access to a team of video professionals who can assist you with any job, no matter how big or small.

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Chris Craddock