Marlin Video Productions By Delivering On Big Stories, Freelance Video Crew Wins Reputation For Reliability

Tonya Harding might have been hard on Nancy Kerrigan’s knees, but she did wonders for Dave and Donlee Marlin.

“Yeah, it was about the time that Tanya Harding stuff started,” Dave Marlin recalls, “that our business really took off.”

Not that Tonya could have done it all by herself. But ever since the scandal centering around the Portland figure skater hit the news in 1994, the cosmic headline forces have seemed to focus on the Pacific Northwest time after time.

“All the biggest stories seem to have some sort of Spokane area connection,” says Eric Riddle, who works for the Marlins at Marlin Video Productions, Ltd.

“Scott O’Grady was from Spokane,” Riddle continues. “The Oklahoma City bombing, and we’ve got all the militias around here; Mark Fuhrman moved to Sandpoint in the middle of the O.J. stuff; the Unabomber’s in Montana.”

And for every national news story with a connection to the Pacific Northwest, networks and cable channels specializing in news scramble for pictures and sound.

And that means work for Marlin Video.

As freelance video “news gathering specialists,” the Marlins are a rare breed, particularly for a place like Spokane. They are self-employed journalists who eat regularly and can pay their bills.

“Everyone said, ‘There’s no way on God’s green earth that you are going to be able to freelance with the amount of capital investment it takes, out of Spokane, Washington,”’ Dave Marlin recalls. “They said it just wasn’t going to happen. Maybe we’d have a chance in Seattle or Los Angeles or Chicago or New York. But not Spokane.”

Ever since Tonya skated to the rescue, though, Marlin Video Production has been doing about $250,000 in sales annually. But it took a while to get there.

After graduating from Eastern Washington University, Dave Marlin kicked around the Northwest as an editor or photographer for television stations in Portland, Boise and Spokane. He met Donlee when they both worked at KREM here. Soon after they were married, the couple moved to Providence, R.I., to work for a TV station there.

“But things didn’t work out well,” Dave says. “We really didn’t like the East Coast that much.”

So pregnant and unemployed, they moved back to Spokane to live with Donlee’s parents and decided the answer was to start their own business.

After six months, and a $50,000 investment, Marlin Video Productions had seen only about $15,000 worth in sales. So Dave made an arrangement to go to work as a photographer for KXLY.

Their first real break came when Inside Edition hired them to film a piece on gun purchases by Montana’s Church Universal and Triumphant. The producers of the television show threw more work their way.

Building on that start, they sent letters to everyone in the business. And when they did get a job, Donlee says, “We would bend over backwards to do whatever it took to make it look right.”

The toughest barrier to crack was the major networks. After working with Marlin Video Productions a few times, though, the networks began to rely on them. Now, whenever a major story breaks in the Northwest, the Marlins are usually working for one of the networks as at least a backup to the local network affiliate. They’ve shot for, among others, Good Morning America, C-Span, 20/20, Prime Time, Dateline, ABC Sports, CNN, The Disney Channel, A&E Special Reports, Nick News and CBS This Morning.

“We have done some industrial and corporate type videos,” Donlee Marlin says, “but our specialty is definitely news gathering.”

The company’s work load has grown to the point that they have established a second production crew operating out of Spokane. They see sales growth to $300,000 annually within just a few years, and an investment in a satellite truck that would make the company even more marketable. Riddle is the company’s only full-time employee, but they hire seven or eight others on a fairly regular part-time basis.

The Marlin’s have carved out a hectic life for themselves. They are never without pagers or cellular phones, they explain, because their customers only call once, and if Marlin isn’t available, they find someone else.

“Our motto is, ‘If you can’t find us, you haven’t tried very hard,”’ Dave says. “We’re always willing to take the next flight.”

Last week, they were shooting in Mesa Verde, Colo., for a series on the history of national parks they have been hired to shoot for The Discovery Channel and The Learning Channel.

The week before, they were in Alaska shooting part of a series of Teacher of the Year Awards for The Disney Channel. They’ll be shooting a young musicians show in Los Angeles in July, and are hoping to get some work related to the Olympics.

They may not know what job they’ll have next week, but Marlin Video productions is well enough established that they are sure now that some job will be there.

“We may be a well-kept secret in Spokane,” Dave Marlin explains, “but they know who we are in Los Angeles and New York.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo