Hi there!

Hey All,

      My name is John Starkey, I am 41 years old, married with a 5-year-old daughter and we live in a small town called Cartersville, about an hour west of Richmond Va. My family and I love to go hiking and camping in the mountains, our favorite spots being Shenandoah National Park in Va and The Great Smoky National Park in Tn. I enjoy playing golf, working on my vehicles and reading; I read a lot, I mean A LOT. I am currently a part-time Technical Director at Powhatan Community Church; I am self taught and good at what I do. When I started, almost 9 years ago now, I started by doing some research, both to begin to educate myself on all facets of theatrical production and to find a school where I could begin taking a few classes. The most highly recommended school was Full Sail, bar none, but alas, they did not yet offer classes online and moving to Florida kind of defeated the purpose, as I was doing it to fill a need at our church as we grew in leaps and bounds to reach those that are untouched and unaffected by traditional churches.

      I truly love what I do, and my family and I have given up much to continue doing it. So about a year and a half ago I started looking for additional work, either to supplement my church work or to replace it with a full time gig. What I have learned in that year + is that any serious organization or facility that had a place for someone like me wanted not only a professional with verifiable experience, but one with a degree, bachelors or higher. I refuse to admit defeat and give up on my goal of joining the entertainment/theatrical production industry full time; I have just become successful in discovering how not to do it. If you come to know me as we venture forth you will discover that I except failure only on pain of death; I haven’t failed, I’m just not done yet.

       My wife and I had almost decided to move to Orlando when I started looking into degrees and the cost of enrolling at FSU only to discover that they now offered online education. So here I am. I chose to major in Digital Cinematography because while I am proficient in filming for IMAG and post-production editing, I’m not very good at creating videos and the technology is changing so fast right now with HD, 3D, webcasting, etc. that I can not keep up with the growth without some formal education; and I think CSI will help a great deal with that, especially on the creation and post side. So, I’m learning more to make myself better at what I love to do and earning a BoS to add to my resume. It doesn’t get any better than that. I look forward to traveling with you as we ‘go adventuring’ on our chosen paths...