The secret world of industrial videos; Cleveland firms dabble in Hollywood's tricks-of-the-trade.

The secret world of industrial videos

Cleveland firms dabble in Hollywood's tricks-of-the-trade.

Don't bother looking for them in the phone book. They aren't listed.

They won't likely be found advertised in the local media, either. And not only are their facilities inconspicuous, but they don't even credit themselves on most of their products.

Low profiles, however, haven't stopped Cleveland's industrial video production studios from attracting clients who sometimes pay as much as $5,000 an hour for their services. Industry insiders say the business simply doesn't require standard forms of publicity. After all, word-of-mouth referrals have brought-in customers such as General Electric, Goodyear, and BP America, all seeking promotional or training videos and sales tools that look as if they were made in Hollywood.

"Most people don't even know this market exists," says Neil McCormick, chairman of Cinecraft Productions Inc., a near West-Side studio. "Actually, the industrial market is bigger than the broadcast commercial business."

Cleveland claims a small batch of studios that, if identified and tracked-down, can create what they call "broadcast-quality" videos, the kind that could indeed have been produced in the City of the Stars.