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Salt River Production Group
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News
Salt River Production Group is pleased to announce receipt of the prestigious 28th Annual Telly Award in the Religion/Spirituality Category. Deus Lo Vult! - Divided by History and Faith is a ten-minute video produced for The Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem to increase awareness of the plight of Christians in the Holy Land and to encourage donations to the Legacy Program. Founded in 1978, the Telly Awards is the premier award honoring outstanding local, regional, and cable TV commercials and programs, as well as the finest video and film productions. Telly Awards also honor work created for the Web. The Telly Awards annually showcases the best work of the most respected advertising agencies, production companies, television stations, cable operators, and corporate video departments in the world. The Telly Awards is a widely known and highly respected national and international competition and receives more than 12,000 entries annually from all 50 states and many foreign countries. The Telly Award is given based on the merit of each entry. Entries do not compete with one another. The entire Salt River crew is honored to add this year's Telly Award to our trophy shelf along with a long list of honors and professional recognition. . . . .
Salt River Production Group in the St. Louis Review
Local producer uses media talents to spread Gospel message
Focused on faith and values, a local, Catholic-based video production group is on a mission to tell stories that it hopes will have a long-lasting impact on others. Founded by longtime broadcast journalist and St. Louis native Chuck Neff, Salt River Production Group was started almost two years ago with the goal of introducing what Neff called "unique and compelling stories" told through their subjects’ experiences and perspectives. "All I really want to do is use the gifts and talents that God has given to me for the Church," said Neff, a member of Incarnate Word Parish in Chesterfield. His motivation? "To tell good stories — good stories that will inspire and motivate people to know who Jesus Christ is," he said. In a recent interview with the Review, Neff and producer/writer Jenny Donovan, also an Incarnate Word parishioner, described their excitement for the company’s latest endeavor — "The Trials of Romero: Martyr and Prophet," a 90-minute documentary on El Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero. He was assassinated in 1980 by a military regime. The documentary is expected to be released in spring 2008. While other programs have been created on Archbishop Romero, Neff and Donovan stressed that their production will reveal the untold story of his assassination and the 25-year struggle to bring those responsible to justice. In federal court in Fresno, Calif., during 2004, lawyers for the Center for Justice and Accountability were instrumental in bringing about a landmark decision that held El Salvadoran Alvaro Rafael Saravia responsible for the assassination of the archbishop. Saravia was ordered to pay $10 million to the plaintiff, a relative of the archbishop, who has not been identified for security reasons. "He’s a modern-day martyr," Neff said of Archbishop Romero. "People are still moved by the life of this archbishop in Central America." "His work and his legacy are still alive, and it’s important that we keep that legacy alive," said Donovan. The last six months have been spent in a pre-production phase, which has included lining up speakers and producers,
among other resources. Neff and Donovan said they have made contact with several people who personally knew Archbishop Romero and some
who were present at the time of his assassination. Salt River also will rely on transcripts used from the trial.
One of their main resources has been Father Robert Pelton, a priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross and expert on the Church in Latin America. Father Pelton also teaches theology at the University of Notre Dame and serves as the director of Latin American/North American Church Concerns. Several years ago, a crew from Salt River met with the priest at Romero Days at the University of Notre Dame, where they filmed a 30-minute program on the archbishop’s life. "It was a series of interviews," said Neff, "on his importance, his legacy. The crew came back and was changed. I’m sitting there thinking, ‘Wow, what was this about?’ One thing led to another, and here we are." The crew at Salt River also recently finished production of "The Church and the Poor: Living the Mass," a six-part series on the Missionaries of the Poor, an international order of brothers and priests in Jamaica, Uganda, the Philippines, Haiti and India. Doing similar work of the Missionaries of Charity that the late Mother Teresa founded, the Missionaries of the Poor has grown from three to more than 400 members in its 25-year history, said Donovan. The series was filmed in two weeks last September on location in Kingston, Jamaica, the site of the order’s motherhouse. It focuses on the order’s growth and how members "live the Mass through their work," said Donovan. It will air this spring on EWTN, the global Catholic television network, with dates yet to be determined. Another local endeavor Salt River has done for the last couple years is the Variety Club Telethon, which benefits the local charity that serves children with physical and mental disabilities in the St. Louis region. Salt River has produced a series of pre-recorded stories that will air during the telethon. This year’s telethon
is scheduled for Saturday, April 14, on KMOV, Channel 4, from 9-10 p.m. and again from 10:35 p.m. to midnight.
The work that Salt River produces is generated by a small staff, with the help of a host of videographers, producers and others hired on an independent contractor basis. In addition to Neff and Donovan, the company also relies on the expertise of two other staff members — videographer and editor Jeff Wilmes, a member of St. Margaret of Scotland Parish in South St. Louis; and Keith Plein, director of marketing and sales and also an Incarnate Word parishioner. Neff said that if years ago he had thought he’d be where he is today, "I would have run like crazy ... It’s been an incredible faith journey. But I don’t want to pretend it’s been easy." Some 30 years ago and seven years into his marriage to wife Judy, a "cradle Catholic," Neff entered the Catholic Church on his birthday. He added it was the best birthday gift he ever received. A graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, Neff has more than 30 years’ history in the television, radio and video production industries. He worked as a news reporter, anchorman and producer with NBC News in Chicago and served at TV and radio stations in St. Louis, Denver and Terre Haute, Ind. Eventually, he said, he felt he was being pulled away from the world of secular communications. "I had a really significant prayer experience that led me to understand that there was more for me to do than stand in front of a TV camera five or six nights a week," said Neff. In the early 1990s, he founded Stepstone Productions Inc., a nonprofit video production company that has done programming for the nonprofit community and other faith-based programming. The organization also has provided training and employment opportunities in video production to at-risk youths. Several years ago, Neff said, he felt called to move on to something different. Through launching Salt River, he said, he has been able to produce more specific programming and documentary work for the greater Church. Neff also hosts several programs six days a week on the Relevant Radio Network, a national Catholic radio network that broadcasts in 32 markets. The network is not yet available in St. Louis; however, programs can be accessed at www.relevantra dio.com. Neff produces those programs from a studio in the basement of his home, which he jokingly calls "Studio B." "I see him living the Gospel every day," Donovan said of Neff. "Whether it’s radio, voice-overs or whatever you do." "Jesus Christ continues to call me to use my gifts and talents for the Church," Neff said. "I plan to do that as long as I can." |
