‘From script to screen, we shine’

Rich Palzewic

Staff

November 11, 2024

STEVENS POINT – Lights, camera, storytelling!

Due to its filmmaking/production work for two North Central Wisconsin entities, Stevens Point-based RAD Productions USA was recently recognized on a midwestern level.

RAD produced short films for the Portage County Business Council and Stoney Acres Farm in Athens, both of which were nominated for Chicago/Midwest Emmys. 

The Stoney Acres Farm commercial competed for Outstanding Achievement in the  Commercial-Single Spot/Campaign category, while the Portage Country film competed for Outstanding Achievement in the Branded Content-Short Form Content category.

“This is exciting for us this year, specifically because it is for our own company, RAD Productions USA,” Jason Rajasinghe, who along with his wife, Hope Lofgren-Schmidt, co-own RAD, said. “I’ve had the privilege of working with teams before that have been nominated and won awards, but for us to take products from Central Wisconsin to that stage was a victory for us. Just to be nominated was a dream.”

Though RAD didn’t take home any Emmy Hardware at the Nov. 2 awards ceremony, Lofgren-Schmidt said they have lots to be proud of. 

“While it wasn’t the year for RAD USA to bring home Emmys for our two local productions, we are incredibly honored and humbled to even be nominated among the best in the Chicago/Midwest region,” she said. 

Previously, the couple’s work for Stoney Acres Farm won both Gold (People’s Telly) and Silver (Directing) at the 45th Telly Awards.

“Everyone we worked with was super open to the ideas we had, and obviously, this proved to them that our approach to how we present businesses is a good approach,” Rajasinghe said.

Lofgren-Schmidt said RAD’s expertise lies in creating powerful and captivating video content to tell a brand’s story.

“We use top-of-the-line cinematic RED (Digital) Cinema equipment and aerial cinematography to showcase your offerings and engage your target audience effectively,” she said. “With our tagline being ‘What’s Your Story?’ we aim to not just film videos but to tell stories and bring these stories to life and to a larger audience. In turn, this helps locals appreciate and value what’s in their backyard.”

Lofgren-Schmidt said RAD has more than 15 years of international experience in the production industry.

“We’re really honored to be recognized and also proud to represent Central Wisconsin,” she said. “Jason and I have been in Stevens Point since 2022, and in that short time, we’ve been overwhelmed by the support. People here are open to change and creating new things. There are so many great stories here, and I think we’re here at the right time.”

From Sri Lanka to Wisconsin

Rajasinghe, 32, said he grew up in Sri Lanka – the island country in South Asia off the southeastern coast of India – but also spent part of his childhood in the U.S.

“My father was a businessman, so we traveled quite a bit in our youth,” he said. “We eventually settled in New Jersey for a couple of my school years, but we were in Seattle for a little bit and Canada, too. We would fly back to Sri Lanka as well – it was a confusing childhood. What’s cool in Jersey is not really cool in Sri Lanka. I think I had a very colorful, interesting childhood growing up and was the product of two places.”

Fast forward to his college years, and Rajasinghe said his cinematography journey started after he dropped out of art school in Singapore.

“I decided to go back to Sri Lanka and learn from different local filmmakers,” he said. “The main one used to work with Steven Spielberg, specifically on the movie ‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.’ I learned from him and also taught myself. I realized there were a lot of missing opportunities for people who choose the film path in South Asia, so I formed a company (named IFilm Sri Lanka) at that time.”

Rajasinghe said IFilm Sri Lanka helped lay the path for what RAD is today.

“It’s a high-end production company that works not just in Asia but globally,” he said. “We basically have learned pretty much all types of production from start to finish. When we came to Wisconsin, where Hope is from, our idea of starting (RAD) was to see all of the lessons we’ve learned over the past 10-15 years – do we bring that into this new company and try to introduce that to this business community here? So far, it has proven to be very fruitful.”

A love of yoga and film

Lofgren-Schmidt, 34, a New London native whose parents have lived in Waupaca for the past 15 years, said she started working alongside Rajasinghe in 2016.

“It’s an interesting story,” she laughed. “I have been living and traveling throughout Asia since 2013 – from living in South Korea to backpacking across Asia, to studying yoga in India, Sri Lanka was actually my last spot along the way, and it became home.”

Lofgren-Schmidt said after she met Rajasinghe in 2016, they were engaged and married in less than a year.

“I’m a yoga teacher and do that alongside my production work,” she said. “I first started by going on shoots, learning the pre-production process, learning and working alongside Jason’s creative eye. I film probably very minimally, but I do most of my work in the pre-production process – producing and the groundwork things.”

Lofgren-Schmidt said she thinks she and Jason make a good team “because we both handle different duties.”

“We know our roles and know exactly what we need to do,” she said. “There’s not many people on our sets as well – we try to keep it a very lean, mean, efficient team, and I think we’ve done a pretty good job at that. It’s basically just Jason and I through the whole production process, which I think is very rare.”

With a love of yoga and film, Lofgren-Schmidt said she is happy that she is still able to partake in both.

“We have been bi-continental living and operating our film production businesses, as well as my yoga/wellness business between Wisconsin and Sri Lanka,” she said.

The couple said IFilm Sri Lanka/RAD are separate entities.

“Jason and our business partner, Annika Senanayake, have been running IFilm together for almost 10 years,” Lofgren-Schmidt said. “Though RAD is separate from IFilm, we use our experience from IFilm to make RAD successful.”

It takes time

Rajasinghe said they “very much pay attention” to the length of their video productions.

“We consider that when we’re creating a concept,” he said. “With the Portage County Business Council, you know a corporate film has a certain sound, and it looks a certain way. When we approach an entity like that with an idea, we try to cater to everybody who watches or scrolls through Instagram or Facebook – short and sweet.” 

Just because the films are kept short – the business council video was one minute, 35 seconds, and the Stoney Acres Farm commercial was about a minute – Rajasinghe said that doesn’t mean there’s not a lot of time and effort that goes into it.

“With the business council, what brought that video together was all the businesses that participated,” he said. “We went to every business (in the film) and said, ‘Hey, we’re shooting this thing for the Portage County Business Council. Would you like to be a part of it?’ All of them said ‘yes.’ We spent a couple of days going to every business and shooting a specific shot with them – they were super supportive. We were able to turn around the entire project in about a month, from start to finish. It was very involved.”

Rajasinghe said about 80% of a film is done on paper, while 20% is the filming and editing.

“You watch something so short, but there’s so much that goes into it,” he said. “We’re keen on making sure everything is very clear on paper before we even step foot on a set. We pride ourselves on being very meticulous and organized, which may also be why the timeline seems so long, but it’s efficient, and it serves a purpose.”

With Stoney Acres Farm, Rajasinghe said his past work with Owner Tony Schultz helped that project move along quickly.

“I met Tony several years ago during COVID-19,” he said. “Tony said, ‘let’s choose something that highlights the spirit and the heart of who you are, because that would translate to what the farm is about and what our pizza nights are about.’ That was a one-minute spot with a tight timeline. We pretty much produced that entire film commercial in less than four hours. That’s definitely not normal. We wouldn’t want to aim for that endeavor, but because it was Tony, I was like, ‘Let’s do this.’”

Giving back

Rajasinghe said because he’s passionate about film and teaching others about it, he started an internship program years ago in Sri Lanka.

“It was important to give back and give opportunities to people who are interested in the film industry,” he said. “The program still runs for six months, and we equip people to have all the necessary tools to operate within a standard film industry. Instead of doing years of studying, they get this crash course between one to six months, and they’re ready to set foot and see what they would like to explore further in the film industry.”

Rajasinghe said RAD has started a similar internship program in Central Wisconsin.

“With the Stoney Acres Farm commercial, we had this one young man from Waupaca who was genuinely interested in how the film industry works, so we opened it up to him,” he said. “He was thrilled he got to experience what it’s like to be on the run-and-gun type of shoots.”

Rajasinghe said now they are speaking with a staff member at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point to expand RAD’s internship opportunities.

“He sent some of his students to us to train up and kind of equip them during the summer,” he said. “That way, when they go back to school, they’ll have a better understanding and have the field experience.”

For more information on RAD Productions USA and to view the Portage County Business Council and Stoney Acres Farm videos, head to radproductionsusa.com.