Tim Frakes Productions Inc.

Name: Tim Frakes Productions Inc.
Address: Lombard, IL, 60148, US
Telephone: +16304182439
Price range: $$$

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Tim Frakes Productions Inc.

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Retired videographer June 1, 2026 Documentary and image video for non-profit, faith-based, broadcast and corporate clients.

09/24/2026

Proud to support Daniel Hebreard in his reelection bid for President of the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County by producing this campaign spot. Daniel Hebreard has my vote on November 5.

06/09/2026

Memories, Dust, Giving Back and Used Video Production Gear

In my faith tradition (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) we mark our foreheads each year on Ash Wednesday with ashes in the form of a cross saying, “Remember O man, thou art dust, and to dust thou shall return.”

The ritual, drawn from Genesis 3:19, “you are dust, and to dust you shall return” is a reminder of our mortality. I am currently unloading a lifetime of assorted video production tools now stacked floor to ceiling in my one-car garage following retirement on June 1, 2026. Does anyone need a tripod?

I’ve given some things away and sold other things for pennies on the dollar. They are items that I’m pretty sure I won’t be needing; spools of SDI/BNC cables, video recorders, cameras, and livestream switchers for example. There is still a ton of stuff that needs to go before I can get clear access to my workbench and tools.

The surprise blessing that accompanies the release of the precious tools that have provided a living wage for so many years are the stories of the young men who show up to buy my gear.

Most of the gear is sold via Facebook Market Place. I take photos, upload them with a description and price, then identify a public meeting place (the Home Depot parking lot near my house) to complete the sale.

I’ll admit it’s a bit intimidating and feels like a drug deal when I text the prospective buyer: “Meet in the Home Depot Parking lot, west side near Binny’s. I’m in a black Ford Escape.”

The meet-ups are delightful. One young man is starting an in-home production studio and was thrilled to have reels of cables that I no longer need or want. Another buyer is a U.S. Army veteran who learned photography during his service time. We had a great conversation about the US Government’s Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DIVIDS) which provides news, images, audio, video, and publications from military operations around the world.

Both of our sons served in the Army and had combat deployments to Afghanistan. DIVIDS provided a vivid window into their world and allowed me the ability to see where they were working and what their units looked like. If you have a soldier, sailor or airman, do check out DIVIDS.

This former soldier was buying one of my specialized Pelican cases and was thrilled to get it for a price that he could afford.

Each time I let go of a piece of equipment I drive away feeling really good. Feeling good for the young buyer, feeling good about clearing space in my garage and feeling good about letting go of the old and welcoming something new and unexpected. It’s like a controlled burn of prairie grasses in our forest preserves. At first we see stark black ashes. Then, in due course, fresh green new growth.

05/19/2026

The final dance. I’m recording my final gig today with Dr. Shauna Hannan, President of the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago for their asynchronous learning platform, Project Starling.

There is a bit more editing ahead, then official retirement June 1, 2026.

Thanks to all who made the last 42 years a meaningful and productive journey.

04/11/2026

My buddy Jim (Rock) Quattrocki dropped by the office as I packed things up in advance of my June 1, 2026 retirement and produced this piece.

Rock and I traveled the world together telling stories through much of our careers. Thanks Rock.

03/02/2026

Greetings everyone. Tim with Frakes Productions. On June 1st of this year I will turn 65. After careful consideration with family and friends and with a deep sense of gratitude I want to announce my retirement and the end of commercial production with Tim Frakes Productions Inc.

For 42 years, storytelling through video production in the broadcast, corporate and non profit space has been my passion and professional focus.

What a ride it has been! While much of the March, April and May calendar is spoken for there is still some availability. However new projects will need to be completed before June 1, 2026.

My office at 2 S. Park Ave in Lombard will close on April 30 and I will conduct the remaining business from my home office.

Heartfelt thanks to my clients old and new, small and large. The work you do is meaningful and I am profoundly enriched by my association with each of you.

Thanks go out to my family, especially my spouse Julie who has supported me, been an integral part of the business and patiently waited for me to return from innumerable road trips across the United States and around the world.

I would also like to thank my faithful colleague and friend Kathy Gallian with Bookkeeping Essentials. I would have been lost without her expert management of the financial side of the business. Like me, Kathy sees her work as a calling. Her skills allowed me to faithfully serve all of you.

I also wish to thank the many freelance colleagues and summer interns who worked with me over the years on the production side of the business. Most recently that has been Mr. Stacey Adams who made the last three years possible through his diligent freelance assistance on video productions across Chicago, the state and around the nation. All the way Stacey.

Finally, I want to give a shout out to my landlord of the past eight years, Mr. Tom Smith. Working out of the historic Babcock’s Grove House in downtown Lombard with a generous lease agreement has been an inspiration. Tom has been an important advocate of the work I do on your behalf.

One vestige of the business will carry on. Our daughter Emily assumed leadership of our digital transfer business several years ago and continues to do great work preserving VHS and other media in digital formats. Go to Saveyourmemoriesdigital.com to have your memories preserved.

The next chapter in our lives will continue to involve some documentary filmmaking, however family time with our six grandchildren, three children and their spouses, writing, travel, volunteer activities in our faith community and perhaps a chicken coop in the back yard will occupy the lion’s share of my time.

Each of you are encouraged to call or email with questions regarding recommendations of colleagues in the video production industry who can step in as my replacement. I’m happy to make referrals.

For those of you who wish to obtain a copy of your video footage, please contact me soon and we will arrange a transfer process. I do not plan to manage the media after June 1, 2026.

And again, thank you for trusting me with your stories. Through your good work, I too have been blessed.

02/24/2026

Rosa Gaytán, founder of Calpulli Ocelotl-Cihuacoatl, leads the intergenerational Aztec dance group at Unidad de Berwyn, an ELCA congregation in the Metro Chicago Syond.

We are producing a series of videos for this year’s synod assembly. The theme is Stronger Together.

02/22/2026

Pastor Mauricio Vieira demonstrates the importance of planting seeds during his children’s sermon at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, in Northbrook, IL. The Metropolitan Chicago Synod of the ELCA asked us to record stories around the Synod under the theme: Stronger Together.

Each spring Gloria Dei’s Creation Care Team hosts a Native Plant Fest when they give away native plants grown over the winter in milk jugs stored in various congregation members homes.

The new plants are given away free of charge to Northbrook community residents as a way to promote biodiversity, conservation and care of creation.

02/21/2026

Recording a story for the Metropolitan Chicago Synod, ELCA on St. James Lutheran Church in Lake Forest, Illinois and their Project Fresh. They add an extra bag of produce to their grocery cart each week and then gather them at church to deliver to food pantries in the area, helping to provide healthy, fresh food for their neighbors in need.

12/13/2025

Advent Journey
Update from Tim
Saturday, December 13, 2025

As Mother Goose says, Home again, home again giggity gig!

Yesterday afternoon my nurse took me for a walk around the unit tethered by one of those big orange gait belts used to hoist patients back onto their feet in the event they find themselves on their ass.

Picture the scene. Old guy wearing an embarrassing, rear-end exposing gown, non-slip socks inside crocks, sprouting various tubes and wires, young nurse simultaneously holding the leash, a Chrome IV Pole with 6-Leg Spider Base, and an EKG and Blood Pressure Monitor beeping like an excavator backing up on a construction site.

And so, off we go, through the 21 bed unit filled with folks in far worse shape than I who find going for a quick walk to be an ordeal rather than a break in the monotony.

Rounding a corner at the nurses station we encounter my physicians, Dr. Hunan Chaudhry and Dr. Daniel Heiferman in a conference on the mound. As we approach, they grin ear to ear (something these gents don't do capriciously). “We didn’t find anything. You can go home!” Or words to that effect.”

I have expert skills when it comes to selective hearing as my spouse Julie can attest. There was probably some discussion of the absence of a tumor or vascular rupture or an aneurysm. All I needed to hear was the word home, and I was instantly transported to visions of my own bed, a bathroom with door handle that locks, coffee when I want it and above all, no wire or tube attachments!

As to why? Nothing beyond our initial working theory, Reversible Cerebral Vasoconstriction Syndrome (RCVS) where the cerebral arteries spontaneously constrict and relax back and forth over a period of time without intervention and without clinical findings. In other words, s**t happens.

Answers to those questions are more likely to come in the season of Epiphany, which means "to reveal" or "to make manifest".

For now, it’s home, where the heart and brain now reside. Thank you to all those who reached out, drove great distances, dropped off food, came to visit, prayed, joked and made Julie and I feel better.

And to all the healthcare workers of every stripe including the army of scientists who developed the diagnostic testing equipment that allowed my doctors to rule out the worst outcomes. It worked!

Address

Lombard, IL
60148

Telephone

+16304182439

Website

http://www.frakesproductions.com/

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