I was born in Portsmouth, VA . Raised in a house of 3 Siblings.

My dad bought me my first camcorder when I was around 13-15. I fell in love with making home videos and playing them back on my large gateway all-in-one desktop and recording different memories and showing the videos to my friends and cousins. Then my dad had asked could his friend use my camcorder, I said he could. Week later, I haven’t got my camcorder back. So I really got into drawing, I would sit home in my room alone, with nothing but my desk light on and music playing and draw all day. Around that time I grew a passion for art and use to look at everything different, such as angles items was placed, colors of items etc. At this point of my life I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grow up, I just knew I wanted to be rich. So me thinking the only way to get rich is to rap or play a sport, I got into playing football and was good at it. I played football until my freshman year of HS (Woodrow Wilson) in Portsmouth. Till I realize that was not what I wanted to do my whole life so I got back into art. Now I’m experimenting with painting, and designing things.


My 11th grade year my dad brought me another camcorder for my birthday. Now im back to making home videos, but now I got transportation to drive around me and my closest friend Husyan Nix doing funny stuff in public. We would go out like every 3 days and make a video, then I would come home, copy all the files to my computer, open Windows Movie Maker, edit them, upload the video to Youtube and share the video and share it with all my Myspace friends. At that time I fell in love with making videos. I also watched a lot of movies, and really enjoyed the good ones. But I knew I could make better ones. So I sat down and thought about creating my own media company. After about a week, I created Diffama Films. I didn’t do any type of work until October 2010, then I created my first music video. Everybody love it, but I saw plenty mistakes and felt I could do better, so I directed another music video and that went very well, people loved it and I got a lot of views so that made me feel good and gave me motivation to keep going and getting better.

I am still directing and editing music videos, while working on writing two short films, both untitled. Around 4th Quarter of next year Im looking to directed my first full length movie. Also, I’m creating a independent record label under Diffama Films, which will be Diffama Records, looking for a female pop or r n b artist to start with and if all goes well I will expand with more artist.

Interview with Mark Griffin:

ML: What types of skills do you have to have to be good at your job?
Mark Griffin: You have to have a creative mind because no one wants to watch a boring video/movie. Angles are very important because that can change the whole feel of a video, besides that you have to learn good editing skills. Its not just shoot and upload.

ML: Was the learning part of your job difficult, easy, fun, boaring, etc..?
Mark Griffin: Learning my job was FUN, sometimes it could get difficult, but the overall process was exciting.

ML: Can you describe your job in one sentence?
Mark Griffin: My job consist of early mornings, late nights, energy drinks, and thinking on my feet.

ML: How long have you been making films and videos?
Mark Griffin: Mid 2010

ML: When you started making films, where you trying to do a specific thing? Why did you start making them?
Mark Griffin: I was just going to do movies, but I needed far more equipment so I started shooting music videos. With that being a success, I was told I should do commercials & trailers. I also started doing photography, always had a passion for it, just never had a good camera to use.

ML: Give me an example of an important goal which you had set in the past and tell me about your success in reaching it.
Mark Griffin: I remember sitting at my computer desk in 2008 designing my log for Diffama Films. I wanted my company to be well respected and grow to something big. So mid 2010 I started by offering some free work, and that caught the attention of a lot of people, so now they knew about Diffama Films. Now i continue to create films, but now I am getting paid for it, yet running a business. Now I branch off and create a record label under my company. I feel I'm doing well as of now, but not were I'm planning to stay. I planning for Diffama Films to be BIG!

ML: Tell me about a time when you had to go above and beyond the call of duty in order to get a job done.
Mark Griffin: I have a part time job that risked being late to and missing work a few times just so I could capture footage just to satisfy my clients.

ML: What are some of your favorite American films? Foreign films? Television shows?
Mark Griffin: My favorite movie is Four Brothers, i love horror movies but lately nothing has scared me watching it so as of now I like more comedy/action movies. My favorite television show would have to be My wife & Kids, very funny!

ML: What advice do you have for anyone interested in trying to succeed in your city?
Mark Griffin: I would tell them to go for it, I use to read people turning down the career because they say you have to have a lot of money to do so, not true, follow your dreams.

ML: What first got you interested in film?
Mark Griffin: I would watch a movie and wonder how they do that, or how they pull that off. So I became the only person I knew that would click on making of such and such movie, and thats when I knew what I wanted to do Plus I felt some things in movies should have been done different, that gave me the push to want to produce my own.

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