Although he hailed from a small town, Garfield graduate Vinny Sisson always had big dreams and realized those dreams when he left for Los Angeles to pursue a career in filmmaking 18 years ago. The 2006 alum was inducted into the Garfield Hall of Fame on Jan. 20.
“It is an honor,” Sisson told The Weekly Villager. “I was surprised when I got the letter about it, and I was especially honored being inducted as a non-athlete Hall of Fame person, so I am very thankful.”
After spending nine years in Los Angeles, Sisson returned to Ohio to start his own film production company in 2017. He enters the new year now in his sixth year as the owner of Villager Pictures in Warren.
In only six years, Villager Pictures has produced two films in partnership with Saturn Entertainment Studios, led by Sisson’s producing partner Adam Dearling. The two films are “The Other Side of Darkness” and “The Obsidian Mirror”, which is slated to be released this fall.
For Sisson, filmmaking has been the family business as his father owned a video production company in Garrettsville — Mission Video Support — and later owned Vision Media.
Since he was old enough, Sisson said that he often worked with his father in producing corporate promotional videos, industrial videos and commercials. One of Sisson’s most important responsibilities included making duplicate VHS copies of each project.
“It was basically making videos for clients,” Sisson noted. “I would help him make VHS tapes of the promotional material and they allowed the VHS tape, so I have a lot of memories making duplications of these videos.”
In addition to helping his father, Sisson also created short films since he was 10 and was an avid movie buff, especially taking an interest in films produced by Steven Speilberg and the Scott brothers.
He said that he was particularly intrigued by Spielberg’s films “Minority Report” and Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator”. When DVDs became available, Sisson said that he used that opportunity to watch as many as possible especially so he could see the Behind-The-Scenes features.
While attending James A. Garfield High School, Sisson produced the weekly news broadcast show for a full academic year.
“We would pre-record those segments so we would not have to be stuck in a studio setting and then I would edit everything together every week and have it ready for every Friday,” he added. “We had Monday through Thursday every week to write, produce and shoot every show – probably three-to-five minutes.”
After graduation, Sisson departed for Los Angeles where he enrolled in the New York Film Academy and took a one-year course in intensive filmmaking. Sisson said that the extensive work he had previously done in making short films helped him hit the ground running. Once he finished the course, he earned a job in the post-production department for editing.
“I had one step ahead of all of the other beginners who went to film school, so by the time I graduated, I had even more experience,” he said.
After several years working in the post-production department, Sisson joined the film crew for an independent documentary “My Way”, which chronicled the journey of a professional female rock’n’roll singer who embarked on a journey with her band, traveling from Pennsylvania to Los Angeles.
“It was fun,” Sisson said. “I came in late; I didn’t shoot the beginning part of it and filmed the later part of it, and I directed and edited it. She had two other guys film on the road trip, but it was a great experience. She is still a client of mine today.”
He soon returned to the New York Film Academy as an independent contractor and filmed commercials and promotional videos for the school for several years.
He returned to Ohio in 2017 with his family and brought his film production company with him. It was not until 2020 that Villager Pictures received its big break, partnering with Saturn Entertainment Studios to shoot “The Other Side of Darkness”.
During the filmmaking process of each film, Sisson returned to Garrettsville to shoot some scenes at Johnson Service Inc, the local auto repair shop.
He has since formed a strong partnership with Dearling and the duo are nearing debuting their second collaboration, “The Obsidian Mirror”, which includes footage that was shot at Nelson Ledges State Park.
“It was a dream of mine to have a film production company,” Sisson said. “Now we are doing it. Just this last year in 2025, we shot our second feature, “The Obsidian Mirror” and we are working in post-production now.”
