Harold Cronk

Early life

Born in Reed City, Michigan, Cronk went to school in the Baldwin School District until about sixth grade and then attended school in Scottville, Michigan, where he was active in the Theatre department and graduated from Mason County Central High School in 1993 Cronk graduated from Central Michigan University in 1998, with a Bachelor of Science in Art and K-12 Education.

Career

Cronk taught high school Art courses and was voted Teacher of the Year, for two of his four years at Evart High School. When the Reed City elementary school hired another art teacher in 1998, Cronk made a point of introducing himself to the new-hire, Matthew Tailford. The two teachers found that they had a lot in common, both had participated in college athletics, both had studied sculpture and both had acting experience in school.

During Spring break (2000), Tailford landed a job as the Art director on a television pilot. Dear Doughboy, Cronk and Tailford traveled to Los Angeles to perform Production Design and Art Direction duties for the show. The experience in Los Angeles motivated the pair to try their hand at producing Cronk's screenplays South Manitou and The Agent. Using their own funds, Cronk and Tailford completed the South Manitou and The Agent projects and considered the life-experience as equivalent to film school coursework. Upon completion, a film screening was set up by Compass College of Cinematic Arts with producer Ralph Winter in attendance. Winter enjoyed the film(s) and encouraged Cronk and Tailford to continue with film-making, buoyed by the reception of the work, Cronk moved to Los Angeles in the summer of 2004. Within months of the relocation to Los Angeles, Cronk and Tailford found themselves on location in Ireland, working on the Secret of the Cave (2006), starring Kevin Novotny and Patrick Bergin, with Cronk as Production Designer and Tailford as Art Director. Other assignments followed, direction of a Magic Johnson Foundation, Lincoln Navigator commercial starring Earvin “Magic” Johnson and Cronk directed, Eve Ensler's, The Vagina Monologues, Vday West (2006) at the Ivy Substation during this time period.

Cronk and Tailford also had greater ambitions to develop their own screenplays, Cronk found that he enjoyed directing and Tailford was interested in producing and acting. With some industry experience behind them, they returned to Michigan to create a ten-minute short, War Prayer, based upon Mark Twain's short story, The War Prayer, a controversial war-story that was embargoed by Harper's Bazaar, until six years after Twain's death. A wind-damaged stand of pine trees near Evart, Michigan served as the set and battlefield props were fashioned from junkyard remnants. After receiving several rejection notices from various film festivals, the War Prayer was accepted by the Beverly Hills International Film Festival, the festival's Best Director Award for 2006, going to Harold Cronk, came as "... a total shock."

10 West Studios

Cronk is currently the CEO of 10 West Studios. The win for Best Director, at the Beverly Hills Film Festival, resulted in a three picture deal with Origin Entertainment. The location of 10 West Studios was never in doubt, Cronk just had to work out the details of which part of Northwest Michigan the studios would be located in. Cronk had already spent a year and a half on his screenplay, set in West Michigan, Mickey Matson and the Copperhead Conspiracy, a children's comedy adventure film. In search of a location for their production company and studio in 2008, Cronk and Tailford decided upon Manistee in western Michigan, the town has a Victorian look with nearby farms, forest, beaches and sand dues on the shores of Lake Michigan. Seven large buildings in the marina were converted to five sound stages and an iron-works factory was converted into production offices.

Filmography

God's Not Dead, starring Kevin Sorbo, David A.R. White and Willie Robertson, is Cronk's first significant opening box-office with a gross of $2.8 million on Friday (March 21, 2014), and $8.5 million for the weekend in a limited 780 theater release.