Storytellers first.
Strategists always.
Cinex Films is a Philadelphia production company built on a simple belief: cinematic craft and business results are not opposites. The best films do both.
Marc Smiler
Marc didn't set out to change how content gets made. He picked up a camera, took on a job with a deadline that should have frightened him, and figured it out. Twenty-five years and more than a thousand productions later, that solutions-first instinct is still the thing clients describe first.
An international award-winning director and cinematographer, he built his reputation on work that offers no second take — weddings, live events, brand launches — where the story has to be caught as it happens or not at all. It is a useful education. You learn to read a room, to find the shot that matters, and to stay calm when the schedule doesn't.
Two decades of being called once a year
After twenty years of project work, a pattern became impossible to ignore. Businesses would commission something good, use it well for a month, and then go quiet until the next budget cycle — starting over each time with a vendor who had to relearn the company from scratch.
What they actually needed was not another supplier. It was a creative partner who already knew their voice, could see what was coming, and would keep showing up.
That became the Content Engine: the output of an in-house team without the overhead of one, built on thirty years of craft and an unsentimental focus on what actually works.
A quarter century of it
Work featured on Oprah and published in EventDV, with productions taking him from Philadelphia to Brazil.
An international award-winning director and cinematographer, and past president of the Greater Philadelphia Videographers Association.
A frequent speaker on storytelling and production strategy for audiences of people who make things for a living.
Thirty thousand hours behind a lens, and he still gets genuinely excited about a fast lens and the right music cue.
Bucks County, three kids,
and a drum kit
When he isn't behind a camera or building the next version of Cinex Films, Marc is in Bucks County with his wife of more than twenty years and their three children, including a set of twins.
He also still plays the drums, which explains a certain amount about how he thinks of timing in an edit.
A stress-free process
Six steps, refined over twenty-five years, designed to save you time and money.
We start with your concerns, needs, and expectations — on site or over a video call. No frame gets pitched before we understand the business behind it.
Creative concepts and scripts that let you see the finished film before we shoot it. A well-crafted script is the backbone of a successful project.
Locations, lighting, time of day, sound, crew. Every detail is settled in advance — which is exactly what makes a shoot day feel calm.
We film with the right crew for the job, and we make the people on camera comfortable. That is most of what separates good footage from awkward footage.
Edit, effects, graphics, color, and sound balanced into a finished piece — plus the versions each platform needs.
The finished project, on time, ready to work. Twenty-five years of doing this means very few surprises.