Colorblind Productions– the history

. 2008-05-29
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So how did this all begin? And where did the name come from?

These are 2 very popular questions asked and we enjoy answering them. Or better I, Dianne, enjoy answering it as the beginning portions of the story may be a bit on the embarrassing side for Rob. Most people know that Colorblind Productions started out as a Disc Jockey Company. In reality it started back in high school for Rob and a group of his friends. It seems here in Hillside/Elizabeth area, everyone and their mother used to DJ and had DJ ‘crews’ of which Rob was part of. But before Colorblind Productions ever came to be, they were F.M. This will appropriately date Rob – it stood for Freestyle Mixers. It goes without saying that although they still hold Freestyle concerts every now and again, the music style diminished in popularity and it left the crew in a different space. They were a very ethnic group – Puerto Rican, Portuguese, African American, Syrian, and Italian – a very colorblind group and so the name Colorblind Productions was born.

As high school faded to college so did most of the crew. Still friends now, Rob is the one who continued with the name and it is at that time that I came into the picture. Rob continued to gain attention being the dj to many Rutgers University events and the ‘go to’ music provider for such fraternities/sororities as Lambda Theta Alpha (LTA), Omega Phi Chi (OPC), and Lambda Theta Phi (LTP). And as these college kids got engaged they wanted their dj to perform at their weddings. Enter me (Dianne)- the then ‘New York City girlfriend’ who was a business student at Fordham University. I took on Rob and Colorblind Productions as my personal case study after assisting (i.e. helping rob carry crates of records and turntables and amps) in a wedding and seeing that Rob knew NOTHING about what should be a very special day! Together we took Colorblind Productions from a very casual word of mouth, unorganized entity and moved it to actually have contracts, organized calendars, etc. And so it began.


We started by specializing in Latin Events as, well, that’s our heritage. We were known for knowing the difference between the musical styling’s of each individual Hispanic culture. That soon changed to multicultural events as notoriously, our weddings were half Latino, half another culture. Each of these other halves allowed us to learn more about the music of that particular culture, expanding our knowledge base to include Portuguese, Arabic, Guyanese/West Indian, Haitian, Slavic, Klezmer, and all the related dances, party songs and general frivolity in each individual group. Where we succeed is melding this knowledge in with pop music, new trends, fabulous oldies and old school tracks and mixing it all so it flows and everyone has a good time!


So when we say we started with a passion for music, we don’t lie. Had you asked us back when this all began if the hobby we both enjoyed doing would be our livelihood, we would have probably laughed. And it is now our reality. And similarly, videography came to be with the same passion. After years of being dj’s I grabbed a camera to document events to show potential clients. Using basic editing software I compiled the brief story lines of each couple. And after several requests as to who made our video – we looked into videography as an add-on and have had success with it as well. So we provide the soundtrack to weddings and document each and every minute of it too!

We have been part of hundreds of weddings, a myriad of celebrations and too many other special events to mention. We've had the opportunities to play in amazing locations (Boston's 'Cheers' bar, Rhode Island's Biltmore Hotel, NJ's Bonnet Island, and multiple New York City institutions etc.) worked with fabulous organizations and have enjoyed every bit of the experience and look forward to many more and the ability to share them all with you here.

at our own wedding '2002

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