Industry Expertise

Adakin Productions was originally established as a small independent production company in 1988 by filmmaker Jay Holben. In the nearly four decades since, the company has produced hundreds of projects including feature films, documentaries, commercials, industrials, music videos, webseries and more. Since 1997, Holben, a working professional in Hollywood, began a side career as a technical journalist first for American Cinematographer magazine and later for The Hollywood Reporter, DV, Videography, Government Video, TV Technology and others. In 2010, Cengage publications from Boston invited Holben to author his first book on cinematography, A Shot in the Dark, and he followed this in 2017 with the Focal Press release of Behind the Lens. In 2020, as Holben was getting ready to release his third book, The Cine Lens Manual, he and co-author Christopher Probst made the unorthodox decision to forgo traditional commercial publishing to better control the scope of the book they wanted to release. Thus was born a new wing of Adakin Productions: Adakin Press. Since the release of The Cine Lens Manual in 2022, and American Cinematographer’s Shot Craft in 2023, Adakin Press publications have sold in more than 60 countries around the world and have become a recognized staple of cinematographic education around the globe.

Adakin Press is committed to releasing many more educational titles on the art and science of filmmaking with the latest title: Lessons from American Cinematographer: A Shot Craft Companion in October of 2024.