ROC – OFF ROCKS ON
Interview with company President Jose L. Roche
By Kevin M. Mitchell
February Issue 2004. THE INSIDER

As soft spoken as he is self-assured, as methodical and detail-orientated as he is ambitious, Roc-Off Productions founder and owner Jose Roche is building a unique production operation in the Hollywood-Miami area of Florida. Venezuelan-born Roche oversees a diverse company that handles corporate presentation, general productions, commercials, concert tours, sports events and music videos.

“ I believe it’s important to show the client what the final product will be when the project is done as much as possible”

While too often others allow business to happen to them, Roche has a very specific and long-reaching business plan. “We have made plans for the company going into the next 25 years,” he says, and then describes the locations of future locations in the States and South America. “People will be hearing more of Roc-Off in the years to come!”

But people are already hearing from them, as their client list boosts the likes of HBO Latin America Group, Fox Sports, Showtime, Shakira, Billboard, N’Sync, Celine Dion, Coca-Cola, Enriquie Iglesias, the City of Miami Beach and more. Recently, we got to tour Roc-Off’s facilities before sitting down with Roche.

How did you get into the business?
Jose Roche: When l was 18, l was a technician and sound engineer for (now defunct) Sound Reinforcement, traveling around South America and the States. They then had a manager position open in the U.S. and they offered it to me. I did that for three or four years before founding Roc-Off.

How did Roc-Off come about?
I founded it in 1998 when l was basically looking for some extra income. I started with a little equipment and started doing things that didn’t conflict with what Sound Reinforcement did. People started calling me to do more work for them, and l decided to dedicate myself full time to it pretty quickly. I just did things, offered things that other companies weren’t offering, and friends who are in TV and who are production managers would call me to do work.

What was one of your first big breaks?
I started Roc-Off in February, and by October, l had gotten a call to do many different stages around a stadium for a Billy Graham event. That made me very happy! I didn’t make any money out of it (laughs). But that was a very big event.

What’s your operation like today?
Our office is in the Hollywood, Fla. Area, but right near the border of Miami-Dade County, so we cover Miami as well. We’ve also done work in the Caribbean and some northern states. Right now we have about 12 full-time employees, and use a 12,000-square-foot warehouse to keep our equipment.

What’s in your warehouse?
We work a lot with manufacturers and get very good support. We work with Thomas Truss and Stage-Right. Also we keep a lot of soft goods and lighting like ETC, Avolites, CM, Stageline and some High End. We also have a rental and sales department.

Who is the bulk of your client’s?
I try to do a lot of TV shows and corporate events—those are my main sources of work. I did a tour last year for a telephone company and we organized everything, the complete production, and took it all around the state.

How is the corporate world treating you?
Last year was weird! (Laughs) Not like in the past when a client would contact you five, six months in advance. Now they call you like two weeks before an event! I think it’s because of the economy.

So how are you dealing with those kinds of time constraints?
Well, we try to prepare packages and have some options worked out to show clients in advance. And then at the moment they want it, we have at least the preliminary work done. It’s like trying to get the business from them even before they call. Sometimes it’s risky because someone can take your ideas, but that’s the way it is.

You have a great reputation for the documentation you provide clients in proposals. Tell us about that.
We have a process. We sit down with the client and try and pull some ideas from them, listen to what they want to do. Then we sit down and start doing different drawings and renderings working with VectorWorks. Then we present it to the client and try to show them what we propose. I’m making it sound easier than it is! (Laughs) It’s a really long process.

Why do you spend so much time on it, doing such detailed work?
I believe it’s important to show the client what the final product will be when the project is done as much as possible. They really appreciate it-it takes a lot of the guesswork out of it for them. It does make for some late nights, though.

One of your clients is the City of Miami Beach-tell us about working with them.
We have been doing public events with them since 1999, July Fourth events, etc., and they have come to trust us a lot. It’s complicated—they have a lot of requirements for working on the beach. But we’ve done everything from just supplying a single stage to handling a complete project for them, including everything from backline to restrooms to security.

What have been some of your recent gigs of note?
We did a 1,000-person event for the City of Hope, the Cancer Center organization. We did everything for them—sound, security, lights, everything. It involved meetings, a big dinner, and big name entertainers. We worked with designers and made sure the client got what they wanted.

Another big event was for Sony Playstation. For them, we provided the main stage, and there was another one where we worked with a designer and a lot of other companies were involved, a lot of back-and-forth, and a lot of meetings. It went very well.

We’ve done some big events for Telemundo, one involving a 140 by 48 foot stage. We do a big street festival called “Calle 8.” It spans 23 blocks. We designed everything for them, including a big stage that was interactive—people could climb up on the main stage. That was a festival where they didn’t close the street until midnight, and we had from then until 7 a.m. to have everything ready, at 10 a.m. the festival started, and it ended at 7 p.m. Then we had until midnight to break everything down—24 hours!.

What’s one of the most challenging aspects of business for you these days?
The most challenging right now is giving better service in these hard economic times and have it still make sense business-wise. Clients often want everything for no money, but it’s a business and you have to make money. If it doesn’t make money, it’s not a business. That for me is a big challenge.

 

ROC-OFF PRODUCTIONS
11220 Interchange Circle North
Miramar  FL 33025

Superior quality service for corporate presentations,
sporting events, concert tours and general productions.
Rentals stage-right stages, James Thomas load bearing roofs, ground supports,
risers, hoists, genies, truss, follow spots, etc.

Florida

Phone: 954-436-2118
Fax: 954-435-4105