Biography
Fred Ashman has an extensive background including professional musician and conductor, audio engineer, film and TV director, producer, CEO, and pilot rated in multiple aircraft including jets. At 16, Fred got his first paying gig as a musician. By 17, he had recorded high school band concerts for a recording company. By 18, he directed his first live broadcast television show at a local NBC affiliate. During college, he mixed live sound for just about every big-name group that came through San Diego--Tina Turner, 3 Dog Night, Moody Blues, the Four Tops, the Temptations, Steppenwolf, and so many others. While playing trumpet professionally he led & managed a rock band "PAK", which frequently appeared at Disneyland. For several years, he was a Disney Christmas parade band leader. That same rock band was later the opening act for Stevie Wonder in concert. Concurrent to his college and band experiences, Fred gained skills working as a stage-hand and technician on large corporate productions and concerts; and held part-time jobs in TV stations--all to pay for his schooling, room and board. Fred graduated from San Diego State in 1972 with a BS in Radio & Television Broadcasting. Soon after college, with just a thousand dollars that he'd saved from his music gigs, Fred formed his first production company. That company became Multi Image Productions (Multi Image®) and grew into a multi million dollar a year operation before he was 30. Disney reached back out to produce and direct a large stage show incorporating rock music, large stage effect, large illusions and video. The show ran for the full summer on the largest stage in the Anaheim park. The assignment was unique as Ashman was the first outside (non-staff) producer-director to be brought in for a major stage live production. As Multi Image Productions Inc. CEO, Ashman assembled a full-time team of 30 professionals plus a freelance payroll of as many as 1,000 production freelancers (crews, musicians, actors and dancers) a year. Clients include Disney, Universal, Sony and an impressive client list including: American Airlines, Sony Japan, Boeing, MasterCard, Wells Fargo Bank, Royal Caribbean, TaylorMade Golf, Pizza Hut, Bombardier-Learjet, Dassault Aviation, Galaxy Aerospace, Pitney Bowes, Rockwell International, Toyota, Chevrolet, Pan American Airways, billionaire H. Ross Perot and many more. Competition for major accounts like these is never-ending and intense. Keeping clients returning, some like American Airlines NCR and others for over 30 years, is rare--even for an agency and unheard of for an independent production company. The range of successful projects includes: 70mm (IMAX®) films; feature films; award winning documentaries; national commercials, television pilots, music videos, large stage entertainment and event programs, live, events, hundreds of award winning short videos. Many of the projects incorporated high budget original videos with original music scores in addition to live full orchestras, up to 200 dancers, plus name-acts-- for audiences as large as 50,000 and as small as 3. Along the way, Fred and his Multi Image team accumulated over 120 awards including: 20 Cine Golden Eagles; scores of Telly Awards; Houston & New York festival awards; Regional Emmys, and numerous other awards. To accomplish ALL this, Fred and his team traveled to 45 of the 50 States and more than 30 International countries. As aircraft owner and pilot, over 4,500 hours of pilot in command time, his reputation for spectacular shots from Learjets and helicopters is well established. Retiring from Multi Image in 2014 he wrote a book "Advocate for the Audience" for Producers & Directors, now in its 2nd edition, 3rd printing. He is working on another book for Executives on internal branding as he continues freelance directing, consulting and writing without the burden of managing a production company. In 2016, he directed 10 episodes of a seven-camera broadcast TV entertainment show--"San Diego Tonight," starring radio legend Jerry Cesak. The show was shot before a 300-person live audience. "San Diego Tonight" was awarded first place as Best TV Series at the San Diego Film Awards. He consulted and produced videos as an assignment for a marketing consultant and a large European organization to re-set the marketing direction for a product which is now worth billions. In 2021 Fred directed multiple episodes of the dramatic series Promiseland on Amazon Prime, and is scheduled to direct more episodes in 2022. And his most important credential: Married 46 years with 3 adult daughters, six granddaughters, one grandson and a great granddaughter. www.fredashman.com
