📽️ How We Started

Reel Media Studios began—like many great stories do—by accident.

Alyssa, a proud board member of the African American Resources, Culture, and Heritage Society of Frederick (AARCH Society), was working with the organization to preserve a treasure trove of oral histories. The organization had hours of raw, unedited footage from interviews with former students of Frederick, Maryland’s first Black high school, captured as part of a project to document life before desegregation. So naturally, Alyssa volunteered Madison to turn it all into a full-length documentary… without actually telling him first.

There was just one small detail: Madison had never made a documentary before.

After a brief panic, a lot of Googling, a few online courses, and many late-night research sessions, he dove in. The result was Back to Our Bygone Days—a documentary that highlights the legacy of Frederick’s first Black high school and features heartfelt interviews with alumni who lived through the era of segregation. To everyone’s surprise (including Madison’s), the film was a hit.

Since then, Madison has continued building his skills—studying everything from camera techniques and editing workflows to sound design, color correction, lighting, storytelling structure, motion graphics, and cinematography—all while balancing full-time work and his pursuit of a doctorate in Organizational Leadership.

Madison and Alyssa are collaborating on their second documentary, dedicated to celebrating and preserving the stories of African Americans in Frederick aged 90 and older—capturing these invaluable histories before they fade with time.

Between documentaries, they’ve captured weddings, community gatherings, groundbreaking ceremonies, NIL videos, college athlete showcases, galas, and concerts. What began as an unexpected assignment has evolved into a heartfelt passion—and now, a thriving business dedicated to bringing authentic stories to life, one frame at a time.