Gene Smith and Matt Gebhardt are partners at Grim Digital Media. They design and build websites, produce videos and do photography. They started a Flower City Collective that includes other creative professionals that share space with them and they also have two large studios for themselves and creative professionals to rent. Matt says that they’ve kind of evolved into a production house which started in the beginning of 2020 when they moved into the six thousand square foot space that is in the Neighborhood of the Arts. Before that, they worked in a small space in the Park Ave. area. That’s where they started Grim Digital Media in 2015.
Gene and Matt graduated from Spencerport High School in 1991. Gene enjoyed his experience when he was class president and Matt just enjoyed high school in general, playing soccer and hanging out with great friends. Gene lived just outside of Parma in Greece, but always went to the Spencerport schools. “I spent countless days in and around the village of Spencerport,” Gene said. He remembers making terrible movies with friends, but it was something fun to do. He also took photographs during Culture Days. “Culture Day was a day where my friends and I would find a place that we had never been, go there and explore that place. I would take photographs of the experience,” Gene said. “You could say that is when I found my passion for photography and film making.”
Matt has fond memories of growing up in Spencerport too. “No internet, social media, school shootings or pandemics…it felt like a completely safe environment to be a kid,” Matt said. He remembers shopping with his family at Bells when he was little, which is now Tops, and also shopping at Ben Franklin for matchbox cars. Ben Franklin was where the Dollar Tree is now. Although Gene and Matt no longer live in Spencerport, they still like to visit. Gene likes going to the Texas BBQ to have a cowboy baked potatoe and Matt loves going to the Brindle Haus. Matt’s Mom still lives in Spencerport, so he makes it out to the village to see her every now and then.