Executive Summary
John Dietsch, an innovator in the field of outdoor adventure television, is the president and CEO of Castle Creek Productions and a producer/director with many award-winning achievements in reality-based television. Dietsch had extensive production experience prior to the establishment of Castle Creek Productions in 1988 through his work on outdoor sports shows which aired on ESPN and ABC. Today, Castle Creek Productions is a respected leader in the field of non-fiction television production, while continuing its focus on producing quality and economical television.
Bio
John Dietsch, an innovator in the field of outdoor adventure television, is the president and CEO of Castle Creek Productions and a producer/director with many award-winning achievements in reality-based television. Dietsch had extensive production experience prior to the establishment of Castle Creek Productions in 1988 through his work on outdoor sports shows that aired on ESPN and ABC. Today, Castle Creek Productions is a respected leader in the field of non-fiction television production, continuing its focus on producing quality and economical television.
Established in 1988, Castle Creek Productions currently has three television series on the air as a result of producing nearly 100 original episodes. The Great Adventure, produced for the Fine Living Network, profiles some of the world's finest resorts in more than 26 countries while showcasing authentic outdoor adventures in countries like Peru, New Zealand, Switzerland, Bahamas, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Jamaica. The Best of California, a successful regionally syndicated series, integrates clients like Amtrak, Honda Motorcycles, and California Grown into a program highlighting the must-see sights in the Golden State. Both series, currently in their third seasons (a total of 39 episodes each), take ordinary people on extraordinary adventures. Lo Mejor de California (18 episodes), the Spanish-language version of The Best of California, airs on Telemundo. Currently, Castle Creek is producing 26 episodes of a series called Creative Juice, in High Definition for the DIY and HGTV HD networks, which shows audiences how to create crafting and home entertainment projects worthy of Martha Stewart but with a hip contemporary twist.
Born in Los Angeles, Dietsch received a degree in International Affairs in 1983 from the University of Colorado, where he competed on a national level with the university's ski team. After graduation he relocated to Aspen where he became a ski instructor, while spending his summers as an expert fly-fishing guide. His experience with outdoor adventure sports and travel propelled Dietsch towards a career as a reality-based television executive.
While in Aspen, Dietsch began his television career writing ski travel shows for ESPN, including Ski! with Andy Mill, and later writing for the legendary ski film production company Warren Miller Films. In 1985, Dietsch was sent to Argentina to work on the Ski! series as an associate producer. He returned in 1987 and decided to form Castle Creek Productions, named after the creek that ran by his family's cabin in Colorado. The company's goal was to create and produce quality reality based film and television projects, with an emphasis on outdoor-related documentaries and adventure travel programming.
Dietsch spent the next year producing corporate videos in Denver, before deciding to relocate Castle Creek to Los Angeles. There he formed a relationship with the Kresser Craig Advertising Agency, a well-known company with an impressive list of national and regional clients. Dietsch leveraged his television experience with Kresser Craig's clients to create entertaining programming.
Dietsch produced a television pilot in association with the Kresser Craig Agency for their client, ARCO, called Back Roads of the West which included a collaboration with San Francisco's NBC affiliate, KRON. In addition, he created and produced a video project for the EPA and ARCO called Car Smart. Dietsch continued to move forward with traditional projects, applying his extensive knowledge of skiing and outdoor sports to his television productions. He produced segments of the US Pro Ski Tour for ESPN and its sister network ABC. He followed this up with a stint as co-creator and executive producer of Powder TV , a ski sports and lifestyle series, as well as executive producing an episode for Surfer TV. Both series aired on ESPN and relied on seamlessly integrating sponsors into the segments.
In 1992, Dietsch veered from reality-based television for the only time in his career when he was asked by Robert Redford to lead the first-ever "fly fishing department" on a feature film. As Fly Fishing Production Coordinator on the Oscar-winning film A River Runs Through It, Dietsch worked closely with Redford and the producers to adapt the book's fly fishing scenes to the screen. This required storyboarding the fishing scenes, teaching the actors how to fly-fish, scouting locations, production duties, and doubling for lead actor Brad Pitt. The project took up nearly a year of Dietsch's life, and was the basis of his award-winning book, Shadowcasting, now in its 2nd edition, as well as numerous stories in magazines, newspapers, and books.
After the film's completion, Dietsch expanded his directing and producing skills to include interactive video productions such as ESPN's Interactive Fly Fishing School CD-ROM and Flash Traffic, an interactive CD-ROM feature film, which were both cutting-edge at the time. Under the umbrella of Castle Creek Productions, Dietsch continued producing projects such as a short film for the National Parks Service featuring K-Swiss shoes and Kenny Loggins, as well a TV series called Explore the Undiscovered for Fox Sports which integrated ARCO into travel planner segments.
In 1996, Bob Kresser left the Kresser Craig Agency and formed K2 Communications, an integrated media company. K2 tapped Castle Creek Productions to produce the pilot for its first television series, Self-Made in California, featuring biographies of Fortune 500 companies. Dietsch was appointed Vice President of Production for the company. He attached Academy Award winning director John Joseph, and Self-Made in California aired on CNBC as a 12-part television series with Dietsch as supervising producer. Dietsch also oversaw the production of several additional series, commercials, and one-offs at K2.
During Dietsch's tenure at K2 Communications, the company executive produced an award-winning large format feature film called Adventures in Wild California. He brought the television rights for the project to Castle Creek Productions and, in association with K2, produced the Wild California television series for the Travel Channel. This three-part series won three top awards from the 2001 Houston International Film Festival, including best sports documentary of the year, and was selected by the Travel Channel for submittal to the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for an Emmy nomination.
In addition to recently producing/directing documentaries and corporate videos for clients like Rancho Alamitos and Lucent Technologies, Dietsch continues to increase Castle Creek Productions' presence in the travel, adventure, reality, and lifestyle categories as the Executive Producer for over 100 episodes of The Best of California, The Great Adventure, and Creative Juice. Today, Dietsch is a respected leader in the field of non-fiction television production, focusing on producing quality and economical television.
