About Us

The BACK STORY...THE MAKING OF "LIVE IT UP!" with Donna Drake and Fran Capo

THE TRUE STORY OF HOW THIS DREAM BECAME A REALITY! More people will be thanked and acknowledged along the way.... but inquiring minds wanted to know.. HOW in the WORLD did you do this.... 

Donna had a dream on December 28, 2008 and the next day emailed her friend Fran to see if she wanted to do the show. The idea for the title came from a song Donna's former husband Tom wrote called, "Life is Only What You Make of It". Tom died on 2/8/2004. Ironically the day of the dream would have been Donna and Tom's wedding anniversary. The idea for the show came from a trip Donna took to CBS in Philly where she met Greg Toth and where she met Bernie...the Cameraman for the Mike Douglas show. She was in Philly working with the Melting Pot. Somewhere between October of 2008 and December of 2008 the show began formulating. It has been a dream of Donna's though for as long as she can remember. Probably since 2nd grade singing during music class with Mrs. Buenger at Walker School in Florissant, Missouri. The entire project has grown organically.... people have been coming into the picture as if it were magic. Thank you to TV 10/55 for helping me launch the series. Here's to year one of many. Here is a list of the people credited on the first show and how they know Donna. FRAN... I adore you! Special Thanks to the Futures of America, Mr. and Mrs. George Fernau and to Ms. Maggie Sgarlata and to Mr. Terry Stratmann. My family and  friends.  You know who you are!

Created By:
Drake Media Network, Inc. 

Executive Producer/Director
Donna Drake

Co-Executive Producer
Fran Capo

Coordinating Producer 
Daniel Berger - Donna met Danny through a Philly connection- Rich Rodowicz after Rich saw the name  of a common friend in an email. The name was C.J. Papa. Danny had sold Green Mountain Coffee to the Wachovia Center where Rich works.  Donna was in Philly working with the Flyers. When Donna told Rich that she wanted CJ Papa to come to Philly to work on a Reel Sports Fan project Rich said he recognized his name from his friend Dan Berger. The rest was created through facebook. 

Editor
Tony Liuzzi - Donna met Tony years earlier at an industry gathering. Tony recently moved his studio, Digital Video Dynamix into the same space as Donna's office.. just down the hall from Digital Waterworx, Dave Goldberg's place. Donna introduced Tony and Dave through a project they worked on for Progressive Marketing Group.

Online Producer
Chris Catalano - Donna met Chris at a lunch that Cindy Mardenfeld invited her to. Donna noticed that his tag line on his card was almost the same as hers. So she decided to hire him. It turned out that Donna's friend who runs the Long Island Way also knew Chris and the connection was further enhanced. 

Production Manager 
Cindy Seiler - Cindy worked for Donna full-time in 2004. They met through Debra Markowitz from the Long Island Film and TV Foundation when Cindy was interning there.