The beginning
Before San Diego knew the word “videographer.”
In the early 1980s, San Diego meant sunshine, surfers and Navy bases, not video production. Most people had never heard the word “videographer,” and professional video was often dismissed as a novelty.
Patty Mooney and Mark Schulze saw it differently. They believed video could teach, train, tell stories and record culture, and that it would soon be essential.
Their first challenge wasn’t technical. It was convincing businesses, nonprofits and institutions that video was worth making at all. Through cold calls, in-person demos and patient explanation, they showed clients how training videos, educational programs and documentaries could save time, cut costs and reach more people. They weren’t just selling video production. They were introducing a new way to communicate.
Milestones
Four decades, from analog tape to streaming.
- 1981
Mark Schulze founds Crystal Pyramid Productions in San Diego.
- 1982
Patty Mooney joins as writer, sound engineer and co-producer.
- 1985
New & Unique Videos launches with a catalog of instructional and adventure titles.
- 1987
Steppin’ Out and The Great Mountain Biking Video are released.
- 1989
Ultimate Mountain Biking shows the techniques of elite riders.
- 1990
Battle at Durango covers the first UCI World Mountain Bike Championships.
- 1995
Full Cycle: A World Odyssey takes mountain biking to nine countries.
- 2025
The early mountain biking classics are remastered and re-released.
It started with Crystal Pyramid Productions.
Before New & Unique Videos, there was Crystal Pyramid Productions, one of San Diego’s first full-service video production companies. Patty and Mark built its client list one relationship at a time, often doing deeply discounted work for nonprofits whose missions they shared.
Those early projects set the pattern for everything after: technically rigorous, socially conscious and driven by story.
Mark Schulze
Director of photography
Known for inventive lighting and for solving problems in difficult places to shoot.
Patty Mooney
Writer, sound, camera, editor and business lead
Wrote scripts, recorded sound, ran camera, edited tape and managed the business, often all at once.
The birth of New & Unique Videos®
As VHS moved into homes and classrooms, Patty and Mark saw a chance to get educational films straight to the people who wanted them. They launched New & Unique Videos, one of the early independent VHS catalogs, at a time when most households still didn’t own a VCR.
The company became both publisher and distributor, reaching educators, libraries, broadcasters and viewers overseas. Its instructional titles sold worldwide, proof that people wanted thoughtful, well-made educational media.
It all began with a small classified ad.
Action sports
Filming mountain biking while it was still new.
Their films helped shape how the sport looks on screen and introduced it to viewers around the world, making them early architects of action sports filmmaking.
Full Cycle: A World Odyssey
A two-year journey documenting mountain biking across nine countries.
The Great Mountain Biking Video
An early how-to guide to riding off-road. Remastered in 2025.
Ultimate Mountain Biking
Advanced techniques with Tinker Juarez and Ot Pi Isern. Remastered in 2025.
Battle at Durango
The first-ever World Mountain Bike Championships.
Lessons in Cycling
Ironman and Olympic cyclist John Howard teaches the ride.
Education and advocacy
Stories that might otherwise go untold.
As formats moved from VHS to DVD, HD and streaming, the company turned more of its attention to social issues, public health and advocacy.
- 1988
Get Smart About Toxics
Made for a national campaign by the Environmental Health Coalition.
- 2004
My Choice: March for Women’s Lives
Documenting the largest march in U.S. history.
- 2007
Peace Out San Diego
Peace marches and vigils from 2004 to 2007.
- 2008
The Invisible Ones: Homeless Combat Veterans
The lives of unhoused military veterans.
- 2024
Nectarball: The Story of Cannabis
A seven-year exploration of cannabis as plant medicine.
A lasting legacy
Still here, still filming.
For more than four decades, Patty and Mark have carried New & Unique Videos through one technology change after another. The mission hasn’t changed: to educate, inform and preserve stories that might otherwise be overlooked.
Today their catalog is an independent archive of educational and cultural media, used by educators, institutions and anyone looking for thoughtful documentary storytelling.