By Kate Elizabeth Queram   kqueram@dnronline.com

Joey Groah, a partner and producer at DIGICO, looks at the soundproofing work done so far in their studio in downtown Harrisonburg. Photo by Nikki Fox

In a darkened room in Harrisonburg, Joey Groah watches the bearded men walk the runway.

Each man holds a numbered placard and wears a serious expression, pausing in front of a table of judges before exiting the stage. From his seat, Groah presses a computer key, freezing the men for an instant before sending them retracing their steps — in reverse.

For most people, watching or editing film clips are activities reserved for free time, but for Groah, it’s just another work day at Digico, a Harrisonburg-based video and motion design company where he’s a partner and producer. Though the nature of their work is hard to explain — “My mom still doesn’t understand what I do. It’s a lot of showing people reels and saying, ‘This is what we do,’ ” Groah said — the bulk of it is video promotions ranging in length from two to 10 minutes.

In the past, Digico projects have included instructional videos for Rosetta Stone’s airport sales kiosks and graphics packages for television stations. In October, the company relocated to a larger studio on Water Street with amenities including an on-site sound stage and additional video editing bays. With the physical expansion came a move into the production of more original video content — including “Beardo,” a 90-minute documentary about the World Beard and Moustache Championships, and the footage that Groah’s playing around with today.

The film is the brainchild of 2009 James Madison University graduate and DIGICO freelancer Jeff Tocci, who’s been interested in filming the biannual beard competition since his freshman year.

“This was something that when people heard about it …  they’d be interested,” he explains. “And I kind of wanted to meet the people who had these giant beards.”

At the competition, men with different styles of beards compete in a variety categories. The championships are almost always held in Europe; this year’s competition was in Alaska, giving Tocci the perfect opportunity to film it. After getting permission from the World Beard and Moustache Association, he approached Digico for help with the project. Groah thought it would be a perfect fit for the company.

“It did seem like it was going to be multi-layered and have some context to it,” Groah said. “We’ve produced any number of 30-minute shows …  but this was different.”

Though the beards themselves take center stage in the film — there’s one dyed green and decorated with red flowers; one woven into the shape of a snowshoe, and a number of long, flowing beards that swish from side to side as the men walk in front of the judges — there are other elements, as well. There’s an air of competitiveness (seen in the trash-talking among the contestants), camaraderie and, perhaps most surprisingly, the emotional attachments the contestants feel to their beards — and the resulting social consequences.

“It’s this strong societal stuff,” Groah says. “We had a screening with four women and four men. The female reaction, they were just as into it, if not more into it, than the men. But the parts they laughed at were different.”

Ultimately, Groah and Tocci hope to sell the film to a cable network; Spike TV, they say, would be the dream. But as far as Digico is concerned, the value of “Beardo” lies in its very existence.

“Most of [our projects are] us saying, ‘Hey, you have a need, we can fill it,’ or people saying, ‘Hey, we have a need, can you fill it?’ ” Groah says. “This was us saying, ‘Hey, this is a cool thing.’ ”