Red Car, which has editorial shops in New York, Chicago, Santa Monica, San Francisco, Dallas and Toronto, has teamed with broadcast design/graphics company ouch, Providence, R.I., to create Hi> Speed Chase.
Formed by Red Car editor Peter Barstis and ouch—which comprises principals Dale Graham, creative director; and Vicky Lemont, supervising producer/ head writer—Hi>Speed Chase will be based in the New York office of Red Car. However, Graham and Lemont are available to work with any of the Red Car editors through the Red Car Anywhere network, which links each of the offices. The partnership at this stage is limited to creative collaboration between ouch and Red Car.
Among the Red Car editors are firm founder/president Larry Bridges, Chris Gipson, Jim Lipetzky, Susan Munro, Justin Stolo and Rob Watzke, who work out of the Santa Monica shop; Red Car New York’s Barstis, Glenn Conte, Anne Craddock, Beth Cramer, Jerry Fried, Greg Letson and John Maloney; Red Car/ Chicago’s Sean Berringer, Bob Carr, Michael Corrigan, Tom Kedzuch, Kerri Kuziel, Jeff Landsman and Adam Sobocienski; Red Car/San Francisco’s Peter Sorcher and Kerie Kimbrell; and Red Car/Dallas’ Jonathan Edwards, Joe Elwood and Ron Sussman. Red Car also maintains an association with the Toronto office of production services firm Johnson/Burnett (SHOOT, 3/2, p. 7).
Red Car, New York, managing director Jennifer Lederman said that the moniker Hi>Speed Chase would be used when ouch’s Graham and Lemont work together with any Red Car editor on a graphics/editorial project. "For example," said Lederman, "traditionally an agency might bid an editor and a graphics company separately, and they are treated as completely separate entities; but what we can do with a team like this is offer the full range of services from the editor to the designer to the final compositing of the graphics. It is basically the whole team working together towards the one goal."
Lemont noted that Graham and Barstis have been collaborating for the past 10 years; and that she has worked with the pair for about five years. "We felt that the three of us had such a great working relationship that we wanted to expand this to include other Red Car editors," Lemont continued. "This involves approaching each project as a team with a designer, editor and writer/producer already in place. We feel we’ve created a catalytic energy between graphics and editorial, and now we’d like to bring that to Hi>Speed Chase and our clients," she stated.
Launched in 1996, ouch is primarily a motion graphics company, but has recently expanded into developing and producing shortform programming for cable and the Web. Projects that ouch (i.e., Graham and Lemont) has previously worked on with Barstis include two 10-part animated series—Yuk! and Matters of Fact—for HBO Family, promos for Discovery Channel Online and Court TV, and several on-air projects for Cinemax. The team has recently completed its first project as Hi> Speed Chase: three spots for Dexter Shoes via Mullen, Wenham, Mass.
Graham started as a designer in ’87 at Twin Cities Public Television, St. Paul, Minn. He spent the next five years there, rising to the position of senior designer, creating the on air and print graphics for the station. During this time he won numerous awards for his design work, including two Emmys, in ’90 and ’91, for individual achievement. In ’92, he joined Corey McPherson Nash, Watertown, Mass., as a broadcast designer. When that company spun off a division in ’94—the broadcast design firm Hatmaker—Graham joined that new entity as design director, later becoming a partner. There he worked on brand positioning, naming and creation of the visual identity of such international television channels as Channel [V] Asia, Star TV Asia, TNT & Cartoon Network Europe, and TNT Latin America. In ’96 he left to launch ouch.
Lemont initially entered the broadcast arena as a writer/producer for on air promotions, first working on Showtime Network, New York, then joining Robert Faulk, Hollywood, working on promos for the Arsenio Hall Show and Entertainment Tonight. Next, she became a producer for the premiere season of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse on CBS, overseeing the design and construction of sets and props for the show. She then joined National Geographic Television as a production assistant, working her way up to director of on air promotions during her eight-year stay. In this role, she oversaw the creation of promotion for all TV products, including the National Geographic Specials, National Geographic Explorer, syndicated international series and home video. During her time at National Geographic Television, Lemont earned two news and documentary Emmy Awards, in ’93 and ’94. Also in ’94 she joined Warner Bros. International Channels in Los Angeles, as associate director of on air promotion for the launch of a Latin American service. In ’96, she teamed with Graham for the formation of ouch.
Bridges said that Hi>Speed Chase adds another editing option to Red Car. In his view, the graphic editorial "persona" is unprecedented in editing. "I say ‘persona,’ " he told SHOOT, "because it isn’t a department—it’s a team, and we are able to do this by combining three people and their different [areas of] expertise."
Bridges praised Barstis, the catalyst for Hi>Speed Chase, as a "really great editor" who is not limited to graphic editorial, but is also a skilled storyteller. He pointed out that Barstis edited the feature film Lift, directed by Khari Streeter and Demane Davis, which was shown in the ’01 Sundance Film Festival, and in the New Directors/New Films series co-sponsored by the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Prior to joining Red Car four years ago, Barstis worked at Finish Editorial, Boston, which he joined in ’93. "Peter is incredibly versatile from features to commercials and he is also a really crack composite artist," stated Bridges.
According to Graham, the founders named Hi>Speed Chase to convey the energy and the adrenaline they want to bring to the work and the collaborative process. "We want it to be a fun, exciting experience that breaks through boundaries—it’s not just about the destination, it’s about the ride too," Graham concluded.
