As companies seek survival tactics in this increasingly tight market, being able to evolve oneself—and one’s business—seems to have become the order of the day. Where once smaller facilities or individuals might have focused on one or two areas of production or post, such as shooting or directing, now they are changing and growing to encompass more full-service-style capabilities—and skills. Several factors at work within the media creation industry are speeding this trend along.
First, boutique-sized businesses have been compelled to cultivate additional revenue streams. While subsisting primarily from directing TV commercials on film might have been great in the past, it’s a luxury now available to only a few. For the rest, it’s become increasingly apparent that billing for things such as directing alone today won’t keep the doors open over the long haul. Plus, with the rise in potential opportunities within local advertising, cable production, streaming video and interactive formats, diversifying not only makes sense, it’s an economic necessity.
There are now entirely new service categories to consider, such as project versioning for a myriad of distribution mediums. Hand in hand with this comes a growing need (and service area) to help clients and agencies navigate the waters of wide-ranging shooting and delivery formats like 24P and HD. With innumerable different potential workflows for everything from 4×3 regular television to 16×9 digital TV, offering expertise on final formats and how to plan for them seems both practical and profitable.
Also thinking practically, smaller businesses have begun to realize through experience that "traditional" outsourced post-production was not always the best fit for smaller clients with post budgets of less than 60K. Watching customers struggle through the separate steps for offline, graphics and online, getting hit for X amount when tape-to-tape started at one place and then later for Y amount more once color correction began at the next place, one wondered if there was not a better solution for this client segment. This ultimately helped lead to the notion of one-stop shops: all-encompassing small production/post facilities that could offer customers more flexibility and value by being able to shoot, do multi-layer editing and compositing and output the final project all under one roof.
The concept of a better way to take smaller, self-contained jobs from start to finish, or to pick one up and run with it anywhere in between, coincided with a means to make it actually happen: the rise of desktop-level creative tools. In the form of innovations from companies like Apple, Adobe and Media 100, digital technologies came into play that would make the "faster, better, cheaper" model for one-stop production and post a reality. Companies who recognized this early on acquired a compendium of digital-based systems, along with the know-how to run them. As technology for the desktop grew, aspiring boutiques grew with it.
Today, many companies are adopting a lean and mean approach with the accompanying infrastructure to take a rough idea, help hone it, shoot it, edit it, add copious layers of graphics, perform the online (including color correction and compositing), and output for the desired distribution medium, whether it’s a "legal" broadcast Digibeta Master or a streaming video. The best of this new breed of shops, like the short-order chef, can serve up the client’s order to spec with the best final product for the time and finances available.
Such shops are now empowered, through the processing speed, high-quality uncompressed images, integrated editing/ compositing workflow and unprecedented value provided by breakthrough systems like Media 100’s 844/X, to do most everything that’s needed in house. Music, 3-D animation or film transfer might still be outsourced, but client projects large and small can largely be completed through a streamlined process that is more affordable and creatively productive than ever before.
Continually evolving desktop technologies make it possible for companies to both better serve existing customers and to broaden client base. With systems like 844/X, the editor or producer can whip through spots involving even the most complex multi-layered graphics in no time flat. This means more and better quality work—for clients and for the facility.
For clients, the ability to come in and do compositing, timing and other adjustments without render wait times is simply something they’ve either never experienced or never been able to afford in traditional finishing suites. For operators, they’ve never had the luxury that when the client says, "Can you move that pixel?" or "Is it possible to alter something down in that 25th effects layer?" the change can be done instantly while the client watches. Not to mention that this eliminates breaks in the creative flow where you’d once have to stop to "entertain" clients (usually with bad jokes) while the computer was processing. All those gags and puppets developed to star in "rendering sideshows" may have to find new life on eBay.
An additional benefit of the soup-to-nuts shop model can also come because the same team shooting a project will often be the one cutting and compositing it. In traditional workflows, editorial companies do not typically become involved until dailies are received. This model has traditionally functioned fairly well, but in most cases, when the job just needs to get done quickly and well—as with a smaller localized project, it can be good to have someone who has been on the same page all the way from pre-production.
Already, young creatives are shooting and finishing more and more projects on their own, though taking on both directing and editing takes a certain type of personality and is not ideal not for everyone, nor practical for every project. But for those who are, let’s say, producing primarily film or video advertisements with small-to-mid-sized budgets, embracing the technology that supports complete project completion can be a huge avenue. This setup can work exceptionally well, especially when the model includes a cohesive and full-service unit with a range of directorial and editorial talent that have collaborated together over time.
I have seen all of these factors in action while transitioning the primarily commercial directing company Setterholm Productions into a full-service postproduction/content design/editorial and finishing company, Drive Thru. The messages we create—and can now add to our slate with cost-effective confidence—might be for such local organizations as health clubs, telephone services, restaurants or fashion merchants. They might not always be in the form of traditional 30-second spots for television, but rather destined for DVD, interactive CD or the Web. But they are filling a communications need, and at the same time are filling a new space in the world of production.
Others are pursuing this approach. Every day we come up against competition, where you kind of throw your stuff up against what everyone else has got and see what happens. Every day we realize this is a tough business, where you can’t just buy up digital systems with no real knowledge of, say, television broadcast signals, color timing standards, or how to communicate through editing. You also have to realize that people probably won’t be coming to you just because of your shiny new digital workstations. They will still be seeking out the talent who, having learned to use the machines to enhance their skills, continue to shine.
