Contrary to popular belief, the word "bicoastal" was not coined by SHOOT; it appears frequently as a prefix for commercial production companies that have bases of operation in New York and Los Angeles. However, it isn’t often used to describe music and sound design companies.
In recent years, a handful of music houses in New York and in the Midwest have expanded their operations to Los Angeles in order to gain proximity to where spots are being produced. Principals of these bicoastal music companies note that clients shooting and doing postproduction there often want to do the music and mix the soundtrack at the same time. Thad Spencer, president/creative director of Asche & Spencer Music, Minneapolis, and Venice, Calif., says one year the company lost several hundred thousand dollars worth of business because it didn’t have West Coast facilities. "People said, ‘We really want to work with you, but we’re shooting in L.A., we’re editing in L.A., so we’re just going to finish in L.A.,’" Spencer recalls. "We heard that over and over. Even though we’ve been on the forefront of having fast data lines and ISDN capabilities, they [agency creatives] just wanted to be in a room with you."
Before the second office of Asche & Spencer opened its doors three years ago, Spencer found he was spending more time than he wanted flying to the West Coast to work on mobile systems or at unfamiliar studios. "That just made the work more difficult," he says of his nomadic days in L.A.
Elias Associates was founded in New York in ’79 by brothers Jonathan and Scott Elias, and a Los Angeles operation was started in the early ’90s, when Jonathan moved west. "I started working with David Fincher [of bicoastal/international Propaganda Films] on his commercial work in California," Jonathan Elias explains. "[We decided to] set up the L.A. office and found it was great because a lot of the clients I was working with in New York were finishing in L.A., and they felt really comfortable working with me. Beyond that, a lot of clients that might be shooting out here, but wanted to finish in New York, were able to have someone here to help conceptualize some ideas before the project was finished."
Having a Los Angeles office also gives Elias a larger composer pool. "It gives us more options as far as looking for the right composer [is concerned]," Elias explains. "We have the depth to have the right person work on the spot. There are a lot of musicians that New York will get for us, and vice versa."
For bicoastal Bang Music + Sound Design, business considerations for opening a West Coast office in ’98 applied, but New York-based partner/creative director/executive producer Lyle Greenfield says the real impetus for the move was creative. Partner/creative director/ executive producer Chris Joannou wanted to be closer to the record and entertainment community. "Chris wanted to see if it was viable for us to set up a base of operations in California that would serve as an opportunity for us in the ad business and a creative opportunity for him in the music and entertainment business," Greenfield explains.
"A great deal of production work in our industry finishes on the West Coast. In spite of the fact that technology makes it possible to do music anywhere in the world and hear it instantaneously over the Web or through ISDN lines, I still assert that people like to be near the source," he continues.
Greenfield believes a composer, like a director, should be able to live and work anywhere, but recognizes that the real world doesn’t work that way. "[Agencies] don’t care where a director is from," he says. "He’s a plane ride away. But people don’t make that leap with music. Music falls into a highly personal and subjective area where relationships form. … I think somehow that’s more important on the music side, that confidence level and collaboration. That requires people sitting in a room together."
Joannou sees Los Angeles as a melting pot of advertising, film and music people, which is to his and Bang’s advantage. "At this stage in my career, I just wanted to be where so much of the important Hollywood stuff is going on. In New York, I mingled mostly with production people who did spots and videos. Out here you meet screenwriters, producers—it just seems the industries are much more intertwined," he says.
"We want to be involved in the production community at the highest level," Joannou continues. "Being bicoastal enables us to do that. We’ve done scoring and sound design for TV movies and music videos—something we weren’t known for. We do a lot of spots up and down the coast, and a fair amount of record production."
Tomandandy opened its Los Angeles office three years ago for many of the same reasons other bicoastals did, but unlike most of them, partners Tom Hajdu in Los Angeles and Andy Milburn in New York envision building a string of global offices. "It was always our intention," Hajdu says, "rather than to build a large castle, to build a series of satellites. We have a couple of people in Europe right now scouting around, and we have interests in other parts of the world. We’re living on a small earth. It would be useful to be present around the world and continue to exchange the flow of ideas and esthetics between a number of offices."
Milburn emphasizes, however, that "it has taken time [to get L.A. going]. Early on in L.A. there was an emphasis on film projects; so from the perspective of the advertising community, that office was probably moving more slowly."
The bicoastal players emphasize that although their offices are capable of operating as stand-alones, they are collaborative, with principals and composers working together in both locations with clients and talent. "We don’t consider ourselves to be place-oriented," Hajdu says. "We don’t consider our studios to be separated by both coasts, but rather joined at both coasts. We exchange composers and personnel all the time."
Partners
One of the big questions for a bicoastal music house is whether to have a partner in the company to man each office, or if hiring someone is the way to go. "Having a principal here makes all the difference," Joannou claims. "There are some people who have developed a relationship with me and some with Lyle, but either way they want to know they’re talking with someone who speaks for the company and takes responsibility for what’s going on."
Greenfield says, "People in our industry want to go to the source. They want to talk to the one who is making the decisions and who is the creative impetus and force. It’s dangerous in our industry to suggest to people you’re bicoastal if you don’t have a very strong creative impetus on both coasts. If you have a company that is a sole proprietorship and you believe at all my proposition that you need a principal of the company on location, then there is the explanation [of why] more companies haven’t done it."
Jonathan Elias says a company principal has to run a second office and operate it as if it is his or her only company. "Unless you treat it like it’s your livelihood, which it is, and you care about the people and you build the relationships, then people know it’s just a shell game and that you’re not opening a real office."
The importance of having an equity partner in a Los Angeles office is not lost on jsm/music, New York, which closed its L.A. office two years ago after only a couple years of operation. Joel Simon, president/executive producer of jsm/music, says the company couldn’t resolve creative and philosophical differences with David Livingston, who ran the L.A. office and now has his own music house, DV8, Los Angeles. Simon plans to return to the West Coast before long with an office to match its New York facility, this time with an equity partner at the helm. "You absolutely need that," he says. "It would be somebody from within who would have an equity position in running that office. We have writers now who are interested in doing that. To me, that’s what we need out there."
Hands On
Spencer has different reasons for not bringing on a partner to run his Venice office. Because he thrives in his hands-on role as the creative director of Asche & Spencer, he put the office in the hands of executive producer Hugh Barton. "I run this company and creative direct it personally," Spencer says. "It has one vision and that vision, for better or worse, is what and who we are. I could very easily establish a creative director at the Los Angeles office, but that would dilute what it is that’s made us strong, which is that I am involved in everything we do. Everything we put through, I tune and tweak and it comes out always sounding like I want us to sound. When you get two autonomous groups doing separate things, I think you tend to lose that focused vision."
Also going the hired-hand route in Los Angeles, and recognizing its drawbacks, is Chicago-based Spank! Music and Sound Design. The three-year-old company has a small, Santa Monica, foothold office and has hired an executive producer with an eye towards expansion.
"None of us wanted to live out there," says Greg Allan, speaking for himself and partners Mat Morse and Steven Shafer. "We decided to put our trust in somebody, based on our input and expertise, to find us the right space and find us the composers out there." The partners chose executive producer Kandece Brown to run the expanded office.
Like Spencer, Allan and his partners expect to spend time in Los Angeles. Allan has confidence in Brown, but he is aware that having a partner in the office would bring a higher comfort level. "We think we’ve found someone we can trust and depend on," he says. "We’ve made the decision and we’re willing to take that chance. It’s a risk, and that’s why a lot of music houses don’t do it that way.
"It’s a lot of money to open up another office, equip it, to build it out so it’s soundproof, to take on salaries," he continues. "It’s just a matter of whether the other guys are willing to take the plunge. We’re willing to try it."
Allan is confident the office will be successful. "Even with technology, clients still want to come to the sessions," he says. "They want to watch it. It’s fun for them. And you can’t blame clients for not wanting to come to Chicago in February."
