It’s not a new phenomenon–a growing number of edit houses have offices in different markets. Mad River Post has shops in New York, Detroit, Dallas, and Santa Monica. The Whitehouse has branches in London, New York, Chicago and Santa Monica. Red Car is in New York, Chicago, Dallas, Santa Monica and Buenos Aires. Lost Planet has offices in Santa Monica and New York, and Jigsaw has an office in Los Angeles and an outpost in New York.
The reasons for opening in multiple locations are usually similar–it’s a chance to increase a shop’s clientele and offer more varied services. In recent months, several houses have opened new offices. Cutters of Chicago reconfigured its Venice office–which had housed the West Coast operation of graphics/visual effects/telecine finishing boutique Sol Designfx–to offer creative editorial; coming aboard the new office are editors Dustin Robertson, Tessa Davis and John Mailloux. Another Chicago shop, Optimus, rebranded its Santa Monica operation, formerly called Co-op, as Optimus.
In recent months three other shops have added new facilities: Final Cut, which has bases of operation in London and New York, and now Santa Monica; Spot Welders, of Venice, has added a New York office; and Cut+ Run, which operates out of London and Santa Monica, announced the opening of a New York office late last year.
FINAL CUT
The Santa Monica office of Final Cut will officially open its doors in July. The new office will be headed up by partner/editor Eric Zumbrunnen, formerly of Spotwelders, and executive producer Saima Aiwan, who had been freelancing for Final Cut, New York. Final Cut editor Jim Weedon, who had been in New York, will also be based in the Santa Monica office. Currently, jobs via the West Coast location are being cut at Mint, Santa Monica. Stephanie Apt, the New York-based president of Final Cut, relates that the shop had regularly been cutting work in Los Angeles, renting space from other facilities, so the time seemed right to take the plunge into the West Coast market. “We had been doing quite a bit of work, and in fact that’s what really drove it home for us–that we were sending editors out to the West coast, whether to Los Angeles or San Francisco,” notes Apt. “[Using space in other edit facilities], as an initial foray, that’s certainly expedient, but what ends up happening, is that you don’t have things available to you on a dime the way you ideally would [at your own facility]. Another facility really can’t represent the ethos of your company in the way your own facility can.”
Apt, who envisions the new office having three to four editors on staff, notes that cutters from each of the Final Cut offices will be available to work out of each location of the shop, and that jobs can begin in one location and finish in another. “The idea is to move jobs around seamlessly,” she explains, “which is what we’ve been doing between New York and London, and why when we first started this it made so much sense, because we saw so much work that was starting in the U.K. with U.S. agencies, but inevitably they needed to come back to New York, and they needed to feel confident that everything was going to go smoothly, and that’s all worked well. So the same thing exists between New York and Los Angeles, and London and Los Angeles.”
Zumbrunnen has already cut some jobs under the Final Cut, Santa Monica, banner, including an upcoming Gap cinema spot from director Spike Jonze of bicoastal/international Morton Jankel Zander. (Zumbrunnen frequently collaborates with Jonze on spots–for clients such as Levi’s, Ikea and Nike, and feature films such as Being John Malkovich and Adaptation.) At press time, Zumbrunnen was working on a Tommy Hilfiger package directed by David LaChapelle of bicoastal HSI Productions. For Zumbrunnen, the ability to work in any of the Final Cut offices, as well as being a part of the shop appealed to him. “I like the idea that I can work in any of those cities if I need to,” he relates, “and the continuity of the company will be maintained. I’ll probably be spending most of my time [in Los Angeles], but should a job need to start in one city and finish in another, it will be easy to deal with.”
Apt believes it’s crucial for edit houses to have more than one locale in order to compete in different markets. “I think if you want to have access to a wide array of creative opportunities, you need to be where they can happen,” she says.
CUT + RUN
Cut + Run, opened in 1997, under the aegis of editor Steve Gandolfi; in early 2004 he partnered with editor Dan Swietlik, owner of the former Swietlik Editorial, and executive producer Christie Cash to open Cut+Run’s Santa Monica office. Late last year, the New York office launched, with partner/editor Chuck Willis and executive producer Susan Willis.
Editors based at each of Cut +Run’s locations can seamlessly move between facilities–Willis is currently cutting in Los Angeles, while Gandolfi recently started a Levi’s edit for director Daniel Kleinman of Kleinman Productions, London, and Bartle Bogle Hegarty, New York, which came back to Cut + Run’s New York office. And editor Dayn Williams from the London office spent a month in Los Angeles cutting The Thunder, Perfect Mind, a Prada client-direct project produced by RSA Films, London, and bicoastal RSA USA, for Fallon, Minneapolis, and director Jordan Scott of bicoastal RSA USA. “From the most basic standpoint, it’s a necessity,” says Susan Willis of the need to have an office in Los Angeles. “It’s a part of client services. There are jobs that come up constantly where our editors need to be out in L.A.”
Christie Cash, executive producer of the Los Angeles office, says that while editors from the other offices aren’t out on the West Coast–or vice versa–on a weekly basis, it happens often enough. “It’s consistent enough,” she says, “and because we have the three companies, we’re able to do it the most effortless way possible, even for ourselves–just having to organize things within the company, and [it’s a service we can] extend to clients.”
Currently, the Los Angeles office has eight editors, while the New York office has four–Willis notes that there is a possibility of adding a fifth editor, but that the intention is to keep New York boutique-sized.
SPOT WELDERS
Spot Welders, Venice, has expanded into the New York market, opening a facility with Dick Gordon, formerly of the New York office of Mad River, as the lead editor. “I think in today’s marketplace, the ability to work bicoastally is critical,” says David Glean, executive producer of Spot Welders, noting that while a good deal of work shoots on the West Coast, it’s not always possible, either time or budget-wise, to remain for editing.
As with the other edit houses SHOOT spoke to, the Spot Welders cutters will be able to work either in New York or Venice, depending on the job. Gordon has cut some projects on the West Coast already, including Budweiser’s “Applause,” out of DDB Chicago, and directed by Joe Pykta of Venice, Calif.-based PYTKA. Among Gordon’s other recent projects was an AOL spot, “Asking For It,” which he cut in New York. The spot was done for BBDO New York, and was directed by Rick LeMoine of bicoastal/international @radical.media. “Dick is the pillar of the company in New York,” relates Glean, who notes there are eight editors in Venice. “Our hope for New York is maybe three or four editors. We would like to stay on the smaller, boutique-y side.”