While the business prospects for a millinery have long been dormant, figuratively speaking such a shop has gained marketplace relevance today in that a growing number of industry artisans find themselves donning multiple hats as they contribute to projects in varied capacities. Or in some cases talent can serve in one role on one production, and a distinctly different role for another.
Indeed versatility embodied in the form of hybrid artists has become increasingly evident in the visual effects and post sectors. In a sense the mini-trend parallels the multiple media platforms that have emerged, spurring creatives and producers to be nimble and adept across multiple outlets and channels.
Being nimble with a wide range of skillsets–some or all of which are deployed on a project depending upon its needs–is the calling of the hybrid artist. This isn’t to say that specialization has ceased to exist–rather that more artisans are starting to get recognized and are being naturally gravitated towards for their prowess in a mix of specialties.
While there are many such hybrid artists to choose from, SHOOT offers a taste of what several have to offer and how they reached hybrid status. Here’s our sampling:
Alex Bickel“The norm is to get into coloring by editing,” said Alex Bickel. “I did it backwards.”
Bickel, who is now an editor/colorist at Outside Editorial, New York, took a circuitous route to his dual role after receiving his BFA degree in film from the North Carolina School of the Arts and then moving to Manhattan. He landed a gig as a writer’s assistant for Comedy Central’s Stella, produced by Jerry Kupfer (now the producer of 30 Rock). Through Kupfer, Bickel then scored finishing and colorist duties on the Sundance Festival Dailies news show for the Sundance Channel, which in turn led to a short tenure at the Sundance Channel in New York where he produced, edited and served as colorist for a series of spots rebranding DocDay, Sundance Channel’s weekly destination (branded as a a mini-channel) for documentary films.
A key for Bickel in establishing himself was his experience in Apple’s Final Cut Pro which he used in school and for his own projects, even working closely with Apple Pro Apps group as a Final Cut technician.
“It was just when Final Cut was starting to take hold in New York and there weren’t a lot of people who had experience on it,” said Bickel. “It opened the door for me in finishing and in coloring through its capabilities and plug-ins.”
Following the Sundance job, Bickel freelanced, handling finishing on several reality TV series including Inked for A&E. Editing opportunities arose on some of these shows, and eventually he got the chance to put his Final Cut Pro editing chops to good use.
In spring of 2007, Bickel came aboard Berwyn Editorial, New York, an independent house which handles much of the work out of Euro RSCG, New York. There he diversified significantly into commercials as both an editor and colorist. Then this past January, Bickel joined Outside though he still handles projects on occasion via Berwyn (the two houses are sister shops). Among his recent endeavors are cutting the Jaguar “Winter Mode” spot, serving as colorist on an Old Navy job as well as on global and North American campaigns for Jaguar.
Along the way Bickel was colorist on the feature film Quiet City, which was an official selection for the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival in Austin, Tex., and a nominee for an Independent Film Spirit Award. The timing was fortuitous in that Apple had just rolled out its Color software which Bickel deployed on the film.
“I was lucky enough to be on the front end of the curve twice with Apple, with Final Cut and Color,” observed Bickel. “I was able to gain the experience on the software early on in my career because it was affordable and accessible. If I had to apprentice on a daVinci and purchase some system that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, I never would have had the opportunity to break into the industry the way I did. My career wouldn’t have been nearly as far along as it is today.”
Ben GrossmannWhile springing into national prominence from roots in Alaska is a path that’s recently received much attention in national politics, Ben Grossmann made that journey long before it became popular, beginning as a stringer news photographer for Associated Press (AP) in Fairbanks, Alaska. He got his hands dirty with film and began experimenting on some of the first digital cameras for news coverage.
Grossmann became friendly with the local police and fire departments and soon was first on the news scene, scooping other outlets. This caught the eye of a local TV station owner who recruited Grossmann to become a news cameraman. This necessitated that Grossmann diversify as he began editing the stories he shot and doing the sound mixing as well. The TV station owner then needed someone to produce local TV commercials and financed a video production company for Grossmann who bought Alaska’s first Avid and then brought Photoshop and After Effects into the fold. Suddenly he was a jack of all trades spanning directing, shooting, visual effects, motion graphic design and audio with much of his work coming in spots, promos and interstitials.
Having gone about as far as he could go in Alaska, Grossmann moved to Los Angeles where he had to establish himself all over again. He hooked up with Bob Coleman’s Digital Artists Agency which was impressed with how Grossmann packaged himself via the then fledgling web, PDFs, resume and work samples. While getting him choice projects was still a reach at that time in the major L.A. market, Digital Artists Agency recruited him to redesign its brand and the presentations of some of its clients.
Grossmann then landed an entry level After Effects gig at Ring of Fire on a Disney TV show and earned increased effects responsibilities on the project. He freelanced in L.A. for the next five years (2000-’05), working his way up from paint and roto (Spider-Man) to compositor to senior compositor (Master and Commander) to effects supervisor (Hollow Man 2) and sequence supervisor (Sin City) on different movies. “Visual effects are so isolated from other film and commercial production departments but I, based on my experience, had an understanding of what goes on in production. At the same time, there’s often little understanding on the production end of what goes on in visual effects. I found myself bridging that gap with knowledge from both sides.”
In ’06, Grossmann joined his current roost, The Syndicate in Santa Monica, a shop which offers assorted services including visual effects, telecine, finishing and editing. He has taken on true hybrid status at The Syndicate, serving as visual effects supervisor, creative director and director. He recently wrapped VFX creative director duties on the opening graphics package for ESPN’s Monday Night Football, which tapped into his background in motion graphics and VFX. Live elements from each week’s game stadium are being incorporated into the package. The live feeds from stadium cameras and other game-time elements will be even more ambitiously and sophisticatedly meshed into the mix as the season progresses.
Grossmann’s workload encompasses commercials, music videos (including a Radiohead clip shot not with a camera but with lasers, directed by James Frost of Zoo Film, with Grossmann as VFX supervisor) and several collaborations teaming him with both director Martin Scorsese and noted effects supervisor Rob Legato. This included Scorsese’s short film The Key To Reserva, his Rolling Stones film Shine A Light, and the upcoming feature Shutter Island. Grossmann served in a VFX supervisor capacity on the projects.
Meanwhile Grossmann has also sat in the director’s chair. His CG/effects-driven two spot package for Six Flags amusement parks produced by The Syndicate for Zimmerman Advertising, Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., helped earn him inclusion in SHOOT’s 2007 New Directors Showcase. He has since also directed a spot for sports equipment manufacturer CCM.
John LeamyWhile studying painting at Syracuse University, John Leamy started up a band. This mix of visual and aural–which he said provided “different types of cathartic release” for him creatively–reflects Leamy’s hybrid nature as an artist.
So little wonder that in his current role as creative director at hybrid design/effects house Spontaneous, Leamy wears hats spanning effects, design, editorial, sound design, animation and illustration.
Instrumental in Leamy’s development was breaking down his resistance to computers early on in his career. “I was a purist, I needed that tactile connection like I enjoyed when painting,” he recalled. “But I needed to make a living so I gave in and to my pleasant surprise, I took to the computer as an artist’s tool, using Mac and Photoshop. I discovered that what I really like about the work is problem solving and the process. As a painter, I would belabor or agonize over a decision. With a computer, I could try a thousand things. My decision-making acumen, my ability to think visually became more powerful. Then I started animating in After Effects, became interested in 3D and started assembling as many arrows for my quiver as possible in order to express myself creatively.”
His figurative archery exploits as a freelance digital artist spanned advertising and broadcast promotion at such houses as @radical.media, Freestyle Collective, Imaginary Forces and Lee Hunt Associates before joining Spontaneous in 2004. Leamy was promoted to creative director in late ’05.
Leamy’s recent Spontaneous endeavors expand beyond the creative director’s role. For example, he directed a series of spots for the Gotham Comedy Club, also handling the illustration and animation for the campaign as well as performing the musical score.
And in the big picture, he does a great deal of design work on varied projects at Spontaneous. “I’m not looking to put my hand on everything. I just want to deploy myself in every way that makes the most sense and is necessary.”
During the last couple of years, Leamy has worked with the band U2 in conjunction with its visual curator Catherine Owens. He animated a piece centering on the United Nations Bill of Rights for U2, animated the first third of and creative directed the entire U2 video “Original of the Species,” and then directed with Owens the main title and intro sequence for the film U23D (which Owens and Mark Pellington–whose spot roost is Crossroads–directed). Leamy’s involvement also led to his doing posters and print collateral as well as cutting the trailers for the film.
Akin to his creative pursuits, Leamy said the prime goal at Spontaneous “is to grow into as many compelling platforms as possible.” He cited a new interactive arm “we’re working closely with on a number of projects” as opening up “great new creative opportunities that our talent can creatively apply themselves to.”
In that vein, Leamy is a member of the cult band Masters of Reality, whose next CD is slated for release in late ’08/early ’09.
Andy MacDonaldTwo suitcases underscore Andy MacDonald’s thirst for learning. A fine arts student in the U.K. who wasn’t sure what his professional direction should be, he went on to apprentice at motion control and practical effects houses, even a film lab. Then he landed a job at Rushes, a London post/effects house that was hard to break into–until he came up with an offer the company couldn’t refuse.
“I told them I’d like to work for free,” recalled MacDonald. “They went for it and I worked in the kitchen. I’d ask the artists if they’d like a cup of tea, I’m make them one and then ask them about their jobs, how they got into what they’re doing, what they liked and so on.”
Unbeknownst to Rushes, MacDonald pretty much lived there. “I used to leave my shift, go out to a bar for a bit, come back and play on the computers at night and then sleep. I had two suitcases tucked away–one with clean laundry, the other with dirty laundry. I was like the live-in guy in that movie The Terminal.”
At Rushes, MacDonald fell in love with and made a name for himself in digital compositing, beginning a visual effects filmmaking sojourn that saw him go entrepreneurial in London with various enterprises (all built on the then breakthrough notion that the VFX supervisor should go on set with the director to make sure that all was in order so that the effects/post process would go easier and less expensively–rather than having no presence on set and having to “fix it in post”). Then MacDonald moved stateside, landing at Digital Domain as a VFX supervisor on commercials. “They ran commercials like they were small feature films with a great deal of staff and resources,” related MacDonald who then “scaled down” with his next career move, helping to launch Creo Collective in Santa Monica, which he described as “a small two Inferno boutique with six CG artists…it was very guerilla in its approach.”
After his tenure as Creo creative director, MacDonald was courted by his current roost, Riot in Santa Monica. As Riot’s creative director, he also serves in visual effects supervisor/artist capacities and on select occasions as a director.
He brought the new generation effects and approaches of the Creo boutique to the Riot infrastructure of finishing, telecine and its long-standing grab bag of effects solutions. He also brought the “guerilla” mind-set which entails working with directors in myriad ways and in varied roles. “We’re a digital studio that can give you digital and traditional solutions. We do Flame, Houdini, Maya but whatever the tools we have the artists and our personal, psychological and technological beliefs on how to best use them. We can partner with a director on a job, we can have a director say what he or she wants and then work backwards so all of that will fit into the budget and timetable of the project. The main message is we’re not the geeky tech guys who are going to slow you down. It’s quite the opposite. We can shoot second unit if it helps, we can write a treatment. Generally it’s a much more expanded, integrated production role for us in relation to the director and production house. And agencies have started entrusting us with the same, asking for help and tests to help push work through the client.
“This takes,” continued MacDonald, “a modular, flexible organization with artists here crossing over lines between post, live action, motion graphics, CG and so on.”
Such crossing of the lines spanning different disciplines has been the case on numerous jobs, including recent spots for MGM Grand (teaming with director Bruce Dowad of Supply and Demand), Target’s “Liquid Chrome” (The Cronenweths at Untitled) and Orbit’s “Side Mirror” (helmed by Filip Engstrom of Smuggler).
Victor NewmanAs creative director at Freestyle Collective, New York, Victor Newman frequently designs, illustrates, creates characters and on select occasions directs.
He started out working in the print arena, specifically magazine design, developing an expertise in layout and typography. His first job in TV was at as a designer at the BET (Black Entertainment Television) network.
“That was during the pre-Mac, pre-Avid days, meaning that as a designer I was doing a lot of illustrations and had to experiment in online editing, using Beta decks to layer objects an designs. It took a longer time to render but it was a great education.”
His designer education continued at Channel 7 News in Washington, D.C. “We were doing news graphics on the fly. It’s where I learned speed.”
Then came Newman’s first foray into the post facility world. He joined D.C.’s Interface Video as a senior designer in ’96. “The Flint and Flame were starting to come into greater use,” he said. “I began experimenting with Flame and opened up into commercials and political advertising. This got me thinking beyond cool hip design, delving into areas such as branding, concept and story.”
Newman’s next career stop was MSNBC from its very inception in ’97. “The Internet boon was on and we were trying to connect with younger people.”
Then it was back to the post shop arena with Newman becoming a senior designer at Manhattan Transfer, New York. Among the notable projects he worked on was an ambitious redesign for the SciFi Channel.
“I had different mentors along the way and in many respects they and all these places prepared me for what was to come.”
What came was Freestyle Collective which he helped launch in ’01. As the studio’s creative director, Newman has handled a mix of projects in a mix of capacities ranging from set and FX supervisor for an Avon campaign, directing spots for Dirt Devil and promos for HGTV and HD network Voom, creative directing and designing a show open package for extreme sports network Fuel TV, and designing for the likes of American Express, Jet Blue, Samsung and Snapple.
And on the horizon is lead-in animation for a Cartoon Network video game which entails Freestyle Collective’s involvement from initial concepting to design to 3D.
“I wear different hats not necessarily out of necessity but because I love to do it,” affirmed Newman.
