The founders of Axyz, a Toronto postproduction facility, have two passions-music and postproduction. So in January ’96, when Dave Giles and Bruce Copeman launched Axyz, they took the opportunity to show everyone just how much they enjoy a good tune and a great piece of post equipment. Although Giles believes "finding a name [for a company] is one of the most difficult things," he and Copeman easily came up with a name for their new venture. "We both play music and we have lots of guitars hanging around, which are often referred to as ‘axes’ … and the predominant thing on the Henry is the xyz axis, so we called it Axyz," Giles said.
When Giles and Copeman launched Axyz, they were already established figures in the Toronto post community, having spent several years at the city’s top facilities. Before Axyz, Giles served as a Henry artist for nine years at Command Post & Transfer (now called TOYBOX, although Command Post & Transfer officially remains the parent company) and Copeman spent 12 years at The Partners’ Film Company, Toronto, as an editor, a role he assumes at Axyz.
"We had a client-supplier relationship for a long time and we talked off and on over the years about us getting something together," said Giles, who began at Axyz as a Henry artist but now works on the Inferno. "We were both pretty happy and well taken care of at our respective former employers, but it just kind of seemed like the next step."
The number of contacts in the Toronto production and post communities both Giles and Copeman had made over the years, in addition to their experience, contributed to a successful and smooth beginning. "We already had relationships with people," Giles said. "They [clients] tend to go looking for the people as opposed to the company."
Giles and Copeman were joined by a couple of former co-workers, whom Giles refers to as the "initial start-up guys," when the facility opened it’s doors. Irene Payne, a coordinator/producer at Giles’ old stomping ground, Command Post & Transfer, became Axyz’s executive producer. Joel Saunders, who worked with Copeman at The Partners’ Film Company as an assistant editor, became a Henry artist. More than three years later, Axyz has more than 20 people on staff, including general manager John Stollar, producer Sarah Brooks and a dedicated group of Inferno artists, Henry artists, CG animators and editors.
Axyz’s staff is relatively large because Giles said he tends to shy away from enlisting freelancers. "I haven’t had a lot of experiences with freelancers-there’s just one or two who I think very highly of and they’re great-but I prefer to have people on board that you’re training and clients get a relationship going with them and that’s what I’m more interested in," Giles said.
Axyz is housed in an office building in Toronto’s fashion district, occupying the building’s 10th floor penthouse and a smaller space below on the ninth floor. The two spaces add up to more than 11,000 square feet, giving Axyz staffers ample space to work on offline editing, computer animation, compositing, matte painting and production design.
Axyz’s recent commercial work, most of which is high-profile Canadian spots, demonstrates the expertise of the post house’s staffers and the high-caliber projects passing through the facility’s doors. In "Columbus," a commercial for the candy bar Coffee Crisp directed by Clay Staub of The Partners’ Film Company, via MacLaren McCann, Toronto, Axyz staffers used Avid’s graphics and effects product Media Illusion to create the illusion that Christopher Columbus sails his ship off the edge of a flat planet while eating a Coffee Crisp. The visual was produced by filming the ship against a blue screen and using Media Illusion to composite and color-match live action footage from Niagara Falls.
Another special effects-intensive spot, airing on TV and in movie theaters in Canada, is Salon Selectives’ "Customized Boyfriend," directed by Kevin Donovan of The Partners’ Film Company, out of Toronto-based Taxi Advertising. (Donovan’s U.S. home is bicoastal Bedford Falls.) In the spot, a woman’s boyfriend gradually morphs from his true self (hairy and pudgy with undefined features) to her ideal man (hairless, well-groomed with chiseled features). "It was fairly tough to get those transitions looking seamless and not too obvious," said Giles, who completed the transitioning of the boyfriend on the Inferno.
The Kellogg’s Canada spot "We Are The Children," directed by Ray Dillman of Toronto’s Avion Films (Dillman is repped by bicoastal Gartner in the States) via Leo Burnett Co., Toronto, features a baby sitting on a chair, talking about childrens’ rights. Initially, the baby was shot with tracking dots on his face. Then a speaking toddler was shot against a green screen and using the Inferno and 3-D tracking software, the toddler’s mouth was pasted onto the baby’s face. The Henry was used to remove all of the baby’s tracking dots.
The Kellogg’s spot was edited at Panic & Bob, a Toronto editing facility which with Axyz is affiliated. The relationship allows the two companies use of each other’s equipment, space and staff. The two facilities also market themselves together to clients, offering "a nice little package" of editing and postproduction services, Giles said.
With a "pretty good stream of work coming through" Axyz’s doors, Giles has had to knock down a wall, increasing the facility’s work space, and add a couple more shifts. A Web site is also due to launch soon.
