While bicoastal is now almost ubiquitous in signifying a production company’s location, there are still a few houses out there that remain based in one place. Those ranks, however, have thinned recently. Tool of North America, Santa Monica, added bicoastal to its moniker with the opening of a New York office. And Morton Jankel Zander (MJZ), Los Angeles, is making plans to open a New York outpost in the coming months.
Tool of North America is currently working out of temporary Manhattan digs, and will open its permanent New York office next month. Morton Jankel Zander is looking for space in the Big Apple. And Ritts/ Hayden, Los Angeles, reportedly hopes to open a New York branch sometime in the future, but has postponed plans to do so for now.
Why are the companies making the move? "A lot of it started just because we decided we wanted to do things differently," says Dierdre Harrington, partner/executive producer at Tool.
The company had previously used independent repping firm CMP, bicoastal and Chicago, to rep its directors on the East Coast. Tool decided it wanted to bring a more personal touch to working with its clients. "We wanted to get a presence that really was about Tool. The first change we made was to bring our rep in-house, so we hired Meredith Bergman [to cover the East Coast]. We had Meredith working in-house, and we had to get her a space that she could work out of. New York and Boston are really important markets for us, and I wanted the agencies [there] to know Tool more directly," says Harrington. "The company’s only a little over four years old. [Tool partners/directors] Scott Burns and Erich Joiner were L.A.-based, so we started there. We are very strong and solid in L.A. and we felt like it was time to move to New York."
Other factors, including the home bases of directors represented by the company, also led to the addition of the New York outpost. Harrington explains that director Chris Hooper moved from Los Angeles to New York, and Burns was traveling to New York to work on Wonderland, a TV series executive produced by New York-based Peter Berg, who also helms commercials out of Tool. The shop recently signed director Bob Richardson (SHOOT, 1/7, p.1), who is based in Massachusetts. "There’s also the expansion idea," says Harrington. "I think we’d like to bring on a couple of New York-based directors in the future."
Location
Harrington says it was tough to find the right piece of Manhattan real estate for the company. "It’s easy to find OK spaces, but we were looking for something interesting. It’s very, very difficult to find interesting, unusual space in New York because, I guess, a lot of the Internet companies have come in and taken up all of the smaller spaces."
It took Tool a few months to find the right site, but now a lease has been signed and the design and construction phase has started. The company plans to move from its current office to permanent quarters in lower Manhattan in February.
Like Harrington, David Zander, president/executive producer of MJZ, has found it difficult to find good office space for his company’s planned New York house. "It’s not easy to find appropriate space in the area where you want it. We have some leads and we have two spaces that we’re looking at seriously," he says. MJZ had hoped to open shop by February or March, but that date will likely be pushed back because of the real estate crunch.
MJZ started out as a bicoastal outfit in the late ’80s, but closed its New York office in ’91. "I was living in New York," explains Zander. "[MJZ directors] Rocky [Morton] and Annabel [Jankel] are both from London but they were living in L.A., so I found myself in L.A. a lot.
"We now have several directors who are bicoastal. We have two directors who live solely in New York," Zander continues, "and our company has grown in terms of the amount of work that we do in general, and specifically in or out of New York. It made a lot of sense [to open an office in New York]."
Unlike Tool, MJZ has no plans to bring on an in-house rep. "We like the sales force we have quite a bit. In New York, we’ve put some people with one company and some people with another company. It’s worked out very well for us. Chris Messiter handles Rocky, Jonathan David, and Annabel Jankel. We have everyone else with CMP," Zander says.
Neighbors
Tom Mooney, partner/director of sales for Headquarters, a production company that has been bicoastal since its inception, believes having a New York presence is vital. "This is where the majority of the agencies are, and where the majority of the business is done. I think it’s a smart profile to have an office here. We started up bicoastal. We always thought we had to be bicoastal, and we’ve maintained that.
"Plus, all of the agencies and clients [I’ve had] for twenty years are here in New York, Boston and the whole East Coast-as well as Chicago," continues Mooney. "It’s great to be here in the morning to service them at the beginning of the day. [I like to be able] to have lunch with them, to see them, to go to games, to stay in touch in a personal way."
Mooney’s partner at Headquarters, executive producer Alex Blum, works out of the company’s Santa Monica office. Mooney believes having a partner on both coasts is ideal. "When there are jobs on the West Coast, I just pass [the project] over to Alex. We’re interchangeable. It’s great because [Alex is] on that time zone watching out for productions, clients and shoots. I’m here taking care of servicing my clients on a day-to-day basis on the whole eastern corridor. It’s the best of both worlds."
Mooney points out that New York’s geographical location is also important. "I’m here for my London director, Joe Public [actually the directing team of Adam Cameron and Simon Cole] and for John Moore, who works out of Dublin. They need to talk to me at certain times of the day, which is much more convenient [to do] from New York [than Los Angeles]."
Like Mooney, Bill Curren, executive producer at New York-based Maysles Shorts, the commercial production arm of Maysles Films, believes that New York occupies an important position on the globe. "If you look at where New York is physically, [it’s] in the middle of it all. I’m talking about the developed world, the places where you’re having lots of advertising created: Japan, the United States and Western Europe. They’re probably the primary markets for everyone that’s in this business. The time difference between France and Los Angeles is nine hours, whereas New York is kind of in the middle-it’s a six-hour difference to France, and a three-hour difference to L.A."
Lou Addesso, executive producer/president of Creative Film Manenagement, New York, feels that a company based on one coast doesn’t really need an office on the opposite coast; a sales team might be enough. "I don’t see any advantage to having an office in New York if you have a sales force here." Referring to New York-based companies, he adds, "I think if you have a sales force in L.A., you don’t really need an office there, unless it’s director-dictated. Say a director wants to be near the movie people or he just wants to live in L.A., then you open an office because that’s what your director wants."
Addesso’s company is in the process of opening an outpost in Los Angeles. "I am launching an office in L.A. because I’m going to combine post and production," says Addesso. "That’s unique for me. That’s how I do my business. I always connect it with post. In New York, I’m associated with [post house] Invisible Dog."
For Josh Blum, executive producer at New York-based Washington Square Films, being based in New York is a state of mind. "We would love to tap into the Los Angeles market and we’re now exploring some opportunities, but even if we moved out to Los Angeles, I think it’s really important that we maintain our profile. And that can only be considered having a New York attitude."
A quick glance at the roster of Washington Square Arts, the company’s talent management arm, reveals performers closely associated with New York: Spalding Gray, Eric Bogosian, Danny Hoch. "What we’re setting up is a company that you come to for people who have a New York quality," says Blum. "The directors we have, at the moment, are not glossy, California-type directors."
Others believe that in the age of e-mail and teleconferencing, location isn’t so important. When asked if having a strong New York base will help the L.A. companies, Barbara Gold, executive producer at Five Union Square Productions, New York, says: "I don’t think so. … When you have the type of talent those companies have, your base doesn’t really affect the kind of work you’re going to get."
"I think people want to have production offices where their directors feel comfortable and need to be serviced," she continues. "Everybody, with the exception of one director of ours, is here in New York, so it’s wonderful for us."
Harrington echoes Gold’s remarks about the importance of creating a pleasant environment. "We were doing enough production here that I thought it would be nice to have an office where people can come and relax and feel comfortable," says Harrington. We’re very well set-up in L.A., and I’d like that to be the case in New York."
