Boston Editorial/Effects Shop Also Brings Editor Matt Rogers, Producer Cheryl McKeever On Board
By Carolyn Giardina
BOSTON --Engine Room, Beantown’s newest editorial and effects company, was recently opened by editor Don Packer and creative director/editor Scott Knowlton. The company is primarily focused on advertising work, although the partners also intend to diversify into compositing for features and long-form television projects.
Both had been at Boston-based commercial post house Finish since the mid-’90s. Packer–who served as Finish’s founder and COO–was with that entity when it launched in ’94, and Knowlton joined a year later. Earlier, Packer was employed at now defunct Videocraft and Knowlton edited at Video Visuals in Newton, Mass.
Engine Room opens with an HD Flame/Smoke combo, an Avid Adrenaline and Macs with Final Cut Pro and Adobe After Effects. All flavors of SD and HD are supported.
Joining the Engine Room team are two additional Finish alums, editor Matt Rogers and producer Cheryl McKeever. “Having Cheryl and Matt with us is a huge asset,” said Packer. “Cheryl ran operations and was the backbone [at Finish] for years– Matt is a really great editor. People love his attitude and his skill set is tremendous on both Flame and Avid.”
Clients of the Engine Room editors include such Boston agencies as Arnold Worldwide and Gearon Hoffman.
Since opening Engine Room, Knowlton handled visual effects and finishing on “Sound Dock,” an HD client-direct Bose spot for broadcast on a screen in New York’s Times Square. He also finished a New England Toyota campaign for agency TCAA, Dedham, Mass., which was produced by Strader Films in Nashville and directed by Michael Merriman.
At press time, Packer was cutting and Knowlton completing visual effects and HD finishing on a new campaign for GMAC via hybrid agency/production company Alchemy Creative in Boston; the campaign was directed by Alchemy’s Jeff Monahan.Damon Wayans and Damon Wayans Jr. Explore Generations, Old School vs. New School, In “Poppa’s House”
Boundaries between work and family don't just blur in the new CBS sitcom "Poppa's House" starring father-and-son comedy duo Damon Wayans and Damon Wayans Jr. They shatter.
"It's wonderful to come to work every day and see him and some of his kids and my sister and my brother and nieces and nephews. They all work on this show. They all contribute," says the senior Wayans. "I don't think there are words to express how joyful I am."
Wayans plays the titular Poppa, a curmudgeonly radio DJ who's more than comfortable doing it his way, while Wayans Jr. plays his son, Damon, a budding filmmaker who's stuck in a job he hates.
"My character, Pop, is just an old school guy who's kind of stuck in his ways," says Wayans, who starred in "In Living Color" and "My Wife and Kids."
Pop yearns for the days when a handshake was a binding contract and Michael Jordan didn't complain if he got fouled on the court. Pop laughs at the younger generation's participation trophies.
"It's old school versus new school and them teaching each other lessons from both sides," says Wayans Jr., who played Coach in the Fox sitcom "New Girl."
"They (the characters) bring the best out in each other and they're resistant initially. But then throughout the episode they have revelations and these revelations help them become better people," he adds.
The two have worked together before — dad made an appearance on son's "Happy Endings" and "Happy Together," while son was a writer and guest star on dad's "My Wife and Kids." But this is the first time they have headlined a series together.
The half-hour comedy — premiering Monday and co-starring Essence Atkins and Tetona Jackson — smartly leaves places in the script where father and son can let... Read More