Final Cut, a five-year-old London-based commercial editing company, is expanding to the U.S. with the launch of a New York branch. Set to open by the beginning of May, Final Cut will initially operate out of New York-based PostWorks’ office while seeking permanent quarters.
Heading up the company’s U.S. expansion is Stephanie Apt, former director of television production at J. Walter Thompson (JWT), New York, who has acted as a consultant to Final Cut since January and is on the company’s board of directors. Apt will be responsible for the strategic development and growth of the stateside shop. A producer will also be hired to handle bidding and day-to-day business operations.
Final Cut editor Kirk Baxter is relocating from London to New York to work out of the new office. Joining Baxter will be editor Duncan Shepherd, who has been a freelance cutter in London for the past 15 years. Baxter is slated to cut a job for an undisclosed client in New York in late April; plans call for Shepherd to come aboard May 1.
Final Cut’s U.K. roster of editors will be available to work out of the New York facility on a per-project basis. That current editorial lineup consists of company partner Rick Russell, Gary Knight, Struan Clay and David Webb. Final Cut is installing T3 lines between the London and New York offices in order to transfer dailies between the two sites; and videoconferencing technology will also be implemented. Final Cut will absorb all flight costs and per diems for its editors.
Partner/company director Greg Caplan said that Final Cut has regularly been asked to cut projects in the U.S. by the British and European directors who work with their editors. For one such notable assignment, Baxter cut the Mercedes-Benz spots "Slingshot" and "Gang" via Merkley Newman Harty, New York, that were directed by Mehdi Norowzian, who’s repped in the U.S. by bicoastal Chelsea Pictures and by his London-based Joy Films abroad. "Gang" recently won a Gold award at this year’s International Automotive Advertising Awards. Baxter also cut Norowzian’s film Killing Joe, an Academy Award nominee this year in the best short film category.
Highlights among Shepherd’s credits include the BMW spot "Canals" via Fallon McElligott, Minneapolis, helmed by Daniel Barber (SHOOT Top Spot, 5/17/96, p.14) through Striper Films, New York, which was the U.K.-based director’s first job for a U.S. agency. Barber also maintains Hackney Rose Barber in London, where he is a partner.
Shepherd also cut the Mercedes-Benz spot "Mercury," directed by Norowzian via Lowe & Partners/SMS, New York, and recently edited "Tipperary," a Mercedes-Benz spot for Merkley Newman Harty, directed by Big TV! of London-based Academy Commercials. (That company is marketed in the U.S. by bicoastal and Chicago-based rep firm Creative Management Partners.)
Shepherd also cut the music video "Doo Wop (That Thing)" for Lauryn Hill, which was helmed by Big TV!. The clip was honored at the ’99 MTV Video Music Awards, where it won video of the year, best art direction, best R&B video and best female video awards.
Final Cut editors have regularly cut projects for such London-based directors as Vaughan Arnell of Godman (Arnell is repped stateside by Palomar Pictures, Los Angeles); Chris Cunningham and Adrian Moat of RSA Films and RSA USA; Frederik Bond of Harry Nash (which also represents Bond in the U.S.); Malcolm Venville of Malcolm Venville Productions (handled by bicoastal Anonymous in the U.S.); and Doug Nichol of Serious Pictures (Nichol is repped stateside by bicoastal Partizan).
"We find that our key British directors are often doing projects for the USA, and some are also looking at feature opportunities," said Caplan, who co-founded Final Cut with Rick Russell in February ’95. "We have many relationships with them, and … the editing [accounts for] a lot of the reason their work looks the way it does. Oftentimes the directors are asked to do a spot in the U.S., and they’d like to have their usual editor with them."
In the past, observed Caplan, a number of U.S. agencies felt that the logistics of flying editors to the States was problematic. In addition, said Caplan, "Working as freelancers, there’s always been this problem of what happens when you’re gone; if agencies want you again [for revisions], who do they speak to? It’s a big marketplace, and people need to know you’re someplace where they can get hold of you."
Baxter commented, "Some of the best commercial scriptwriting in the world is now happening in the U.S., which is attracting the directing talent and, by extension, editors. A director will fly anywhere in the world to shoot a job, and we want to make it possible for an editor to do the same."
Shepherd observed that "we’re often losing out on American work just because of the logistics….I’ve done quite a few jobs for American agencies that I thought I’d never see repeat work from this country, because it’s so exceptional for a director to be able to pull a U.S. agency all the way over the Atlantic.
"Now I see that all the hard work I’ve put in over the last few years—to keep people happy and give them the product they want—is now going to be realized, because I’ll be able to work for them again. It’s a perfect win-win situation," Shepherd concluded.
Caplan said that Final Cut hoped to provide a structure wherein its editing talent could travel to the U.S. to be available to their regular director clients, as well as to American directors. It became obvious, he said, that the solution was to have a defined U.S. presence.
Key to this presence is Apt, whom Final Cut tapped for her extensive agency production experience. Caplan commented that Apt’s track record and experience is such that they felt she’d be an ideal choice: "We needed someone with that depth of knowledge about that marketplace."
Apt had headed JWT’s production department for nearly eight years until she departed the agency last year; among the accounts she oversaw were Merrill Lynch, Warner-Lambert, Kellogg’s, Kimberly-Clark, Unilever, Thermasilk and Alloy. com.
"When I was at J. Walter Thompson, I spent a lot of time looking for global talent," said Apt. "This is a top-level English edit company. When we were introduced last fall, they expressed interest in entering this market. I thought that with the level of talent they had, they had a very compelling story for working here.
"It’s a real opportunity for the American market, and for the editors as well to avail themselves of a different level of work and a different experience," Apt continued. "One of the things that’s very interesting in this whole picture is the access to the postproduction community in London, and the high quality of talent that’s to be found there [such as The Mill and Rushes]. That’s another realm in which we hope to be able to open doors and provide service for clients."
Final Cut also intends to open shop in the Los Angeles market; Apt will oversee that expansion as well. For now, the company is in the process of setting up reciprocal arrangements with L.A.-based cutting rooms to facilitate its editors working on the West Coast. It made sense to open in New York first, said Caplan, simply because the five-hour time difference between the East Coast and London is more manageable than the West Coast/ U.K. eight-hour gap. "I’d say in not-too-long a period of time, we’ll be in those three locations," said Caplan. "But the first step has to be the nearest one, being New York."
