Production and post companies in key cities in the Midwest report that business is doing well, with an increase in work, and in some cases, expansion and diversification. For instance, Griot Editorial, Southfield, Mich., a division of the Grace & Wild family of companies headquartered in Farmington Hills, Mich., merged with STS Editorial Services, an edit shop with offices in Southfield, Mich., and Santa Monica. Per the merger, the STS facilities will take the Griot name. Griot will maintain two offices in Southfield–its ongoing shop within sister company Postique, and the former STS site. Editors coming into the Griot fold from STS are: Terry King, Steve Persin, Michelle Ballard, Gary Cries, and Alaric Martin. The existing Griot talent base includes editors Louis Lyne, Jim Talbot, Dave Mariani, Cindy Morin, Brian Chidester, and Dan Succarde. The merger will offer the talents of Griot editors to both the Detroit and West Coast markets. “We saw this merger as a great opportunity that brings mutual benefit to both organizations,” explains Steve Wild, president of Grace & Wild. “We have very complementary resources in edit staff, administration, sales and facilities that we expect will combine to the advantage of our customers, staff, and community. Certainly, of immediate value is the shared use of the Santa Monica office by our editors, and the broader exposure of our talent pool.”
Kansas City, Missouri-headquartered Take Two, a production and post facility which also houses Take Two/CliP, offering visual effects services, is growing as well–in the form of moving to larger digs, reports Linda Buchner, director of marketing at the shop. “Kansas City-based agencies continue to provide the market with an abundance of great creative opportunities,” relates Buchner. She notes that she has seen more interest from ad agencies in New York, Nashville, North Carolina, and Tulsa, Okla.
The shop is finishing up a video project for Sprint (Take Two recently completed work on the client-direct Sprint spot “Sprint PCSVision”), and an effects-driven effort for Walmart, out of Bernstein-Rein, Kansas City. Other recent spots out of Take Two include “The Discover Card” for Walmart, directed by Derek McKane of Bark, Kansas City, and Winn-Dixie’s “Produce Manager,” out of agency Valentine McCormick Ligibel, Kansas City, and directed by Domenic Mastrippolito of BeachHouse Films, Santa Monica, and produced via Take Two.
ILLINOIS
Production in Illinois, and Chicago, has benefited greatly from the Illinois Film Production Services Tax Credit, a generous incentive package meant to attract more filming to the state. The program established a 25 percent tax credit, which applies to the first $25,000 in wages per worker per production. (Excluded from the tax credit are the two highest paid Illinois workers on a project.) Workers must be Illinois residents hired for a qualified feature, TV program, commercial or sponsored content piece shot in the state. Projects for advertising purposes (30 minutes or less), including spots and branded entertainment, can receive the tax credit as long as each has a minimum of $50,000 in wages being paid to Illinois residents. For features and TV programs, each production has to spend at least $100,000 on Illinois labor in order to be eligible for the tax credit.
In addition to the filming crew, the 25 percent wage tax credit applies to other Illinois residents, including editorial labor, acting talent and use fees up to one year, and agency labor (i.e., creative director, art director, copywriter, head of production,
producer) from the time the final storyboard is finished through production and post. The tax credit can additionally apply to the labor costs of other Illinois-based firms, such as a caterer, casting agency or set construction entity. (The Chicago Film Office, headed up by Richard Moskal, estimates that spot work generates about $200 million for Chicago.)
“The incentives are working great from my point of view,” says Mark Androw, owner/executive producer of The Story Companies, which have offices in Chicago, New York and Santa Monica. “We have done twenty-five jobs utilizing the tax credit. These are jobs that likely would have ended up shooting in Canada or South America if not for the credit.”
Another benefit of the credit, notes Androw, is that production support businesses are growing and opening in the city, citing Fletcher, an established equipment rental house, and the newly opened stage complex, Resolution Digital Studios. Other production shops in the city, including Ebel Productions and Manarchy Films, have also remained busy. Recent credits out of Manarchy include V0-5’s “Desert Drive,” while Ebel’s Karen Carter directed “Come See My World,” out of DDB Chicago, for the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival. A spot called “Lab,” directed by Bill Ebel via agency Chicago Creative Partnership for the Illinois Bright Start college savings program was honored with a Telly Award, and Bob Ebel recently helmed Build-A-Bear Workshop’s “Twins,” out of Barkley Evergreen & Partners, Kansas City.
Chicago has always been noted for its post talent. Shops such as The Whitehouse and Red Car have large facilities in the area, and houses like Cutters and Optimus provide editing services for a wide range of ad shops. “It’s been a real strong year,” says Tom Duff, president of Optimus. “For two years running now, it’s been good for us, and certainly healthy for the city as well.” Duff reports that his company, which also has a four-year old office in Santa Monica, has been seeing a great deal of work from agencies in the Midwest and Texas, and reports that in 2005, they did a good amount of work out of Detroit, including work for General Motors and Jeep. Other work out of Optimus includes ads for Sears and Budweiser, as well as Gatorade’s “Winning Formula,” directed by The Brothers Strause of Tight Films, Santa Monica for Element 79 Partners, Chicago; Craig Lewandowski cut the spot. Duff reports the shop will continue with its OptiTV project, which offers employees of the shop the chance to create their own 27-second spot. Optimus purchased time on local stations to the air the commercials, which could also be seen at www.OptiTV.com.
Additionally, the company is expanding its design department, Optimus Design, with the addition of visual effects artist Matt Daly, who comes to the shop from Digital Kitchen, Chicago. Optimus Design, which is overseen by Glen Noren, partner/effects editor, now has nine full-time designers/editors and three full-time assistants.
MINNESOTA
Diversification and growth is one of the big trends in Minneapolis post and production shops. Jim Geib, president/executive producer at Twist, a production house headquartered in Minneapolis, reports that “regionally, we’re seeing a bit more activity,” though the company continues to market itself nationally. “We produced several jobs in Minneapolis [in 2005]–many from New York, where we have opened an office,” explains Geib, who adds that the company will announce a formal structure for the office later this month. “We are seeing more work out of the larger agencies as they look to our ability to shoot effectively in the regional film centers as well as the major film centers.” Twist worked on jobs for agencies such as DDB San Francisco, and Grey Worldwide and Gotham, both in New York.
The Minnesota Film and Television Board (MFTVB) appointed a new executive director, Lucinda Winter, in November. Winter will work to attract more production to the state. “These are challenging times for our industry,” relates Winter, “with watershed technological changes, and increasingly tough international competition for production dollars.”
To that end, Winter will work with various factions within the state to attract more work to the state. “One of my most important jobs is to support an active and open dialogue between the creative community, state government officials, business leaders, and Minnesota residents. The MFTVB will work hard to communicate the positive impact that television, film, corporate and commercial production has on our state and local economies. Our goal is to be able to compete internationally with the right combination of incentives and production services so we can bring more production dollars to Minnesota.” Last year Minnesota hosted a number of features, including North Country; Last Broadcast, which will open the SouthXSouthwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas; Factotum, which is screening at the upcoming Sundance Film Fesitval; and Sweetland, which scored the top prize for narrative film at the Hamptons International Film Festival.
On the post front, many facilities are expanding their services, something applauded by Michael Aaron, supervising editorial producer of The Assembly Line, the in-house editorial arm of Fallon Worldwide, Minneapolis. He notes that the expansions and offerings of diverse services offer flexibility to ad agencies.
Hi-Wire, a Minneapolis post facility, launched Gasket last year, a design, animation and effects boutique under the aegis of designer Greg Shultz. Hi-Wire had already successfully expanded into music and sound design with Brahmsted White Noise. “Ad agencies, film and broadcast creatives seem to respond well to working directly with their creative counterparts, especially in effects and animation,” says Tammy Kimbler Weber, managing partner of Hi-Wire/Gasket. In the past year, Hi-Wire colorist Oscar Oboza has worked with agency Kerker, Minneapolis, on spots for Taco Johns. Works in progress for Hi-Wire include spots for Famous Dave’s BBQ out of BBDO Minneapolis, and H&R Block for Campbell Mithun, Minneapolis. Currently, Gasket, BWN and Hi-Wire are collaborating on an animated campaign for a golf equipment client.
Tony Fischer, owner/executive producer at Minneapolis-based Fischer Edit and Modern Music, relates that his business is growing its design offerings in addition to its edit and music arms. “We have begun the evolution of a design team within Fischer Edit and at the present time have focused on promotional pieces,” he explains. “This group has already contributed motion 2-D and 3-D graphics on a number of broadcast projects. We’re excited to see where this group will go in the coming year.”
In addition to expanding its graphics offerings, Fischer relates that his shop has been approached by some clients for help in production. “We were able to help these clients in ways that we hadn’t considered before,” he says. “We have had more and more of these projects come our way and have developed some directing talent and created some relationships with a few directors.”
Crash & Sue’s, Minneapolis, offers editorial, animation, visual effects, and color correction services. Donna Drewick, executive producer at the shop, reports that in the coming year Crash & Sue’s plans to further expand its creative services and effects offerings. On the creative services front, the shop last year created a spot called “Bed and Bread” for the Salvation Army. “Now more than ever, [our] clients are looking for us to plus the creative,” says Drewick. “To collaborate in order to spin the idea with a new twist–or, at times, just plain come up with it.”