I like editing other directors’ work because I can see how they approach things," says director/editor Sam Crawford, president of Mom-O-Rama (Mom), an Atlanta-based company specializing in both production and postproduction. "Everyone is vastly different. Editing is a great way for me to develop as a director."
Crawford, executive producer Todd Johnson and designer/visual effects artist Olga Traynina opened the hybrid house in the spring of ’98. Crawford was previously an artist-in-residence with Core, the fellowship program at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. He eventually moved to Atlanta and freelanced as an offline editor. Traynina also freelanced, and Johnson had been a broadcast producer at Tucker Wayne (now WestWayne), Atlanta. The three met while working together on various projects, which led to Mom’s formation.
Crawford believes the decision to open a shop that provides both directing and cutting services was a good fit for him. "Editing is a natural extension for a director and a shooter," says Crawford, who often acts as his own DP. "All good directors need to be editors—if not functionally, [then] at least in their minds. And all editors need to be directors, at least in their minds. When I got into advertising, it surprised me that more people don’t cross over [from directing to editing and vice versa]."
Johnson adds, "When we were starting it up, there weren’t that many people here in town that handled everything from start to finish. There are several reputable production companies and good editorial companies, but not really many that were doing both. It’s such a logical transition. If you are a director, it helps if you think as an editor. If you’re an editor, it helps if you think as a director."
Smorgasbord
Does the convenience of almost one-stop shopping at Mom-o-Rama help woo clients? "We have a lot of agencies that come in from out of town. They don’t know who to go to and sometimes it’s easier for them to say, ‘We’re just going to work with this one company and let them handle everything for us so we don’t have to think about it,’" says Johnson.
"I don’t think a company like ours would have been possible five or six years ago because we’re so small," Crawford remarks. But with recent technological advances in postproduction gear, "a company can get started for under a half-million dollars in equipment investment and have everything it needs to go to air. It’s pretty incredible." Mom is equipped with an Avid Composer and an Avid Illusion, which allows for both online and offline services.
Crawford views Mom’s combination of services as well suited to the Atlanta market. "[Advertising] budgets here aren’t as high as in New York or L.A.," he explains. "For budgetary reasons, it makes sense to go with one company."
Mom’s small size also allows the boutique to take on projects that larger companies can’t afford to do. "When you have a whole lot of overhead, you can’t experiment," says Johnson. "You can’t take a job that doesn’t have much money but has better creative."
When an agency hires the hybrid house for both production and postproduction chores, Crawford says Mom has much more creative control and influence on a project. "When they come to us with a board, I say, ‘We shoot it this way and then we post it this way.’ I almost always talk about how it’s going to be posted during preproduction meetings. I can bring in post technique to help us get a [particular] look. I save them a step."
"Showdown," for Austin Snack Crackers via Trone Advertising, High Point, N.C., is a recent spot that Crawford directed, shot and edited. The :30 shows a bunch of kids making funny noises. The silly sounds stop when each child pulls out a few crackers. After eating the snack, the kids go back to their chorus of sounds. The ad’s tag is: "Austin Snack Crackers. Feed the Fun."
"[The agency] wanted to give a sense of the kids competing with each other, doing stuff they’re not necessarily supposed to do," explains Crawford of the ad’s depiction of the sort of child’s play that might be frowned upon by adults.
The kids in the spot are in a white cyclorama wall, which is a curved set. "There’s nothing else around them, so the ad focuses on the kids having a good time. [The agency] wanted to show that Austin Snack Crackers would fuel the fun. Part of the challenge was how to make [the ad] feel active and give it a light, happy feeling [without being] campy. Trone wanted more of a feeling of it being live, but with a stylized look," says Crawford.
"Showdown" had no boards; only a script. The budget was tight, there was no pre-light, and shooting was limited to eight hours by law, since children were involved. Side-lighting was created in post because Crawford says that footage shot in a cyclorama can "feel flat." Traynina did image-processing on the ad.
Mom-o-Rama has a number of Atlanta-based clients, including BBDO South, Pollak Levitt & Partners, WestWayne, and Austin Kelley Advertising. The shop recently finished editorial work on six Cox Communications spots directed by Denny Carlson of Fireside Films, Atlanta, through BBDO South. Mom is currently working on a start-to-finish project for Williamsburg Furniture out of Austin Kelley, and will soon start editorial work on a Georgia Lottery spot, also via Austin Kelley.
Typically, Mom works with budgets ranging from $40,000 to $100,000. Most of the company’s spots are regional, and Crawford says about 60 percent of its business is comprised of jobs that require both production and some post. A few projects, such as the client-direct ad "Today" for international relief organization CARE, are strictly graphics gigs.
The company’s roster of directors includes Thom Oliphant and Steven Goldmann. Both helmers are based in Nashville and are represented by Mom on the East Coast. The two primarily direct music videos, though Oliphant directed a three-spot package—"High Tea," Rock & Roll" and "Long Drive"—for St. Joseph’s Hospital of Atlanta, via agency Match Inc., Atlanta.
How did the company come up with its name? Crawford explains that "at first we thought we could be something like ‘Inferno’ or ‘Meteor,’ [but] there are all these companies that have fire names. Then we thought, ‘How about Mom? You can’t forget Mom.’" But they learned that the name had already been incorporated, "so we said ‘Mom-O-Rama.’ That sounds good."
