Post Logic Studios, the postproduction house with operations in Hollywood and Santa Monica, has appointed Barry Snyder as its president. Snyder, who joins the studio after eight years as VP of postproduction services for Warner Bros. Studio Facilities, Burbank, Calif., succeeds former president Dick Voss, who resigned his position in August to pursue other ventures. Voss, who joined Post Logic in ’96, will continue to serve as a consultant to the studio, which is part of the Los Angeles-based Lexington Entertainment Group.
Voss and Lexington Entertainment Group partner/managing director Jeffrey Kramer spearheaded the search that led to Snyder’s hiring.
According to Snyder, his immediate goals are to diversify Post Logic’s client base and services, and to restructure the two facilities so that they operate in a more synergistic and cost-effective manner. At this juncture, the Santa Monica facility is primarily active in spot work and music videos, while the larger Hollywood studio handles movie trailers and some longform feature and television work, and also houses a high-definition (HD) telecine bay. The two studios are linked via a "virtual bay," based in the Santa Monica facility, which features a two-way, real time audio-video conferencing system that uses uncompressed D-1 lines and a fiber optic network, allowing clients on the Westside access to the Hollywood studios’ artists and services.
"I was brought in because of my studio sensibility and [feature and television] client base," Snyder said. "But while we have these strong directives to move the facility forward, we’re very committed to our existing client base and we’re in no way going to abandon spots."
In addition to bolstering the studio’s longform client roster, Snyder added that "emerging areas of postproduction such as digital cinema, HD dailies and editorial, CGI and offline editorial are all being discussed in our long-range plans. Strategic alliances and/or mergers of complementary companies may also accomplish introduction into these new markets."
Snyder is based in Post Logic’s Hollywood office, but will split his time between both facilities.
Long And Short
While at Warner Bros., Snyder was involved with features such as The Perfect Storm, The Matrix and The Whole Nine Yards, and televisions series such as ER, The West Wing, Third Watch and Friends. From ’88 to ’93, he served as director of postproduction services at Sony Pictures Studios, Culver City, Calif., where he supervised posting of feature films and television series such as The Prince of Tides, War of the Roses, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Knots Landing, Falcon Crest, Parker Lewis Can’t Lose and Walker, Texas Ranger.
Post Logic’s recent shortform projects include: two spots for Brita water filters via DDB, San Francisco, and directed by Eric Saarinen of Plum Productions, Santa Monica; and "School of Hard Knocks," a music video for the band P.O.D., which was directed by David Slade of London-based Bullet, and produced by Extension Films, a newly launched satellite of bicoastal/ international Propaganda Films (see separate story, p. 1). Post Logic has also recently posted episodes of FOX’s Mad TV, MTV’s Senseless Acts of Video and TBS’ Ripley’s Believe It or Not.
The aforementioned parent company, Lexington Entertainment Group, also maintains East of Doheney and Lexington Road Productions, both based in Los Angeles, and several entertainment Internet holdings. East of Doheney is a development and production company focused on family-oriented theatrical films, while Lexington Road provides financing and equity investment for various segments of the entertainment industry.
Kramer, who joined the Lexington Entertainment Group in February, explained that the goal is to leverage the company’s various holdings to create a "mini studio" of sorts. "Filmmakers of all persuasions can utilize the services of Post Logic in traditional and creative ways," he said. "We might help people finish a film or come in on an equity basis"—i.e. swapping postproduction services for a financial stake in the film. Kramer said Lexington has a non-exclusive association with Propaganda, and is looking to build similar relationships with other production houses.
Prior to joining Lexington, Kramer was president of David E. Kelley’s production company, where he co-executive produced The Practice and Ally McBeal. Earlier in his career, he was a development executive at Twentieth Century Fox.
The Lexington Entertainment Group was formed several years ago by Los Angeles entrepreneur Louis Gonda to bring together diverse entertainment and Internet ventures. Among the company’s Web holdings are Seattle-based entertainment site Honkworm.com and London-based ICIcampus.com, an international portal for college students.
