Many people in commercial postproduction hope that last year and this year will be vastly different. By most accounts, advertising was unadventurous in 2002, technology was stagnant and the workflow was intermittent. But for those weathering this difficult period, the past year was also a good time to work on bolstering resilience and business acumen.
Diversification is a common theme found among those in leadership positions at U.S. post houses. Facilities traditionally relying on advertising for a large portion—if not all—of their income increasingly looked to longform to sustain their business. "We are trying to leverage our current investment over a more diverse revenue base," says Lisa Meyer, president of Hi-Wire, Minneapolis, which offers telecine, animation and special effects. As a result of the strategy shift, Hi-Wire saw additional projects in the areas of film restoration, digital archiving and large high-definition (HD) transfers for clients like National Geographic. But Meyer relates that throughout the recent shift, she had to remind herself that diversification doesn’t lead to large additional investments in equipment and personnel.
Stefan Sonnenfeld, president/managing director of Company 3, which has offices in Santa Monica and New York, also ventured into longform. "We made a big push into the digital intermediate feature mastering arena," he relates. "I did 2K work on Spy Game and Black Hawk Down. We also did a lot of feature mastering for the home video/DVD releases. We branched out into episodic television, as well. We are currently doing Jerry Bruckheimer’s Without A Trace [on CBS]. We opened our minds up and followed the natural progression of where technology is going."
Sonnenfeld adds that some commercial directors and producers who now work in features would rather use the telecine process traditionally used in commercials, versus the color timing technique commonly found in feature films. Although more expensive, the telecine allows filmmakers more leeway for finer tweaks to the look and feel of the final product. Company 3’s expertise with telecine created inroads into this market. Company 3 is part of Ascent Media Creative Services, a division of the Ascent Media Group—formerly Liberty Livewire—and includes post facilities POP Sound, Santa Monica; the R!OT family of companies, which has offices in Santa Monica, New York and Atlanta; FilmCore, Santa Monica and San Francisco; Method, Santa Monica; and Rushes and Soho 601, both in London.
For post facilities invested in HD equipment—some since four years ago—working in longform has given them the opportunity to stretch the legs on this much-heralded, but not quite fully actualized format. "HD has been expanding over the past couple of years," says David Binstock, CEO of New York-headquartered the Multi-Video Group, which includes Rhinoceros Post; audio post house Tonic; Rhinoceros Visual Effects and Design; Rhinoceros Editorial; and broadcast design facility Meccanica.
"We have increased our capacity in HD and we are talking about increasing it even more," Binstock says. "We bought Avid|DS a little over a year ago, and we are negotiating with Avid for a second DS. It has the flexibility to work in [standard definition] and HD. We are seeing a trend in longform television going towards HD, but not so much in commercials. We are working on that." Some of Rhinoceros’ longform HD projects include the recently cancelled CBS show Queens Supreme and the televised version of Our Town with Paul Newman, which is scheduled to air this spring on Nickelodeon.
When it comes to spotwork, however, posting in HD remains spotty at best. "I am pushing HD as much as I can because I think that it will eventually hit us," says Mark Polyocan, CEO of The Tapehouse group of companies, which includes New York shops Photomag, The Anx and Black Logic. "And even though the advertising agencies are reluctant to work in HD, I think they will wake up, hopefully this year. It is amazing—it is 2003 already and I have been waiting for them to come around for three-and-a-half years."
"I think HD for commercials is going to take off this year," adds Tim Timpanaro, senior VP/general manager of the Rhinoceros Editorial and Rhinoceros Post operations. "I hope I am right because we are really ready for it."
For companies like hybrid postproduction/design/graphics firm Charlex, New York, diversification has been about offering more options to clients in their core commercial business. Founder/CEO/executive creative director Alex Weil reports that ’02 was a banner year for his company, led by the success of its year-old 3-D division. "I think the ultimate sin in this business is expanding into too many areas," he says. "Our strength is that we’ve always been in one business—the graphics business."
While their core business has remained constant, Charlex president Chris Byrnes says that his company is finding work through new avenues. "We brought Anne Skopas in from [New York-based] Nice Shoes/Guava to be our new producer," reports Byrnes, adding that the company’s new business strategy has become more proactive, with Charlex approaching editorial facilities and production houses for business.
"We are trying to build a bridge to editors and directors," adds Weil. "We expect that to be a part of our growth this year. Skopas’ experience at Nice Shoes makes her the link to that world."
A trickle-down effect from agencies coping with smaller budgets has put pressure on all phases of production to bring in projects at lower cost. In the area of visual effects, those houses have used technology to their advantage. "The strategy has been to explore the newer, smaller Linux-based workstations," explains Jack Schaeffer, president of The Finish Line, Santa Monica. "We have moved away from single-purpose, big workstations to a software-driven environment where we can operate on a variety of platforms. The bigger workstations may serve as a focal point, but large portions of the work are distributed to smaller machines."
Schaeffer notes that smaller workstations are most useful when his artists are given a deadline and allowed to work unsupervised. "I believe the whole ritual of working with the client on the nice couches with the creature comforts is changing," he states. "The client wants it all packaged and put together for them, and they want someone taking responsibility for the project. One reason for it could be economic, as producers are juggling multiple projects. Without the ability to dedicate themselves to one thing at a time, they need their vendors to fill in the gaps and provide more support."
Richard Cormier, managing director of visual effects house R!OT Santa Monica, also sees the advantage of smaller workstations. "We bought some Shake licenses and we will do some more compositing on those platforms," he says. "I don’t think that there will be much more compositing done on platforms like Infernos in the future. What those kinds of platforms are good at is supervised work with the client."
In addition, Cormier also sees a future where visual effects work will be distributed to the masses. "I don’t think it is a stretch to say that in two or three years you will see a souped-up, HD-ready machine that can do visual effects and cutting for under forty-thousand dollars," says Cormier. "That will bring a brand new world to the visual effects industry. That revolution will be as big—or bigger than—the Avid revolution in the early-nineties. You can look at it as a challenge or a threat. From where I sit, it is creativity at its best. There is no limit, censorship is at a minimum and [artists] can create anything. It brings really fresh ideas to the table."
Pat Joseph, managing director at The Mill, which is headquartered in London and has an office in New York, disagrees. "Commercials are a client-driven business and the turnaround is very quick," he says. "Very much of what Discreet Flames and Infernos offer is a semi-real time environment—most things in real time or very quickly. The Combustion, Commotion and Shake environments are all tools we use extensively within this company, but they are part of the toolkit. Seventy percent of our work is still done within [larger, dedicated workstations]."
Robin Shenfield, CEO of The Mill, feels that from a business perspective, the opening of the company’s New York office last year was very well timed. "After Sept. 11, we predicted that the amount of work coming from the U.S. would decline slightly," he relates. "We decided that we would be happy to relocate and start a new venture since quite a few agency folk might not be so happy to come over here or be away from their families. I think that if we hadn’t opened the office, our overall U.S. business would have fallen. Now, the New York office is doing work in its own right for American clients, and acting to stimulate work traveling back into the U.K."
For companies like The Tapehouse, which has traditionally stayed very current with most emerging technologies, the struggling commercial production business has limited its technological upgrades. "We are reluctant to spend money these days because I don’t think people are willing to pay for a lot of the improvements we make," says Polyocan. "Competition has gotten so tough that in order to make the dollar last, people are trying to get the best possible price they can, whether it is with postproduction or special effects." Polyocan notes that regardless of the economy, upgrades have still been made to desktop systems for visual effects division Black Logic, and to telecine and HD equipment throughout the company.
Looking to the future, many businesses are interested in centralizing data. The promise is a more efficient workflow. "Part of Ascent Media’s push is figuring out a way to make data the means of choice for everything," explains Sonnenfeld. "So basically what you are doing is scanning your film the minute you shoot it. Once you scan that film in that neutral base fashion, you can send the data to all different areas. You can have effects start immediately before you even color correct. You can send it to the dirt cleaning guys, color correction, conform—those are the different things that are available if you have a soup-to-nuts platform."
Weil sees a similar future for Charlex’s visual effects operation. "I believe that Charlex is basically going to become one big computer with a bunch of workstations within two years," he states. "We’ve built powerful rendering farms and powerful workstations for our 3-D people, and that is starting to spread into 2-D. I have to question the future of single-purpose pieces of equipment."
In Style
Opinions about the current style trends in commercials run the gamut among postproduction executives. Sonnenfeld feels that agencies are beginning to take risks again. "I noticed that work is getting stronger," he says. "After 9/11, people were so safe and cautious about their material and subject matter. Now they are returning to the experimentation and different levels of comedy and visual imagery."
Polyocan couldn’t disagree more. "I find that most commercials have gotten very sophomoric," he remarks. "There are people out there who aren’t eighteen-years-old. What we are seeing now is certainly not the kind of creativity we saw in the past."
However, Polyocan doesn’t fault the post houses. "The disappointing thing is that they look great," he says. "The craftsmanship is wonderful, but the concept leaves a lot to be desired."
Regarding visuals, many of the executives SHOOT spoke with are finding that the new trend is in photo-realism and so-called "invisible graphics." "What you don’t notice is very much the trend at the moment," says Shenfield. Others note trends in film processing in both the feature film and commercial worlds. "In feature films like Traffic and O Brother, Where Art Thou?, film transfer and color process were used to create a really unusual look," says Meyer. "That [look] is starting to show up more in commercials."
And while Sonnenfeld feels the trend first started with commercials and has recently found its way into features, he agrees that new techniques in color treatments are popping up all over. "Now you can shoot a negative clean and emulate something else in telecine," he notes. "The beauty of that is you always have a nice, clean original to work from. A DP is manipulating light to achieve something, but why not be able to do that at the next level in telecine—to take what you intended and make it nicer or make it different? I don’t know why people are afraid of it. It is just the evolution of technology. It should enhance it and be whatever you want it to be."
