The catalyst for New York-based Outpost Digital came by way of some renovations on the New York office of TVT Records. Evan Schechtman, who at the time was TVT’s manager of information services, was at a crossroads. "I was doing typical tech support, what we called diaper changes—same person, same problem, day after day," Schechtman recalls. "But I was overflowing with ideas and just foaming at the mouth about video and postproduction."
Not sure what career path would satisfy his dual passions for technology and creative media, Schechtman had taken a stab at film school, but left after two years, dissatisfied with the college’s level of technological resources and expertise. He began working as a video engineer for Cablevision, Bethpage, N.Y., and later as a technician for Machattan, New York, an Apple authorized reseller and service provider, before joining TVT.
Flashforward to the construction at TVT, during which Schechtman was relegated to sharing an office with Jon Messersmith, TVT’s director of business development and a graduate of the MBA program at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, Philadelphia.
"I thought, ‘Here’s this guy with beautiful business credentials, but he’s also very up on technology,’ " Schechtman continues. "It seemed like a good place to start."
Moreover, the two hit it off. After considering several business plans, their concept for Outpost began to gel. "Jon saw the coming democratization of digital video (DV) products, of putting the tools in people’s hands" as a viable marketplace, Schechtman reports.
"What was sitting on a desktop today for a few thousand dollars was previously only available to professional editors and editing houses," adds Messersmith. "So the changes caused by the digital revolution, as it’s been called, have a major impact not only on the economics of postproduction, but also on just the way people are thinking about how they do their projects."
Enlisting a third partner, George Yaghmour—a specialist in networking and computer infrastructure—the team became a trio, which launched Outpost Digital in ’99 as a postproduction studio specializing in digital design, editing and effects services. The studio featured several offline/online editing suites available for rent. The three began offering consulting, training and support services as well, figuring that the people they trained in desktop postproduction would become regular clients. As an Apple-authorized solutions expert proficient in Apple’s desktop-editing software Final Cut Pro, Outpost also produced a training series available on VHS and soon to be available on DVD.
The timing couldn’t have been better. "When DV and Final Cut Pro hit the streets, there was a big cloud over the format itself and its capabilities," says Schechtman. "That cloud was started by people not being experienced in it, or being afraid of it. To some extent, we were the only place in town saying, ‘Yes, you can do this. Here’s how.’ So our training became very popular."
THE BUYOUT
This past October, bicoastal/ international production house @radical.media made Outpost an offer it couldn’t refuse, buying the studio for an undisclosed sum (SHOOT, 10/20, p. 1). At the time, Jon Kamen, co-proprietor of @radcial.media, told SHOOT that Outpost would operate as a division of the production company, and would continue to service its more than 300 clients, including Saks Fifth Avenue, Calvin Klein, American Express, ESPN The Magazine and Ogilvy & Mather, New York. At the same time, Kamen said, Outpost would integrate its networking and digital postproduction services into the @radical organization, which includes offices in New York, Los Angeles, Paris, London and Sydney—plus one coming soon in Berlin.
"Outpost takes us to the next step in becoming a digital studio," says Kamen. "In all our offices, we will have the capability of Outpost’s office to use for our internal applications. Producing in a DV platform is a very efficient system for exchanging information. This will be an important production, management and sales tool."
"We never necessarily intended to be acquired," explains Messersmith. "But what we saw was a great opportunity to bring together what we were doing with [@radical. media, which] was becoming one of our biggest customers, and to really create a whole that’s greater than the sum of its parts." Prior to the acquisition, for instance, Outpost finished a Ralf Schmerberg-helmed Sam Adams campaign via The McCarthy Co., Princeton, N.J., and produced by @radical. Messersmith continues, "@radical has a huge built-in workflow of very high-quality projects, as well as an international presence. We had a great idea and a great way of working, and needed a distribution outlet to capitalize on it. The marriage of those two entities made a lot of sense."
THE LIFE
Schechtman points to another advantage to becoming part of the @radical family. "[The acquisition] gave us the confidence to sell different types of work," he says. "It gave us the confidence and little bit of financial strength to technologically try new things that we wouldn’t have hedged our bets on before."
For example, in the near future, Outpost will finish a 32-episode TV series that @radical.media is producing for ESPN. The Life, described as Behind the Music for sports, minus the sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll, will be captured and posted in DV. "It will be following around professional athletes, focusing on their daily lives and how each one is an industry unto him- or herself," explains Schechtman. "The technical kick is that we’re keeping it digital the whole time. The finishing is our secret for now. But it will be done at Outpost using a brand-new method of ours."
Since the @radical.media deal, Outpost has hired three additional staffers—AfterEffects artist/editor Peter McCoubrey, animator Howard Lamb and operations manager Zennia Barahona—bringing its personnel tally to 10. They are currently teaming with Schmerberg on a Nike campaign out of Wieden+Kennedy, Portland, Ore., which will be shot on DV.
Outpost has also recently produced three Flash-animated spots, and has finished 15 video spots that will stream on Absolut Vodka’s Web site. TBWA/Chiat/Day, New York, acquired the live-action footage, while Outpost’s A.J. Pyatak and Jim Dody created the Flash spots.
Creative tool
According to Messersmith, Outpost is also entrenched in "bringing @radical into the 21st century, in terms of information infrastructure as well as what I’d call creative infrastructure." He continues, "The Internet is not only an administrative tool. It’s a creative tool. There will be a networking component [to what we’re building]. There’s going to be an interface developed for all of @radical’s offices and different departments so they can communicate better. And there’s going to be a media management package that will be installed to really help organize the creative process."
Outpost is also busy training @radical.media directors and other personnel in digital postproduction tools. "We and @radical believe that training and staff development is a very integral part of everything," says Messersmith.
Down the road, Outpost has its sights set on growth on several fronts, but is moving ahead cautiously. Initially, the company will expand into areas where @radical.media is already established, such as Los Angeles and overseas. "Eventually, we anticipate a further geographic expansion into satellite locations where we can spread our gospel," says Schechtman.
The studio will continue to build its staff size, too. However, according to Messersmith, no one is rushing. "We don’t want to create a company by putting a bunch of bodies in a room," he says. "We’re also looking for people who are both creative and technically savvy, and they aren’t a dime a dozen."
On the horizon, Outpost sees itself tapping into "a secondary market," one born out of packaging the services the firm provides for @radical.media and selling them to other producers of digital media. "We’re going to try to leverage everything we’re learning by working with @radical and applying those technologies, techniques and the products that we create from this learning experience to a secondary market," says Messersmith. "Part of that will come from simply consulting, and part will come from putting together packages of products we developed to solve @radical’s problems. The notion is that a lot of other companies out there probably have the same issues that @radical does."y
