Chicago’s production and postproduction communities have evolved in order to support the town’s sizable advertising community. But as the lion’s share of commercial production coming out of Chicago agencies has shifted to the West Coast over the last decade or so, it’s now standard for directors to hop on a plane and shoot spots. And as agencies have also increasingly remained in California to cut and finish work, several Chicago post houses have opted to open outposts there in order to service their Chicago agency clientele as well as tap into work from other markets.
Among those who have extended westward are post facility Avenue (formerly Avenue Edit), which launched its Santa Monica shop in Nov. ’96, and Chicago-based post shop Cutters, which formed a visual effects and design division, SOL designfx, Santa Monica, two and a half years ago. Earlier this year, Cutters revamped its operation to create a more distinct identity for its post-related services: the shop’s Chicago-based effects and finishing artists are now also under the SOL designfx banner, and its Chicago-based audio division is a separate entity known as Another Country (SHOOT, 2/18).
Additionally, The Lookinglass Company maintains creative editorial houses in Santa Monica and Chicago, recently expanding its Southern California studio with an infusion of key talent.
California, however, is not the only locale for expansion. Consider film-to-tape, effects and finishing house The Filmworkers Club, which diversified into film processing with the opening of Chicago-based Sanitary Lab in late ’93. Filmworkers then opened a telecine operation in Dallas in Oct. ’95, and a Dallas-based Sanitary Lab in late ’97. In April of that year, the company launched The Filmworkers Club, Nashville, which offers telecine, Henry and Avid editorial.
While providing a base for its Chicago staff talent to work out of may have been the original intent behind many companies’ expansions, the firms now run their other operations as separate entities with full-time staff based in the area. "The idea has been to be available for Chicago [agencies]," explains Wendy McCarty, Avenue’s Santa Monica-based executive producer. "But it’s really to put in place people indigenous to Los Angeles, where the majority of our editors come from." Those cutters include Roger Marshall and Rochelle Ford, who have worked at Avenue Santa Monica since its inception. The office has since expanded with the addition of editors Kim Salter and Dean Gonzales, as well as Matt Konicek and Adrienne Gits, formerly of Avenue Chicago. Avenue Santa Monica’s staff also includes Inferno artist Doug Spilatro and Fire/design artist Kim Harper.
McCarty estimates that about 25 percent of Avenue Santa Monica’s workload originates from Chicago. The remainder of the company’s business is from shops on the West Coast, in New York and Minneapolis, as well as other regions. Recent credits include "Fender" and "Fire" for State Farm Insurance, via DDB Chicago, which were cut by Marshall and directed by Robert Black of bicoastal Message. Ford edited Sealy Posturepedic’s "Eyes" and "Mom," via Long Haymes Carr, Winston-Salem, N.C., and helmed by David Cameron of bicoastal/international The A+R Group. Gits recently cut "Empty Nest" and "Useful Things," both directed by Jim Zoolalian of Boxer Films, Los Angeles, for GMAC, out of Valentine-Radford, Kansas City, Mo. While a few Avenue Chicago editors have used the Santa Monica branch as a satellite facility, McCarty says, "We don’t depend on that."
Nor do the Dallas and Nashville offices of Filmworkers, which are self-contained entities. Reid Brody, Filmworkers Club VP/principal, says that the expansions into those areas were client-driven. "We had a lot of clients in the Southwest who really liked the lab and telecine combination," says Brody. "They said ‘We need this in Dallas,’ and after hearing it repeatedly, we started to explore it."
According to Brody, the Dallas and Chicago offices each do work both from the Southwest and Midwest. "A lot of Chicago commercial productions shoot in the Southwest and become Filmworkers Club Dallas clients, and vice versa," he explains. "It’s nice when you can work like that." Among Filmworkers Club Dallas credits are "Manhattan Steak and Shrimp," "Sense of Place," "Santa Fe Stuffed Chicken" and "Santa Fe Fajitas," all directed by Jeff Bednarz of directorz, Dallas, for Applebee’s via FCB Chicago.
In contrast, the Nashville Filmworkers Club is much more closely tied to the music video and broadcast industries. "It’s almost like a totally different entity although, on a few occasions, we have done graphics projects here for them," says Brody.
Filmworkers has been considering expanding its Dallas operation into the graphics and effects realm, but the company has no plans for a West Coast branch. "L.A., in my opinion, is too screwed up right now to do anything with," says Brody. "With Four Media Company (4MC) buying everything up, and Liberty Media Corporation buying Four Media, it’s going to take a few years for that to settle down. From a boutique standpoint, it’s very frightening to go into that right now." (The Englewood, Colo.-based Liberty Media Corporation recently acquired 4MC, Burbank, Calif. 4MC is comprised of such houses as R!OT and Company 3, both in Santa Monica; as well as Encore Hollywood, Anderson Video, Universal City, Calif.; and 4MC Asia, Singapore, and SVC Television, London. Meanwhile, 4MC last month announced the purchase of four post studiosa525 Studios, Santa Monica, Rushes and West One Television, both in London, and Mexico City’s Virgin Television de Mexicoafrom London-headquartered Virgin Media Group.)
