When Toronto-born editor Michael Van de Kamer moved to Dallas 16 years ago, he knew it wasn’t the wisest career decision. "There had been lots of advertising opportunities [in Toronto], and it was extremely difficult finding work here," admits Van de Kamer, senior editor/owner of Post: Op, Dallas. "There was an ingrained ‘good old boy’ kind of system going on, and it was very, very hard to break in."
What’s more, early ’80s Dallas wasn’t exactly a hotbed of commercial postproduction activity, as Van de Kamer quickly found out. The practical solution would’ve been to cut his losses, pack up his reel and head for the nearest coast—or, at least, back to Toronto. But to the young editor, who had followed his girlfriend to Texas, practicality was not an option. "She’d stolen my heart," he explains.
He decided to make Dallas work for him. "I brought a new, fresh approach to postproduction for commercials, and finally some people saw some talent and gave me a chance." Working out of Allied WBS, a Dallas post house that worked mainly on feature films, Van de Kamer established himself as a freelancer and developed experience in both spots and feature films.
Within a short time, he struck out on his own and founded the editorial boutique Post: Op. "I borrowed some money to buy equipment, and that was the beginning," Van de Kamer recalls. "Basically it was two rooms. The staff was me and someone who handled bids, producing and scheduling. I was the only editor for quite a while."
Post: Op’s client list has grown and diversified over the years. The company recently worked on several spots for DDB Dallas, including "Perfume Gauntlet" for FootAction USA, directed by Dave Merhar of Visitor, Santa Monica; Arizona Jeans’ "Batting Cage," helmed by David Ramser of bicoastal The A+R Group; and Nintendo’s "If Shaq Invented Basketball," directed by David Jellison of bicoastal Tool of North America. Other recent spots include "Performance" for Wyndham Hotels, directed by Kevin Donovan of bicoastal Bedford Falls, via The Richards Group, Dallas.
Post: Op’s recent endeavors highlight the company’s ability to cut in a variety of styles. For example, "Batting Cage" relies on humor to sell jeans. In the ad, a teenage boy shows off his baseball prowess in the batting cage. When three teenage girls take notice of him, he gets distracted and is hit by the baseball in a rather uncomfortable place. The tagline: "At least part of you is comfortable." "Performance" is more visually oriented. In illustrating the hotel’s sponsorship of Cirque du Soleil, it shows Wyndham Hotel staffers performing acrobatic feats to accomplish their duties.
Staffed Up
In ’92, Van de Kamer doubled his editorial staff, hiring former Allied WBS cutter Doug Bryan, who is now a senior editor at Post: Op. "I’d known Michael since he first came to Dallas," relates Bryan. "When we were both at WBS, I was more involved in the feature film end of things. Michael and a handful of other guys were handling whatever advertising was around back then."
After joining Post: Op, Bryan shifted his focus toward commercial work. Five years ago, Van de Kamer expanded his company’s services by hiring digital artist/compositor Gerlinde Scharinger, formerly of Magnetic North, Toronto. He also hired two more creative editors: Roger Gill, who had been an editor with Video Post & Transfer, Dallas, and newcomer Marc Stone. "Right now, I think we’re the best we’ve ever been," Van de Kamer says of his 12-person staff of producers, editors and engineers. "We’ve had some changes, because this place is not going to be right for everyone. Quite frankly, the heat gets very hot here, and the people who can’t stand it leave. It’s a very small company and there’s no room to hide. We work very hard.
"We’re all very good editors, and I think that very good editors can adapt their style and their taste for different ideas," Van de Kamer continues. "I think it would be tiring if you were known for, say, comedy dialogue, and that’s all you ever edited. Somebody who loves to cut dialogue would potentially love to cut something to music, or handle different types of montage editing, vignettes or design work."
Post: Op has three Avid offline suites, digital compositing equipment and online and audio suites. "Getting into our own finish in both video and audio is very exciting," says Van de Kamer. "It isn’t like booking three hours at another facility, working the three hours and leaving. I think every editor who works that way wishes they could go back for another two or three hours and make it better. We can do that now. It makes everything more of a group effort. Everybody is thinking about the job for as long as it’s here."
The audio division was an important addition for Van de Kamer and Bryan. "We’ve both been doing sound since we started," Van de Kamer says. "Assistants get thrown sound effects, and they have to link them up and make them work. I love that whole part of editing." The division is headed by chief engineer Collyer Spreen, and can be used for sound design, music production, mix-to-picture and voiceover recording. It also enables Bryan to compose original music. "I was in a regional band for many years in the eighties and early nineties," he explains. "I’ve always liked the idea of being an editor on a job and also handling the musical score. With the equipment, you can customize the music to the edit and vice versa. So by the end of the project, you’ve got a pretty tight thing going on, and the clients seem to be happy with it."
Though their involvement varies from project to project, it isn’t uncommon for the Post: Op editors to contribute to preproduction and production. "Quite often, we’ll get pulled in prior to a project for conference calls, or we’ll go on shoots," Van de Kamer says.
"We’ve been around in this market for a while, and agencies trust us with that sort of thing," Bryan adds. "They encourage us to talk with directors and production companies up front about certain technical things, to iron them out early and make for a smoother post experience."
The company’s workload continues to grow. Bryan just completed a "greenscreen-intensive thing" for Golden Corral restaurants out of The Richards Group, Dallas, and Van de Kamer is currently editing Home Depot’s 2000 campaign, also for The Richards Group. Though he admits he sometimes wishes his company were "in bigger hoppers for bigger jobs," he’s happy where he is. "My life here is just this side of perfect," says Van de Kamer, who married the woman he followed there 16 years ago. "Texas has been awesome to me. I can’t give it enough back."
