year existence, Postique, Southfield, Mich., has been driven to push the envelope in postproduction. When Postique was founded in 82, the goal of its original investors and shareholders was to break through the clutter of traditional facilities in the Detroit market and beyond, and offer a full arsenal of tools and talent in a creative boutique environment.
In 97, the company, along with its editorial arm, Griot Editorial, was purchased by Grace & Wild Inc., Farmington Hills, Mich. Grace & Wild Inc. is a production and presentation related services business that, in addition to other interests, owns several post companies, including Grace & Wild Digital Studios, and Division X, both based in Farmington Hills.
Postique enjoys a national and regional reputation for work that extends well beyond the automotive spots common to the Detroit market. No doubt, the automobile industry is one of the largest in the world, and so there are some of the largest advertising agencies headquartered or with offices in the Detroit market, explains Steven D. Wild, president of Grace & Wild. But those agencies arent necessarily going to depend on just auto advertising. Detroit is a lot more than cars: We have Dominos Pizza and Little Caesars, two of the largest pizza companies in the world, as well as Kelloggs and many other companies. Consequently, we do a nice balance between automotive industry and other kinds of work.
Although Postique has done post on numerous ads for carmakers such as Dodge, Chrysler, General Motors, and Pontiac, some of the companys most recent work is for non-automotive spots. Standard Federals Mortgage, Universal and Projector, directed by Dan Hackett of Avalon Films, Farmington, Mich., out of BBDO Detroit, Troy, Mich., were handled by Postique, with the offline edit done at Griot. Likewise, Fords Race For The Cure, helmed by Barbara Kopple of Santa Monica-based Nonfiction Films via J. Walter Thompson, Detroit, was posted through Postique and Griot.
It is a competitive market here as it is everywhere in the post business, explains Wild of the Detroit post scene. That is driven by many factors, one being the lower cost of entry to buy equipment to produce programming. We had competitive pressure from Toronto up through 1998, but for some reason, there is not so much of that today.
Staying competitive has meant keeping an ear to the ground in terms of high definition. Weve been on top of HD development since the early 80s, and all of our purchases in the last several years have been of equipment that provides either an upgrade path or current capability, says Wild, noting that the company has a Philips BTS Spirit DataCine.
collective
Wild attributes Postiques success to the company offering its clients access to technical and creative resources. The editing process has changed quite a bit from a process-oriented approach, where people used to call up and say AI want to buy four hours of edit time, two hours of Paintbox, and two hours of telecine, and Ill need dubs when I leave, he explains. Also, the complexity of the tools provides so many options to the customers, that when they are in the development stage of their ad campaigns, they look to us for advice and creative ideas.
Postique is relied on more and more for creative input, concurs company senior colorist Eric Maurer. And we bring a lot more to the party with everyone collaborating on projects. We draw on our experiences and apply it according to the work that we see. For example, I get involved early if the project involves a lot of heavy-duty graphics.
Kevin Gillespie, director of design and visual effects services for Postique, Grace & Wild Digital Studios, and Division X, agrees that Postiques collaborative environment is what sets them apart. For the most part, the high-end commercial post facilities in town do a lot of auto work, he says. Its the biggest industry in town. Here, there are a handful of high-end facilities, as opposed to Los Angeles, where you have many. Postique has always been defined as a creative house. People will come to us when they need ideas, not just because we have a lot of capacity.
One of Gillespies primary missions has been the development of a design team capable of drawing national commercial work. At one time, our graphics and design services were limited to one guy with a Paintbox, says Gillespie. Now Postique has a very diverse group of designers with the serious common goal of competing on a national level, creating great motion graphics and design for broadcast. I intend to develop the design and effects services throughout the company along those same lines.
Gillespie has encouraged the artists to expand their boundaries by working on a variety of equipment, rather than designating one artist to a particular system. In many markets, Detroit included, designers and their boxes have always been sold as discrete functions, with this particular artist on this particular piece of gear, he says. In reality, Ive found that allowing the artists to work in a collaborative fashion and move between the different technology platforms always result in better work. It also allows us to allocate our resources-both people and equipment-in the most productive way. Its a different way of thinking, from how its sold to how its organized. This more flexible method of operation encourages individual and team growth and will enhance our design and effects service areas throughout the corporation. Griot Editorial is also part of the creative mix. The fact that the editorial boutique is located in the same building as Postique facilitates exchange with both film-to-tape transfer and graphic design.
Were right down the hall, and so it makes things very collaborative, says Stewart Shevin, VP/ supervising editor at Griot Editorial. For instance, I can be working on something, and have an idea for the design treatment of a logo. Instead of me having to truck over somewhere, we can work a little more face-to-face with clients. It works really well.
However, Shevin says that Postique and Griot do not package their services, and projects that come to Griot Editorial sometimes go outside Postique for post. Because we are film editorial, we try to post at the right place for the project and the client, Shevin says. That can take us not only to Postique, but also to different places around town and out of town too.
According to Shevin, Detroit Edisons (now DTE) E=DTE is indicative of a project where the different parties worked together to much success. The spot, out of Buckhammer & Jankowski (now Jankowski & Co.) Detroit, was directed by Dick Buckley, then with bicoastal Coppos Films; Buckley now has an informal relationship with bicoastal Flying Tiger Films. Based on the formula E (Energy)= DTE (the companys stock symbol), the ad features images of Detroit and its environs in a montage of fast-moving and stop-motion footage in a highly stylized color palette. This is accompanied by a wide array of type and graphic treatments.
That project was very much about throwing things back and forth between the different departments, Shevin says. It involved starting with a basic edit. Then, I gave direction for a graphic design apart from what was shot, and got feedback from the graphic designers, compositors and type designers. There was a constant back and forth, and as things changed, so did the color correction, which also played in the mix.
In todays world, everything has to have a different look, says Maurer, who was the colorist on E=DTE. [For that spot I] took what one would think as normal color and inverted it. It was a combination of a good track with editing and design to make something that conceptually and creatively, you could say was very cool.’
