Prompted by the growth of interest in its music services, Video Post & Transfer (VP&T), Dallas, has restructured its former audio post division into Cuppa Joe Music, a full-fledged music/sound design/mixing company. Joe Macre, who was head of audio services at VP&T, will take the helm of the shop as senior engineer/composer.
The new music house will become the fourth postproduction subsidiary under the VP&T umbrella, joining broadcast graphics shop Hothaus Design, Dallas, film-processing arm The Lab, Dallas, and recently formed telecine boutique Pacific Data Post, Santa Monica (SHOOT, 1/28, p. 7). As with its Dallas-based sister companies, Cuppa Joe will work out of the main VP&T facility, in the same three-studio wing it had occupied as a VP&T division.
According to Macre—the "Joe" in the shop’s nickname—VP&T had decided to start up Cuppa Joe because his juggling 10 hours of mixing during the day, and composing music during the evenings and weekends, was becoming a matter of course. "I didn’t want to fall into that trap of being a one-man band, so I started interviewing people [and putting together a support staff]," he said.
Although the positions at VP&T required heavy mixing, Macre said he looked for people "that would [also] become a part of the scoring team." In the past year, Macre hired a staff of three. The first on board was engineer/composer Scottie Richardson. In the three years prior to VP&T, Richardson had worked in-house at J.C. Penney in a similar capacity. Macre also added engineer/composer Eric Jenkins, who had been freelance producing and engineering out of his apartment in Ft. Worth, Texas; and engineer/sound designer Jeff Barbian, who for the past 10 years had been earning his livelihood as a drummer in different swing bands.
Macre himself was a composer/live performer before he settled into the more routine lifestyle of a staff mixer. After eight years of working independently, Macre’s first full-time roost was Beachwood Studios, Cleveland, where he was director of audio services/senior engineer. After two years at that post, he relocated to Dallas, where he began with VP&T.
In ’96, the audio post department at the facility consisted only of Macre and former senior engineer Bruce Buehlman, who had brought Macre on board as a mixer/engineer. When Buehlman departed in ’98 (to Complete Post, Hollywood), Macre took on his job.
Cuppa Joe’s staff has already mixed a reel’s full of commercials, including several for McDonald’s via agency Moroch & Associates, Dallas; as well as Ford via JWT Specialized Communications, Dallas. Cuppa Joe also recently wrapped a 10 ID package for Showtime, called "No Limits." The shop scored and mixed the ID via Hothaus.
