Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/28735
Evolving Post Studios The new building houses one floor of that flexible infrastructure Fitch referred to earlier.There are two floors of post suites, including audio, color correction and edito- rial.There is a screening room that is in the process of being made stereo 3D capable, a data center and some expansion floors and rental space.“We see a tapeless solu- tion in delivery systems of the future, and that is how we built the new facility. But we still have tape decks,” she laughs. Crawford and Fitch know the investment Howard Schwartz, with the next generation of HSR, his daughters Alexa and Zoe. well, plus offer more services as a full-ser- vice post house.” She points to all the decks and tape- based equipment that are still in demand and which smaller places can’t afford to house. Another strength has been the ability to have experts in all areas on staff at all times. “Clients come in and say, ‘I want to rent this camera, how will this translate into my post production?’They rely on our ex- pertise, and that will translate all the way through the rest of their post experience.” It’s these same clients that Crawford relies on to keep ahead of the curve.“Survival for us is a mix of finding all the things they are looking for — they drive our business, we don’t. If they need something, we provide it, and if we see a trend because of technology changes, that is where we gravitate.” Crawford’s most recent gravitation was into a new 80,000-square-foot facility, after just 10 years at its last location.“This new building gave us the opportunity to look at what clients need and to build for the fu- ture.What we built is a data-based work- flow, keeping in mind how to push and pull from suite to suite.”The goal was to have the operator move rooms, not the client. in infrastructure is warranted, and the Geor- gia state tax incentives being offered to film- makers has been key to its expansion and positive view of the future. Crawford has most recently seen a growth in TV series work, providing digital dailies and ADR for the AMC series The Walking Dead and CW’s Vampire Diaries, as well as ADR work for Drop Dead Divas. All of this TV work has got them looking into a recent trend — having trained DITs to go on set when needed.“We are doing a lot of work for TV series and movies of the week that are coming to Georgia. On-set support is something we are developing.” BOOGIE STUDIO Montreal’s Boogie Studio (www.boogies- tudio.com), which opened in Montreal as an audio post studio in 2006, recently ex- panded its offerings with the addition of vi- sual effects and post services. Growth in this economic climate is to be commended, especially when long-standing visual effects companies like Asylum and Café FX have gone away. Benoit Martel and Sebastien Dostie, who are driving the VFX division, which opened in 2010, are determined not to let that happen to them, and one big step they are taking is educating clients to the benefits of hourly rates instead of typical visual effects flat fees. Flat rates can leave a visual effects house open for an unlimited amount of changes, leading to what Martel refers to as “eating your shorts.” Little changes here and there that can literally put a studio out of business, he says. They have reached out to some clients, specifically Montreal agency Sidlee, which recently got the worldwide Dell account, and asked them how they would feel about working with hourly rates for VFX and post? “They are willing to collaborate to improve the way they do digital produc- tion, and they are open to do things differ- ently,” reports Martel. Flat fees are not healthy for projects, says Dostie. “It’s not helping the content or to meet the deadlines for the client. A lot of creative directors are discovering this. At Si- dlee they are on the forefront of new tech- nologies and innovation, and they are now bringing in the creative and experts to dis- cuss how projects should be shaped, even before there is a final budget.” “Ten or 15 years ago,VFX was maybe 10 percent of the budget, maximum,” explains Martel, “but now it can be 30, 40 or even 100 percent of the budget. So seeing post and VFX firms as the end of the chain is no longer a reality, because at the end of the pipeline they don’t have any money left.” It’s about the balance between the budget and the creative expectations, and Boogie points to a recent feature film they worked on called The Howling Reborn, directed by Joe Nimziki.When Boogie was approached for the film, the concept had yet to be locked. “They didn’t have specific breakdowns, so we couldn’t evaluate details of how we were going to do the work, so doing a flat fee would have been suicidal,” explains Martel. “We gave them a bundle of hours where they could do anything they wanted to. Dur- ing the course of production, we provided daily reports of the costs with an actual snapshot of the status of project.At the end everybody was happy.” 42 Post • April 2011 www.postmagazine.com