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December 2014

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www.postmagazine.com 38 POST DECEMBER 2014 OUTLOOK BUSINESS O OUTLOOK O OUTLOOK he Post New York Alliance (www postnewyork.org) experienced considerable growth over the past fi ve years. The organization is made up of post professionals and studios that work on fi lm, television and entertainment properties in New York City and New York State. Collectively, their mission is to incentivize projects to fi nish in the State, as well as market the community's services and provide a path for talent to enter the local industry. Yana Collins Lehman is a co-chair for the Alliance and says that it has grown from 14 companies and one labor union in 2009, to 50 companies, two unions (Local 700 & Local 802), and 260 individual members. Members are surveyed three times a year, and provide feedback on revenue, expansion, and dollars spent. In 2014, Collins Lehman says several members invested in real estate, expand- ing their presence in New York City. Two "shining stars" she cites are Post Factory and Harbor Picture Com- pany. She also points to Terminus, a studio known for its music credits, which has upgraded its infrastruc- ture to take on fi lm and television work. "Looking ahead, we have Psyop, a VFX company, moving to a huge spot in Chinatown," says Collins Lehman, adding, "I know Phosphene and The Molecule are looking to expand to have pilot offi ces in the upstate area." PNYA has partnerships with upstate schools to help prepare younger talent for work in the post industry. Empire Visual Eff ects in Buff alo, for example, is the result of a partnership with the Daemen College International Center for Excellence in Ani- mation, IBC Digital and Sixteen19. "They all got together and started a cer- tifi cate program for visual eff ects," she ex- plains. "We got fi lm studios to sign letters of support saying they would send actual shots up there." Stu- dents get to work on real-world projects, and the business stays local, rather than going off to India or China. Alliance members, she says, are looking to establish similar companies in Central and Western New York. One reason for the positive momentum is the 2013 visual eff ects/ animation credit that New York off ers. "You can come to New York and only do visual eff ects," she explains. The incentive has led to an enormous increase in the amount of television work posting in New York — more than 80 pilots in 2014. "We have feature editors, assistant editors, and post producers who are working in television for the fi rst time," she notes. "There is so much television, and we never anticipated that when we were lobbying for the incentive, that so much television would take advantage of it." he production and post production land- scapes have converged. What used to be two separate fi elds have blurred. And although there will always be a demand for the premium specialist, more post production com- panies are moving towards off ering more complete, end- to-end solutions. In 2014, Nice Shoes launched its Creative Studio, which provides a full service creative complement to our color grading and fi nishing capabilities. As we enter 2015, we want to build on that groundwork in order to serve a wider range of clientele. In addition to the Creative Studio, we also continued to forge new partnerships with other best-in-class post houses across the country. These partnerships off er remote color services and talent exchange throughout secondary markets. Collab- orating with companies that might have once been considered competitors is a signifi cant paradigm shift for our company — and likely for the industry as a whole. This year, I went to IBC, along with our CTO Robert Keske and my partner, Chris Ryan. We researched a number of prod- ucts that would aid us in our goal of equip- ping our artists with the best end-to-end solutions out there. There were a number of vendors that had some really impressive toolsets on display, so it's clear the rest of the industry has this kind of workfl ow in mind as well. Technology changes but creativity is constant. Where the industry once obsessed on putting technology fi rst, we've all seen the conversa- tion shift from boxes to cre- ative solutions. What's more critical now is the human factor, building great teams and being a more complete resource. So while I can't identify any one standout trend for the coming year, I can only say that it's up to companies like Nice Shoes, and everyone in our industry, to push beyond trends and work to become nimble enough to adapt to the constantly-evolving needs of our clients. That adaptation will demand not only better technological foresight but also an increased sensitivity to a client who cares less about the "how" and more about the total solution and fi nal result. THE NEW YORK MARKET PUSHING BEYOND TRENDS & ADAPTING TO THE EVOLVING NEEDS OF CLIENTS BY DOMINIC PANDOLFINO CEO NICE SHOES NEW YORK CITY WWW.NICESHOES.COM Yana Collins Lehman T T Nice Shoes off ers a range of services, along with grading and fi nishing, for various project types. BY MARC LOFTUS SENIOR EDITOR/ DIRECTOR OF WEB CONTENT MLOFTUS@POSTMAGAZINE.COM

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