Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/54443
REALITY TV in Miami back in 2005, initially working on promos, but always with the interest in creating orig- inal reality programming. Today, the studio still works on promos, including a recent piece for Dish and Blockbuster, but it's also busy creating original unscripted series for the likes of CMT, Plan- et Green, Travel Channel and Animal Planet. According to 2C Media's co- president/executive producer Carla Kaufman Sloan, the studio conceives shows and then pro- duces polished sizzle reels to pitch to networks. "It's almost Leopard Films produces Pumped! for Spike. Pictured are editor Jason Alperti and story producer Jennifer Langheld. these pros have worked on programs for years at a time. "We may not keep them around 12 months out of the year, [but] over time we've worked with all of these people for many years and that is not going to change with this transition." The switch from Final Cut Pro to Avid, says Raudonis, should be a relatively smooth one for the facility. "One of the reasons that this is an easy decision for us is that we don't have to change our client — the computer that's in the edit room. We have late model Mac towers and this version of Avid can [run on] either the PC or the Mac. Since we already have the Macs, it's just a software install for us. That made it a simple and rela- tively easy transition for us." Approximately 10 percent of the studio's systems will be dedicated to finishing on the Symphony 6. The new gear is expected to satisfy their post needs for the next three years."Computer equipment doesn't wear out or grow old or get written off before it's outdated," he explains. "Technology is chang- ing faster than the equipment is wearing out or you are amortizing it. You have to pick a comfortable amount of time that you are okay with and target it. For an install of this size, I would say three years is a fair number." 2C MEDIA 2C Media (www.2cmedia.com) opened Burbank's AlphaDogs (www.alphadogs.tv) provides post services for the Logo TV group therapy reality series Bad Sex, which profiles the lives of 10 individuals struggling with compulsive and intimacy disor- ders. The studio worked on 10 episodes for PB&J Television, providing numerous services, including color grading via FCP 7. AlphaDogs is responsible for delivering textless SD, HD, international and iTunes files, and uses AJA's Kona 3 card to transcode the editing and source media frame rate of 23.98 to the broadcast frame rate of 29.97. 26 Post • February 2012 www.postmagazine.com like showing them exactly what the show is going to look like in case they want to modify it in some way. Then, we sell it to them based on an order." "Some networks call up and have a very specific idea but don't know who the talent is, or have a vague idea and ask us to help develop it," adds 2C Media's Chris Sloan, who serves as president/executive creative director. The studio could spend several weeks and up to $30,000 developing a pitch and reel, though nothing is guaranteed. "If you sell three out of 10 shows, that's a good batting average," Chris notes. 2C Media is in the second season of Swamp Wars, a show it developed, produces and posts for Animal Planet. The show takes place in South Florida and follows the Venom Unit of a fire/rescue team. Its members are experts in dealing with poisonous snakes and also provide anti-venom for snake bites. The show's first Another 12 have since been ordered. 2C Media uses Sony EX3 XDCAM cam- eras in the field, shooting to solid-state stor- age. They also make use of Canon 5Ds for second unit photography. "We shoot with hard drives and cards, and the video is imme- diately downloaded, transcribed and logged using Final Cut Server," says Chris. "The story producer will edit on Final Cut just for the story, for content. They don't worry about pacing or music. Those Final Cut timeline sequences go into the edit and the editors become 'preditors.' They look at the log and music and pacing, and they are cutting on their own. The story producer would be on to another edit." order was for six episodes. 2C Media is home to 10 fully-equipped HD Final Cut bays. The studio also has a number of iMacs that can be used in the editing process too. "It's amazing how inex- pensive the technology is these days, except for an HDCAM SR deck," he notes. "You can scale up with another edit bay from $12,000 to $25,000 and have it installed in three days as opposed to three months. Basically every iMac in the facility is an edit bay, sharing the same storage. I don't think we could be doing what we are doing [otherwise] because these budgets are so brutal. There's a lot of programming out there, but unscripted pro- gramming is not high budget, so the fact that you can put this type of programming on the screen wouldn't have been possible to this extent five years ago." 2C Media recently upgraded its storage from a Facilis TerraBlock to a 72TB Infotrend SAN solution. For graphics, the studio relies on Adobe's CS5, including After Effects and Photoshop. They produce show opens and titles in-house. At press time, the studio was working on an upcoming show for the Travel Channel titled Miami International Airport. The show's concept includes working with the airport, different airlines and government agencies such as the Department of Homeland Secu- rity and the TSA. The ability to use compact technology that is unobtrusive to the air- port's inner workings, in part, makes produc- tion of the show possible. LEOPARD FILMS Pumped! is a new show for Speed that allows participants to fill up their wallets while they are filing up their gas tanks. The ambush-style game show is set at three Sunoco stations throughout New York and Pennsylvania, and catches unsuspecting motorists as they prepare to fuel up. Steve Gruskin is the line producer and post supervisor for Pumped!, which is pro- duced by Leopard Films (www.leopardfilm- susa.com) in NYC — the same studio that brings you House Hunters International. The company shot the show's pilot episode last May and then produced another 19 epi- sodes in October, bringing the first season episode total to 20. All of the content was shot over 13 days and included 80 contes- tants, close to 60 of which will make it into