Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/69535
Running A Post Every post business has its own recipe for success, and while some ingre- dients vary, a talented and well-trained staff is a necessity in every kitchen…um, studio. So is making sure clients are well fed with creative ideas, solutions and quality work . OUTPOST DIGITAL Evan Schechtman was just 20 years old when he started NYC's Outpost Digital (www.outpostdigital.com) in his apartment back in 1998. You could say he was some- thing of a prodigy. After dropping out of film school, Schechtman threw himself into the technology of the industry. He was a heavy Adobe Premiere user who built his own systems. That led to a tech support job for a company called MacHattan, which focused on media-based companies in the city. "I got to a small business ran, and I got to see what real companies were doing with media technology at the time." He liked the job, where he became "the de facto digital video guy," but grew tired of syncing palm pilots for executives. It was about this time that he saw the potential of the DV format and felt a business could be built around it. "It redefined the price/performance curve for acquisition and editing, so I started a little company which was based on the idea of being the Kinko's of desk- top video — highly specialized rinse and repeat tasks. I was like a service bureau and rental facil- ity doing a lot of DV work." Schechtman worked in Premiere at first, but then got his hands on a copy of Apple's Final Cut Pro 1. "I got to see ho see how He quickly saw the benefits of the software and became an expert of sorts on the tool, often teaching others about its benefits. This got Apple's attention. Around that same time filmmaker Gus Van Sant was also embracing Final Cut Pro, but had no one to help him through specifics of the software. Schechtman flew out to the West Coast and trained Van Sant and his producer Danny Wolf. This was a very fortuitous meeting, because it was Wolf who introduced Schechtman to John Kamen from Radical Media. 16 Post • June 2012 www.postmagazine.com Janimation created "Tim" for The Richards Group and NatureSweet. See page 44 for details and how this 20-year-old studio has thrived. Business Pros share the secrets of their success. By Randi Altman