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OPEN HOUSE ollywood-based full service post company SonicPool Post Production (www.son- icpool.com) has expanded its busi- ness with the March 1 st acquisition of Shapeshifter (http://shapeshifterpost. com) in Burbank, CA. SonicPool offers a comprehensive line of post produc- tion services, rentals and products. The company was founded in 2001 and has grown organically to offer sound and picture finishing and delivery. On its own, SonicPool features 20,000 square feet of space, including a 20-seat THX- certified mixing stage and 45 edit bays. Shapeshifter's business began around the same time, and while smaller in its footprint, offers nearly identical services. "It's a nice, organic fit for us," says SonicPool's Chris Vorhies, who will continue in his role as general manager. "It's giving us the opportunity to provide a Universal City/Burbank location for our clients and not lose our Hollywood location." Shapeshifter will also see benefits, Vorhies adds. "Now they have a true stage for their mixers and colorists to do final mix and final color." They also gain more offline rental space — 45 edit bays added to their existing 25 — and equipment. Vorhies says SonicPool looked into purchasing a new building to expand its business, but found an acquisition to be a better match. "It's a lot less expensive," he says of the latter. "You are acquiring an existing business, [rather] than building it from the ground up. I don't have to do con- struction and build out my online bays and my audio bays. Those are there and working. We can breathe a little bit of fresh life with more sales force for them and bring them more work to make them busier than they were." SonicPool, says Vorhies, grew organ- ically, starting with one audio system 16 years ago, and a single room. "Over the years, we took over this entire building," he reflects. "We added more audio. We added Foley. We added all the ISDN and ADR recording. We added picture ser- vices, then we built a stage, then we built a green-screen stage. It's all under one umbrella company." That growth, he believes, put the com- pany in a better place than those studios that have grown through venture capital. "We've seen the venture capitalists, who dump a bunch of money into a company and buy up a bunch of others, and you're run by a corporate company," he says. "That's not what SonicPool did. You end up with a big corporate conglomerate and you lose that one-on-one feel. That's something we've been very conscious of not losing. I don't want any client to get on the phone with someone who answers to a bean counter. I don't have to go to a board of directors and say, 'This is why I made this bid and made this deal.' We are post people. We understand it." SonicPool will serve as the parent com- pany, but the Shapeshifter name will now be referred to as Shapeshifter Universal. "Shapeshifter has a great reputation, great people who work there, and a great client base, and we don't want to disrupt that business," he notes. "The same peo- ple are going to be answering the phone. The workflow hasn't changed. The talent hasn't changed." The "Universal" reference, says Vorhies, will be attractive to clients who don't want to travel to their Hollywood facility. "We do a lot of reality television and we end up getting clients that want to be on 'that' side of the hill, even though they're not that far away from us," he explains. "It's very interesting in LA how [clients say], 'I'm not going over the hill!' It can be a 12-minute drive or it can be an hour- long drive. So you get a lot of producers who won't come over the hill. No prob- lem, we have our Burbank location or Universal City location, and we're calling it 'Shapeshifter Universal.'" Mark Knell, who was the head of post production at Viacom/MTV Networks for more than 10 years, recently joined the company and now serves as GM of Shapeshifter Universal. Vorhies says 2017 might see further developments at the company, as they are looking to expand their rental systems and out-of- house business. "I can't name the company yet, but we are talking about bringing someone in," he hints. In the meantime, another initiative in- volves pitching production. The compa- ny has a long history in post and reality TV, which has lead it to pursue the idea of pitching show ideas to networks such as Netflix, Amazon, Discovery and the likes. "We are hoping we can pitch shows, do the production and provide our own services," he explains. "We know post and how to deliver, now we are going to learn production." SONICPOOL EXPANDS BUSINESS WITH SHAPESHIFTER ACQUISITION Shapeshifter's lobby H BY MARC LOFTUS SonicPool's After Effects bay Amenities within Shapeshifter THIS HOLLY- WOOD STUDIO GAINS A PRESENCE IN UNIVERSAL CITY