Post Solutions opens doors, embraces producers: three industry vets stare down the economy and open a full service post boutique in Toluca Lake - Open House

Post, Oct, 2002 by Ann Fisher

TOLUCA LAKE, CA -- It is an interesting mix: A man of a certain age who possesses a knowing overview of the video/film industry, a woman with extensive post house experience, and a younger man who wears the hats of graphics designer online/offline editor and technician. Meet Newt Bellis, Hope Schenk and Rick Greenwald of Post Solutions, a new full-service video post production boutique. The three opened Post Solutions this past April, undaunted by the economy.

"[The economy] won't hurt us as a startup because startups struggle anyway" says CEO Bellis sagely. "The people who are having problems with the market are the big guys. We're not going to suffer because we have to get out and rattle the bushes and get the people in anyway."

Post Solutions caters to the producers of network syndication and cable television series, as well as producers of features and trailers. The boutique's small size is a selling point.

"We share the same philosophy: clients come first," says Schenk, president "In my experience, there's always been a battle between the business and sales end of things. I understand the conflict of the two, when you get into a larger company the bottom line is typically watched by numbers people, not salespeople. But from the sales end of it, the clients rule. The industry has so many choices now that there are many ways to post. It is the process and follow-through that will tell the story."

THE GEAR

Post Solutions offers six edit rooms wired to a central machine room. Those include two Avid Symphony Universal rooms; a third will be up by year's end. There are also offline Avid Media Composers and uncompressed Meridian systems. A Digidesign Pro Tools DAW system became available in September: Graphics are created on a Mac G4 running Adobe After Effects 5.5. Equipment rentals -- Avids and decks -- are available for location jobs.

The edit rooms are staffed, as needed, by the abundant Los Angeles freelance pool. "Many of the major places in town don't staff editors anymore," says Bellis. "Editors have become part of the production team as they did in film. In a great number of cases, producers hire the editors and bring in who they want to work with.'

FORMAT FLEXIBILITY

The Symphony Universal's versatility, with its 24, 25 and 30 frame selections, is popular with clients who need different aspect ratios, different program lengths and various video standards. "We can offline anything 24p. A recent client was working on a show that ultimately was going to be retransferred in HD, and the discussion was, 'Are they going to take the Digi Beta and bump it up to HD or were they going to go back and online HD based on their [NTSC] 30 frame offline cut?' We have the capability to do 24 and then do a direct link back to an HD system. We don't offer HD online yet but technically we can do an offline," says Greenwald, the facility's editor/engineer.

Adds Schenk, "A lot of people are not editing in HD, certainly the higher end shows are, but editing in HD seems reserved for those who have their own set of requirements. On some occasions our clients select to shoot HD but then downconvert to NTSC to edit. We are in a position to deliver what our clients need. If our client base needs to downconvert from HD we can offer this now. When they need to edit in HD, we will make the step into the equipment at that time."

THE WORK

A recent post project for the comedienne Margaret Cho took advantage of Post Solutions' technical versatility. The concert film Notorious C.H.O. was shot on DVCAM, then brought to the facility for offline, color correction and finishing on the Symphony. The project also included finishing an animated short and promos. Ultimately, the Digi Beta master was transferred to film for final release.

For Fox network's That 70's Show, Post Solutions added special effects for the 100th episode, which aired in May. Greenwald has been creating and producing the show bumpers for three seasons; this was his first opportunity to add effects and editorial to an episode. Greenwald primarily used the Symphony Universal with GenArts Sapphire Effects.

"This was different in that was it was a combination of offline, online and graphics all at the same time," says Greenwald. "A Flame session and making an edit to music wouldn't have been done right and being on a simple offline system with no effects of any kind wouldn't have done anybody good. So I did a combination of it all on the Symphony digitized everything uncompressed, then did creative editorial according to the music. While I was cutting, I started adding in the effects."

RELATED ARTICLE: MAKE CONTACT

Post Solutions

10200 Riverside Dr.

Toluca Lake, CA

(818) 760-1201

www.postsolutions.com

Clients:

Cho/Taussig Productions, Carsey Warner (That '70s Show), Game Show Network, Disney Channel

Principals:

Newt Bellis

Hope Schenk

Rick Greenwald

Equipment:

Avid Media Composer, Avid Meridian, Avid Symphony, Adobe After Effects, Digidasign Pro Tools, Mac G4