Optimism on the rise - Editor's Note - outlook for the video post production market - Editorial

Post, Sept, 2002 by Randi Altman

It's easy to use September 11th as the measuring stick of how or when the industry changed in the last year, but we all know that the business was heading south long before that As Matthew Armstrong reports in his 9/11: Year in Review story in our news section, the demise of the dot.coms, combined with the threat of a SAG strike, already had the post industry looking into the abyss. The events of September 11 just sort of gave it a nudge.

And now? While some companies never made it out of that hole, others have and they are cautiously optimistic about future. The business is different now. And Barry Katz, VP/sales and marketing at Chelsea Post/AMV Mobile in NYC, pretty much sums it up when he says that linear is dead, and these days "you're either a boutique or a big house. There is no middle anymore."

Katz says everyone wants it faster and cheaper Over the last year, "ad dollars tightened up, there are less shows getting done and everyone wants to do it cheaper. They want the great editor but they don't want to pay the great editor's rate. They want it for less, and facilities can't stay in business. When rates get down to that low a point, it's not a viable business to be in."

He speaks from experience. Katz left National Video Center a week before it closed its doors this past June. And how has Chelsea avoided a similar fate? He points to diversified services. In addition to post, "we've got studios, we've got mobile trucks, we do satellite, we do rentals."

Industry veteran Conrad Denke, CEO of LA-and Seattle-based The Victory Studios (formerly APS), has also remained successful by offering a variety of services -- with special attention to HD -- but he admits that the terror attacks took a toll on the amount of work his studio was getting.

"After 9/11, our business just stopped," he reports. "It was like that musical 'Stop the World, I Want to Get Off.' But unlike the musical, it seemed that the world of post did actually stop. For the rest of September, we were very quiet, and sales for the month were about half of normal. As September ended and October began, we could see that we were not going to have the usual business spike we see at the end of each year prior to the Christmas season. It was slow until about the middle of January, and then business started to pick up again, and we have seen a steady increase all year We are hoping that this September we can get back to normal, whatever that is. In spite of the tragedy and its impact, we are very optimistic."

Similar stories are heard throughout the industry Pros I've spoken to recently have been very honest about the lack of work, but they are excited about this brave new post world.

By RANDI ALTMAN

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

raltman@advanstar.com