Four of the partners behind Toronto shops Cutting Edge and Post Producers Digital have joined forces to create an expanded new nonlinear video post entity under the ppd banner.

Cutting Edge partners Roy Clute and Colm Caffrey purchased the assets of that company and applied its equipment and talent resources to a creative alliance with ppd. Clute and Caffrey are now partnered with ppd’s Al Mitchell and Tim Deterling. ppd president Mitchell and vp operations Caffrey are also editors. Deterling is business manager and Clute is vp market development.

The alliance also brings together editors Michael Grootenboer, Jim Blokland, Erin Carroll and Brian Fearon as well as junior editor Pete Mahoney and graphic artist Mike Tracanelli.

The new partnership doubles the previous capacity of ppd, which has taken over the entire building at 111 Berkeley Street where Cutting Edge had been located for four and half years.

The expansion gives ppd five edit suites – three Avid online suites and two offline suites – plus graphics capability and expanded service area like the client screening area, kitchen and lunch facilities.

ppd had derived about 85% of its business from the high-end corporate sector, with clients including Canadian Tire and Royal Bank, in addition to some commercial and music video work, while Cutting Edge had been working increasingly in the long-form field with series projects for specialties like Life Network and network documentaries as well as infomercials and music videos.

The new partnership gives the company more depth and resources to pursue work in all of these markets, says Mitchell.

‘Bringing the companies together broadens our market and allows us more exposure to all the market areas together,’ he says.

The alliance deepens the talent pool which the shop can apply to an array of projects, while arresting scheduling difficulties, adds Caffrey. ‘We now have six creative editors that can handle any project. It’s given us a good growth position.’