As goes the local production biz, so go the post-production shops. But the consensus is that volume is on the upswing, which gives heart to Images Post, the latest Toronto house to open its doors amidst a very competitive marketplace.

‘In the last couple of years things have hit rock bottom and are now coming back up. It positions us perfectly to benefit from this rising,’ says Images president John Henriques, who runs the company along with managing director Scott Calbeck. The pair’s background includes low-budget broadcast documentaries and corporate production.

Although its official launch isn’t until November, Images Post has already been taking on long-form work in its new west-end facility, including production and post on three in-house videos for the Guild of Canadian Film Composers. The launch has been delayed as the shop gets its rooms finished just right. Henriques is a firm believer in the esthetics of edit suites after having discussed the matter with various producers. He thinks TV and film suites should be on par with those in the commercial community.

‘Initially, I thought, ‘Why is long format not treated with the same attention to detail and environment?” he says. ‘I don’t mean rooms that are overly slick, but a warm, focused, motivating environment. Our ambition was to create a suite where whoever gets in there doesn’t want to leave.’

To this end Images has hired a company called Redbox to execute its suite design.

Images’ facility contains three Avid suites, one of which contains a new Avid Media Composer 9000 XL for editorial and finishing. The shop also has an Apple Final Cut Pro suite, which Henriques sees some younger filmmakers requesting for their rough cuts, as that is a system on which they have been trained. Images also has an Avid cataloguing suite, voice-over booth and Sonic DVD authoring station.

‘We made a big investment in [DVD], but we’re starting to see it pay off in that people are now interested in getting bigger projects to DVD in a more interactive way,’ Henriques says. Two of Images’ 10 staffers will be handling this side of its business.

Images is equipped with DigiBeta and can deal with almost any format except high-definition, for which it doesn’t yet see sufficient demand. All in all, Henriques thinks he chose a good time to assemble his gear.

‘Now we’ve got state-of-the-art infrastructure, compared to other houses that bought their equipment a few years ago and are now looking to upgrade but can’t afford to,’ he says.

Images is positioning itself somewhere in the centre of the rates scales and plans to also open its doors to student filmmakers, who may very well become long-lasting clients.

‘For the most part, students get thrown into really bad spaces to cut stuff because they don’t have the budgets,’ Henriques says. ‘We plan to offer a student discount rate to try to have them take part in a better environment.’

Images is focusing on editorial and finishing, although animation and F/X is something it might pursue down the road, hiring on more staff as projects demand. The shop is currently awaiting word on a feature getting the go-ahead from the Canadian Film Centre’s Feature Film Project under $250,000 budget category.

-www.imagespost.com