Stealing Time Editing is gearing up for expansion and a major surge in work volume after the relatively small Toronto post house was selected by Young & Rubicam over some of the city’s larger post facilities to be the primary post-production supplier on creative produced for the agency’s client Priszm Brandz.

The Priszm Brandz contract, recently awarded to Y&R, consists of the amalgamated accounts of KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Long John Silver and possibly other quick-service restaurants under the same corporate umbrella. Previously, each account was handled individually by a different agency; Pizza Hut was with BBDO, Taco Bell with TBWAChiatDay, KFC with Ogilvy & Mather, while LJS is just breaking into Canada.

Although senior VP Doug Lowe was not prepared to mention names, Y&R has made similar deals with production houses and audio-post facilities to facilitate Priszm work.

Lowe says the account will generate enough business to keep the agency busy, and while it is difficult to determine exactly how much work this will translate into for Stealing Time, founder Alex Eaton says the shop’s flexibility will be a definite asset. ‘Because we don’t have a hard and fast structure in place, we can grow as they need us to,’ he says.

Although there is no formal contract in place, Lowe says that Stealing Time will be given first dibs on post work generated by the account. He says that what sold Y&R on Stealing Time was its smart approach to meeting the budget and media management challenges presented by directing the accounts of various QSRs simultaneously, which is no small task.

‘A project this large, that does this much production and post, has a whole bunch of elements that are used on a continuous basis,’ says Eaton, explaining that because spots for Priszm’s various brands occasionally use common footage, providing storage and cataloguing solutions became a major element in Stealing Time’s proposal to Y&R.

The shop developed a package, which on top of providing creative and editing solutions, used media management technology to build a database to store all the information as well as provide Y&R easy access to it.

‘We were able to put together a package that included services which a single job wouldn’t merit,’ says Eaton. ‘We figured out a way to store all the information digitally online so that it is accessible to the agency.’

Eaton, who has been in the film business for almost 25 years, opened Stealing Time in 1997 as a two-man boutique shop with editor and partner Greg Edgar. The company has blossomed dramatically in the last six months, according to executive producer Heidi von der Gathen, who says they’ve just completed their busiest quarter ever.

This growth is partially due to the creation of Stealing Time Digital in September 2001. Flame artist Mike Morey, who evolved from an online editor to visual effects artist, leads the team at STD, which uses technology such as Discreet HD flame and combustion and Apple’s Final Cut Pro to design, composite, conform and title. Stealing Time has recently completed work on a Labatt Blue Light campaign with Grip Limited and a Coca-Cola campaign with MacLaren McCann.

-www.stealingtime.com

-www.yr.com

-www.priszm.com