Back in 1986, Ladi Horak, a film editor who cut CTV’s Live It Up!, opened the doors to Toronto’s CreativePOST in a 580-square-foot rented space in downtown Toronto.

His goal at the time was to provide frame-accurate offline editing using the then-revolutionary CMX 330A editing system and two JVC 850 3/4′ VTRs. Even then, Horak had a keen understanding of how cutting-edge post technology could benefit customers.

‘Back then, people said that offline video editing was fine for a rough cut, but that was all,’ Horak explains. ‘That’s because non-time-code video editing was always a few frames off… But the CMX allowed me to do fine-cuts-only editing in offline mode, with the edit decisions being saved to an eight-inch floppy disk for later online work. I could assemble a half-hour show in six hours. This saved my customers substantial time and money.’

This kind of attention to clients’ needs has served Horak and CreativePOST well over the past 20 years.

Today, the firm occupies larger quarters in Toronto and at an Ottawa facility called Creative Digital Media. Between the two locations, the company occupies 20,000 square feet. And beyond analog standard-definition editing and dubbing, CreativePOST today provides multimedia services including web design, video encoding, web-based video delivery, and interactive CD programming.

Also part of CreativePOST’s Toronto headquarters is The Studio Upstairs, specializing in offline and online HD post, VFX, and broadcast design. Upstairs has six online HD suites and a Dolby E encoding/screening theater, and an equipment arsenal comprising of Quantel iQ and Pablo, Discreet Inferno, Flame and Smoke, and a range of Avid nonlinear editing and finishing systems, including Symphony HD.

Horak is a survivor in a post-production community that has seen meteoric growth and then contraction, and, for some shops, takeover or collapse. He initially pleads ignorance as to why CreativePOST has been one of the lucky ones.

‘I wish I knew,’ he quips. ‘A hundred and fifty companies have gone belly-up beside me during the last two decades, while we are still in business.’

Toronto’s DocuTainment Plus Productions (Ice Storm: The Salé and Pelletier Affair, The Last Voyage of the Empress), a CreativePOST client since 2000, suggests some reasons for the shop’s longevity.

‘They offer a fair price and great customer service,’ says Joe Woodward, DocuTainment’s executive in charge of production. ‘They’re like a one-stop shop. I take my raw video to CreativePOST, and they take care of all my editing for me.’

Horak has a real sense of vision, adds DocuTainment executive producer Garry Blye. ‘[He] stays on top of technological trends and keeps CreativePOST’s facilities at the cutting edge.’

Gear aside, Horak brings it back to the human element.

‘I’ve been told a few times by clients that when they call CreativePOST, there’s always someone available to pick up the phone and help them out, rather than leaving them stuck in voice mail,’ Horak says.

But it was Horak’s commitment to the bleeding edge that motivated him to gamble on offline fine-cut editing back in 1986.

‘I believe that you have to keep an open mind when it comes to new technology,’ Horak says. ‘You always have to think ‘What are we going to do next?”

He adds that his shop has turned over its go-to technology five times, moving most recently to HD five or six years ago.

‘Today, more than 50% of our work is being done in HD,’ he says.

Ken MacNeil, CreativePOST’s VP of operations, adds that this year in particular has seen a turning point in HD.

‘Smaller clients such as the specialty channels are using HD, as well as the big networks,’ MacNeil says. ‘We’re happy to see lower-budget shows moving into high-def. It means that the transition is finally happening throughout the industry.’

New technology invariably means big investment, but Horak has been careful never to ‘bet the farm.’

‘The big question has never been whether to move, but rather ‘How can we afford it?” he says. ‘This is why we have been careful to balance innovation with cost and customer demand. For instance, we decided that HDTV was worthwhile in 1999, but waited two years for a business case to emerge before we began acquiring equipment.’

Horak has also looked to diversify into new markets where it has made sense. Case in point, back in the ’90s, he experienced difficulties getting the tape stock he needed from suppliers, and so launched CreativePOST’s Tapeworks division to provide wholesale tape and storage media sales and service.

‘Whenever I see a hole, I move to fill it. But I am always careful not to grow too fast when I do so,’ he says.

And he has never allowed his company to become too dependent on just a few big clients. While he welcomes big contracts, CreativePOST’s president sees his survival depending on various revenue sources.

‘I like small jobs more than big jobs,’ Horak says. ‘Big jobs take up a lot of time and when they’re done, you’ve got a hole to fill.’

Twenty years in, CreativePOST has kept on track through a mix of innovation, canny management, and customer service. And what do the shop heads see 20 years from now?

‘I expect that our business will bear almost no resemblance to what we’re doing today,’ says MacNeil.

Adds Horak: ‘One thing is certain – if we don’t look ahead and keep changing, we’ll die.’

www.creativepostinc.com