Vancouver’s Circle Productions is spinning off its editing and post division, Cycle Media, into a separate entity. The official launch is planned for June.

Cycle was inspired three years back when Circle producers discovered the editing and design talents of one of their directors, Mathew Griffiths.

‘It started when Mathew showed an aptitude for helping [Circle director and partner] Rob Turner with his director’s cuts,’ explains Vanessa Lenarduzzi, Circle’s post and marketing director.

‘Before we knew it, Mathew had convinced Chris [Bowell, Circle partner] and Rob to purchase an Avid machine. And then all of a sudden we realized, ‘Hey, we could start pitching Mathew as an editor, which may help with the continuity and flow of the creative process on these projects.”

Lenarduzzi explains that ‘[with all] the various hands manipulating and adding, something was being lost that maybe didn’t need to go. Sometimes we would hand over a project [to a post house] and we would see the finished version, and it wasn’t quite what we had conceived at the beginning of the process.’

Cycle is translating Griffiths’ specialties into a design and post house that not only offers editing and one-stop commercial production for agency clients, but also full campaign branding – from letterhead to Internet design.

Following Griffiths onto the Cycle roster is another Circle director, Louis Lyne. Lyne got his start in the business as an editor and is overjoyed at the opportunity to edit his own directing jobs. Lyne remains on Circle’s directorial roster, and is repped ‘solely as an editor on the Cycle roster.’

Lenarduzzi describes the Cycle niche: ‘We’re really a boutique. We don’t have any of the big gear here. We have two Avids, four [Macintosh] G3s, a [Macintosh] G4 and a Hollywood D1 board. So we can do tons of After Effects here and a lot of our offline is done here, but eventually we have to go and conform somewhere.’

For now, Cycle will be taking advantage of the growing demand for Griffiths’ design skills and the convenience and creative control that arises from seeing a production through to the final stages.

Cycle recently completed a project for Lotto Super 7 through Cossette Communication-Marketing and is currently doing the broadcast design for Dave Chalk’s computer show Chalk.com.