Just over a year ago, Clint Skibitzky was doing market research and Olaf Pyttlik was operating a university-based midi and synth studio. Now, 14 months later, the two are running what they say is Winnipeg’s first all-digital, high-end audio post-production facility, catering to commercial and long-form clients, increasingly from beyond Manitoba’s borders.

Skibitzky, da Capo’s manager of operations, explains how the two partners came together.

‘It got to the point where the projects Olaf was working on, and the clients he was getting, really stretched the resources there. I’d been a good friend of his and had been working about five years as a market research consultant. We got together and formulated a business plan.

‘We figured there was, as evidenced by the clients at his smaller studio, sufficient need for a very high-end digital production facility in Winnipeg.’

The result is da Capo Productions. The da Capo studios were built prior to the February 1999 launch of the company and are located in Winnipeg’s production-popular Exchange District.

‘It’s a great place to be,’ Skibitzky says. ‘We’re two blocks away from [spot shops] Credo [Productions] and Frantic Films. There’ve been several occasions when we’ve been working on a project and we just walk down the street to meet with the players involved. It’s absolutely phenomenal – a really great working environment.’

Da Capo boasts an ‘all-digital recording and editing system.’ And Skibitzky believes, ‘we are the only ones who rely on it exclusively. People have come here for audio post-production, original music, soundtracks, voiceover work, foley work, and mastering and mixing. We really have a good facility for doing a whole lot on the continuum of audio production.’

‘From that,’ he continues, ‘has come a lot of this commercial work, because right now, it seems, that’s where the money for better audio production is.’

Da Capo recently completed the audio on a campaign for Scope mouthwash through Credo and Frantic. Also, a series of spots for Travel Manitoba through Palmer Jarvis Manitoba saw da Capo produce eight original scores.

Skibitzki explains what makes da Capo stand out: ‘We do a lot of value-added in the creative services we put in. We get a very good fusion sound. [In terms of the digital setup], we consider ourselves on the leading edge in terms of having it and knowing how to use it to its full potential.’

Da Capo expects the Winnipeg studio to be most useful for outside productions shooting in Manitoba that want to operate in the digital standard.

‘It means other studios, outside of Winnipeg, know there is a facility [here] that is compatible with their systems.’

This compatibility and ventures like da Capo are bringing the great expanse of Canada as close as it has ever been to a level playing field. From St. John’s to Victoria, a zero is a zero and a one is a one.