Magnetic South: Putting your money where today’s best odds in post technology trends lie is a little like playing Russian roulette – with the fates of an entire company at stake. That’s the game post facilities are in. Some version of the Great Format Wars is always playing out.

Sharing the gamble is one of the risk-mitigating, control-your-own-destiny, strength-in-numbers factors currently being explored. The manifestations of new strategic alliances include financial participation in projects, a move towards coproduction, and the client ‘cross-pollination’ which the trend to freelance has enabled.

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In a year marked by a failed manager’s buyout at Magnetic Enterprises, Rogers Communications eventually took down the for-sale sign on the Toronto-based audio and video post group. Yet despite a possible increase in red tape with Rogers’ tightened rein, the video post division of the Enterprise, Magnetic South, is beginning to see some salvation with investments in new technology and long-term financing plans which include a deeper involvement in project production.

Mag South operations manager Rob Adams says the failed buyout had left the facility working creatively to remain competitively agile under the Rogers framework. ‘Before, [Rogers] was kind of holding us like a dirty diaper. They had to hold us, but we were the problem childwe didn’t really fit the business plan. Now they are starting to see some positive things.’

On the management side of things, it’s been a trying year for one of Toronto’s largest post-production facilities. However, business has been picking up steadily for Magnetic South within the past several months.

Along with Rogers’ eventual recognition of Mag South as an asset to the company has come a revenue investment in new editing technology.

The addition of new non-linear, digital editing equipment hasn’t necessarily meant faster output but it has certainly made for increased flexibility.

Magnetic has added an Avid 8000 and an Avid 1000 and fully integrated the non-linear tools into its video post plant. With two new systems in operation, less time is being taken up with pure cut and paste, and Magnetic South editors are now able to begin to travel down paths thought inaccessible with traditional tape-based editing.

While other post houses still haven’t fully given themselves over to the Avid way, Magnetic South takes pride in being the first facility in Toronto to take Avid technology seriously. They’ve even begun to invest over $50,000 to tear out existing suites in favor of replacing the current ‘black box’ setup with digital offline equipment.

‘We’re not just taking a shot in the dark,’ says Adams. ‘We’re replacing million-dollar edit suites with $200,000 Macintosh computers and it’s working.’

But moving digital is only the first expensive step towards a completely agile in-house setup, where all media will be transferable via computer network. It may be another five years before post houses will be able to make use of serious video servers, forcing videos out of the control room, in favor of stacks of computer hard drives.

At this point, file compatibility still poses a problem in looking to full network use.

With a current 3:1 ratio in sending broadcast-quality material, it’s still impractical to base completely in digital. But file translation platform omf, or ‘open media framework,’ does allow for sending media such as graphics, audio or edit sequences. Not everyone has adopted omf yet, but its popularity is growing within the industry. Avid and Adobe Photoshop both use omf technology and Adams believes it will become the framework of file standards within the industry very soon.

While Magnetic South strongly believes in Avid and omf as standard future technology, purchasing them has left the company with an initial financial setback in a period when some companies are still regarding post as somewhat of a luxury.

Business has been lost to clients who, Adams feels, have invested in Avid technology without buying the talent to go with it. As a result, Magnetic South is now basing its business plan on the assumption that, ‘if we build it, they will come’

‘The only way to attack this monster, as we saw it, was to join them, basically, as being an Avid house, but go the next step. We’re the only Avid in town right now that can go in and out of a digital Betacam. Our flexibility will allow us to go back to the old clients who have left us for their own Avids.’

Adams says the facility has managed to port over about half of existing clients and every new project quoted in the last several months has included some facet of non-linear. Apart from drawing back old clients, Magnetic South has seen another interesting offshoot of its Avid literacy.

The addition of nonlinear capabilities has sparked a freelance revolution within the facility. With expanded suite access and the universal nature of digital editing, Mag South is now relying on freelance talent to discover the advantages of the new setup. Adams foresees a ‘cross-pollinating’ hiring effect where freelancers may also bring them employment based on their superior editing capabilities.

‘The Avid especially has brought around the freelancer proliferation and it’s been good for us. It keeps us energetic and on our toes.’

Adams says the company just finished its busiest quarter in two years, with a shift from corporate to series work, and more of it.

Adams estimates about 10% to 15% of Magnetic’s work comes from outside Canada, but he emphasizes the increasing importance of coproduction partnerships with foreign producers.

With a Canadian market share of 3% worldwide and narrow profit margins, coproductions have almost become a necessity for companies looking to survive.

Magnetic South is currently working on a French/Mexican/ Canadian coproduction called Acapulco Heat, and Adams says there are three additional coproductions currently in the final stages of negotiations.

Now, Mag South is looking to move beyond supplier status to that of a co-participant. Financial involvement seems to be the next logical step in the company’s expansion and development. Adams says the company is coming into productions earlier in the process and assuming some of the financial risk, which he says is an inevitable shift in the industry on the whole.

‘We’re getting involved with producers, getting creative on how to make their budgets stretch further, whether that means deferring payment or getting more aggressive in our post role. No longer are we a facility that people come into and rent by the hour.’

Says Adams: ‘If we happen to hit on the right kind of show, like Xena or Hercules, or one of those shows that are big on the international market, we could end up making scads of cash.’

The climate is primed for growth within the industry as budgets are getting healthier, and there’s one of the busiest production seasons happening now.

That seems to be the reason clients are now a little more willing to pay a premium for the services Magnetic South can provide.

‘It will probably be a little more expensive than anyone else in town,’ Adams admits. But he maintains that the services Magnetic North, Masters Workshop and Magnetic Music can provide within a package price will make the overall negotiated rate much more budget friendly.

While the immediate future is looking brighter with a rising economy, new specialty channels and an overall increase in production in Canada, Adams says judgment day could be soon for some post operations.

He predicts an 18-month period of rising prosperity, with an inevitable shakeup seriously affecting one layer of the established post industry. The adoption of new technology and a philosophy to meet the evolving demands of the market, along with the facility’s reputation as a major post player could mean the dirty diaper may smell significantly sweeter in the next few years.

Tom Dragomir is a second-year media writing student in the Radio and Television Arts program at Ryerson Polytechnic University, Toronto.