multimedia expressway

The silicon samurais of the computer industry delight in linking Darwinian theory to technological evolution, a process whereby video editors and film cutters de-volve overnight into analogosauruses. Enough of the doomsday scenarios; here is a story of survival, from the end of the world as we know it to digital dominance.

Creative director Robert Curtin traded storyboards for monitors three years ago and transformed his Toronto company Symbols from a print-based service to a multimedia design and production house. He then consulted Bill Robinson, former director of a computer distribution company, to evaluate his business and help him select the right system to move into digitalized video. Together, they explored the territory for two years before settling on Avid’s Macintosh-based Media Composer.

Curtin and Robinson then took it a step further and in 1994 set up two new companies: Media Composers, to rent and sell the Avid Systems, and Media Learning Institute, the first Avid-recognized Media Composer training facility in Canada.

The company is located in a renovated factory in a Toronto film and multimedia district, the former factory zone north of the cne.

Combining design and production services, rental facilities and training (not to mention a trendy new espresso bar lounge for clients to relax in) under one roof gives Symbols a mandate to help its clients take control of the communications process in any medium.

‘Open system up’

‘We want to open the system up and make it easy for people to get their hands on the product and make their own decisions,’ says Curtin. ‘Production power,’ he says, ‘is coming into the hands of the creators of information. With desktop video and non-linear editing, producers or directors can cut their editing time to about one-third that required with conventional analog systems. These systems offer effects that open up new possibilities inconceivable without computers.’

The emerging generation of film and video editors, graphic designers and animators is not alone in its attempts to gain a foothold on the platform of the future. Professional media specialists with years of experience enroll in their courses, where they learn to transfer those hard-won skills to the latest electronic tools of multimedia. To weather the transitions rocking their industry means to adapt or be engulfed in the advancing tide of digitalization.

Learn or lose out

‘Film editors are going to have to learn non-linear editing or go out of business,’ says Curtin.

In recent months, Symbols has lent its Avid editing facilities, along with its expertise, to a host of high-profile projects, among them the trailer for the movie Whale Music, the video of the title song by the Rheostatics, and the upcoming Alliance Communications cyber-thriller, Johnny Mnemonic. With Symbols’ assistance, the Bank of Montreal presented its annual report on video for the first time in ’94.

Most recently, a 40-minute Crash Test Dummies music special, to be released on laser disc in December, and Sega’s full-screen, live-action video game, Fahrenheit, were edited at Symbols.

The most ambitious project to date combines film, multimedia and print with gaming and live presentations. Together with the Design Workshop and Infinica, Symbols is designing a series of interactive presentations and games at the CN Tower in Toronto.

Moving beyond presentation design, the project is driving the development of new technology. In newly designed pods at the world’s tallest freestanding structure are several kiosks, each featuring a multimedia educational game about environmental protection in which choices, made by the player, determine the presentation. Already they have generated considerable excitement with over 1,000 school tours booked before the facility’s scheduled opening in December.

‘We’re at a crossroads of social change,’ says Robinson. ‘Education must reflect the fact that technology is moving us in several directions at once. We’re giving people a ticket to transport themselves onto the much-vaunted information superhighway. What lies ahead is still a mystery because it’s still evolving, but when it comes into focus, they’ll be prepared.’