The new, improved and increasingly affordable breed of computer-based equipment sweeping the production and post-production sectors has not only changed ‘how’ things are getting done; the ‘who’ and ‘where’ are also changing.

The producer’s role is expanding into some post territories, while in the post domain, the lines are shifting between creative cutting and the traditionally more technical post functions. And that means editors are taking on additional chores. New skill sets are being honed along the line and some companies in the post-production sector are exploring new ground as the boundaries begin to blur.

While the shift has been most apparent at the lower end of the production budget scale, already that is changing, with a lot more broadcast work coming into facilities off-lined on systems such as Media 100, Lightworks, D-Vision or Avid and graphics and supers all neatly delivered on floppy disks. And some jobs are not coming for a final on-line at all.

Even in the quality-hypersensitive commercial domain, some off-line creative edit shops are beginning to increase the amount of work staying in the shop for completion.

Peter McAuley of Toronto-based edit shop The Daily Post says with the new broadcast-quality real-time boards and software for nonlinear random-access edit systems, the traditional on-line process should now be circumvented on about a third of the work that comes in.

‘For down-and-dirty projects we can cut on Avid 8000 and dump onto Betacam and be done. It’s not for every job, but certainly for versioning it makes life simpler,’ says McAuley. The commercial is cut at a lower resolution then brought back up to broadcast quality. For heavy-duty compositing, McAuley would still head for the Harrys.

However, some off-line shops still consider in-house on-line a risky proposition. Bob Kennedy of Flashcut, a Toronto editing house which uses the Lightworks digital off-line system, has explored the competing systems’ new broadcast-quality mode. While what he saw (particularly the Media 100) looked good, he is unconvinced with the output’s broadcast transmission quality, citing the risk of signal loss or artifacts appearing due to the compression/recompression process involved.

Facilities’ on-line transition

Meanwhile, the large post facilities are also arming themselves with lower-priced mastering power. A few months ago, Magnetic South bought into the random-access digital nonlinear world via Avid. Mag South general manager/Magnetic Enterprises director of video operations, Phil Keeling, says the technology is excellent for off-line, and could also be an on-line tool – it all depends on price.

‘Post-production is very much in a transitional phase,’ says Keeling, ‘and on-line is where the change is taking place.

‘Right now, it’s faster to do it (on-line) the traditional way, but that’s just a question of what people are used to working with, the quality of some specific tools (like character generators), and the skill set.’

Part of the learning curve will be dealing with the traditional on-line quality issues, says Keeling. ‘Niggling things like anti-aliasing will now have to be learned by off-line editors.’

Keeling says that by doing a myriad of disparate assignments for different people every day, the on-line folks have developed a unique set of skills over the years. And it’s this variety which he feels is key to helping clients of the future. No matter how sophisticated and simple computer-based edit systems become, people will always benefit from taking a project to an experienced editor who has seen a lot of approaches to putting a project together.

Cyberpost and the evolving editor

Michael Scott, managing editor of Toronto-based Stonehenge Filmworks, agrees with Keeling’s premise that editors’ skills will remain valued despite the arch of technology towards editing-at-home, as the editor is in a good position to absorb a lot of different techniques – and to filter the best.

Scott sees a lot more clients coming in better prepared, armed with off-lines and floppy disks. However, with the overall body of programs more accounted for the producer is now able to concentrate on taking advantage of the editor’s expertise in the bells, whistles and shaping of the overall package – dves, tempo, etc. ‘That’s where the editor’s strengths come in,’ says Scott.

As to what platforms will emerge as the new standard, it will always come down to what is quickest and cheapest. ‘Instincts tell me the economy of this thing is coming down and changing how we do things,’ says Keeling.

In the non-linear digital post environment (and almost everyone predicts everything will be digital by the end of this year), Keeling sees the larger facilities eventually capitalizing on their ability to provide services no one else does – via videonet – things like film transfers, quality control, distribution and reformatting. The net scenario is a little too expensive right now, says Keeling, but that will soon change.

For Supersuite Postproduction, a Montreal-based post house which services film, tv and commercial clients, director of client services Francois Garcia says the way of doing business has also changed somewhat. Garcia says a lot of clients are coming in with work they’ve done on a Macintosh, and they want to be able to incorporate it in the on-line.

Supersuite is also trying to orient its customers to the digital approach and recently spent heavily on new technology, to the tune of about $1.5 million. New toys like the Quantel Henry and digital editing were added, a multimedia department was opened and the company is looking into cd-rom and cd-i.

Supersuite is being called on to produce effects on the Henry, and Garcia says clients are ‘looking to us a lot in terms of creative input.’ He says the hard part is finding the individuals who can master the technology, people who aren’t restricted by the buttons. Consequently, Garcia is ‘looking the world over for good people,’ and has discovered that when found, they don’t want to be tied down for too long. To combat the transient aspect of these globe-surfing digital mercenaries, Supersuite has pursued a policy of training and promoting its in-house talent.

No nine-to-five in sight

Andy Sykes of Command Post and Transfer, a Toronto-based video post facility which predominantly services a commercial clientele, reports an enthusiastic response from clients to its recent suitening up of the facility with component digital.

Sykes says the use of computers by his clients – such as art directors who are now coming in with floppy disks bearing the exact fonts wanted for end-of-spot supers – has increased efficiency. However, a trend Sykes finds somewhat disconcerting is the fact that despite the hyper-speed post is now operating at, the editor still doesn’t get to go home at five. It seems the faster a system can fly, the longer clients take to approve the final cut.

As to the effect on his business of the computer-based nonlinear edit revolution (which he refers to as the ‘quasi on-line’), Sykes says he hasn’t noticed these systems having any impact on the amount of national or high-end retail work that comes in for final broadcast-ready tweaks and transfer. Sykes still believes it has had the greatest impact on the creative cutting side (by making limitless the number of cuts an agency can see). However, he can foresee a lot of pool and retail work swinging that quasi-on-line way.

Writer/art director/editor?

Which leads us to the question of just how far in-house post will eventually go. Could a more complete, sophisticated in-agency edit system be a coming trend? It is an area that several agencies are exploring, either by expanding their existing operations (typically dubbing and straight edits for agency reels) or through some new arrangement. And Toronto ad agency fcb has had an avid for some time now.

Editor Bob Kennedy of Flashcut has heard tell of these aspirations and believes the labor-intensive nature of post-production makes it an ill-suited area for agency expansion. The nitty-gritty, time-consuming tasks involved in editing make it an unlikely addition to the already stressed-for-time creative talents’ day.

‘I talked to some people who thought their agency would change overnight. It takes a lot more time than setting type; they would have to gear up and hire.’

In addition to the danger for agencies of having this newly trained talent poached, Flashcut’s Mary Beth Odell points out logistical flaws. Inevitably, an agency would face scheduling conflicts; it would either be swamped and have to send work out anyway, or it would find itself stuck with extended thumb-twiddling lags.

Dave Desrochers, vice-president finance for Toronto ad agency Doner Schur Peppler, believes the new technology is going to revolutionize the way the post-production sphere works. Following the latest releases of digital nonlinear products like the Media 100, Desrochers began to consider the viability of eliminating some of the costs associated with traditional post while obtaining the best product for clients. His verdict: ‘I think the potential is huge.’

Whether or not the agency becomes convinced the technology is ready to deliver the goods, Desrochers says his shop is not interested in setting up its own facility. One key reason is the personnel factor – the daunting prospect of keeping a star editor.

However, an agreement between an autonomous editor-with-system and an agency to work together out of an existing or new facility could well be a new m.o.

Toronto ad agency fcb has had an Avid for a year now and has done some corporate videos on the system. On the commercial side, editor/computer systems director Grant Pye says the ‘calibre of the creative has gone up because of the rough cuts we’ve been able to do.’ Pointing to the Coors Light spots, Pye says the rips done on the Avid achieved a level they couldn’t get before, through a combination of ease of revision, digitally-enabled speed and quality.

The advantage has been restricted to spot-finessing prior to shooting; traditional commercial post is still the chosen route. As Pye says, ‘you don’t want to get in the way of what editors do best.’

Don Thompson, general manager of Finale Post Production, a Vancouver operation that services corporate, commercial and television producers, is seeing more projects coming through his doors that have already been edited on digital systems. Instead of full post, Finale is adding titles and effects.

Thompson says although less time is being spent in on-line, ‘we’re now using our skills as editors’ to produce a more sophisticated product. This phenomenon has also presented Finale with opportunities to offer new services such as digitizing material for clients. For the company’s corporate clients, Thompson says, ‘we’re going in and training, and supplying equipment.’

The nature of the relationship varies. Some clients are interested in a short-term arrangement, others in a multi-year deal; some rent systems, some buy them outright. Finale works with the client to customize the system. The wild card for companies who want to join in this digital-editing revolution is keeping people; those who have been hired and trained or retrained suddenly have valued, sought-after skills.

Thompson says the democratizing cost of post-production means an editor can now buy his own system. ‘We’re seeing a lot more of that in this industry; people going out on their own.’

However, in practical terms no editor is yet an island. Thompson says whether it’s a corporation or an editor who bought his/her own system, they will still need to work with other post-production companies for certain aspects of projects.

While Thompson says the corporate video market is the area that’s changing the most rapidly, he’s seeing more interest from broadcasters and commercial producers. Thompson says more agency work is now being finished on digital systems that until recently were only considered capable of off-lining commercials. And since agencies have taken to establishing in-house computer-based graphics divisions, Thompson expects something similar on the post front. But he says it will be a few years yet before that trend catches on in the b.c. market.

The new post technology has meant a lot of rethinking about how business is done, according to Thompson. ‘We’re becoming more of a service shop. In addition to providing editorial services, we have to be masters of everything now.’

Along with the basic Mac/pc knowledge ‘acquired through osmosis’ – i