Dig It Audio Combines Post Facilities with The Station, Lodge Music & Music Playground

As the trend towards “all in” post production continues to accelerate in advertising, film and television production, Dig It Audio has combined with the award-winning post talent of The Station, The Lodge Music, The  Diner and The Music Playground (more affectionately known by as “The LSD Group”).  The move creates a single Manhattan-based facility with editorial, animation, motion graphics, original music and licensing, sound design, audio mixing and color grading under one roof, with a unified creative and post-production workflow. 

The news was announced by Tom Efinger, Partner and President of Dig It Audio and Drew Stein, Chief Executive Officer & Founder of The Station, The Lodge Music, The Diner and The Music Playground.

“Tom’s leadership, creative capabilities and first-class facility elevates every aspect of our ability to deliver award-wining work for our clients at the industry’s highest levels,” says Stein.  “With our newly combined workflow in our Hudson Square studios, few companies can help agencies and production companies to maximize their on-screen dollars like we’re now able to do. It will allow us to drive creative value in a dynamic, integrated post environment.”

The Station (www.thestationmedia.com), now in its seventh year, has been a pioneer in “all-in” production and post since it opened its doors, having been one of the first companies to partner with production companies to integrate and package live-action production and post together. 

The combination of Dig It and the LSD shops not only sees the companies building on their deep experience and expertise in integrated production, but also having all of their in-house staff talent working in a single facility and single production workflow, Stein notes.  “Clients and creative teams will be able to have their entire post team – from their editor to their animator to their composers and mixers – working side-by-side with them as a single, cohesive unit.”

“Film and TV producers are experiencing the same trends as advertising agencies, in that stretching their budget to maximize on-screen dollars while keeping the creative bar at the highest levels means having to rethink and consolidate their post-production,” says Dig It’s Efinger.  “Combining our facility and team with The Station and the other companies in the LSD Group gives us an undeniable and powerful workflow where all clients – no matter what kind of content they’re producing – can be an integral part of the process.  For Dig It, it means being able to offer award-winning editorial, animation, motion graphics, color grading, original music and music supervision services to our clients.”

“We were never a post facility that added production,” adds Hugh Broder, Partner and Executive Producer of The Station who’ll lead the charge on the integrated post production workflow for the combined companies. “From day one, we’ve been an integrated content production company with a post facility built to support our clients and production company partners from pre-pro, through the shoot, and through post and finish. This move builds on that continuity and adds to our capability.”

As the trend toward bidding projects on an “all-in” basis continues for agencies, it’s been clear that only a few companies like The Station have been able to operate at the industry’s highest levels with projects for which they did “all-in” post production garnering significant creative awards in 2014 in the branded content categories. This includes a One Show Gold Pencil, Silver and Bronze Cannes Lions, a Clio Award, an Adweek Watch Award and a nomination for a London International award as well. 

Critical to making this work, and creating the right environment for their 30+ person in-house team, is their combined state-of-the-art 11,000 square foot facility located in the heart of Hudson Square on Varick Street. The set up include edit rooms; two Dolby 5.1-certified theaters for edit, audio mixing and color grading, animation and graphics suites, mixing and sound effects studios and a live Foley room, as well as production offices and other amenities.

“Many make claims to being capable of working ‘all-in,’ but very few companies, if any, can actually back it up and consistently deliver creative results and win creative awards,” says Broder.  “It can’t be faked with freelancers and remote FTP posts, either. Great integrated production means working side-by-side with clients where real creative interaction with post talent and a tight process can drive the best outcomes while maximizing every dollar in the budget.”