Talk of the Town: What’s Going Down in the NY Post-Production Community?

RM> This past year has largely been a good one for the post industry in New York. Generally our members appear to be busy and they’re growing, adding people and capabilities. The biggest challenges remain the threat of unfair competition from agency and holding company in-house facilities and the continuing downward pressure on pricing, however. The in-house issue is growing more complex, as we hear that holding companies are now mandating that certain percentages of work go through their owned facilities. And clients are still expecting way more than their budgets provide for. We’re addressing both issues with a campaign geared towards raising awareness of potential conflicts of interest and educating agencies and clients on just what it actually costs to do the work that our members deliver. 

RM> We’d like to think that all of our member companies are doing amazing work! But given our impartial role as a trade association, we can’t play favourites. That said, I think a great way to predict the stars of tomorrow, in post production at least, is to check out the work that’s recognised in our annual Camp Kuleshov trailer competition for assistants. There’s some truly amazing creative work to be found there. You can check out all of this year’s winners – from New York and beyond – here. 

RM> Guardedly optimistic is probably the best way to put it. We realise that agency and holding company managements are looking at our businesses and the revenue they generate and licking their chops, but we know that their own creatives and producers would often prefer to work with independent studios. So our emphasis is going to be on providing better, more innovative solutions than creatives and producers can get in-house, and work to make clients aware that they’re being sold a false set of promises. We want them to understand that the best people working in the post production industry are working at independent companies, not at in-house facilities. 

RM> It’s Brooklyn, Brooklyn and more Brooklyn. A growing number of digital agencies and creative boutiques are housed there, and a few of our members are setting up shop in the borough. Manhattan rents are always a problem, and becoming more so. Neighbourhoods that used to be affordable, like Chelsea or the Flatiron district, have become much less so, and some very small boutiques and ad agencies have begun to push into previously uncharted areas like Chinatown. As long as clients need to come and work directly with artists, however, post houses will be located reasonably close to agencies. It’s just that the days when everyone could be clustered around Grand Central Station in midtown are long gone. 

RM> There are a number of things on our wish list. We’re aiming to help create a more diverse talent base, and we’ve got a program in the works designed to launch that effort. We’d like clients to become more aware of how their post production dollars are being spent, and we’re moving aggressively to achieve that in partnership with our friends at the Association of National Advertisers, which is the main client-side trade group in the US. We’re working to help establish an industry-wide set of digital file delivery specs, which we’re doing in concert with trade groups, distribution companies and media networks. Finally, we’re continuing to boost creative standards in our industry, which we’ll be celebrating at our 16th annual AICE Awards, which will be held in New York in May. It’s a busy slate of goals and objectives for the year, which has us eager to get started.