Road Trip

Steady Pace in the Midwest

By Christine Bunish

Despite the recession, production and postproduction companies in the Midwest are moving ahead with new and enhanced services and capabilities. Most are maintaining at least a steady pace of business, and some have wrapped unexpectedly busy winters.

Barklage sees RED boom

Award-winning Jeff Barklage of Cincinnati’s Barklage Cinematography, Inc. shoots features, commercials and music videos worldwide although spots have predominated the last two years. The owner of two RED One cameras which he uses with his set of Cooke primes and zooms, he’s seen the market shift “dramatically” in favor of the new medium.

Barklage’s recent commercial work includes national spots for Nationwide and State Farm insurance; P&G’s Charmin, Bounty and Tide; and what he believes was the first RED campaign for Long John Silver’s featuring customers swept by a giant CG wave. He also lensed Marlboro commercials in Montana and Utah for the European market and a Kentucky Bourbon image film in 16 and 35mm.

The cinematographer, who previously shot the Coen Brothers film The Naked Man, Bud Light Super Bowl spots and Sci Fi Channel movies in Croatia, says 2008 was probably his company’s “best year ever. When the RED started to hit we were screaming along for the last two quarters. We were so ridiculously busy that we were turning down shoots.” January remained busy then the pace of work “hit the skids,” although advertising often slows in the first quarter, he reports.

Still, Barklage is optimistic about an upswing. “I hear a lot is percolating, and people are asking for updated reels.”

Gemini offers stellar facility

Cleveland’s Gemini Video Productions, Inc. is an Emmy and Telly Award-winning facility with script-to-screen or a la carte services for corporate, commercial and broadcast clients. It offers a drive-in, 45x45-foot studio with curved hard cyc and greenscreen, JVC 250 DVCAM-format cameras, full lighting and scene shop; film transfer for 8 and 16mm; three Final Cut Pro edit rooms; graphics and animation with After Effects and Final Cut Studio; DVD authoring; and field production with JVC 200 DVCAM cameras.

The company did a script-to-screen approach for the non-profit Cleveland Foundation about a house demolition alternative which was distributed on DVD and the web; it provided field production, studio shoots and finishing for Medicus golf club and SMC Smart Tools DVDs; and crafted five marketing videos on retail LED lighting for the GE web page.

Gemini just launched its Eastern Christian Media division to create broadband and cable programming for the Eastern Catholic, or Byzantine Catholic, churches. It debuts with biweekly programs available on the www.easternchristianmedia.com web site.

President Bob Kasarda says Gemini is also “branching out to bring other independent companies in with us,” such as Media Group for live streaming capabilities and dynamic web content and Bell Tower Productions for assistance in running the studio operations.

“Business could be better,” he concedes, “but things are starting to percolate. I feel the second quarter will come around, and by the third we’ll be back in the swing of things.”

CVM trucks it to the races

In Mishawaka, Indiana CVM Productions is a full-service video and audio production company serving corporate and broadcast markets. President Ron Vander Molen shoots Panasonic DVCPRO; the company has a remote production trailer for live events, a 30-foot camera boom, full lighting and grip and location sound. On the post side it offers two Avid edit suites with a Media Composer and Adrenaline, Lightwave 3D, a Pro Tools post audio room with VO studio, DVD authoring and duplication, and web compression services.

“Business has been slow the last six months but it’s picking up a bit,” reports Vander Molen. “Maybe the sun shining has put everyone in a better state of mind.”

CVM kicked off the spring by taking its production trailer to seven Midwest venues for short-track sprint car races telecast on Comcast Sportsnet out of Chicago. “We are providing all the production and post services, including graphic design,” notes Senior Producer Joe Stiles. During the presidential campaign last year the truck and crew supported Barack Obama’s visit to Marion, Indiana for Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace.

CVM also does a lot of regional commercials for clients such as car dealerships, retail outlets and small colleges plus promo and marketing pieces for non-profits like the United Way, says Stiles.

KDN Videoworks covers airwaves

KDN Videoworks, Inc. in Madison Heights, Michigan primarily provides broadcast services to national news and entertainment networks from its suburban Detroit location. It offers HD (Panasonic VariCam, Sony PDW-700 and Panasonic HDX900F cameras) and SD packages with lighting and support gear; a 25x40-foot studio; a Vyvx fiber line and live room; an Avid and Final Cut Pro edit room; and DVD creation, mastering and duplication.

The company is well-known for its Mobile TV Studio, created by Vice President and Technical Director David Newman, which opens to feature a 240-square foot studio with picture window for single head shots or two- to four-person interviews in a weatherproof, climate-controlled environment. Recently introduced are three Mini Mobile TV Studios – two trailers, one truck – for smaller locations. “We’re talking to a company about doing a live game show out of a Mini Mobile in Manhattan,” Newman reports. Paul Dzendzel acts as the studios’ camera/audio technician. Two Uplynx KU uplink trucks are based in Michigan and Seattle.

KDN Videoworks covered Barack Obama at the Detroit Institute of the Arts during the presidential campaign, had crews recording March Madness in Detroit for the NCAA, and sent its satellite trucks to the Frozen Four (NCAA ice hockey finals) and the NCAA women’s basketball regional playoffs. Its Mobile TV Studio and Mini Mobiles are in demand throughout the Midwest and the East Coast for live trial coverage on Tru-TV (formerly Court TV).

KDN Films, the content creation division headed by Bill Kubota, produced two docs which aired nationally on PBS: Luston: The House America’s Been Waiting For and Kuroki: Most Honorable Son. It’s currently in post on a doc about the ash bore insect.

Business was steady through March, according to Newman, with “no big downturns. We’re getting some business thanks to Michigan’s production incentives, including shoots for Entertainment Tonight of the movies working in town.”

Chicago HD increases capabilities

Spots now dominate the post work at Chicago HD where there’s lots of news from co-owners Steve Panning and Gary Chang.

Last year the company added another Final Cut Pro room so it now offers full uncompressed HD and 2K editing in two suites; it’s also capable of processing and transferring Phantom high-speed HD footage in those rooms as the format grows in popularity.

Panning reports that Chicago HD’s postproduction rental business remains strong. It offers HDCAM, HDCAM SR, D5, DVCPRO HD and SD decks and converters to post houses and independents; it recently added 4:4:4 capabilities to its HDCAM SR package “for better color sampling for customers doing high-end spots and chromakeys,” he explains.

Chicago HD provided creative editorial, color correction, graphics and finishing for a six-spot TradeStation Securities package and color correction and finishing for a Four Winds Casino package. The company is now working on the theatrical version of The Providence Effect, a feature-length doc about a Westside Chicago high school with a high number of Ivy League placements for its black and Latino graduates. Chicago HD previously color corrected and finished the doc for festival and DVD distribution.

Although business is slower this year than last it remains steady, Panning says. “I wish we were busier, but I’m not worried. We’re seeing more RED projects come in.”

Yellow Dog gets teeth into new business

At Madison, Wisconsin’s Yellow Dog Productions the focus has shifted from corporate work and broadcast news for hire to providing video services to faith-based non-profits, says co-owner Marv Turner, an Emmy-winning TV shooter; wife Beth is an Emmy-winning major-market news anchor.

They’ve already done Christian and secular versions of a fundraising DVD for Carenet distributed to healthcare professionals; the project about empowering single mothers was shot 24p 16:9 on miniDV. They also provided script-to-screen services for a DVD and web content on Wisconsin Right to Life’s Man Up program. A Final Cut Pro room is on hand for editing and finishing.

A big part of Yellow Dog’s mission is mentoring video professionals through its Guns For Cameras program in Africa. Turner made three trips to Mozambique and the Congo last year showing how video can build self worth in villages. A Congolese TV station will include one hour a week of TV programming made by the Guns For Cameras students in Bukavu.

“There’s no place we can’t reach with video,” Turner says. “We hope to get some major manufacturers on board, and we’re getting calls about doing the program elsewhere.”

Blue 60 strong in spot, corporate storytelling

Minneapolis-based Blue 60 Pictures is a production company owned by Executive Producer Ridge Henderson, Producer/Director Fritz Basgen, Director/DP Greg Winter, and Writer/Director Tom Bloom. Henderson and Winter usually handle commercials and Basgen and Bloom corporate projects. But all "pitch in" as needed; says Henderson, "There's an awful lot of expertise among the four of us." Blue 60 also represents Twin Cities native Richard Klug, a director/cameraman, for commercials in Minneapolis.

For TV commercials Blue 60 still shoots more film than HD video, but corporate communications’ production is largely HD; Henderson says the company has been "shooting a lot with RED in the last 10 months." In the last year, Winter has directed spots for Target and Cox Business as well as Syngenta's Avicta herbicide. Klug has lensed commercials for Hood, Pitney Bowes, Shaws, Hewlett Packard and the Christian Science Monitor.

Corporate communications’ credits include a video to aid fundraising efforts for the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, patient and physician education videos for Medtronic, an opener for a Honeywell automation controls sales meeting, educational and corporate image projects for the Mayo Clinic and community relations projects for Target.

"We did a dozen short videos for Target's web site called Dream in Color," featuring notable people of color, like Debbie Allen, Iman, John Legend, actor Tony Plana and designer Sami Hayek sharing stories of their success and inspiration, says Henderson.

This year got off to a slower start than last but business has still been fairly steady, he reports. " I think companies are being thoughtful about the projects they're doing: They're not shutting everything down. They’re smart. They realize they need to communicate and communicate well."

One stop Drive Thru

In Minneapolis Drive Thru Production and Post is a “one-stop shop” for national and regional spots, and longform and Internet projects, says Executive Producer Mark Setterholm. He co-owns the company with Bob George who handles the editorial side of business.

Drive Thru represents up to eight directors “matching the best talents with the creative opportunity.” Timothy Kendall shot the Buffalo Wild Wings campaign that aired during the Final Four, two spots for Minnesota Tourism, three spots for McDonald’s featuring St. Louis Cardinals players, and eight spots for the Cards’ new season. Jb Carlin recently finished an American Family Insurance commercial for the Hispanic market in San Diego, and Director/DP Ken Seng lensed two Scheels retail spots in Auburn, California. The company largely shoots spots in HD with its own Panasonic HV200 cameras or rents RED as needed.

On the post side Drive Thru boasts three creative edit suites, finishing with Smoke and Flame, and 3D animation with Maya. It’s partnered with Co3 for real time color correction from their Santa Monica and New York facilities via the Internet with their IP-to-IP system.

While Drive Thru typically posts the spots it shoots, it also provided creative editing and finishing for a “very moving” doc by Hoop Dreams Director Steve James about Harlistas, Latin America’s dedicated Harley-Davidson riders. The company also posted Subaru, YMCA and H&R Block commercials and numerous web banners. “Agency content is often multi-purpose,” Setterholm points out.

He says he doesn’t “want to jinx” things when he reports he believes Drive Thru just had “the best first quarter ever.” The 24-year old company recently moved to a 6,500-square foot penthouse space in its building. “We started on the ground floor here, so we’re moving up!” Setterholm declares.

Avatar stirs up new roux

St. Louis-based Avatar Studios is an award-winning full-service production and post facility for corporate communications and commercials; its newly launched Roux Interactive division handles web development and design for regional ad agencies and corporate clients.

Avatar primarily shoots with a pair of Sony CineAlta HD cameras and has a 16-foot grip truck for location work. It offers a 45x65-foot stage with set building and storage, three Avid Adrenaline editing rooms, a Nitris DS room and a Final Cut Pro room, plus two audio/sound design rooms with Pro Tools and Sony Vegas software.

President Bill Faris, who is also a director and DP, calls 2008 “one of our better years, although it was a rollercoaster.” Avatar excels at turnkey projects, bringing in outside directors as needed. Among its recent credits are spots and a national sales meeting video for Monsanto via Osborn & Barr/St. Louis and a video for Boeing, produced by Faris’s partner Dennis Bracy, about computerized energy grids which featured cross-country shoots in California, Seattle, Washington, D.C., and St. Louis. Roux has done web development for Anheuser-Busch and 901 Tequila via Whitespace.

While Faris admits that the first quarter was “a bit of a challenge,” he saw business picking up in March and looking good into April. “We firmly believe that the convergence of the core business of Avatar and the web is finally happening,” he says

Metro offers full-service storytelling

Operating 24/7 and often in a turnkey fashion, Metro Productions in Kansas City, Missouri considers storytelling the core aspect of its production and post business. “We interpret the client’s message and deliver it in a visual form” whether it’s a promo, doc, spots, VNRs or features, notes President/CEO Tim McGovern. The company maintains a 50-50 balance of agency and B-to-B work; about half the agency work, he estimates, is web-driven and B-to-B web work is growing, too.

Metro’s 10,000-square foot facility boasts a soundstage with 40-foot seamless cyc and greenscreen, four networked Avid Adrenaline HD and Final Cut Pro edit suites, a Pro Tools-based audio recording/editing/sound design room, and a 1-ton grip truck with full location lighting package. Acquisition is primarily with Sony’s XDCAM HD format.

Recent work includes animal health projects for Bayer, Pioneer and Triforce and a Colgate consumer health project for trade shows and other use; a Microsoft 360 game platform job from new-media agency vml.com; and commercials for Kansas City’s The New Theater which draws top national acting talent.

Metro likes to give back to the community and has done pro bono media projects for the city’s 18th Street Fashion Show and webisode spoofs featuring local female actors shown on-line at www.unrealhousewivesofkc.com.

McGovern says Metro kept busy during the holidays and into the new year but business slowed afterwards. “Now we’re getting more inquiries and feel the market is coming back.”

Through A Glass busily

Through A Glass Productions (TAG) in Lawrence, Kansas offers production and post for a wide array of clients. “The vast majority of work is HD these days; I can’t remember the last time our 35mm camera was out. We use its lenses with RED,” says Chris Blunk who’s partnered with Jeremy Osbern in the company.

“We’re big fans of tapeless workflows and working with native files,” notes Blunk. TAG’s Red Room is a Final Cut Pro edit suite, and its Green Room is a Pro Tools-based audio suite with VO and Foley capabilities.

Indie features and short films have been keeping TAG busy lately. Osbern shot the short film Candy for Director Misti Boland; Steve Deaver edited and Blunk did sound editing and sound design. Osbern also shot the feature Last Breath for Director Ty Jones with Deaver and Blunk getting editing and post sound credits for the film which premiered in April at the Kansas City Film Festival. Osbern used RED to lens the short Lady in My Life for LA-based Director/Writer Malik Aziz; Deaver and Blunk again furnished post.

Osbern served as DP with Matt Jacobson on The Only Good Indian which Director Kevin Willmott shot in Kansas and which premiered at Sundance this year. TAG has produced its own musical feature, Air, which Osbern directed and shot and Blunk produced. It has been a winner on the festival circuit and is now sealing deals for theatrical, DVD and on-line release.

Blunk supplied location sound recording for the web reality series Next! spoofing casting directors. TAG also took a script-to-screen approach for a training/motivational video for a manufacturer of acoustic material for cars.

According to Blunk, business always slows in winter and some film work is pending for later this year. “We’re not feeling the signs of recession to the degree you hear about on the coasts,” he says.

Crow Ridge flying high

Rapid City, South Dakota’s Crow Ridge Productions is unique in its part of the country offering crews and equipment to movies, TV and spots; it also specializes in location sound and creates its own content.

Crow Ridge has the only 3.5-ton grip truck in 350 miles and shoots with a Sony Z1U and two Panasonic HVX200 HD cameras plus lights, jibs and dollies. “We always run lean and provide more services than clients ask for,” notes President Christine VanNess. “Producers like coming here because of the attention they get and all the wonderful locations in the area.”

Business tends to be seasonal (spring, summer and fall) but “the first two months of this year were the best ever,” she reports. Projects since January include shooting an episode of Dino Body and hiking to the top of Washington’s head on Mt. Rushmore for Decoding America, both on Discovery Channel; accompanying the returning PBS History Detectives to the Crazy Horse monument; and furnishing two crews for two shows shot simultaneously in the Badlands and various museums for National Geographic’s Prehistoric Predators.

Crow Ridge also provided live location sound for the CBS Morning Show and for a webcast from Mt. Rushmore for Elderhostel. Earlier, the company worked on interviews in Pine Ridge for the documentary Reel Injuns about Indians in the movies, and shot DVD extras on Mt. Rushmore and in surrounding areas for Ken Burns’s new The National Parks: America’s Best Idea and Untold Stories which airs on PBS starting in May. VanNess’s husband, Rick, was location manager for Sylvan Lake for National Treasure II which extended its shoot in the area from three days to three weeks.

Crow Ridge has also finished its own short sci-fi film, The Awakening, which it hopes will be the first of a 10-episode web series.

“We expected a long winter but January and February were great, and we’ve had inquiries for the last half of June and August already,” says VanNess.

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