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Case Study 2

Page history last edited by Brian Tyrseck 12 years, 10 months ago

Case Study 2 - NYC Post-Production Facility - Compiled by: Brian

 

 

Great City Productions

www.greatcityprod.com

 

122 West 26th Street

Suite 903

New York, NY 10001

 

t: 212-242-0664

f: 212-242-3676

 

 

Company Structure:

 

Britt Myers - Owner/Studio Manager

Jay Culliton - Technical Manager

Alissa Nurko - Office Manager/Scheduler

 


 

Nature of work:

Film & Television audio-post production

 

POST PRODUCTION:

Great City is a boutique audio/video post-production facility and is geared to handle all aspects of clients’ post-production needs.  For filmmakers, the facility is equipped for sound design, mixing, and editing your project under the supervision of GCP’s chief engineers and project managers.  If the small screen is more your game, Great City can provide the same great sound design, mixing, and editing services, as well as, live recording environments for foley, ADR, and VO sessions.  

 

*Episodic promos that are compiled from show footage usually have all the audio and video levels optimized by the originating production company.  Promo departments use Post-Production facilities to help them with original content that needs audio and video editorial work done from scratch.

 

VIDEO EDITORIAL:

Great City has moved beyond only providing audio services to its clients.  Now, the production facility has been expanded to provide video editorial services as well.  GCP’s editorial capabilities now include: two private editing bays, and two additional editing and graphics machines.

 

MUSIC PRODUCTION:

Great City can provide unmatched music production services for its clients.  GCP has three studios (studio A, B, & C) that can handle all your audio recording a mixing.  5.1 surround mixing capabilities are also available for clients looking to score their motion pictures and television projects.  The icing on the cake is GCP’s network of composers who can score your upcoming video projects if music isn’t your forte.

 

  • Film & Television audio-post-production
    • Sound design, mixing, & editing (5.1 capable)
    • Live sound: ADR, foley, VO sessions
  • Video editorial post-production
    • Private edit suites
      • Final Cut Studio 7
    • graphics design
      • After Effects, Flash, Photoshop
      • Plug-ins library
  • Music Production
    • Recording, mixing, composing

 

Clients:

 

Post-production clients for television include: MTV/MTV2, Spike TV, Target, Cartoon Network, Comedy Central, AXN (International TV Station), HBO, Rockstar Games, Coca Cola, Adult Swim (Super Jail, Venture Brothers), Furnace Films, YES Network, Fuse TV 

 

Feature Film Campaigns include: Another Gay Movie, Hustle and Flow, An Inconvenient Truth, Lions for Lambs, V For Vendetta, Blades of Glory

 

Music Artists include:  Yeasayer, Chairlift, Passing Strange (Cast Recordings, )Suzanne Vega, John Phillips, Aimee Mann, David Gray, and many more...

 

Additional Feature Film/Television Projects:

Great City on IMDb

 

 

Sample Reels:

 

MINI Clubman - "Suggestive Parking"

  • Post-production sound

 

 

 

 

2009 MTV Video Music Awards - "VMA Side Story"

  • Audio Mix, Sound Design, & Foley

 

 

 


 

 

Facilities:

 

Studio A

Analogue Tracking Room

 

 

 

 

 

 

Studio B

Film & television mixing

 

 

 

 

 

 

Studio C

Editing, sound design, music composition suite

 

 

 

 

 

 

Studio D

Multi-purpose audio/video mixing & editing suite

 

 

 

 

 

 

Studio E  

Dedicated video editorial room

 

 

 

 

 

 

Studio 900

Open workspace

 

 

 


 

Working at Great City Productions:

*From an interview with owner, Britt Meyers

 

How is the company organized?

Great City has 7 full-time staff and a varying amount of freelancers at any given moment.  Since it is a boutique operation, space is limited, so the crew never gets above 15 people during peak times.  There are no departments within the company per se, but they do distinguish employment between "support" and "engineering."  Support staff usually includes reception, office administration, scheduling, and tech support.  Engineering includes graphic artists, editors, and audio engineers.

 

What is the production ladder/hierarchy like?

Being a post-production facility, Great City is organized a bit differently than a typical production environment.  Client work can be on the shorter side (i.e. audio/graphics for a 30-second promo) lasting only one or two days, or it can be an on-going, long-term assignment, like a TV series.  GCP does a lot of work for various animated series, such as Ugly Americans on Comedy Central.  The company's internal structure usually revolves around these longer projects, and smaller ones get a watered-down version of the command chain.  Since it is a smaller company, employees usually take on more than one role, but a general hierarchy would look like the following:

 

  • Support Staff: Managing Director, Office Manager/scheduler, & Reception.
  • For Audio Engineering: Chief engineer, engineer, junior engineer, & assistant engineer.
  • For Sound Design: Supervising sound editor, sound designer, & junior sound designer.
  • For Dialog Editing: Supervising dialog editor, editor, & assistant editor.
  • For Tech Support: Chief technology officer, technical manager, technician, & assistant technician.

 

*Since editorial and graphics services are new within the last year, there are no official leads for those jobs.  Roles are defined loosely based on the type of project at hand and on client needs.

 

There are usually 3-4 interns on staff at any one time.  They mostly spend their time cleaning, running errands and assisting on audio productions while GCP helps develop their skills and abilities.

 

What is the hiring process like?

Full-time audio engineer hires have generally always been former interns at GCP.  The managing director of the operation was a former consultant who was hired full time for the position.  When searching to fill other roles, like the office manager/scheduler, GCP turns to Mandy.com to set up interviews.  On their website, Mandy boasts to be "the first database of film/tv technicians and facilities on the web; we now get over 6 million impressions per month, and are listed in the first page in a Google search for film production. We offer five channels for tv/film production professionals."

 

Freelancers generally come from word of mouth, cold emails to the company, mandy.com, or through an agent.  GCP has a long roster of freelancers to choose from at any given moment, but are always looking for more.  Word of mouth is usually one freelancer recommending another when he/she isn't available themselves for a gig.  Cold emails aren't guaranteed to get far for freelance positions, but resumes are kept on file if they look up to par.  When time is of the essence, GCP turns to a freelance agent who has his own roster of freelancers and can recommend people in a pinch.

 

Is hiring based on specific client needs?

Yes and No.  Everything is technically based on client needs.  Sometimes, when GCP is really busy with multiple clients, they need to fill in the gaps of their resources for certain project with additional freelance hires.  Occasionally, clients have specific graphics or editorial needs with a person in mind to handle them, they're generally then hand picked off the freelance roster.

 

Who makes the hiring decisions?

Owner, Britt Meyers, and the Managing Director decide on most of the hires.

 

Where do new hires come from, and what skill-sets do you expect from them?

Audio engineers are former interns, most of the time, who have proven themselves and work their way up from assistant engineer to full.  In a small business like GCP, everyone needs to wear many different hats.  Very few people at Great City get to enjoy a life of just doing "one thing" all day.  Employees are expected to be smart and versatile, willing to do anything necessary to get the job done. 

 

The best way to work at GCP is to either intern or just get in touch with the studio.  In they're words, GCP is really good at recognizing talent people, and it is very important for them to recognize that talent before competitors do.  GCP generally tries to find places for talented people who can be a long term asset for the company. 

 

What advice do you have for recent grads on getting noticed in the industry?

Knowing someone generally works out best.  You will still need to get an internship somewhere, and work you way up.  Just don't have an attitude, or act like anything is beneath you.  Be a likeable person.  In Britt's words, "It's funny, we have talked about how easy it is to impress us (show up on time, don't be a jerk), and how easy it is to unimpress us (act like you know everything, show up late, etc)."

 

Any advice on who to contact, or suggestions on industry blogs/resources?

For audio engineers, they need to know ProTools like it was their first language.  There are tons of resources out there, the software is cheap now, and there really is no excuse for not understanding everything about it.  Following the industry blogs and online resources for ProTools is extremely important. 

 

As for who to contact, Britt suggests sending your resume cold to every studio in the city, and then follow up with a polite email and try to get a short meeting with someone.  If you know someone who knows someone, a recommendation often goes a long way in this business. 

 

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