NEW YORK CITY — Head of production Laura Patterson recently took Post on a tour of PS260’s 10,000-square-foot space on Fifth Avenue in New York City. The studio is approximately 15 years old, having been founded not long after the September 11th attacks.
(Above Left) Managing partner Zarina Mak and head of production Laura Patterson. (Above Right) PS260's rooftop patio. (Top) John Zieman at the studio's bar.
PS260 (http://ps260.com) is bicoastal, with a Venice, CA, studio that’s located within a luxury home. The New York space is pretty impressive too, with a rooftop deck that offers unobstructed views of the Empire State Building to the north, and the Flatrion Building just a few blocks to the south. The studio specilizes in commercial work, offering editorial, motion graphics, visual effects and finishing services. Some of its recent clients have included JetBlue, AT&T, Maybelline, Talbots and E-Trade.
When Post stopped by in mid-September, editor Dustin Stephens (above) was working on the social aspects of an online campaign for AT&T. Stephens has Adobe, Avid and Apple editing software at his displosal, but was specifically using Premiere Pro for the AT&T job, as its broadcast components were being cut elswhere in the studio using Premiere too. The online ads, says Stephens, were initially going to be cut as :17 edits, but ended up running :20.5 with the approval of the client. Online ads, he notes allow for flexibility when it comes to length, and clients are now becoming more aware of social media components, keeping in mind that ads may ultimately appear in vertical spaces. As such, many are making the necessary adjustments during production to accommodate the unusual framing.
While much of PS260’s work is for commercial clients, editor Matt Posey (below) has been working on a series of 360-degree videos for alternative music band Depesche Mode. He detailed his work on the first video —
Going Backwards — in an
exclusive article for
Post in August.
Posey is working with director/photographer Timothy Saccenti on the project, which will include two more 360-degree videos, shot with a GoPro rig. “I’ve learned so many little things,” he says his experience with the format. Posey uses Adobe’s After Effects and Premiere Pro to cut and composite elements, and a plug-in from Mettle to more easily view the 360-degree content.
John Zieman (below) is one of PS260’s co-founders and partners. Beyond New York and Los Angeles, Zieman says PS260’s talent also takes on work from other markets and will travel to Boston or Atlanta, for example, where they’ll set up pop-up space in which to work for short periods of time.
The studio, says Zieman, is known for grooming talent from within, rather than acquiring it from outside. As an owner, he says, it’s important to provide a path for employees to grow and thereby want to stay at the studio.
Creative director Patrick Lavin with @ PS260 Finishing (above) says he relies on After Effects and, to some extent, Maxon’s Cinema4D to complete jobs for the likes of JetBlue and AT&T. Lavin’s set up includes a Mac and NEC display.
Margaret Yang (above) is the senior Flame operator at @ PS260 Finishing. She recently completed work on one of E-Trade’s "Don’t Get Mad" spots, which uses comedic extremes to suggest how rich one might become from using the tool. In this case, a helicopter is used to pull a water skier, rather than a power boat. Yang helped with the visual effects, which included cleaning up spray from the boats that were actually used during the shoot.