A New York Home for Post-Production: an Interview with HOUSE TriBeca co-founder Jeremiah Dart
Quaintly tucked away in a historical brick building, Jeremiah Dart, David Miao and Scott Frances created HOUSE, a company intent on easing the frenzied New York pace and infusing good old traditional values into their digital post-production company.
Glen Luchford Tilda Swinton
How did your company begin?
HOUSE as an idea started back in 2004 when David Miao and I were still in photo school at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. We jokingly said that we should start a retouching company together. We both graduated in 2005 and did what we could in order to scrape by. David began working for Box, and I worked freelance. Eventually I started working for the Architecture Photographer, Scott Frances. He had such a huge amount of work that I worked “freelance” full-time. I eventually saw the need of hiring helpers to prep the work and complete the time consuming aspects of retouching. I kept in contact with David on a friendly and personal level, but no thoughts of starting HOUSE were conceived. I continued to work as did he. Eventually David began to tire of the corporate structure of Box and talked about going freelance again. I proposed the idea of working together along with Scott, to provide a service to artists and photographers, our once dream quickly became a reality. Scott owns a historic brick town house that was built in the 1800s, and we set up shop on the ground floor. HOUSE was born.
Scott Frances Disney Concert Hall
What were some of the challenges in starting up HOUSE?
The biggest challenge is always one of money, we never know if work will stop next month and our doors will close, but I thank God that work has always flown in for us. Another challenge is one of organization and efficiency. At first our company had so much work at one time that we hired a bunch of free lancers to help us, but that ended up hurting more than helping because we were spending more time correcting their work, than if we had done it ourselves. We’ve learned that we need to be nimble and small in order to keep costs down and undercut the big guys. So we spend a great deal of time training new people so that they can see how we see and understand not only how to fix and image, but what to fix on an image.
Glen Luchford Tasaki Thakoon
How many people currently work for HOUSE and what is the working dynamic like?
HOUSE has an elastic staff. From any week we might have as many as 9 people working for us or as few as 3. This is very important for us because it allows us to accept both the big high paying jobs that require quick turnaround time as well as the low paying personal jobs that artists bring us. We have learned that we need to keep our overhead low, because every dollar we don’t spend can be reinvested into the company.
Katie Kingma Cape Cod
Has post-production in general, and HOUSE in particular, been affected by the recent economic troubles?
We’ve seen the budgets for jobs cut and cut and cut. Post-production is the last step in the production, and what often happens is that the majority of the cushion money budgeted for extras in a production is swallowed up before it makes it to us. The job will arrive and requests will be made by the producer or art director that are over and above the original estimate, we are then forced to request more money in order to complete requests like excessive compositing or styling errors that need to be removed, but the producer will say there is no more money. We are either forced to eat the extra costs of time ourselves and save the project or to say no and let the end result suffer.
Tait Simpson Toto
Specifically for HOUSE, we have been doing well despite the economy. We are able to offer clients the same level of quality that the big guys offer, but for much lower rates. They are very, very happy to know that their work can get done for less.
You say: “We take pride in our divergence from the sterile, impersonal and rushed world of digital post-production.” How do you achieve this divergence?
We at HOUSE approach the digital world with more of a home-made boutique feel. We are very personable and friendly. As film disappears and photographers are forced to convert to digital many digital houses have only taken the place of the film processing business, they are cold and business-like, but we feel there is an opportunity to not replace, but to create something new - a new service that is based on people-to-people relationships and creative collaboration.
Anna Wolf Treehouse
You mention the importance of a “creative collaboration.” How does creativity come into play during post-production?
Retouchers can occupy any portion on the artistic / creative spectrum. There are retouchers who are strictly technical and can only follow directions and formulas, and there are retouchers who are strictly artistic and don’t work well on other people’s projects. I like to think that HOUSE is somewhere in the middle. We understand that we offer a service to artists. We want to complete their vision in the best way possible, but we can also offer suggestion when creative walls are hit. Dave, myself, and all of our staff are artists on our own time, so we are very happy to exercise our creative talents when the time is appropriate.
Anna Wolf Untitled
There are times when a photographer has an image that they like, but they want to push it further so that it reaches another level. Digital retouching provides a path to do so. Sometimes it may involve careful compositing to add elements to an image that were not captured in camera, or maybe altering the color relationships drastically to give an image a different mood.
What, if any, are your personal backgrounds in photography?
As I mentioned before, Dave and I graduated together from the School of Visual Arts. We both have a photography degree. One of the realities of graduating from such a school is the number of other students graduating at the same time. There were 100 of us. I then started to think about how many years SVA has been pumping out photography students, and how many other schools have been doing the same thing. The other reality was the fact that despite all of the new photographers entering the market, the older pros were not leaving. It became obvious that I needed to provide a service for the photographers who already had work, and who needed to transition over to digital, rather than try to compete with them. I focus my time outside of work making photographs with my 8×10 camera. I enjoy embracing the opposite end of the spectrum of photography that I work with from day to day.
Katie Kingma Comstock Bridge
Can you describe the steps involved in “digital post-production”?
Digital Post Production is the process of converting a digital RAW file into a workable photoshop file, adjusting it to the eye and intention of the photographer, and or art director, altering it if the need be, compositing it with another image if requested, and finally delivering a file that can go to print or be used for web. We are the end of the production line before the image is seen by the public.
Patrick Gosling Vodafone
What kinds of images are you most often solicited to retouch?
The most common images are those that revolve around fashion and beauty, but we also do a lot of architecture and life style work.
Scott Frances Bloomberg Office
In the world of post-production, models’ physical appearances are often retouched. How do you respond to these fashion retouching requests?
99% of all images published are retouched; fashion specifically. The fashion industry is dependent upon the illusion of perfection, and they are willing to pay for it. HOUSE is a business and our service is to provide a way to achieve the illusion of perfection. We have no problem with the requests that are asked of us whether it be to make a woman appear symmetrical, more curvaceous, or even a bit less plump. Some people blame retouchers for perpetuating the body conscious issues that plague young women; my response to that would be that the problems existed before the days of retouching, and run much deeper than the liquify tool. I understand that the media manufactures illusions, and we as consumers choose to consume them, but I’m not going to deny the work because some people can’t tell the difference between reality and fantasy.
Glen Luchford Avon Zoe Saldana
Are there universal trouble-spots in a photograph that are the hardest to rework?
Every image is different, and that is why it takes a trained eye to recognize such problems, and the skill to deal with the problem. Typical problems are associated with skin, or fabric moiré patterns and colors as well as correction of technical errors on the part of the camera or lighting.
Tim Devine Untitled
Do you work directly with photographers or primarily with companies for clients?
We work with a blend between companies and photographers. Sometimes a corporation will approach us directly, while another may use a photographer as a middle man to create a relationship with us. We often work directly or indirectly for ad-agencies, magazines, book publishers, photographers and producers.
Roger Cabello Estée Lauder
What clients are you currently working with?
We are proud to consistently work for Avon, Estée Lauder, Glen Luchford and of course Scott Frances.
Interview by LG
Link to House Tribeca website
For more information about the artists mentioned above :
http://katiekingma.com
http://www.timothydevine.com
http://scottfrances.com
http://rogercabello.com
http://www.annawolf.com/fashion
http://www.taitsimpson.com
http://www.patrickgosling.com/
http://www.artpartner.com - for Glen Luchford
