"Post Time Productions was up and running strong out of the gate just days after the growing and ambitious production company's recent acquisition of Host Communication's video production division, its clients, state-of-the-art equipment and two employees of the sports marketing firm's former in-house video production.
Established 15 years ago as an audio/video extension of the Kentucky Sports Medicine Network for filming surgeries and preparing other educational videos, Post Time has branched out far beyond its original purpose. Now with the addition of Graeme Hart and Darren Platt, the company is poised to be a regional production house, according to general manager Douglas High.
"We have two state-of-the-art, killer, Avid edit systems thatclearly make (Post Time) the most technologically advanced production company in a 70- to 80-mile radius," High said.
By combining Host's editing system with one already owned by Post Time and their HD camera, High said his company is able to do the same quality of production customers would expect out of major market companies, but at a much lower price.
"Our marketing focus is to become a regional player. We do a lot of local business with all of the agenciesbut for the size of operation we are and hope to be, Lexington is not nearly large enough to support it," High said.
His plan is to take their high-end equipment and go "to Nashville and to Cincinnati and to Columbus and to Washington and say 'look, why not do your shoot and edit with us for $200 an hour versus $600 an hour (with companies in major markets)?' We have people calling us from D.C. all the time, saying 'I only have $20,000 for a video and I can't get it done in Washington.' You can do it here on the same gear and pay the Lexington, Kentucky, rate and everybody wins."
Post Time's employees and low rates were the winning proposition Host Communications President Thomas J. Stultz saw in selling the in-house production to Post Time and outsourcing projects to his former employees that would have been doing the work anyway.
"It was kind of a break-even proposition for Host as we were running it. We either needed to expand and get real aggressive in the local video production business, which I think would have been a distraction for our core businesses (or sell it off)," Stultz said. "We as a company are focused on growing the things we know we do best, and there are certain things we know we can outsource."
Neither High nor Stultz would disclose what Post Time paid for the transaction, but High said it is something that had been discussed for more than a year.
"The idea started formulating: 'Why don't we just try to figure out a way to get (Host) out of our business and let them do what they do best — sports marketing?' (We would) transfer their internal production arm over here and that way we'd be their full video vendor, shooting and editing," High said.
That was a proposition much welcomed by former Host video editor Platt, who said he's at home in his new office. Not only is he sitting behind the exact same production equipment he used at Host, he's working with many of the same videographers and producers that were used on most of the projects at Host.
"Host Communications always used Post Time to shoot all of our major projects, and it just made sense for all of our outside clients, all of our inside clients to just partner together. They can come to one place to get the top-notch editing, the top-notch shooting, everything all in the same studio," Platt said.
While his photos and other personal effects were still in a box under his desk three days after Post Time's acquisition of the Host video production was final, Platt was at work on a video of football highlights for Host. Still getting to work on projects he is familiar with, Platt is looking forward to the opportunity to expand beyond the sports marketing and association videos that were Host's bread and butter.
"Host Communications is committed to doing sports marketing really well, association management really well, and 'Oh, by the way, we do top-notch video.' So the focus wasn't production, whereas here we've got owners that are dedicated to reinvesting the profit directly into equipment and employees and into the projects," Platt said.
Post Time is currently working on a series of Civil War documentaries that is set to air near the end of the year on KET, and High hopes to attract more types of long-form production to his company, including a full-length independent film, in the future.
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