News &Analysis

Paula Wilsonneeds $4 million.Can you help?PAGE 5

Up Front

List

Insurance brokers getfat off healthcare reform.PAGE 14

RealEstate

Why one NewYork firm lovesValley rentals.PAGE 21

Awards Luncheon: Tuesday, June 18, 2013

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SAN FERNANDOVALLEY BUSINESS JOURNALVolume 18, Number 11 May 27 - June 9, 2013 • $4.00

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T H E C O M M U N I T Y O F B U S I N E S S TM

By KELLY GOFF Staff Reporter

When Brad Wiseman wanted to buy a new homefor his family, the veteran real estate agent made anoffer early for a place in Calabasas.

But his offer, at $50,000 over asking price, didn’t fly.“The (selling) broker literally laughed in my face,”

he recalled. “He told me I wasn’t even in the ball game.”So Wiseman, director of Pinnacle Estate

Properties Inc.’s Platinum Estates division inCalabasas, applied a little inside knowledge.

He did what agents across the San Fernando Valleyhave often been forced to do for clients in an odd, blis-

SOUR DOUGH?

Agents Go Top Secret with Listings

How RichardBuchalterbecame theking of kernels.PAGE 3

By KELLY GOFF Staff Reporter

With much of its developable land already blan-keted with housing, the San Fernando Valley mightnot seem like an ideal place for new subdivisions.

But L.A. developer PC Sherman WayAssociates LLC is planning to build 131 homesin Van Nuys. The only thing is, they won’t be yourtraditional suburban boxes.

The project at Sherman Way and HazeltineAvenue would be the city’s largest so-called“small-lot subdivision” project on just 5.7 acres.

The developments are a hybrid of the tradition-al suburban housing and a condominium complex.They often forego yard space, but the units are

DEVELOPMENT: 131-home projectslated for 5.7 acres in Van Nuys.

REAL ESTATE: Scarcity of homes haspros resorting to unorthodox tactics.

By ELLIOT GOLAN Staff Reporter

Charles Hogan knows what you like. Walk into a sandwich shop on your lunch break

to pick up your daily turkey and provolone onwheat, and the moment your Visa card is swiped, heknows you’re not one for pastrami on rye.

Hogan is chief executive of Tranzlogic, aWestlake Village data analytics firm that can har-vest more than 150 identifiable attributes aboutyou at the point of sale from credit card data. Thatincludes everything from your culinary prefer-ences to your age, marital status, annual incomeand discretionary spending habits.

That’s all information that a business can use

Credit Card DataFirm Charged Up

Please see MARKETING Page 47

MARKETING: Tranzlogic cullspersonal info from simple swipe.

By ELLIOT GOLAN Staff Reporter

On opposite sides of the Ventura Freeway inAgoura Hills are two bakeries that takethe idea of competition personally.

To the south, there’s Abby’s Millstone BakingCo., a European-style bakery that specializes infresh baked bread and pastries. On the north isWildflour Bakery & Café, equal parts bakery andcafé, serving a full breakfast and lunch menu thatincludes salads, sandwiches and pizza.

But the competition runs a lot hotter than whomakes the crustier bread or tastier pastries.

Abby Franke and Gregory Yulish ran anoth-er bakery together for almost two years, but the

partnership fell apart after disagreements escalat-ed to legal action, including allegations of verbalabuse and fraud. Lawsuits quickly led to thebankruptcy of their Stone Ground Bakery.

Today, Franke operates Abby’s, which heopened in November at the same 5005 Kanan Roadlocation where Stone Ground was founded. Thesedays, he puts the disagreement with his former part-ner in the past and focuses on “old-school” baking,from milling the grain on site to using a sourdoughstarter that dates back more than 100 years.

“It was scary how fast everything could change,”he said. “But this is beautiful. It’s a second chance.”

Please see RESTAURANTS Page 46

Big Tract PlanFor Small Lots

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Former partners open competing bakeries after dispute

The digital age has hit post pro-duction, upending how housesbig, small – and in between –do business. BEGINNING ON PAGE 7

SPECIAL REPORT ENTERTAINMENT

Please see DEVELOPMENT Page 44

Please see REAL ESTATE Page 45 Cold Caller: Pinnacle Estate’s Brad Wiseman.PHOTO BY DAVID SPRAGUE

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Fresh Baked: Abby Franke with bread just out of oven at his Abby’s Millstone Baking Co.

BYTE-SIZED REVOLUTION

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avid Dobson works out of the garageof his Burbank home but he is not amechanic.

Instead, Dobson spends his timein the cinderblock-walled room witha black and white cat – and in frontof four widescreen monitors.

That’s where Dobson creates title graphics as afreelance video editor, and has worked on suchshows as “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve,”the “American Music Awards” and the “GoldenGlobes.”

Welcome to the new world of post production.But he’s far from the only post pro holed up at

home. A producer Dobson knows in Studio Citycarved out three edit bays in a garage. What’s more,he generally collaborates with others in the processvia file transfers online.

“We do not have to meet or exchange anythingphysical,” he said. “You just need a high-speed con-nection.”

Dobson, 50, can work like this because of a rev-olution in the post production side of the entertain-ment industry – as digital files are used to createand manipulate television shows, feature films,

commercial, videos and short form content madeexclusively for the Internet.

In short, just about anything produced thesedays.

Indeed, the digital revolution has leveled theplaying field for freelancers such as Dobson, aswell as smaller post-production houses. They haveupdated to portable, less expensive equipment runby sophisticated software that costs just a few thou-sand dollars. Editing, color correction, sounddesign and mixing are no longer the domain ofmajor Hollywood studios and large productioncompanies.

In the San Fernando Valley, much of the post-production work is done in and around Burbank,Studio City and North Hollywood. These areas arein close proximity to the major studios such asWarner Bros. Studios and Walt Disney Co.,which also have been swept up in the digital post-production revolution.

That’s not to say all of the advancements thatdigital files and workflow promised have arrived.

The portability of digital post-production equip-ment means that it is entering the creative processearlier. Cloud computing and ultra-high definition

Special Report

Also inthis section:

Runaway postproduction?PAGE 10

Q&A: EarlyAdopterPAGE 11

Photo Essay:Screening Rooms PAGE 12

Portable gear andcheap softwarehave upendedpost productionfor the industry’s big and smallplayers alike.

EntertainmentSan Fernando Valley Business Journal • May 27, 2013

➼

Please see page 8

Casual Day:Freelancevideo editorDavid Dobsonworks on hislaptop at hisBurbankhome office.

DBy MARK R. MADLERStaff Reporter

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8 SAN FERNANDO VALLEY BUSINESS JOURNAL MAY 27, 2013

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Keeping small business growing.

cameras, monitors and television sets willbring additional changes to the industry.

All this takes place in a competitive envi-ronment where post houses are squeezed todeliver services more cheaply while alsoinvesting in the required up-to-date equipment.

“They have to be on top of their companyand on top of management to make sure theyhave a good balance of new equipment andjust being ahead of the market,” said MartyShindler, principal of Encino entertainmentindustry consultancy Shindler Perspective.

Cutting filmThe traditional method of post-production

was a time-consuming and arduous process.It involved cutting and splicing film on a

Moviola, a device that dates back to the1920s; color correction to give the film a uni-fied tone or look; and adding of visual andspecial effects, sometimes shot on a greenscreen. Music, sound effects, additional dia-logue recorded on tape loops and backgroundor ambient noises – also called Foley effectsafter its creator Jack Donovan Foley – aremixed on audio equipment and synchronizedwith the picture.

Digital video editing equipment made itsfirst appearance in the early 1970s but did notgain wider acceptance until the 1990s withthe release of the groundbreaking MediaComposer software from Burlington, Mass.company Avid Technology Inc. and its maincompetitor, Final Cut Pro, from Apple Inc.

Today, the digital revolution has made thefilm splicer and Moviola antiques, replacingthem with computers using software for so-called “non-linear” editing – a process inwhich the source material is never physicallyaltered and instead copies are made of digitalor audio files during editing.

Most films today are shot on digital cam-eras, but even for those directors who contin-ue to shoot in 35 mm film – StevenSpielberg among the most prominent – thefilm is converted into a digital file for editsand improvements. The final version can beconverted back to film, but most final prod-ucts stay digital since major theater chainhave converted to digital projection.

Andromeda Studios, a small independentproduction company, has invested about$12,000 in post equipment and software overthe past few years. At its space in a Van Nuysindustrial park, the company uses a variety ofsoftware to handle projects ranging fromshort film “Another Round,” a commercial forthe Motoguzzi V7 racer to a special with

stand-up comedian Mike Marino.The company’s arsenal includes Apple Macs

with Final Cut Studio 3 by Apple, Avid software,Smoke from Autodesk Inc. and the AdobeSystems Inc. editing suite software, said DerekNickell, the executive producer at Andromeda.

This software efficiently combines imagesshot directly on digital files and sound. FinalCut Studio 3, for example, contains programsfor editing video; audio editing and sounddesign; color grading; and encoding the digi-tal files into different formats. Digital post-production is a more collaborative process asfiles can be easily shared.

“With some systems you are ready to editfootage when it comes out of the camera,”Nickell said. “You plug into the software and

can go from production to post-production in15 minutes.”

Studio upgradesMike Cavanagh, of KeyCode Media, a

Burbank post equipment supplier, said thedigital revolution has completely upended hisside of the business too.

Components the company used to sell inthe millions of dollars have all but disap-peared. There was a time when receiving a $1million-plus order for Sony videotape play-back machines was not unusual at KeyCode.

“That is now a complete rarity,” he said.Now, KeyCode deals with the two biggest

names in video editing hardware and soft-ware, Avid and Adobe. The company also dis-tributes Sony, Panasonic, Autodesk and otherbrands. And like other forms of software,each new generation not only makes for morepowerful creative tools but the cost has gonedown as well. Apple kept dropping the priceof Final Cut to the point that KeyCodestopped selling it, given how it could bebought off the shelf at many stores.

Consider this: 10 years ago, an AvidMedia Composer system could cost upwardof $90,000. That price is now down to$7,000, said Cavanagh, who also reportsdecreasing data storage costs.

The Sony XDCAM disc, for example, costsabout $40 and proved popular with storingcontent for unscripted reality shows just a fewyears back. Now, linear tape-open, a magneticdata storage tape format used for backup,comes with the same $40 price tag – but it canstore the equivalent of 30 XDCAM discs.

“The challenge is that now there is acqui-sition of more amounts of media and so stor-age requirements are different,” Cavanaghsaid. “Those are the growth opportunities interms of services and products.”

Indeed, it’s the falling prices of digitalequipment, whether for cameras or the com-

SPECIAL REPORT ENTERTAINMENT

Continued from page 7

In Control: Patrick Woodard adds color to scene at L.A.’s DigitalFilm Tree.PHOTO BY THOMAS WASPER

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puters and software for editing, audio andvisual effects that have made it easier for asmall production company or a freelancer toprovide post services.

When Dobson started in the industry inthe early 1990s, he had to rent an edit bay atone of the large post houses. He now skipsthat expense by working at his home, or evenfrom a coffeehouse with a Wi-fi connection.

Nickell traveled the world with motiva-tional speaker Tony Robbins, shootingfootage with a DSLR camera and then edit-ing, putting in effects and color correcting ona laptop. “It is something that I can travelwith in a shoulder bag,” he said.

But it’s not only the independents andsmall production houses that have benefited.

For 20 years, Warner Bros. Studios hasused digital audio workstation Pro Tools,made by Avid, for re-recording, dialoguereplacement and other tasks in post-produc-tion sound.

The studio upgrades the main softwareevery two years and adds plug-ins, a compo-nent that adds a specific feature, nearly everyweek, said Kim Waugh, senior vice presidentof post-production services.

“It is a technology chase but the changesare worth the investment,” he said.

Waugh said both studio employees andoutside professionals use the studio’s postfacilities and digital technology improves thecollaborative creative environment – both foryoung professionals and veterans.

“This creates an innovative generation ofindividuals in sound work and legacy individ-uals who have embraced the new technology,”Waugh said.

Editing on setThe flipside to all this high-tech but low-

cost portable equipment is it creates a lot ofcompetition. Nickell and Dobson have foundthemselves underbid by rivals who they feeldon’t necessarily deliver the same quality.

Prior to the recession, Dobson had workedon DVD extras for the home entertainmentdivision of Sony Pictures. When that workeddried up, he had to find replacement jobs butit was hard as a freelancer because of thecheaper competition.

“Things cost less and less to do and theystarted paying us less and less to do it,” he said.

And staying current with the constantchange brought on by digitization is not easybut it’s necessary to stay competitive.

“It’s a lot of research and keeping up withthe latest and greatest from the major manu-facturers,” Nickell said.

At meetings of industry professionals,such as the Los Angeles Post ProductionGroup, there are presentations from the soft-ware and hardware developers and discus-sions about best practices, said WoodyWoodhall, the founder of the group andowner of an audio post-production facility inSanta Monica.

“We are always looking at workflow,”Woodhall said. “When (content) is on a chipit is how do we (copy) the chip, back it up,store it, get it from the camera to editing tocolor mastering.”

There seems to be agreement amongindustry professionals on the direction post-production is heading. For one, the work isbeing done earlier in the creative process, areflection of the availability of portable, inex-pensive equipment that can be brought onlocation or to a studio set.

Fading are the days of shooting on filmand finishing up the post work in an edit bay,said Michael Kadenacy, chief executive ofMy Eye Media, a Burbank technical servicesand post-production firm.

“Now we’ve got technicians doing roughedits on set and reviewing dailies on an iPad,”Kadenacy said. “By the time we get it into afacility, it has already been pushed pretty fardown the process.”

Getting involved earlier makes for asmooth and collaborative production that is

vital in an industry with compressed timelines for feature films and TV shows, saidShindler, the Encino consultant.

“If people from post production are notinvolved from day one in the planningprocess it will potentially cause hiccups whenthe going gets tough,” he said.

However, with the arrival of cloud com-puting, which allows storing of content onhuge servers that can be accessed anywherein the world, the local post-production indus-try fears cheaper worldwide competition.

The door has opened, said Cavanagh, tohaving post production now done domestical-ly to shift to countries with lower pay struc-tures. This dynamic has already devastateddomestic special effects houses, sendinggroundbreaking Rhythm & Hues Studios intobankruptcy this year.

“In three to five years I could see it hap-pening,” he warned of outsourcing.

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SPECIAL REPORT ENTERTAINMENT

Sound of Music: Orchestra on Warner Bros. scoring stage in Burbank.

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By MARK R. MADLER Staff Reporter

As if California isn’t being hurt already byrunaway feature film and television pro-

ductions – other states are now going afterpost-production with specialized tax incentives.

New York and New Mexico are among thefirst states to offer stand-alone tax credits forediting, sound mixing, visual effects and otherpost functions regardless of whether the pro-ductions were made in those states. Legisla-tion is pending in Oregon to allow post hous-es to apply for that state’s incentive program.

While California’s film tax incentive pro-gram does include the cost of post-productionwork, there is no separate program as thoseother states have.

“There has been talk about modifications,but there are no specifics because it is all influx,” said California Film CommissionDirector Amy Lemisch.

Post-production can account for 10 per-cent of a film’s budget, with that figure jump-ing to 40 percent for visual effects-heavyfilms, said Joe Chianese, executive vice pres-ident with Entertainment Partners FinancialSolutions, a division of Burbank-basedEntertainment Partners that coordinatesfilm tax incentive programs for its clients.

If California is going to stay competitivewith what other states and even other coun-tries offer, lawmakers need to decide if theyvalue the industry enough to make sure thepost work stays, Chianese said. “If not, theycan continue to do nothing and watch it goaway,” he added.

Many digital- and visual-effects compa-nies headquartered in the Los Angeles area orwith major operations here have also openedin places, such as Vancouver, British

Columbia, which offers incentives for post-production services.

Scanline in Los Angeles, Sony PicturesImageworks headquartered in Culver City,Digital Domain in Los Angeles, and thebankrupt Rhythm & Hues Studios Inc. in ElSegundo, all opened in Vancouver in recentyears. So has Disney’s Pixar animation stu-dio, which has its main office in Emeryville.

Big AppleWarner Bros. Studios, based in Burbank,

looked east and found an existing post facilitythat became its New York location for audiopost-production. The studio installed a customconsole and digital projector and eight newdesign and picture-editing suites, said KimWaugh, senior vice president of post-produc-tion services.

The midtown Manhattan facility, whichopened early this year, is a joint venturewith Digital Cinema LLC, a division ofSync Sound Inc., an audio post company inNew York.

Warner Bros. made the investment not justfor the monetary savings through the tax-cred-it program but for the post talent already oper-ating in New York, which is the largest hub forfilm and television production, Waugh said.

“We wanted to be in a position so our cre-ative talent can continue their relationshipswith filmmakers,” Waugh said.

The New York post incentive program be-came law last July. Within six months, 34 pro-ductions applied for the credits, including pro-jects that filmed in other states. The programoffers a 30 percent credit on post work done inthe New York metro region, and a 35 percent

credit for work done in upstate New York toencourage construction of new facilities.

The number of applicants is evidence thestate is making a smart investment to attractbusinesses and create jobs, said New YorkGov. Andrew M. Cuomo in a statement ear-lier this year touting the program’s success.

“Let this progress be an invitation forother productions to come to the EmpireState, the future television and film capital ofthe world,” Cuomo said.

The New Mexico program is a 25 percentrefundable tax credit for productions shot andedited in the state or shot elsewhere but usingin-state post facilities.

Chianese said that as long as there arestates offering incentives for post-productionwork shot in another state there is no reasonto bring that work back to California.

“I’d hate for us to wake up ‘x’ years downthe road and look like Detroit with the(diminished) auto industry,” Chianese said.

Marty Shindler, an entertainment indus-try consultant in Encino, said the key to howwell other states draw post work is in thequality of the editors, color correctors, mix-ers, and special and visual effects artists. Thepost-production infrastructure doesn’t estab-lish itself overnight once a state begins host-ing productions.

Los Angeles still has an advantage becauseof the depth of talent, despite other stateschipping away at it, he said. However, if bigstudios and post houses starting setting up inother states, that is another matter.

“If Warner Bros. opens a facility, they canattract the people,” Shindler said. “They havesignificant crew depth and have in-house pro-ducers to bring the TV and feature film workto that facility.”

SPECIAL REPORT ENTERTAINMENT

Runaway Post Production the Next Challenge?

Hollywood East: Digital Cinema’s Manhattan studio, a partner of Warner Bros.

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By MARK R. MADLER Staff Reporter

Over the past decade there has been ashift in post-production and RamyKatrib has been at the center of thatchange. Katrib, 44, detected early on

the direction post-production was going: towardcontent being stored and edited on digital files,now common place at Hollywood studios, produc-tion houses and post-production firms. “Everyoneand their grandma are in the arena because thereis opportunity,” said Katrib, who spoke to theBusiness Journal from his office in the CahuengaPass. Founded in 1999, DigitalFilm Tree offersmuch more than just post-production services fortelevision series and feature films. The companydeveloped a video- and photo-sharing softwarethat has been used by the creative teams of“Modern Family,” “NCIS: Los Angeles” and“Cougar Town.” It also consults with clients inand out of the entertainment industry on creatingtechnology infrastructure. A native of Lebanon,Katrib came to the United States at age 5 andgrew up in Loma Linda in a family filled withmedical professionals. While his family may notfully understand what he does, they like hiswork.“My mom doesn’t still try to convince me tobe a dentist,” Katrib added. “With this going onas long as it has, she’s cool with it.”

Question: So how did the transition todigital post work go for you?Answer: We actually are one of the few com-panies that didn’t have to deal with the digitaltransition. We are mostly known for havingco-started it. DigitalFilm Tree started 14 yearsago and the reason we started was because ofthe transition from the physical world – cellu-loid, tape – to files or what they call data-based, data-centric workflows.

How did that change take place?What we did is take the desktop computer, anApple G3 with the first-ever implementation ofFireWire (a high-speed connection for real-timedata transfer). We transferred film to (digitalvideo) tape and we digitized the tape throughFireWire and a Mac. We edited it … and we cutthe negative, and low and behold it worked. Thatwas in 1998. We realized this was going to be abig deal and that is why I started the company.

What role has DigitalFilm Tree playedsince then?The best way to describe our experience is weplayed a role in co-mingling IT discipline withtraditional post-production discipline. Even fouror five years ago IT hadn’t taken over the indus-try. Today, IT literally has taken over the indus-try and no one opposes it anymore. No onesays, “It’s just a fad or a one-off occurrence.”

Was there resistance?Big time resistance. When we started in 2001,2002, our biggest success was on the show“Scrubs.” So we started telling people we canuse this $3,000 computer and do professionalthings. We thought everyone would dig it. Notonly were there not a lot of takers, there werepeople that were actually angry that we wereeven proposing this type of workflow.

Why was that?It was kind of radical to propose something whereyou can do professional-type operations with adesktop computer and with IT equipment. In fullcandor, using computers and servers to do profes-sional things mostly failed in the early years.

Where was the resistance coming from?

It came from the studios, it was coming from pro-duction companies, it was coming from editorsand it was coming from line producers, co-pro-ducers. We were fortunate because we formedrelationships with people in all those roles thatwere hip to something that was different. In ourindustry there has been a faction that wants to beon the edge. They have thick skin; they don’tmind being a guinea pig trying something new.

What contributed to this transition takingplace?The thing that really spurred on the digital transi-tion was the (2011) tsunami in Japan. When thetsunami happened it destroyed two manufactur-ing plants for Sony that made HDcam SR tape.So overnight there was a worldwide shortage ofthis tape. That is the de facto container for televi-sion and even features films. Everyone had tofind alternatives for storing their negatives. Thetsunami accelerated the digital transition.

What do you see taking place in theindustry these days?The biggest notable things that are happeningright now in our industry is the rate ofchange. It really is something to behold.When we start a project we create a work-flow, or process for how we do it, and we arechanging that process now on a weekly basis.Training and education is a way of life. Notjust for our own staff but for our clients.

Do you have an example of how that ishappening?We have a couple of clients where we providethem something that doesn’t even have a termyet. I call it self-post. Essentially, we take whatwe are here and build a microcosm of it. Thenwe plop it down where they want it. We build acolor room in their environment, we build avisual effects component, an online room and adailies room – and it is all integrated. We takewhat we are and build it wherever it is needed.

How else is technology changing post-production?The other big thing is cloud computing. For ourpost industry, the cloud is going to have a bigimpact. We’ve done a lot of research and devel-

opment in the area of cloud computing and post-production because we think, just like self-post,it will be a big part of the future. If you thinkabout it, it’s the evolution of this digital, file-based momentum that’s been happening the last14 years. Instead of holding onto your files, I’mgoing to shoot it to a server – the cloud – andthen other people can access it. You can connectpeople all over the place to one location.

Is it a challenge to keep up and how doyou deal with that?It’s not a challenge; it’s a way of life. Wegrew up that way. We don’t know any better.

What do you think it is about your back-ground that makes you interested in get-ting ahead of the curve? Like many people in this industry when I wasmaking those discoveries in 1997, 1998 it wasbecause I was making a film. When you makea film more often than not you don’t have anymoney. You have to be scrappy and figure outhow to shoot it, edit it and finish it. It was mymotivation to make my film that led to thediscoveries in terms of technology.

What was the movie about?There were two of them. Believe it or not, oneof them we are now just releasing after 14

years. It is called “Mardik: Baghdad to Holly-wood.” It’s on (Mardik Martin) the dude whowrote “Mean Streets,” “Raging Bull” and“New York, New York.” He did the rock-and-roll documentary “The Last Waltz.” He wasMarty Scorsese’s friend back at NYU and theybecame famous by doing those New York indiefilms. I did a biography that went on and onand on. We just got a distribution deal and weare going through the process of insuring it.

What has this meant for you personally?Has it changed your work schedule any?If anything I work fewer hours than I did in theearly years. We were pretty much all alone; wedidn’t have colleagues. There was no communi-ty. When we were trying to pitch and providedata-centric, file-based services and workflowsthere was no one around. Those were long days... easily 16 to 18 hours days, many overnight-ers. In the early days we’d sleep at the shop.

And today?I would definitely say we do less hours todayand as a result I have more of a life. I gotmarried in the last two years. When you arearound as long as we have there are morerelationships now, there are more colleagues,more friends. It’s more fun as a result.

Is your wife in the entertainment industry?Yes. Sometimes she works more hours than I do.She is the animation producer for “The Simpsons.”

You come from a family in the medicalprofession. Are there similarities betweenthat and what you do?You have crises; you have to triage a situa-tion. Oftentimes you have to perform surgery.Then you have to stitch things up. You have toconnect things. If you sever a muscle or anartery, you have to connect them. We are con-stantly connecting things. In many ways it isvery similar to the medical community. Theonly difference is the medical community isto me more important because they are savinglives. We are just entertaining people.

This interview has been edited and condensedfor clarity and space reasons.

Ramy Katrib could see post production was goingdigital in 1999 when he founded DigitalFilm Tree.Now, his company is a leader in the growing field.Early Adopter

Ramy KatribTITLE: Chief Executive

COMPANY: DigitalFilm Tree

BORN: Lebanon, 1969

EDUCATION: B.A., film, Columbia CollegeHollywood

CAREER TURNING POINT: Making discover-ies about the transition from physical-basedmedia to file-based processes in 1998.

MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE: TheologianGraham Maxwell

PERSONAL: Married to Jaspreet Dhillon

HOBBIES: Photography

SPECIAL REPORT ENTERTAINMENT

PHOTO BY THOMAS WASPER

Plugged In: Ramy Katrib with rack of computer equipment at the Los Angeles offices of DigitalFilm Tree.

MAY 27, 2013 SAN FERNANDO VALLEY BUSINESS JOURNAL 11

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