The Post-Post Production Era

Blister Media sourced for THE POST-POST PRODUCTION ERA, a special report published in the April 2001 Advertising Age CREATIVITY magazine.

Writer/Reporter Ann-Christine Diaz writes:

Advancing technologies – the Internet, the imminence of interactive TV going mainstream, the explosion of new formats – are driving the redefinition of the post industry from being the last stop in the production chain to being an integral part of the entire creative process…

…Advancing technologies have opened up new sectors of specialization as well. Consider music and sound design. In 1998, for example, Terry O’Gara and Michael Sweet launched Blister Media in New York to cater to the sonic needs of the interactive community. Blister provided both the technology and sound for interactive projects like MTV’s Web Riot, a broadcast cable and Internet quiz show; the interactive game Loop on Shockwave.com; various web sites for Sesame Workshop; and the Nasdaq learning kiosks in Times Square. Such assignments go well beyond the needs of the traditional TV spot.

“We have more homework to do than someone who just has to kick out a track,” says O’Gara. “With interactive projects, everything relies on constantly evolving technology to deliver the message. Even though we’re a music production facility, we have to understand all the technologies our client is speaking – or at the very least, how our technology and code will integrate with theirs from project to project.”

Blister is not alone in its efforts; full service music and sound design houses like Elias Associates and Hest & Kramer in Minneapolis have both added what the Blister crew calls “interactive sonification” to their services.