Ted Griffis
Ted talks through that process of how he arrived at co-owning TBD Post with Brandon Thomas in Austin, Texas. His story begins growing up immersed in the arts, which ultimately led him to a creative career.
"My mother is a teacher and my father’s a consultant. My father works on complex problem solving with non-for-profits. His business is high-level creative thinking; he understands how to get from point A to point B while also solving a problem. My mother was an educator who led a department that did technology training for public school teachers. I guess being exposed to that growing up is where I developed an analytical mind that is necessary for editing. As kids, we were always heavily exposed to music, theatre, art, and computers. Ultimately, I think it was really pivotal for my development as a creative person. Filmmaking for me is ultimately the merging of my technical and creative skills."
"I was never much of a video gamer but since the mid 80’s, I’ve always had a computer near by. So, I was definitely more of a computer kid, exploring everything from Mac Art to ultimately the digital video world. I learned by simply jumping in and exploring what was possible. After tape to tape, the first non-linear editor I ever cut on was Avid Express DV, which was free. I had a Power Mac 7500 and it was an incredibly slow process."
"My formal training is in photography and I went to a small school of 500 students. It was good because it was really focused and personal. There was a lot of critical thinking and debating of ideas. It was stressed that we use the right tool for the job and let the concept dictate, to a degree, what medium was needed to express the idea. By the time I had gotten to college I had already been taking photography classes for 4 years in high school, so there was a part of me that was a little bored with traditional photography."
"I was interested in exploring new things: printmaking, mixed media, and ultimately filmmaking. My interest in documentary photography then evolved into documentary filmmaking. I started shooting and editing my own work and really enjoyed the process of storytelling with picture and sound."
"After college in Boston I moved to New York City and struggled to get a PA job, or any job. That was September 2001 and it was a true challenge post ‘911’ as everyone was freaking out, understandably. I went to interview at a post-house and the guy told me to go back to Boston!"
"So I ended up taking the ‘China Town Express’, which was a very cheap bus that goes from Chinatown in New York to Chinatown in Boston. I would take this bus every week or so to do $200 worth of work here and $500 worth of work there. Sometimes, if I was lucky, I would help my past professors with art and concert videos. Ultimately I was just trying to make ends meet and keep doing whatever I could that was close to my craft."
"Back in New York, after assisting on Documentaries and TV shows I also ended up field producing and shooting for reality television. I ended up working as a story producer for one of the shows and befriended the lead editor. We became close sharing thoughts about editing and filmmaking. I’m not much of a writer but I quickly became enamored with the process of storytelling through editing. I continued to move from shop to shop as a freelancer, working on pilots and various spec commercials and then found myself in the promo world, cutting promos for A&E, History Channel, and Comedy Central. This was actually my first full time gig in New York and though the stability was great, I came to realize that I wanted to be more in control of what jobs I was involved with."
"I have always been independent in nature and after developing strong relationships with talented directors and filmmakers, I wanted to be free to take on the truly creative projects, knowing that at times they aren’t as lucrative as one might like them to be."
"Then, my wife and I decided to move to Austin for a different pace of life. The lower cost of living allowed me to be more in control of what I wanted to work on and take a few more risks along the way. Austin was a great fit as there is an amazing network of creative people, filmmakers, and artists who make wonderful work. Having that community around us is huge."
"So we made the leap. I had a relationship with a director out of New York and I continued to work with him travelling back and forth cutting on set. Our relationship grew and most of the first couple years in Austin were spent traveling to New York and LA working on web films and commercials facilitating DIT as well as post-production."
"At that point I was working from home and we had a newborn son. It was great to be near him whenever possible but as my son grew and the business grew it became increasingly difficult to work from home. At one point I had 2 assistant editors in our house working with a 6 month old in the other room. It was becoming clear that it was time to get a larger space."
"My son got to the age where he was so much fun that when I was home, the last thing I wanted to be doing was working. I was pulling my weight as a parent as much as possible during the day and then working through most nights to make up the time. I realized I had to change something about my work environment or I wouldn’t get anything done."
"During this time I met Brandon Thomas. We immediately hit if off and started working on projects together."
"After a while Brandon and I sort of came to a crossroads, we were two independent guys who were busy enough to keep a handful of people busy on multiple ongoing projects. It became clear that in addition to a larger space we probably needed to join forces. So we spent the next sixth months looking for an office we could collaborate in more easily and then ultimately decided to take the plunge and start TBD Post together."
"Fortunately and unfortunately, two busy guys forming a company together just meant that we became twice as busy! We have been open two and half years now and have seen a lot of growth. We’ve recently added another editor to our roster and are thankful to have a steady, (if not sometimes chaotic) stream of commercial, tv, and indie film work that encompass creative editorial and color finishing."
"We love working on commercial projects and find them to be fun and rewarding. We have great relationships with agencies and directors and have been fortunate to work on some really fantastic campaigns. Equally, we’ve been able to support the local film community and be a part of some wonderful film projects. It’s great to have that balance of commercial and film work and we see both growing steadily. We love being a part of something truly creative and enjoy helping people through the entire process, from set to screen. It’s also a lot of fun, as ultimately we learn more about our craft by helping our collaborators through the creative and technical process of post-production."