Atlas Digital, Runway Form Postproduction Partnership

The two will share resources and R&D, partner on new opportunities, but focus separately on existing genres and relationships

Atlas Digital and Runway Inc. have formed a partnership that unites two of the top boutique postproduction companies in the entertainment industry, with expertise spanning feature films, scripted series, reality television, and streaming-content creation, as well as pioneering innovative and proprietary technology for production and postproduction. The companies will share resources and R&D and will partner on new opportunities, but they will continue to focus separately on their proven genres and existing relationships.

Atlas Digital and Runway Inc. have formed a partnership that unites the
postproduction companies.

The companies’ combined resources encompass approximately 1,200 editing systems, and, along with Runway’s sister company, The Post Group, the expanded real estate footprint covers 530 editing rooms in Santa Monica, Hollywood, Universal City and Burbank, CA. The recent acquisition of four new buildings in Burbank and Sherman Oaks will add more than 125 editing rooms by mid 2019. The companies also provide a complete suite of post services, including edit-system rentals and resales, facility engineering and technical support, postproduction staffing, on-set or near-set dailies, DIT staffing and transcoding services, all supported by highly experienced award-winning technicians, operators, engineers, and ownership with decades of production experience. Moreover, the companies offer production and postproduction payroll services.

“The Atlas/Runway partnership gives all of our clients access to more human and technological resources, more geographic locations, and a wealth of knowledge based on the diverse experiences of the entire staff,” says Atlas Digital CEO Shawn Sanbar. “We will continue to build on our unique niches, yet we will grow together to offer clients everything they need to stay ahead of changes in our industry.”

The partnership comes as the entertainment industry is being revolutionized by HDR, VR, and AR, with gaming, studio, network and streaming-content creators all demanding an exponential increase in original programming, much of it rolling out in global markets simultaneously. By combining forces, Atlas, Runway, Wild Woods Picture & Sound (co-owned by Atlas Digital), and The Post Group are globally positioned to support and advance their clients with new technologies, workflows, and the terrestrial production-space footprint required for success in the entertainment marketplace of today.

“As our clients seek to tell stories in the most creative ways, they demand the latest innovations and technical talent, delivering under ever-tightening deadlines,” says Runway President Lloyd Guillen. “Joining forces with Atlas and Wild Woods allows us to augment the quality standards our clients demand.”

Atlas Digital and Runway
The new venture separates Runway’s two major divisions, Mobile Services and Post Services, pairing the former with Atlas Digital. Atlas Digital’s Burbank offices will serve as headquarters, unifying back-office functions, as each business continues to serve existing clients separately.

Atlas and Runway will leverage each other’s expertise along with a trio of proprietary industry innovations:

• Atlas Digital’s asset-management solution and database company, PilotWare, which is widely used by unscripted, game, and talk shows to track guests, game play, and content
• The Runway Turnover Station, a key player in automated deliverable creation
• Extending Atlas’s partnership with Forbidden Technologies’ Blackbird, a cloud-based video-distribution service.

Wild Woods Picture & Sound and Runway
Additionally, Wild Woods Picture & Sound, an Academy Award-winning postproduction facility that combined forces with Atlas Digital in 2017, will merge operations with Runway’s Post Services Division.

Runway Post Services brings the ability to service advanced HDR, SDR, and theatrical-picture workflows, including multiple DI color-grading suites and theaters. Runway also boasts a state-of-the-art 4K DCI screening theater. Wild Woods provides complete sound services — including theatrical and broadcast mix stages, supervision, foley, a sound-editorial department, digital-media operation center — as well as picture finishing.

Wild Woods’ Clear Digital division focuses on corporate media services while the focus of the Wild Woods’ Xtracks division is on complete localization and music or dialog extraction. Xtracks’ proprietary algorithms are able to extract and separate mono or mixed composite tracks of audio, allowing music replacement opening additional distribution channels.

“We look at postproduction as much more than first-run content finishing and more as global media services,” says Derek Luff, founding partner and president, Wild Woods. “Today’s streaming companies and content creators demand the highest level of quality and creative services while finishing first-run content and at the same time to be able to localize, version, master, and deliver content to distribution outlets and streaming platforms on a global basis.”