The Napoleon Group – a New York-based pre-viz and post studio led by founder Marty Napoleon and president Douglas Miller – announced that it will be moving into a new facility at 48 West 25th St in New York’s Flatiron district in early January 2013.
The new space will occupy over 14,000 square feet across two floors in the former corporate offices of fashion designer Kate Spade. Featuring eight Avid Symphony workstations, a Vicon motion capture system and a large greenscreen stage, the space will be tied together with state-of-the-art fiber cabling.
For Napoleon Group creative director Ken Kresge, the real innovation is the open and collaborative space that the new office offers. Creatives can work with over 40 artists in a space that is perfectly suited to the changing nature of the advertising business.
“Over the years we’ve adapted to the needs of our clients and streamlined every part of our process,” Kresge said. “Everything about the way we approach workflow has been tailored and customized – the only thing left was our space. It’s the final piece in a puzzle we’ve been working on for a long time, and we can’t wait to share the fruits of our labor with our clients.”
According to Perry Morton, Napoleon Group’s head of production, while the company will always offer a traditional edit or animation suite for clients that prefer to work one-on-one with their favorite editor or designer, the new space takes into account the growing collaborative team-based workflows now trending in pre-viz.
“Our clients are collaborating more, and we’re shifting our business model to accommodate that changing dynamic,” said Morton. “That means a workspace where we can put together a specific team of editors, animators and producers that perfectly suits the needs of a particular assignment.”
According to Maciej Maciak, The Napoleon Group’s director of technology and engineering, the new space is faster and more flexible with technological resources.
“Pre-viz is unlike any other post production discipline because things change quickly and our creatives need to respond fast, and that means giving them access to all of our technology resources any time, anywhere,” said Maciak. “It’s no longer about this room being an edit suite or that one a Flame suite – the technology follows the project, the project doesn’t follow the technology.”