February 8, 2005

ROOFTOP EDIT LAUNCHES

NEW YORK - Full-service editorial boutique Rooftop Edit (212.244.0744) has been launched in at 104 West 29th Street in New York City. The boutique opens with veteran editors Ed Kisberg and Geno Tulchin, Smoke Artist Anthony Forte, mixer/sound designer Chris Russomanno and assistant editor Jeremy Ambers.

Editor Ed Kisberg comes to Rooftop after a 14 year stint at New York's Refinery, where he most recently held the position of senior editor. He began his career in film at New York's Stylianou Productions, in 1982 as assistant editor, and came up through the ranks to become a senior cutter. In 1990 he came onboard at Refinery where he again took advantage of an edit shop's tendency to jump on the technological bandwagon. Kisberg notes.

Editor Geno Tulchin provides the perfect complement to Kisberg. Production and post are part of Tulchin's genetic makeup. By the age of 12 he was serving as PA on shoots with his father Hal Tulchin, the celebrated director and TV pioneer. He joined Tulchin Studios/Metro Studios, in 1981 and remained there for 15 years. Tulchin moved to Editel/Digital Universe in 1996 where he was vice president of editorial, served as senior editor at Empire Video from 1997 to 2000, then joined Betelgeuse to head up their commercial division, Sky Rocket Post. In 2002 Tulchin signed on at Refinery, where he met Kisberg.

Advocates of editorial on-set supervision and on-set cutting, Kisberg and Tulchin use laptops running Avid Xpress, Discreet Combustion, Apple's Shake and Live Type, and Adobe After Effects for optimum location capabilities.

Up-and-coming junior editor Jeremy Ambers, formerly with Fort Productions in New Jersey, is honing his editing and graphics skills at the new company. His fresh, edgy style rounds out Rooftop's editorial offerings.

As Rooftop's Smoke artist, Anthony Forte exhibits his editorial finishing, design and visual-effects skills. An editor with Fort Productions for 10 of the 12 years he spent with the company, Forte maintained a national spot client roster, which included Sentry Hardware, Marvin Windows and Doors and Thumann's Deli Meats. During his last six years with Fort, he also performed After Effects compositing, which made for an easy transition to Smoke.

Rooftop's talent has the latest versions of cutting-edge editing, graphics, 2D visual effects and audio gear at their fingertips: Avid Media Composers with full DVEs and 1:1 capabilities plus the most recent Adobe After Effects, Illustrator and Photoshop software. An Avid Adrenaline, running on a Mac G5 and loaded with Boris effects packages, provides fast renders and conforms. A Discreet Smoke 6.5 on Tezro, with powerful primary and secondary integrated color-correction tools, is Rooftop's high-end compositing and finishing platform. It is supplemented by Mac graphics with the Adobe suite of products. A full-blown Digidesign Pro Tools TDM system for complete audio post rounds out the offerings. Apple Xserve enables file sharing throughout the entire facility.

Mixer/sound designer Chris Russomanno mans Rooftop's Pro Tools suite. His Pro Tools room is fully equipped and features a large, server-based sound library. The room's voiceover booth can accommodate up to three people. Russomanno began his career as creative services director of WSOU-FM in South Orange, New Jersey. Four years later he joined New York's Planet V as a post audio engineer where his credits included numerous TV commercials, video games, DVDs and independent films; he remained at that company until coming onboard at Rooftop.