Oliver Lief is the founder of Brooklyn post house Blue Table. He is also a hands-on creative at this full-service post house, which provides editorial, color, sound and visual effects.
“Our goal is to have the best talent in an environment that aids creativity and collaboration. So while things like our garden, fireplace art gallery and events might on the surface seem extraneous, they are actually an important part of who we are and our mission, he says. They fuel the creative process.”
We recently reached out to Lief to find out more.
It seems like you wear a lot of different hats at the studio?
Yes. I’m founder, CEO, editor, executive producer, creative director, gallery curator, gardener. My title shifts as needed.
What hat do you tend to wear the most?
Most of what I do these days is manage projects and find ways to make sure that a client has the best possible experience. For many clients that means answering a lot of questions and asking a lot of questions to make sure we find the absolute best solution given the budget and the goals.
As trust builds, we are increasingly asked to do things outside of typical post workflows because clients come to trust us to manage more and more. For Warner Bros. we did a big promotion for Scooby-Doo’s 50th anniversary that involved not only editing and motion graphics, but voice casting and writing the scripts for 14 one-minute videos. Clients are asking us to be full production partners more and more.
What would surprise people the most about what you do?
Starting and running a company can be stressful. That’s not surprising, but I’ve built in some activities that can help relieve stress. I mentioned gardener and gallery curator in my title partly as a joke, but I really do those things.
Gardening is a passion of mine and a way to relax, and, of course, we want the outside space to look good. Similarly, with the Blue Table gallery, it’s fun, and it makes the space look good. It’s also a way to connect with fine artists and to get people thinking and talking with each other. We don’t take any money for it. If a piece of art sells, all of the money goes directly to the artist. And having a beautiful environment to work in helps with stress as well.
What have you learned about running a business?
That the learning never stops, and that running a business is always a work in progress.
A lot of it must be about trying to keep employees and clients happy. How do you balance that?
It’s not usually a balance at all. One can’t happen (keeping clients happy) without the other (keeping employees happy). If an employee isn’t happy, it’s toxic. Of course, you have to hire people who are dedicated to the clients. If you have a company with happy, hard-working employees, what’s not to love?
My number one priority is to support the employees.
How has the company handled the COVID crisis and working from home?
Luckily for us, from a technical perspective, we already had a lot of flexibility built in. Edit, color and sound can all be done remotely. For reviews, we can either post or stream live. And for clients who want to get out of the house, we can stream work to the garden or to an isolated room on a different floor from the artist.
Of course, the biggest challenge has been the lack of footage being shot. For commercials we have worked with stock footage, animation, Zoom recordings and shoots with very small crews. Our narrative and documentary feature clients haven’t been able to shoot, for the most part, and that, of course, is the main industry pain point at the moment.
What’s your favorite part of the job?
Happy clients. Happy collaborators. A beautiful film or commercial at the end of a project. Group lunch at the table in the gallery or in the garden.
What’s your least favorite?
Paperwork and getting pulled in too many directions at the same time.
The Toxic Pigs of Fukushima
If you didn’t have this job, what would you be doing instead?
That’s a really difficult question for someone who in college took courses in 21 different departments, majored in biology, studied Italian literature, went to graduate school for landscape architecture and worked as a computer consultant.
Editing documentaries has been great because it has allowed me to learn about so many things and combine many of my interests. Running a post house has allowed me to be involved in an even wider variety of projects and indulge my entrepreneurial interests. But writer, actor and visual artist are what come to mind most often when I think about that question. Being a historian isn’t something I ever thought about until recently, but history fascinates me more and more, so I’ll add that too. And billionaire, if that counts as an occupation. Almost anything but driving a large truck. That terrifies me.
Can you name some recent jobs?
We recently did the sound design and mix for The Toxic Pigs of Fukushima, directed by Otto Bell (The Eagle Huntress) and cut by Joe Bini (You Were Never Really Here, Grizzly Man). The doc (just chosen as an official selection at Telluride) charts the destruction wrought by the Japan earthquake of 2011, which triggered a tsunami, nuclear meltdown and mass evacuations. In the radioactive aftermath live wild pigs and a few people who have returned.
We Will Rise
Rich Cutler did a great job on the sound design using a minimalist palette to highlight the eerie abandonment of a toxic town taken back nature — the nature that can survive.
On the commercial side, we just did editorial, color and sound for the Cleveland Museum of Art, Covenant and David Novak, who is the former CEO of Yum Brands (KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell) and who now has a leadership training company.
We have done color and sound finishing for QVC, which continued to do production throughout the pandemic by immediately adapting strict protocols.
We just expanded our commercial roster with some great talent, so I’m looking forward to doing more agency work.
There are older projects that will always be dear to my heart. Our first project when we opened, We Will Rise, is about Michelle Obama’s initiative to educate girls around the world. It was a great project to launch with because it was an important topic and a great team to work with (including Meryl Streep), and we got to screen it at the White House.
What are three pieces of technology you can’t live without?
A fountain pen, a notebook and an iPhone. Someday, when I’m not running a company, I’ll be able to use the iPhone less.
And, of course, we wouldn’t be able to do post work and manage the work without all of our computers, the SAN and software, but we shouldn’t forget the power and flexibility of pen and paper. My mind works a different way when I’m writing that way, and I could never live without it.
