New Operation is Spec'd Out for Remote Collaboration with Other Cutters Locations

In mid-2017, Cutters Studios sent editor Dustin Kaufman to Kansas City, Missouri, to start a new studio. Now, Cutters calls that a “test flight” that spurred the studio to open a “full-force studio” comprising three specialized suites in the Crossroads Arts District’s Austin Walsh Studio.

Cutters Studios Kansas City (CSKC) will be staffed by editors Morgan Bradley, a Kansas City native who most recently worked on staff at Beast on the West Coast and in Chicago, and Kalen Kirkpatrick, who’s spent the last four years as an assistant editor at Cutters in Chicago.

In addition to Bradley and Kirkpatrick’s editorial suites, the operation will feature a digital theater with Autodesk Flame Premium and Lustre for color-grading and audio post. The editors will collaborate with sister operations Another Country, for audio, and Flavor, for design, animation, VFX, color-correction and picture finishing, Cutters said. For example, Cutters’ Tokyo office already uses a digital theater similar to the new installation in Kansas City for distance collaboration, and the company has ensured that Kansas City has the same systems used by all of Flavor’s finishing artists.

“Over the past 18 months, we’ve built some phenomenal relationships with the amazing agency talents in Kansas City, and we’ve seen first-hand that the market is a great fit for us,” said Cutters Studios MD Craig Duncan in a prepared statement. “Moving forward with our expanded offerings and two exceptional editors, we are very excited to see what happens next.”

CSKC has already been working on projects for brands including Dairy Queen, Gatorade, Big O Tires, Tropicana and Wendy’s, the company said. In addition to Kansas City, Cutters Studios has locations in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit and Tokyo.

Cutters Studios: www.cuttersstudios.com