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Expanding Abroad with Ryan Christopher McGuire of Cutters Studios Tokyo
112 Plays5 months ago
Discover what it takes to expand internationally with Ryan Christopher McGuire of Cutters Studios, a commercial film production company based in Tokyo. From finding clients to scouting talent and managing resources, Ryan sheds light on the challenges and victories of setting up shop abroad, offering a treasure trove of insights for those looking to take their production efforts worldwide. Whether you’re just starting your company or an industry veteran, this discussion is packed with valuable lessons on navigating the client-driven film industry across borders.
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Crossing the Axis'
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You're listening to Crossing the Axis, the podcast that explores the commercial side of film production with your host, James Kevlis.
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drop
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Welcome listeners and thank you for tuning in to the show.
Launching a Film Studio Globally
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For this conversation we're going to dive into the journey of launching a commercial film studio on the global stage. Embarking on such a venture in our own home country is hard enough where everything is familiar. Now imagine navigating these waters where the culture Systems, language, and client base are all new. And on top of it, your financial future hangs in the balance. This daunting challenge is the reason most owners don't even try it. But there are those who see it as a golden opportunity for growth. For some, this leap is driven by the curiosity and the discovery of a market niche eagerly awaiting their services.
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For others, it's the allure of a fresh start in a vibrant new environment, or the desire to be among peers who inspire and elevate their craft. And sometimes, it's as personal as following a love interest that leads you into a new professional realm. Whatever the reason, it takes not just courage, but a blend of vision, adaptability, and sheer determination to not only take on such challenges, but to thrive and create a sustainable business out
Ryan McGuire's Tokyo Venture
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of them. This is the path Ryan McGuire of Cutter Studios has navigated. Based in Tokyo, Japan, Cutter Studios is a testament to what can be achieved in the international arena of commercial film production. Ryan joins us to share the highs and lows of setting up a shop in a foreign land and offering valuable insights and guidance for those daring to expand their production horizons across borders. So without further ado, Ryan, welcome to the show. Hi, James. Thanks for having me. Was your path driven by love?
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To so yeah a little bit, I think that there was a ah love for Japan in the beginning. And then when when I ultimately they came out here to start the business, I came with my my wife Aki. Actually at the time she wasn't my wife, but soon became my wife. And we started the business here in Tokyo together. Before we talk about Tokyo and the business there, what led you to Tokyo? What's your path in the business and then going abroad? Back in the late 80s, in 1989, I did a short exchange program here in in Japan. Actually, it wasn't an exchange, it was a study abroad program. And I don't know, everyone kind of forgets that this happened. But at the time, Japan was on everybody's mind. It was the, you know, if you don't speak Japanese, you don't learn Japanese, you're not going to have a future. And America was in a a bit of a tizzy about that. And so this program was there. I don't think that I had this, like, overwhelming desire to live in Japan at 11 years old or however old I was. But I was interested and I took that opportunity and then after coming back from Japan, it was something that kind of followed me. you know I was the kid in town that if you if you had a question about Japan, you had to ask Ryan. If you had a there was an exchange student in from Japan, well, get Ryan to show
Cutter Studios: From Intern to Expansion
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him around.
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It became something that's built into my identity. And then I ended up going to college here and in Tokyo. I got a job in marketing. I did that for a couple of years and then went back to Chicago, where I'm from, to join Cutter Studios. I was in Chicago for about, say, three years, around three years, and then made the move to l LA to Cutter Studios in l LA. So, Cutter's as an established company has been going for a long time. Yeah, 1980. Actually, it was my my dad who started it in Chicago in 1980. What does the name come from? Cutters. That's what I was wondering, yeah. and it was in Back then, he actually cut the film. i mean it was It was on the the flatbed with the the the splicer. So you grew up in the business then?
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I definitely grew up in the business and it was something that I don't know that I appreciated at the time, but as I started to grow this business of my own here in Tokyo, I would look back at the experience that I had, you know, going in watching my dad cut commercials and being able to play with the ah left ends or the extra cutout bits and yeah. So you decided to help but join the company the family business and you did that primarily in Chicago first and you went to l LA and then you thought, why are we limiting ourselves to the American market? Let's go beyond that. Is that the thinking? Kind of sort of. I mean, I did say I help out in the family business. So I had to kind of, uh, I had to beg my way in.
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And then once I had begged my way in, I had to start as an intern. So there were no special privileges. um And I think that that was, you know, my dad really made a point of allowing me to experience it all on my own and and develop on my own. So In the beginning, I was developing as an editor. So i started as an assistant I started as an intern, then moved to assistant editor, and then became an editor ah in l LA. And say it wasn't until I came out here that I actually started directing. But yeah, when I was in LA, there was a couple of tough years, 2008, 2009, the financial crisis, and most of the people around me were looking to other markets, but most of those markets were
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to the east. They were New York, they were Chicago, they were the smaller markets where the advertising agencies are. And I figured that if everybody was going that direction, that I would try going the other direction. um And Japan was familiar to me. So I hopped on a plane, did a bit of a sales mission and the I don't think the first trip resulted in anything, but by the second trip, I had started started to get some
Navigating Japanese Market Dynamics
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nibbles. and that's um Eventually, the Japan work started to outnumber the local Los Angeles work, and that's when I started to really think that maybe there was a future on that side of the Pacific.
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Yeah, so you were doing the scouting. You're already a little bit familiar with it. You got a little bit of cultural awareness of it, and you're going out there to scout. When was that, about 2008, 2009? So 2009, I think, was probably the first scouting mission. And then we opened opened our doors here in Tokyo in 2012. So what did you see when you were scouting that made you want to pursue it as a business to do meet with some agency folks, some brand folks, and you saw a need, you know, you, you looked at the market and you were able to see that there were gaps that maybe you could fill. What, what, what made you take that fully. lead
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Well, I did see opportunity. I saw a what I interpreted as a need on the marketplace. If I knew then what I know now, I i would be a little less naive. There's always a you always have to question why something doesn't exist on a market if if it doesn't. And so that's what I didn't question enough. um At the time, what I was essentially selling was high end post production, specifically editorial. And I was selling that based on my own service. And so I came over and was looking to get edit jobs and was able to get some edit jobs. And when I did those edit jobs, my clients were very happy and Yeah, I saw that as opportunity and went back to l LA, put together a business plan, presented it to the partners and they...
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They trusted this young kid to take this business to you know Japan, which you know i I was familiar with. I am familiar with, but I am still very much learning every day. There are, I don't think, two cultures that could be more completely different than Japan and the US in the way that that business is done, the way that The way that quality is measured, the way that process is defined, I think it pretty much is is different at every level. What are some of the big differences in terms of production that you saw were so different? Well, I think that whenever you build a process, and I'm a big proponent of process, I love process, um you need to start with an objective. You start with a goal, and the process that you built is intended to get you to that goal.
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ah The thing in Japan that I learned a painfully long time to learn was that the goal is not the same. In the US, the goal is quality. The goal is to be one step above the other shop and to use your blood, sweat, and tears to get there. And what I found in Japan is is that the process itself and everybody working together, getting along, delivering the product, and even if that's at 80% and not at 95%, that is the objective. I didn't understand that completely and expected that every single one of my clients and every single one of the agencies and and brands on the marketplace would be looking for that ninety five percent and above and that just isn't the case so.
Cutter Studios: Global and Local Impact
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The process for prospecting needs to start there was in the us words it basically any client is a good client.
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anything that you can bring in is good. It might be for the real, it might be for the meal, but in general, the money is going to be good. and They're generally after something good, even if they're you know selling sausages. But here, there is very much the right client for Cutter Studios and the wrong client for Cutter Studios. And it took us a while to to understand that now we've kind of carved this niche where the right client for Cutters Studios is the basically the work that we do is either global brands marketing in Japan or Japanese brands marketing overseas. So a big A big client of of mine is All Nippon Airways. I work with an agency out of New York called H and&K, and the work that we do is for mainly for the the american north america i'm sorry North American and European markets as well as China, but nothing that we do is is actually shown here in Japan.
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And that niche is something that that I'm perfectly and the the company is perfectly suited to given our perspective, given our background. So sorry, I didn't finish answering your question. I think that the processes that we build to do that work are unique. And it's not something that I would have had, you know, unique or just is it from my experience in the US. And it's not something that I could have built to based on just the way that Japan works. And so building those processes took quite a long time. Describe Cutters now. Did you say that you're a media production, that me a film studio? Tell us about the company.
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Definitely film focused. So we had a we had dipped our toes into a little bit of the advertising, going in the advertising direction, and the interest of working direct to brand. and We had a creative director on the payroll for a few years, I think. And the I felt that we were a little too scattered. And so we really kind of buckled down and focused on delivering high quality film productions. And so what Cutter Studios does, the majority of my work is, I would say, It's Japan market content, high quality Japan market content or Japanese contents with an international flair, with an international feel, something that can be consumed globally. ah The ads that you see from Japan, they feel very Japanese. They have a very Japanese feel and there's a million companies that are doing that. That's what we don't do. You're doing it more for the other markets, right? It's for the other markets, but it's also for if Japan, if a, you know,
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but a ah brand occasionally a brand in Japan will be looking for something that has a more international feel and if they want that then we're a good choice. And do you find yourself working mostly with agencies who are landing the clients and selling ideas through and then bringing you on as a partner or more working directly with brands who have an internal creative agency or or a combination of those things and then you're executing on that? kind of a hybrid of those. Most of the clients that we work with do have agencies, and we are working with the agencies. However, if we are working with an agency that is, for example, overseas, but our client is here in Japan, the there are limits to what that agency can do for the client. And the agency is very aware aware of that. And so a lot of times we have direct communication with that client. A lot of times we are
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helping from the very start shape the ideas, shape the the creative strategy, the creative approach. Most of that is from a filmmaking perspective, but it's because of our unique unique position and of in between Japan, I say at the intersection of Japan and the world. Interesting. It just occurred to me that you have this role if there's a, you know, working for an agency that wants to be working with but potential clients in Japan, that you can be kind of the boots on the ground for them. Is there almost like a client management role a little bit? I mean, with a very particular niche, but that you could be close to them. And so agents, you might be getting business from agencies just because of your proximity to Japan. Is that? Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, it's a there there's a consultancy element. there is i'm getting We are definitely getting involved closer to the beginning of the process because there's a lot that they need to vet. And if if an American agency is dealing or American or Western agency is dealing with a Japanese client, there's a lot that they need to learn about that client. And when dealing with a Japanese client, the Japanese client often doesn't know what they don't know. They don't know what the agency doesn't know because they haven't been in that position of having to explain from the very beginning, what is Japan? What makes Japan work?
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And that learning, as I was saying, you know that it's I'm 10 years in, 12 years in, and I'm still learning every single day. And you know there isn't a week that goes by where I'm not like floored by some new thing that I've learned about Japan, or even these days, a new thing that I learned about the US. I was thinking about how do you go after new clients in Japan, but I would actually now that I'm hearing this think that maybe you probably go after clients in America or North America or Europe and say, Hey, y'all, if you want to do some business in Japan, talk to us and then maybe we can help you put something together because we're boots on the ground. Is that your biz dev approach? That is half of it. Yes. So that is, uh, a relatively new development in the last couple of years, but really has been, especially with the strong dollar, a lucrative one. The other half of it is going after the international divisions of Japanese companies. So those international divisions, they're they're you know these are massive Japanese companies that are very good at being domestic, but they don't really know what to do when it comes to selling their their service or their product overseas. As big as they may be,
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It's a completely different dynamic and what appeals to the Western market is not the same thing that appeals to the the local market. you know For example, the airline, only Boeing Airways that I'm i'm working on, their focus their domestic focus is a lot around price. It's a lot around, hey, you get this deal to go here and so on because the the competition is with them and you know another premium carrier and then a bunch of low cost carriers. Whereas the international approach is a little bit more about come to Japan. You make that appeal for Japan. The idea is if you're going to come to Japan and you're going to fly premium, you should fly an ANA.
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and it's a bit more of a branding approach. And I think that it takes, and this is very much the the agency H and&K out of New York, but they are looking at things in a way that a and a at the brand themselves probably wouldn't have seen it. In terms of business development in Japan, is there a protocol that's different than what you would be normally accustomed to? You have to meet in person, trust has to be built, all of these types of things differently than what they would be in the United States. Is it a longer relationship build? Is it shorter? What what have you
Building Trust in Japanese Business
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noticed there?
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It's definitely longer. I think that the trust is the... So if you take a deep dive into Japanese culture, and if it is the Japanese client that you're looking to woo, Japan is very different when it comes to failure. So in the US, I think we have this... but see We've been taught that If we fail, we get up, we dust ourselves off, we try it again, and there's a respect in that. you know If you're a VC, you probably don't give money to some guy who's never failed before. You want to hear about those stories of of failure and then redemption and triumph and all of that.
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In Japan, failure is seen as a scar that's very difficult to to remove from somebody's record and somebody's past and failure is terrifying. Nobody wants to fail. So first, they want to trust you. And that's one of the reasons why 70% or 80% is better than 95% because 95% involves a lot of risk. And so that trust, establishing that trust is essential to doing business here in Japan. I understand what you need. I understand what's going to get you in trouble. I got you. This is how we get it to the next level. And that's not one dinner. It's not one lunch. It's not here. Here's my reel. Isn't it great? It's here's my reel. Do you like this? Yes. Okay. You're in the door, but now we got to talk about trust. And that, that takes a number of meetings. It takes a number of, you know, i the kind of getting involved in something small. You have to go through that, that process, that initiation process with, with each client.
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Is it all about the business or it seems to me like it might be a little more personal? I think it's more on a personal level because you're dealing with a person, not necessarily with an organization, not necessarily with the organization's future. and Another thing that's very different between Japan and the US is that most of the people in in the large company, so let's say for example, if you work at Toyota, You might be in the marketing and a advertising department for three years, and then you'll move to printing. You'll move to something completely different because what they do is they develop the company person, and not there's not a lot of still not a lot of um i they don't hire people
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mid-career. They hire people straight out of university and they build them so that that they can essentially work nowhere else. So what that means is that you're often not dealing with seasoned professionals. So for example, on the brand side in the US, a lot of people will be coming out of agencies. They'll have moved from you know a position as a creative director at DDB to going in-house at you know Kohler or something like that. That doesn't really exist in Japan sometimes, but generally it's with your P and&Gs or Unilevers, the big international brands that will do that. They'll poach ex-agency people. But for the most part, the marketing departments at the big clients are looking to their agencies, they're looking to their partners to guide them, to tell them what to do. And ultimately, at the very, very onset, they need to feel safe.
00:19:12
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Because they're not looking you know you can if you have a job in Japan, ah it's it's definitely in in another dynamic in which it's very different from the US is that if you have a job in Japan, you have to do an absolutely awful job in order to get fired. I mean like it it it is like i mean like the to the i couldn't imagine. like there would There would be a great parody or a great like Saturday Night Live skit about getting fired in Japan, what you would have to do. and In the US, you know in the advertising world, you pretty much have to do incredible work to keep your job. yeah right dig exactly That's why everybody builds a portfoilo portfolio. That's why everybody build everybody builds their real. ah in the in In Japan,
00:19:52
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It's if they hit that 75% mark or 70% mark or whatever it is, they do just as good as the guy before them. That's it. They're promoted a higher salary based on the number of years they've been at the company and they're not the nail that sticks out. This has been so fascinating. Earlier you mentioned that you are obsessed with process and I'm curious someone like you who already has a bit of a philosophical mind, I can tell, and you've been, you know, immersed in different cultures.
Innovative Production Techniques
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What kind of processes have you developed for cutters, for yourself? What are things that are your go-to moves that you've just kind of built over the years? so
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So one of the things that you're always, i think I don't think that there is any difference between Japan, the US, s or anywhere in the world, you're always up against schedule and budget. They're like death and taxes. Those are two things that you're always going to have to deal with. i And developing quality work with the pressures of schedule and budget has been essentially my my life challenge. And so some of the processes that we've developed here um at Cutter Studios, something that we're really into right now is bringing the art department together with the visual effects department and looking at those as essentially an extension of either side. So what we have is a, what we call them as a a director of Storycraft. His name is actually Dr. Yu, and Dr. Yu will
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He comes through, he was an online editor, but has stepped into a visual effects supervisor role. And then beyond that, he stepped into a what is essentially a production designer, but he'll look at whatever project that we are embarking on and say, okay, how are we going to execute this from a visual perspective? How are we going to build these worlds, these locations, and so on. A lot of the locations are very difficult in Japan. You do not get permission to shoot somewhere. And when you do, ah the conditions are incredibly difficult. So embracing CGI, embra embracing set extensions, everything's very small, very tight, very difficult to put a camera in.
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So all of our work is pre-vised. Every single project that we do is completely pre-vised and a good portion of it is built, of each project is built in CGI. And when I say CGI, I'm talking about, you know, what CGI has, is becoming. That is a combination of all of these um and new technologies, things like AI. I mean, I just built a scene in Mid-Journey and moved it. ah to then hand that off to the next day person in line in our process, kind of re redefining our process based on new technology and always having that a innovation. The idea, I think, that the moral behind this process is leave nothing to chance. It's because once you get to the set and once you are rolling the camera, that's when the money really starts writer really start spitting out the door.
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and Anything that you can do before you arrive on set, any variable that you can mitigate, anything that you any decision that you can make is and is going to allow you to focus on the things that you need to focus on on set to make that piece even better. and The thing that you really can't do before you arrive on set is the performance. You can rehearse a bit, but you really want to be focusing on those performances. so where we're going to put the cameras, where we're going to put the lights, you know, is there going to be smoke in this scene? Even down to the sound we like to do before we roll. um And it's when, you know, we get together and in pre-production meeting, that is the subject. It's, hey, okay, you know, what are the variables? List them out. How do we mitigate them?
00:23:36
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would you say that this is the kind of process you've developed as a result of the market that you're working in? Yeah. I mean, there's a a ah need to create scale what is beyond what is like practically possible on this market and with you know the parameters of schedule and budget. And I always like to to push the boundaries when it comes to scale. And I think that that's one of the biggest differences between the domestic work and the work that we do is the domestic work can feel very quaint, not in a bad way necessarily. it a There is is something about the local Japanese work that's very charming, that's very that has a an appeal, but in wanting to do something different, one of the things that we always look to ah deliver is scale.
Market Strategy and Adaptation
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For any production company owner that's considering going outside the US market, what advice would you give them? Well, I'd say find out what your did, you know, really kind of narrow down on what you are offering is and why it would have a, uh, an appeal on that marketplace that you're targeting and really be honest with yourself when it comes to that, because I wasn't. i I came to the marketplace really really wanted to make it work really really wanting to Believe that there was a demand for what we were offering and it was essentially going to be you know Get off the boat and then there was a crowd of people being like me first me first me first like you you do hear about a little bit in Japan but that wasn't the case and it took me a long time to learn why and if I had a started with the why versus starting with the product. I think starting with the product is is important and you know that's where the passion comes from. But understanding the psychology of your target market and your target client I think is is really important and it's not the same.
00:25:33
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So many things that you've said now that I've went into this conversation with one kind of take on it and I'm walking away from it very differently, you know, going into the market, seeing the world from that market versus, being you know, looking into the market that you're standing in. And all i it's really interesting. I commend you and how you have embraced what the market and what the world and the culture and what your point of view, you know, is telling you to do and adjusting to it. That's it's it's commendable. Well, that yeah, that's definitely a bit of age in there. I don't think I was like that when I first came to the marketplace, but after you know after taking shots for a good five years, yeah you got to get honest with yourself and look at it and say, okay, what is really happening here?
00:26:19
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And eventually you'll you'll figure it out. And Japan's not the easiest place to figure out. They don't come out and tell you the answer. I am so curious to see how this full unfolds over the next year or two. We may have to revisit this conversation. I'm certainly going to keep close tabs with you on this.
Podcast Conclusion
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Ryan McGuire from Cutter Studios, thank you so much for opening up and sharing your wisdom and your experience with all the listeners here. I really appreciate it. Yeah, thank you. It was a good talk. Well, look forward to more. Thank you very much. All right.
00:26:52
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Thank you for listening to Crossing the Axis with James Keblis. If you're interested in joining the conversation or have a topic you'd like covered, please drop a note at keblis.com. That's K-E-B-L-A-S dot com.
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