From 2018 to 2020, Ben Baker was VP of Studio Services across HBO’s internal production technology resources, based out of NYC. In this role, Ben was instrumental in helping ready the company for the introduction of HBO Max, WarnerMedia’s streaming service. As well, he led consolidation of production-side resources aimed at growing servicing from 80+ HBO productions a year to over 250 across HBO, Turner and Warner Bros.
Prior to HBO, Baker was VP of Post Production at VICE Media. Here, Baker moved Vice into their 60,000 sq ft production facility, hired an expanded post finishing team, developed a scheduling system, and oversaw mastering of 110+ hours of delivered content in three months pre-launch. Following the successful launch of Viceland, Baker built Vice News Tonight from the ground up and opened 5 national and international news bureaus (London, Hong Kong, Lebanon, Washington DC, Los Angeles). In this role, Ben also helped establish Vice Studios, working with creatives and producers from on-set to delivery, building a digital infrastructure for the execution and distribution of the slate of films.
In 2010, Baker was sponsored to the US from Australia by New York company Sixteen19 (now Company 3) to establish and run their digital mobile services division, building facilities on remote digital shoot locations everywhere around the world – from upstate New York, to Los Angeles, Louisiana, London, Canada, and Spain.
As an independent post producer, Ben oversaw aspects of many productions including “A Very Murray Christmas” with Sophia Coppola, “Mercy” and “The Characters” series for Netflix, “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny”, “Joe” and “Rob The Mob” for Independent producers. During this time, Baker also consulted with Warner Bros, the Sundance Institute, Vice Media, Showtime, and The Ford Foundation and others on media operations and distribution workflows.
One of Baker’s most pivotal producing roles was as the on-set post supervisor for the $260m production of Voyage Of the Dawn Treader in Australia. This role involved not only architectural collaboration on workflow, but the full-scale deployment and construction of a temporary post facility on the lot in Australia to ensure the creative needs were being met, while reporting to the production company (Walden) and the Studio (Fox). The film was seen as a leading-edge example of a new digital workflow replacing film industry wide.
Earlier in his career, Baker worked in the UK at leading VFX company, Framestore, as Head of Digital Lab. This leadership role spanned staffing, client development, technology development, execution – across a industry leading facility with 70% local market share. Framestore invented many of the core technologies around media color correction from camera to cinema and is now the dominant process in the industry. This role enabled Baker to work closely across Hollywood studios, during the period of rapid change as digital workflows wholesale replaced older analogue ways of working. At Framestore, Baker was involved in many of the period’s leading film franchises – from Harry Potter, to “Casino Royale”, and with creatives such as The Wachowskis, Andrew Adamson, Anthony Minghella Richard Curtis, Martin McDonagh, and many others.
Baker is a board member of the Post New York Alliance and has run the Education and Events committee with involvement producing over 40 events over the last 6 years. Additionally, he established and produced 30+ episodes of FRAME BY FRAME, a podcast on the editorial teams of classic New York films. Ben holds a Bachelor of Theatre from James Cook University, Australia.