TVC INDUSTRY BRACES FOR ANNUS HORRIBILIS
The TVC production industry is bracing for a tough year ahead as the global economic crisis and media fragmentation impacts advertising budgets. Lower profit margins have seen companies reducing their overheads, while still trying to maintain the same level of service, sparking fears this will force some companies to close.
Already, Cutting Edge has announced it will return to its core business, tightening director salaries and leasing out some of its office space in Brisbane to reduce costs. And Independent Films has drastically scaled back its operations (it will continue to line produce for existing international clients and select local productions, as well as representing directors Peter Cherry, Tim Kirkby and Tony Krawitz).
One top TVC production company executive producer told CB that in the past month they’ve been asked by two agencies to fund the cost of the production with the client paying them once the job has finished: “This in effect would turn us into a bank, a bank that doesn’t charge interest. I don’t know of any business that could survive like this. The only solution was for us to charge interest on the money and to ask for a letter of credit from the client’s bank stating the amount and date the money would go into our account,” she says.
Also, more directors are pitching for each job, with up to five directors asked to provide full treatments, even on low budget jobs. “Weeks are spent on pitching for jobs, doing research usually the world over, and the chances of getting it are reduced because everyone is undercutting each other to just keep their business turning over. The treatments can cost anywhere between $3,000 to $6,000. Clients now are becoming used to the reduced budgets and this is considered normal.”
Executive producer of Revolver, Michael Ritchie (pictured), says the categories of beer and sport are holding up, along with the occasional car commercial. However, with production companies working off budgets set before the downturn, there’s apprehension about what will happen after June 30 when the new budgets are drawn up.
Already, the odd job has disappeared at approval stage.
“Getting someone to sign on the dotted line actually made them think, ‘will we do this or not?’ and they’ve chosen not to, but for the most part we’ve been enjoying a pretty steady stream of work,” he says. “Maybe the word TVC is becoming a little redundant, maybe that term is too narrow a description. Most stuff that is any good has a life way beyond free-to-air.”
Ritchie says the landscape has changed, but there are opportunities, for example, fragmentation puts the focus back on creating entertaining content that people will seek out and the drop in the dollar makes Australia a more attractive place to shoot for US agencies.
While companies like Doritos, Samboy and Subway have turned to the public to generate their ads in widely-publicized competitions, he says they are ‘nice ideas’ rather than a sustainable threat.
“If they do that, then someone else won’t do that, they will do something different,” he says.
At a recent SPAA sponsored forum on TVC production, many attendees called for a closer dialogue between agencies and production companies.
Most agree this is the way forward. Said one attendee: “It would be great if we can all work together to ensure that everyone survives and there’s fairness in what’s happening. At the moment the scales are tipped against production companies.”
90 Comments
…sigh.
What a bunch of cry babies. Who would want to go to lunch with them? Depressing.
Michael’s produced that last three big jobs in Australia. And he’s complaining!!
ANNUS HORRIBILIS
Sounds painful.
Maybe if the production companies didn’t drop their pants to produce ‘potential Cannes winners’ for barely anything for clients they wouldn’t be used to lower budgets.
And what exactly have they been doing in the many good years which have preceded this year? Making hay, that’s what. And now we are supposed to feel sorry for them? People on here have been talking about the GFC for well over a year. Why does it take businesses so long to cotton on?
Oh no…they’ve got to PITCH!! And it costs them MONEY!! And they don’t always WIN!!!
Life’s tough. Certainly tougher than a year ago. But I’m tipping it’s not as tough as it was a few hundred years ago. Stop whining and count your blessings. Get a little perspective. We are all doing OK. Last time I checked I’m not standing in a mud-filled trench somewhere in sub-zero Europe with bullets flying around as my family tries dodging an influenza pandemic back home. Not yet, anyway. Go fuck yourself gloom. I’m alive and happy. And I’m staying positive!
Why are’nt production companies working directly for clients? Clients are interested in saving money and if they can trim the fat out of the agency handling well and good. When ad agencies are setting up their own production companies those traditional lines have been broken.
Well, it may sound harsh, but hopefully this time can allow for a cull of mediocre talent in the directing / production game.
God knows, there’s too many directors and prod cos out there.
To come out the other side with more quality and less quantity might be a good thing?
I see soooo many average reels. The best I saw recently was of someone who’s really just starting out, but he can really direct. It was so refreshing to see, but it made me realise how rare that is, unfortunately.
My point is, how many directors in our biz are any good? And do a lot of us even know how to identify the talented ones? It is hard with so many out there, but the choices a lot of agencies make baffle me. So often it’s like, “yeah, I can see you had a good idea, you just gave it to the wrong guy”.
A lot of people might be able to do it cheap. But that often means they won’t do it any good. Another thing we succumb to and often suffer the repercussions of.
Seems like it is in both the agencies’ and production companies’ best interests to avoid that whole nasty spiral because we just shoot ourselves in the foot perpetuating it.
In Australasia, lets face it, there’s a few guys at E*&t, #w%@t S^#p and R$#&%ver and maybe a couple of others depending on your taste.
But that’s about it.
Keep the best, chuck out the rest I say.
We are working bloody hard right now! This is a ‘rock’n’roll’ industry – roll with it! Life could be worse! Yer ngative bastards!
“…with the client paying them once the job has finished…”
What, like every other small business in this country? Outrageous.
Prodco’s have been under threat for at least 5 years. It’s also a supply and demand think. Supply goes up and the $$$ go down and the talent exit’s into other industry. Digital project manager’s are earning $1000 a day on contract. Don’t know any production manager’s earning that. Good people go where they are paid well.
Hey 11:54 the good years were the 1980’s most of us were in school. It’s a joke – can you imagine walking into a BMW dealership and asking for a 7 series then telling them you only have enough money to pay for a 2nd hand Barina and then driving out with the car and not paying for 90 days! Thats what it is like for production companys.
Marko
you are loon. What you are suggesting is already happening and it’s called BrandPower. Wait a minute you probably work for them. How’s that new air freshner demo spot coming along?
Must be tough to get the pack, the spray and that chick with the tight skivy into 19.4 seconds?
And just quietly, which agency in this big brown land has fat in it at the moment?
P
Monty?
It use to be that you did ads so you could fund your film or TV. Now you do film and TV to fund your ads. Wake up agencies you are the poor cousin.
Hey 1220 it’s interesting you see so many good ideas out there I see mostly turds that have been polished by the blood sweat and tears of a production company.
12.27pm
You’re a cock. You clearly have no idea how a small business runs, certainly not a Production Company. I do and I work in a creative department.
12:20 – who are you talking about? I’m wondering if its the same reel I saw.
And all this complaining comes on the back of that viral campaign for AWARD (‘The Importance of Awards in Advertising’), directed by an international director and supported by AWARD membership fees.
In my humble opinion, lisping Indians and old men in underpants wasn’t great relevant work for Australian award shows.
AWARD campaigns should be directed by local directors.
12:27 the point is that you don’t get paid for sometimes 3months. By which time the goods have been on air so you have zero means to negociate getting paid.
And other small business does not operate like this, try and get a building firm to do you plans and a quote for free(the treatment & bid) then see if you can move in without paying. It aint going to happen.
Sit back in your PAYE chair and fxckoff – you have no idea of the dire issues facing small business at all.
You’re all minted………………….and that’s because you’ve had it way too good. Reality is just kicking in………welcome to the real world.
12:27 there is plenty of fat in agencys I just had three account service chicks sitting reading Who magazine on a shoot for three days. Now I reckon they would be charged out at least $30 buck an hour so that’s $2160 and their flights and hotels so that’s $2700 & $2100. Gee that’s $7000 could of shot on 35mm for that.
that thing was fucking terrible.
1:04, I don’t have an opinion on this.
Back in the day, when TV was King — there was Linear editing and there was a hand full of directors who had craft and skill and therefore the confidence to direct, if you didn’t shoot properly there was “no fix it in post” — therefore – you fucked up! a few times too many, it was clear to the want-to-be director it was time to try another gig…. then technology advanced and allowed anyone with a keen visual sense, to have a go — hence the young director era, prodigy and Pod started on the back of it, non-linear editing, then digital post, meant more safety nets… new directors became a cash cow and before you know it – THE MARKET BECAME FLOODED, and the Ad production industry, mainly in Sydney, has been flooded for almost a decade now …… enter new media, and the recent cash crisis and only NOW the effects have reached the ‘top-end-companies’, therefore the alarm is raised…my point, this is a bullshit topic to be discussing, it’s five years too late …. and all the “so called ” top-end boutiques” companies with a select FEW directors 3 years ago, NOW have over 8 directors, why? cause they hated having to knock back work when it was booming and now they have starving directors, they are winging… apologies for the history lesson, but this talk is old… mutate and move on …
Come on MONTY. Get involved.
No wonder the alcohol industry booms in these troubled times…..boo hoo
what’s on TV tonight?
12.20 & 3.21pm you are spot on.
Strange isn’t it, you go to brief out a job, let us say today.
Reels have been reviewed. Directors short listed.
Surprise, surprise, the directors you want to quote are busy.
The directors who know their craft are always busy, even in a recession.
Agencies want to work with people who have talent and that understand it is a commercial venture and not a personal project for the production company that a client is funding.
Agencies work hard, all departments. Production Companies still do not understand that by the time the production is happening that all present on the set plus many more have worked their tits off for the past six months to get the project up.
Agencies are disciplined and those that weren’t left them some time ago.
Production Companies have also been a license to print money for many years, not only in the ‘80’s & 90’s. I sat on a 12 day shoot and worked out that the runner was way better paid than myself. Go figure. What did he bring to the job? Deliver water!
How many times have quotes been reviewed and there is mark up on mark up, you know what I am talking about, crew fees loaded before they are actually marked up with the production company fee, film stock quantity and costs exaggerated [sometimes enough to shot a short film]. I can hear production saying, what do we in agency land know? More than you think.
The production industry needs to take a long hard look at itself and if you haven’t worked much for the past 6 to 12 months, well maybe it is time to make a career change. Do it for the industry.
Crew should have their day rate for a 10 hour day like in most other countries.
Post Production would be more affordable if agency paid it directly avoiding the mark up.
As for funding the project, I do not agree with that one and production companies should get a first 50% prior to the shoot or as close to as possible and this is something account service need to manage.
Unfortunately we all know how much stuff cost as too many companies have done freebie [for awards, usually scam, which is bad] or charity jobs, agan usaully for awards and what normally would be x is suddenly divided by 2.
I look forward to the day we receive the Portfolio and Reel pdf’s and there are not 3 or 4 cover pages listing all the director – it is a joke.
And why do so many of them change production company all the time –let me guess, because they are not working, and why, probably because they are just not that good.
In answer to why do we sometimes get 5 quotes, because we have all been burnt when everyone quoting gets award another job before we get ours signed off by clientnt and we are left with no one and an on air deadline – make sense?
Hopefully, with some luck this year will clean out the pretenders in the production industry and leave a healthy industry for the future.
As long as crews get paid for an 8 hour day the production industry will suffer in Australia. Overtime for crews is what has contributed greatly to this industry crashing. I know Grips and Gaffers who have made far more money than some of the best CD’s we have ever had!
Looking good Michael. Nice suit.
Top bloke, knows how to work a budget to make it work and is hands on.
Wow, maybe now ‘cheaper compromise’ directors will be willing to take a bit of direction from creatives instead of trying to make a 30 second feature film out of your script with 70 million fucking angle cuts that don’t tell a story at all.
I reckon you got better chance of being an astronaut, that getting work if you are an up and coming director in sydney.
Fuck the negativity. The future is bright. I know because we’re making it.
TVCs are, of course, still the core of our business, and all of our directors are making accomplished work in that area. Yet, we’re also working our asses off to be an innovative and utilitarian production company.
We don’t just cost up scripts that roll out of fax machines. More and more, we consider ourselves agents for agencies who now come to us to find the right collaborators for whatever they’re making,
For instance, we’ve taken characters to Bob Odenkirk, writer for Saturday Night Live, Mr Show and The Ben Stiller Show, to give them depth and make them funnier. We sought out and hired street artist Shepard Fairey to collaborate with our animator, Syd Garon, on Earth Hour print & TV. Summer Agnew lodged with artists to document their total creative process in reaction to different kinds of cheese (sounds weird, I know). Nick Reynolds toiled tirelessly on Riva to get the right rhythm and look. I’m constantly negotiating new digiital & mobile distribution rights for our branded content turned brand, bikini bandits…. And those are just the projects that I can talk about.
By doing so, Curious has moved the production model forward and have established ourselves as one of the most prolific content companies in the region, with an unmatched portfolio of long-format programming.
Of course, we can all bitch & moan about the current circumstances, and I’m certainly guilty of it sometimes. Yet, I’m 34 with two little kids, and I don’t have any other option but to work hard and rise to the occasion before me.
This year will certainly be a horrible anus. Yet, it will be one for can-do-motherfuckers, and that’s us! We’re hungry and now that the hype about “content” has finally cleared, I can see that we’re actually the ones doing it….. And if not, we’re certainly well on our way to getting there.
So again: FUCK THE NEGATIVITY! This is EVERYONE”S opportunity. Here’s to all of us making it worth our while.
Pete Grasse.
Normally I’d agree with you. But the cards are just stacked against us this time. Things are about to get a lot worse for Australia and our cheery optimism.
Sorry
I dont normally comment but often giggle at all the shit that flies on these pages, but I really couldn’t hold back on this one.
WOW I would take it that all these attacks on prod. co’s. are from (often inflated) wage earning creatives. You really have no idea how it is to run a small business or be a freelance supplier to these prod. co’s.
Yes agencies put in hard yards and months working on these concepts but then you give us the process of reverse auctioning for the jobs – lowest price wins – with only 2 weeks to get to production, because you have been taking months to get it over the line and the client sign off, without making them understand the implications. But you still want to see the quality on the screen!! Well to do that everyone in production has to jump thru burning hoops and work their bums off to meet these crazy deadlines, call in favours and screw all our suppliers down on price. And we are not allowed to be paid a FAIR price for this blood sweat and tears??
You agency guys (and gals) really live in fantasy land. As another blogger commented try putting these demands on any other service market and you would have to either pay thru the nose or be laughed out of town.
We are not cry babies, but with agencies constantly turning over big profits for their shareholders (partially due to all the mark ups they make on our budgets) you really have a hide to put shit on the production side.
Oh and the comments about all the newbies out there with no talent – well EVERYONE has to start somewhere, or where you all born with amazing talent at what you do and haven’t learnt a thing for any job or anyone you have worked with previously. But you dont mind hiring them for your scam ads, or no budget jobs – always with promises of a ‘real’ job with a ‘real’ budget in the near future, which usually never appear, because when you do have money you dont repay the favour and give them a go, no you fling them to the big guns and then put shit on them for making so much money??
Try being a freelancer and paying the rent and all the other expenses required to be at your beck and call.
Honestly how bloody arrogant. And we all wonder why anyone not in the industry thinks ANYONE in advertising is a wanker??
Really? I hope not. If so, I’ll be singing this for a year:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ulrCtyGDv8&feature=related
Fuck that! I’d rather find a way to contribute.
Nice pic. Better link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxkuzloKyyE&feature=related
To be fair, there are 2 sides to the story. As a post person we deal with both agency people & production company people. Some are talented, some are not. The problems in the production industry stem from both the problems in their own industry as well as in agencies. Sure there are problems with 8 vs 10 hour days, sure there are overpaid grips, but there are also waste of space suits telling excellent directors how to frame shots, & 25yo writers who say Mr Deneen is old hat & really past it. (yep it happened) The most serious issue though is the emergence of agency owned “production companies” who demand a cut of profits from jobs while denying that such rorts happen. Production companies have to fatten up the quote & who pays?? Maybe it’s time for all responsible clients to get quotes from production companies directly rather than through the phantom tape handlers.
Mr Grasse is right, stop the bloody moaning and sieze the opportunity to be smarter thinkers and deal with it!
I think Peter G has sumed t up! You are the man!
There’s been a total glut for a long time now so why take on 8 directors each (5 of whom hardly ever work). Overpromising directors/ giving them unrealistic expectations/ inflating their egos to get them onto your books. Greed. Concentrate on getting your best directors work.
Fascinating that post production people have sat back and watched as agencys have become “Post Houses” literally going after their supplier’s business. They offer little or no creative input to the raft of very average commercials seen on air. They shoot on toy cameras and post on PCs and Macs. None would recognise a technical standard if it smacked them in the face. The grunge look is all about hiding the fact that the pictures look like crap so we’ll sell in the idea that this look is cool.
Yet when they can’t cope with a concept “in house” they come running back and demand ridiculous rates (maybe we should pay them for the honor).
So its probably time that the post people fought back some…No reason why Post companies should not market directly to clients and cut out all of the mark up is there??
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoGYx35ypus
Agencies award based on treatment not cost. If the cost is way out, they then negotiate. You either make it work if you want the job or you so no. Very simple really.
I suppose it’s better than Anus Horribilis.
“I sat on a 12 day shoot and worked out that the runner was way better paid than myself. Go figure. What did he bring to the job? Deliver water!”
Runners usually work as freelancers ie his next payday might not be for another 2 months. So maybe he did get paid more than you for those 12 days, but do a 12 month projection and I’m sure there’s a different story to tell.
I could pick holes in your rant all day but wankers will always be wankers. I’m not going to bother
Before dropping rates and jumping through hoops for clients, take a lesson from your brothers and sisters in the photographic industry. We dropped rates in the last recession and you know what? They never rebounded and never will. So what you offer today will be expected tomorrow, recovery or no recovery. Photographers earn less now than what they did four years ago.
Peter’s the man.
http://www.cartoonstock.com/lowres/jsi0068l.jpg
I like the cut of your jib 11:39.
True, 10:53, but then he gets to surf for three straight weeks. Lucky bastard.
is the George Hamilton?
So from reading what has been posted by prod houses you assume agencies mark up your quotes and we cheat out clients……i nearly fell off my seat laughing at that one!
You guys live in a fantasy world.
Everything goes to client @ nett. Production estimates are included when presenting estimate breakdowns for the client to have as supporting documentation. That is why they request 3 quotes, so they know we have done our job. They read the treatments and sometimes they have questions and or concerns.
They query some of your costs and we justify them on your behalf.
Did you ever think about that one when surfing or lunching or at your beach house?
For whatever reasons – greed, fear, nepotism – production companies and their directors caving in and giving too much, for too little, for too long is one of the main roots of the problem. The recession just exacerbates it.
That aside, I’m with you Mr Grasse. We’ll be sweet, bring it on.
Wow! We are all great buddies until we are backed up against the wall, and then you really see what fine back stabbing creatures we are! I think that the misunderstood concept that Prod Co’s are still kicking their heels every time they get a job is fucking fantasy! Agencies breed a culture of every man for himself, and from these blogs it really shows that this culture has taken hold. I think we should look at what we are accusing each other of, because even before that fucking P3, the concept of production companies making huge profits is extremely out dated.
Agency departments can barely work together so someone please explain how the fuck they are going to collaborate with Prod Co’s?
1.30pm
You forgot to mention the agencies retainer I think, and your PAYE salary. You know the salary you get every month!
Anyway, those of you how aren’t knobs like 1.30pm. I’m throwing a surfing / lunch party at my beach house this coming weekend. Who’s in?
2.22pm
are you saying agency personnel shouldn’t be paid? either as a PAYE or as a freelancer? that is what the retainer covers.
i have to say some agency creatives really do treat young directors worse than sh#t,
i made scam ads for one of the biggest agencies in town, they promised me work, and you know what, I got nothing, not even a thank you, or a free lunch.
Every one must start somewhere, no one is Denneen straight out of film school, and if you agency creatives are simply gonna use and spit us out, then there is no reason for us to try in australia.
3.02pm
My comment was to make a point that you guys are paid every month. Salary. Production Companies are all freelance.
You’re still not invited to the party. It’s going to be huge. Cause I have so much money….well this month I do.
directors know exactly what kind of industry they are getting into. if young directors do a job with no cash then take it on the chin and be proud of that new spot on your reel that you otherwise wouldn’t have had, and remember that you agreed to do it in the first place. too many directors pitching for the same job in the same country? we’ve all experienced directors pitching against other directors within the same production house. who should be pointing fingers?
I think it’s really unfair to slam people because they are airing issues. The obsession with being positive could also be viewed as denial or sticking your head in the sand.
We would think it negligent of govt’s or companys who painted a brighter picture of how their position really was.
Now I know where “whinging farmers” came from – it was created in an ad agency.
In spite of Mr. Grasse’s sunny optimism and boyish enthusiasm, all mixed in with a large slab of self-promotion, comments that have been roundly praised here we suspect by the agency creatives and producers it was written to impress, and Mr. Ritchie’s rather brave and honest assessment of the challenges faced by all production companies from the most successful like his own to those further down the food chain, remarks which have been venomously criticized we suspect by the same mob, the truth is that the only solution to the real situation of too little work for too many applicants and the sellers market that has developed as a consequence for the agencies (who let’s face it, all necessary lip service about collaboration aside, have always been in an adversarial relationship with production companies to some extent), is the creation of a strong union among all the production company producers, directors, vendors, and post houses in the region, and the establishment of a realistic set of guidelines that will prevent one competitor from undermining the efforts of another by slashing costs, or service conditions to an agency or client to the detriment of us all, under the threat of being ostracized from the community as a whole and shut off from crews, equipment, and facilities.
We’re seeing the imposition by agency holding companies of new terms of business which would have production companies front the funding of productions until agencies are paid by clients. We’re told at the SPAA conference that production companies, their directors and producers need to prepare for a new business environment where they’ll need to be available for three to four months for branded content projects at even lower budgets than they would traditionally have worked on :30 and :60 tvcs demanding 3-6 weeks of their time, while the agencies are encouraging collaboration and pitches for these longer form works from directors and producers, refusing to offer any share in the intellectual property, and discouraging anyone who might try to pitch directly to clients by threatening to freeze them out of future work with the agencies. Production companies are closing their doors everywhere, while agencies are creating their own in-house production arms that create lowest common denominator competitive bids for the clients, and when the independent production company’s director is the creative choice in the end (not very surprising), the in-house unit forces a fee sharing deal to secure the award and to keep themselves in the business of undermining the production industry at large, under the guise of keeping producers honest.
The agencies need to be reminded that production companies do not operate on long term contracts as they themselves do with their clients, nor are they underwritten by large corporations, and that production companies and their directors, not to mention the vendors and crews who support them are all free-lance, un-salaried individuals who survive from job to job.
This is a competitive industry, and for every successful director who retreats to his beach house in his European sports car, as 1:30 would have you believe, or “overpaid grip” or PA, as another critic moaned, there are 2-3 CDs who’ve sold their companies to larger global agencies and their corporate groups who are doing the same, only to bigger homes, and faster cars, the boat to match. The attacks on hard-working crew who would have to string together free-lance jobs nearly 52 weeks a year in order to pull in just over $100K, and half of those number of days/weeks would be a good year for most, is just ludicrous.
In the end, the only thing that will save the production industry is change, and some of that will come from greater creative skill and more invention, as well as an embrace of new technologies, while hopefully still creating engaging stories with beautiful pictures, but a large measure of problem solving will come when the industry employed by the ad agencies to do what they cannot (which frankly they would do if they could, as evidenced by the number of former creatives having left their shops to direct) bands together as it’s done in the UK and the US (the APA and the AICP), and through their collective, united efforts, change the direction of the game.
Yes, agencies work for months to get work across the line with clients, and then the production side comes along with its substantial contribution to execute the work, but more and more agencies are taking on the production side of the business, and the result is that the quality of work has suffered as a result. We can talk all we want about new media and the importance of the immediacy of the message, the channels, but when we lose the inventiveness, the dazzling visuals, the big picture that has brought the ad industry at large its claims to fame over the years, what’s been reduced to the term “content” (and sold allot of fizzy water, trainers, cars, and beer in the process) all of which was the result of the collaboration between talented filmmakers and storytellers, and great copywriters and art directors who understood how to engage an audience for a client and their product, on any sized screen and for any duration, we lose allot. The disappearance of the production industry and the talents it brings to the ad business would be devastating not just to producers, directors, and crews, but to advertising as a whole.
As one very wise executive producer and former agency producer has said a number of times, paraphrased [I’m not in the business of subsidizing multinational corporations, but of providing a creative service they seem to need, and should pay fairly for, if my colleagues in the business could just understand that when any of us accept unreasonable terms and fees that are not sustainable, we undermine not just one another, but the business as a whole.] It’s time to make those terms clear, because the clients need advertising, and they clearly do not trust their agencies to do the job on their own. Or do they?
Stand together in troubling times, and face the threats to the business as a united force.
Phew, I’ll be surprised if anyone will dare to try to top that epic, 4:57.
You’re obviously a person with great inside knowledge and experience.
Perhaps for genuine credibility and respect you should nail your colours to the mask and identify yourself.
not going to try to top 4.57 – just want to say that it’s a brave stance.
I’d like to think we could all stand together, but you know there will always be ONE fine type that will sneak behind enemy lines and do the job for next to nothing, taking whatever reaming is being dished out by the agency. You know, for ‘the reel’.
oh, and 10.35? the expression is ‘nail your colours to the MAST’. A nailing to a mask may prove hazardous, especially if it’s still being worn…..
No I dont work in a Prod. Co., I am actually in casting, but have worked in agency land, client side and production. So know who the real money makers are in the equation and its NOT production.
March 12, 2009 11:50 AM – thanks – lets work together.
Where is this party? I am happy to bring a plate & a slab!
Of course you’re right, 11:51. It was a typo. Mind you, it’s no worse than the common mistakes many of today’s yoof make without a clue they’re getting it wrong.
11:51 of course we can make a stance – you are in charge of you! It’s time to do what is best for the greater community. It’s just happened in the UK with Omnicom holding the production company’s to ransom on terms, they stayed solid and guess what? – they won. Just becuase times are tough does not mean ethics should slide we all know what is right and what’s wrong. The economy is an opportunity for agencys to make an aggressive attack on terms, simply to increase their cashflow. You can be sure they are holding up the same service aggreements they had with their clients a year ago. Don’t fold if you do you only have yourself to blame.
Hey Big Poster (4:57)
I wasn’t trying to offend, undermine or impress. I know the argument well and give it credence.
Nevertheless, things are undeniably changing, and I simply don’t want to waste any more time listening to a bunch of people that are wholly resistant to change.
I also appreicate Ritchie’s candor. Yet, I’d like to know which generation gave it all away in the first place? The Establishment or the Yoof?
Whatever the case, it seems to be going going gone.. And, I certainly want to get it back. Even if the powers that be don’t recognize it as the same thing.
All up. Thanks for the dialogue. I value your experience and respect your points of view..
Wishing you all a restful & blogless weekend!
Some production company’s very existence is based on underquoting everyone to win the job and build a reel. It was how they established themselves. It is how many of the newer houses establish, however it will always be at the expense of others. Their modus operandi, and that of a number of other companies’, gave clients the ability to say I want this treatment but at a quarter of the price. That put agencies, production houses, post houses and crews in an untenable position. Perhaps these people should pull their heads in and take a long hard look at their own back yard.
Agencies and production companies are on the same side. If you can’t have an open collaborative relationship between client, agency and production house then you are in for rough era.
Ah fuck it, when a writer can script, produce and direct the infamous Dove ‘Evolution’ production companies should shit their pants. Nothing to do with the recession.
sorry and hats off to all of you. Yet, this is so relevant:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8x6is5Wu8I4&feature=related
enjoy the retirement tour!
they are right. it is going to be annus horribilis but who really cares? Chaf from the wheat and all that.
Plus the pond was too small anyway for all the people, it’s time some people left, retired or went to do new things.
And I don’t just mean directors, there are a lot of shitty untalented people working in this business in all the areas and it is really time to for them to move on.
may be time for me to apply for that taxi driver’s license!
the best thing that ever happened to web business was the dot com crash. got rid of the plonkers.
same thing will happen here.
“One top TVC production company executive producer told CB that in the past month they’ve been asked by two agencies to fund the cost of the production with the client paying them once the job has finished: “This in effect would turn us into a bank, a bank that doesn’t charge interest. I don’t know of any business that could survive like this. The only solution was for us to charge interest on the money and to ask for a letter of credit from the client’s bank stating the amount and date the money would go into our account,” she says.”
Welcome to Post Production.
Self-indulgent fucks, wake up, all the work Australia does is shit and it is only going to get worse.
1. The Agencies: Regurgitate commercials from around the world adding a wank factor. They know this works because it’s already been through research. The client like this…
2. The Production Companies Treatment/Pitch. Pay a writer to come in and write a treatment. Pay a research assistant to come in and source material from features, documentaries, images and other TVC’s.
3. Job Rewarded: Try make it look like Jonathan Glazer, Spike Jonze, Frank Budgen or any other talented overseas director did it.
4. Payment: The agency take as long as possible to pay the production company, the production company take as long as possible to pay the crew. The both do this while complaining about how they all lost money on the job over a nice lunch.
Anyway that’s a plumbers perspective, some who actually works for a living.
A plumber with an in-depth knowledge of how both the ad and production industries work could only be called Andrew North.
Clearly you’re a plumber. Crew are paid within 30 days.
Pull you’re head out of the pipes.
‘woooo’… hmm that’s a nice JD infused noise… anyhoo – were you an ad type before you went back to the henrys? or are you married to one? If it’s the latter, I imagine it’s she who has been funding the lifestyle I’m sure you enjoy. Go jump. We’re having a discussion here.
What is totally discraceful is freelance producers only getting payed if they land a job … and I am talking seniors, experience … can be quoting a couple of dozen times.
This is slave labour!
The industry needs a total overhaul. Bring on unions.
As a director the thing that makes my blood run cold is the complete and utter lack of understanding from the agency/client of the job we actually do. Yes 9.48 it’s lovely to write and direct the Dove spot, but what happens if it doesn’t come out as the client imagines?…you’d loose your job as a creative and as a director in one glorious blow. Oh, and if another agency writer above thinks there’s only talent at two prod co’s then perhaps it’s time to start doing your job properly and actually invest some time in looking at more reels (and not just the home page of ‘best ads’). I really do get a feeling that (probably) younger creatives think they can do my job, well then quit now and give it a go! (you won’t survive). I’ve won top awards for scripts that needed more than a polite polish, and yes the agency were more than grateful. Not sure the same would happen now.
2:22 works in plumbing? Sweet, we finally have an opinion from ‘real Australia’ on the blog!!
3.33 on the 16th. Crews are not paid within 30 days. This is how it works. We do a job, we invoice the next day, we send it in and when Production Companies get it they then start counting the 30 days from there. So if your lucky you may get your money within 35 days from the date of the job. A few of the Companies now say that their terms are 30 days from the end of the month. So if your job is at the early part of the month your on 30 days plus the previous part of the month. A lot of a freelancers time is spent phoning companies chasing money. Its a very hard way to make a living not knowing if you have work coming up or not. Not knowing when you will be paid or not. Knowing that while trying to get your money from a Production Company that you have to tread very lightly because as much as your screaming out for that money to pay your bills you also need that production company for your next job. In fact it has got that bad recently that I’ve lost everything and had to declare bankruptcy. This blog besides on one hand being very funny is also on the other hand very sad. Its obvious on set its an us and them situation and this blog has just gone to prove that you guys have no idea how hard it is to earn a living as a freelancers. But please keep this blog going as it does occasionally make me smile…… and I need that.. And before the clever comments come back to me, I read this blog on a borrowed computer. Have a nice day and if we ever meet on set, don’t be a stranger…….C.
8.34 am
I’ve always invoiced on my terms. Pay within 14 days.
Which means I get paid generally in under 30.
Prod co’s can’t argue with that. You’re the supplier.
Imagine if you were an electricity company. Don’t pay on time, no worries. We’ll cut your fucking power off and send a guy round to knee-cap you.
It’s the same when you have your own company/ABN. You dictate the terms. Debt collection is cheap, $30 in a civil court and bang, you’ve got no work in this town ever again.
My terms are always 14 days also but try getting that out of a production company. You must be someone like a DP to get paid on time. If your general crew you just have to suck it up and take your money when the Production Company say’s you can have it. Its not uncommon to be 60 plus days and over. If I ever pulled that Debt collection stuff on a Production Company, whilst as you say it might cost $30 but I’ll never be allowed back to work for that Production Company again (and they know it). So whats it cost me know.
8.34am. So sorry to hear your situation. I know you’re right though, about the payment terms. I recently had an agency pay me in ‘installments’ on a 2nd 50%!!!! Again, the excuse was ‘the client hasn’t paid us, so we can’t pay you’….
I’ve always tried to pay crew on time, using my own money (i redrew against my house on many occasions), because I hate getting the aforementioned excuse myself.
I hope things look up for you – and for all of us, agencies included. (I wish we had our ‘no more than 20% overseas content’ in place now!!! Damn global economy!!)
Don’t worry film guys … I hear the new Range Rover is crap anyway.
4.08. Fuck you.
Ever done a hard day’s work? Hmmm?…
Thought not.
No fuck you 10.31. 99% of commercials in Australia are done in all night sessions stringing hours of tape together shot on a shoe string and put together in airless, windowless shit holes of studios by Agency and Production House people payed a pittance. Get real. That’s hard work! And it’s not just day work. Normally it’s 16 hour day work.
And the new Range Rover is shit. I suggest you look at a Beemer.
Again, FUCK YOU TWICE 4.10. you think you’re alone?? you think you’re the only one that’s done all that?? IDIOT. Get your head out of your arse and stop being jealous of people that did well in the past from what they do well!!!!
I prefer Beemers anyway you public transport using dickhead.