If you don’t like the weather in Chicago," as the old saying goes, "wait five minutes." Some in Chicago’s production community are now weathering an inclement period in terms of business.
With the troubled economy resulting in huge numbers of layoffs and slashed ad budgets at the corporate level, the trickle down result is impacting sectors of the advertising and commercial production industries—some harder than others. And unlike the city’s meteorological conditions, there is no quick turnaround in sight.
Like other major production markets, Chicago was hurt by last year’s six-month long strike waged by SAG and AFTRA against advertisers, which drove production to Canada and other foreign locales. And by some accounts, business has dropped off significantly since the beginning of the year.
"Pretty much everybody I’ve talked to says that board flow has dropped considerably," says Dick Gillespie, executive producer of Spoke Films, which has bases in Chicago and Santa Monica. "Most of the agency guys I’ve talked to say that they’re not as busy. There’s less production going on, and A-list directors are fighting for lesser [quality] boards than they would normally take. It’s been tougher trying to get work, especially for companies who are trying to build directors."
That category includes Spoke, whose directorial lineup consists of: Ron Lazzeretti, Jamie O’Malley, Kyle Bergersen and Chris Yurkow. Recent projects for the shop include the Lazzeretti-helmed Taco Bell spots "Zesty" and "Club Chalupa," for FCB San Francisco; "Center Of Excellence," directed by O’Malley-for Indiana University, via BBDS, Chicago, as well as a Publix supermarket job for IAC Group, Miami, which Yurkow was preparing to helm at press time.
Dan Lundmark, executive producer at Manarchy Films, Chicago, agrees that the industry currently seems in a bit of a slump. "We’re staying busy, but not as busy as we’ve been in past years," relates Lundmark. "It seems as if there are less boards, and less advertising out there."
Thus, says Lundmark, it has become ever more challenging to find creative spots for director Dennis Manarchy, whose recent credits include "Triggers," for Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Minnesota, out of NCI Advertising, New York, and "The Experience" and "Focal Point" for La-Z-Boy out of Doner, Southfield, Mich. The director is currently slated to shoot a Goldman Sachs commercial for Ogilvy & Mather (O&M), New York.
Reid Brody, VP/ principal at The Filmworkers Club, which has facilities in Chicago, Dallas and Nashville, has observed a decline in local production in the wake of the actors strike. "The one adverse effect of the strike was that it seemed to totally decimate Chicago production," assesses Brody, who bases his opinion on the work being run through Filmworkers’ sister film processing company, Sanitary Lab, Chicago. "Most of the lab’s clients now are out-of-town [production] companies."
Others contend that the downturn is not as bad as many believe it to be. Dan Zigulich, executive producer of Z Group Films, Chicago, believes that the situation may be worse on the West Coast, where—on a recent trip—he spoke with many industry execs who expressed negativity about the state of the business. "Talk about nay-sayers," remarks Zigulich. "I had a lot of meetings there and everyone was talking gloom-and-doom. There was so much pessimism. I know with the dot-com business being way down, a lot of money is not in the industry that was here for the past couple of years. It’s obviously affecting [the West Coast] much more than [Chicago]."
Client Base
Indeed, while the impact of the dot-com shakeout has been concentrated in the Bay Area, the traditional clients at Chicago’s agencies are stable, bricks-and-mortar businesses. They include broadcast-heavy retailers JC Penney and Sears, in addition to mainstays like McDonald’s, Budweiser, Kellogg’s and Quaker.
Having just opened his shop last year after many years as an agency producer, Zigulich says he had realistic profit expectations—particularly given that he was launching new directors such as Seth Henrikson, Paul Cotter and Denise Zaitoon. The firm also represents tabletop helmer Tim Turner, a veteran still photographer. Henrikson recently helmed "Memorial Day" and "Glasses" for JC Penney via DDB Chicago; other credits include the Turner-directed spots "Perfect Pair" and "Blue Sweater" for Lakeside Mall, via Marc Advertising, Chicago. "There’s work out there," says Zigulich. "I’d say the budgets are challenged, but I’ve been in the business for twenty years, and they’re always challenged. We haven’t had a great year, but we almost cycled last year, which I really didn’t anticipate. So I’d say we’re exceeding our plan."
One of the city’s most successful directors is Bob Ebel of Ebel Productions, Chicago, who continues to be in demand for kid-oriented spots, a lucrative niche he has carved over his 16-year directing career. Ebel reports that it’s been the best year yet for his shop, which also encompasses in-house edit facility Bass Edit and in-house casting. So far in 2001, he has helmed 38 spots and, in fact, has been working so relentlessly that he plans to take the month of June off to recharge.
"We’ve had to turn work down," says Ebel. "And from what I understand, we give more work to the crews in Chicago than any company in the city."
Besides maintaining repeat clientele, Ebel has worked with new clients in the past year. Among them are Lowe Lintas & Partners, New York, for whom he directed "Nagging Mom" for Johnson+Johnson Foam Blaster; Laughlin/Constable, Chicago, for whom he helmed "The Wait," "Gramps" and "Tree Fort" for Friendly’s ice cream; and Suissa Miller, Los Angeles, for whom he directed "Parade" and "Candles" for Boston Market.
Ebel’s other credits include the spot "First Teachers," out of Runyon Salzman & Einhorn, Sacramento, Calif., which touts Proposition 10, a 50-cent tobacco tax passed by California last year. Another job, marking his foray into non-kid work, comprised two U.S. Hispanic market Tylenol spots, "Flamenco" and "Big Date," via Bienestar Communications, Miami. Of the latter project, Ebel observes that the Hispanic storytelling ads have been favorably compared to the campaign’s general market spots that were directed by Bob Giraldi of bicoastal Giraldi Suarez Productions (GSP).
Post State
Professing to be just as busy is Digital Kitchen (DK), a Bellevue, Wash.-headquartered broadcast graphics and design/production shop that launched a Chicago branch in January, headed by president/executive producer Don McNeill (DK also maintains a Los Angeles base, primarily to support its live action work.)
Spotwise, DK’s credits include a large as-yet unaired launch project for Philip Morris out of Leo Burnett USA, Chicago, as well as "Icon" for JC Penney via DDB; and 10-spot packages for Sears Auto Center and Brand Central via O&M, Chicago. For the latter job, DK shot the live action in addition to designing and creating the graphics. "We’ve been incredibly busy … in part because we’re new, but also because we’re different," says McNeill.
Brody also invokes the supply-demand theory when asked about the steady flow of work at Filmworkers, which offers digital postproduction and special effects, but is most heavily focused upon film-to-tape services.
"Our postproduction has been very strong," Brody says. "A lot of it has to do with the commitment we’ve made to people and to technology. We’re the only company in town running three telecines and we do a tremendous amount of film-to-tape."
Recent Filmworkers jobs include: "Fussbudget" and "Hot Mama" for Sears via O&M, directed by Dewey Nicks of bicoastal Epoch Films, and "Lesson Plan" and "Event Plan" for Verizon via Burrell Communications, Chicago, directed by Lisbon Okafor of bicoastal HSI Productions.
Despite the economy, Filmworkers has also been beefing up its graphics, special effects and 2-D/3-D animation division, Nurb’s Farm. Earlier this year, Nurb’s added executive producer Jim Deloye, who came over from now dissolved H-Gun Labs. Nurb’s lineup includes veteran effects director Tom Sinnott, and former H-Gunner, Patrick Siemer. "We continue to take baby steps in our graphics arena," says Brody. "When we hired Tom Sinnott, it took us up to a whole new level."
Offering diversified services under one banner may well be the best strategy for companies looking towards the future, some believe. Among them is DK’s McNeill, who notes that "production companies are obviously being hit with the economic downturn, and post companies are losing a tiny bit of momentum because the traditional way of doing things is over. The real executional, technical aspects of the game have changed. As a creative company, we used to rely heavily on traditional post companies, but now we can do what they can do and it doesn’t detract from the creative portion of our business."
Tim McGuire, founder/editor at creative editorial house Cutters, Chicago, says business remains steady at Cutters as well as at its sister shops, Chicago-based sound design/audio post studio Another Country and graphics/visual effects shop SOL designfx, which has offices in Chicago and Venice, Calif.
"I hear that Procter & Gamble and Kellogg’s have cut back on their ad spending," McGuire comments, "but some of that is taken up by new business the agencies have gotten this past year. Burnett, DDB, J. Walter Thompson and FCB have all won new business this year—more so than the business they’ve lost. I think that also offsets some of the [impact] from their other clients who may be spending less money."
SOL designfx managing director Scott Seltzer acknowledges they’ve been hearing about a work slowdown from industry colleagues. "The production companies may feel the impact of that a little sooner than we might," he notes. "And while there has been a bigger increase in amount of agency business won than lost, I think we’ll begin to feel [the impact of the losses]."
For instance, Seltzer cites the recent DDB loss of General Mills, which represented about $120 million of the client’s domestic business. He adds, "While the loss is more than supplanted in size and billing by the Dell Computer account that DDB won, I feel Dell is largely going to be print [advertising] business. So that may, in fact, have some impact on Chicago’s overall work as well."
But for now, Cutters, SOL and Another Country remain busy; the latter recently wrapped a branding package for ADM out of FCB Chicago directed by Martyn Pick of Bermuda Shorts, London, and a two-minute Hallmark spot, "Hooper," directed by Joe Pytka of Venice-based PYTKA, for Leo Burnett. SOL’s Chicago and Venice offices typically collaborate on jobs, such as two recent Gerber spots "Bounce" and "Plastic Package" for Noble & Associates, Chicago, directed by Mark Klein, Big Deahl Productions, Chicago. Seltzer adds, "We work back-and-forth on a lot of jobs; when one office is getting jammed, the other can pick up some slack."
The Bellevue and Chicago DK studios also frequently team up on projects, including those from the entertainment sector—which make up 30 percent of the firm’s business. "We’ve been doing a lot of it [entertainment work] in Chicago which is really rare," notes McNeill. One such notable DK credit is the title sequence for soon-to-be-launched original HBO series Six Feet Under, developed by Academy Award-winning writer Alan Ball (American Beauty).
Ultimately, many contend that talent and the ability to fulfill clients’ needs—and not the stock market index—remain the true predictor of business success over the long haul. As Ebel puts it, "It’s really a director who’s going to draw people in—not the hotels, not the crews. It’s the reel."
