Business in the commercial production industry wasn’t exactly great prior to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States. In fact, it was—and remains—sluggish overall. "The economy has had a massive effect on where the business is right now," says Matt Miller, president/CEO of the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP). "The advertising business really got slammed six to eight months ago, and was on a sharp decline even on Sept. 10."
New York companies involved in commercialmaking were among those coping with a struggling economy, and the future for spot production in the Big Apple only looked worse in the days after the events of Sept. 11.
So what exactly is the state of commercial production in New York City at this time? Comprehensive facts and figures aren’t available at present. But assessments and observations gathered from those in the commercial production industry indicate that business is actually above average post-Sept. 11.
Nancy Axthelm, executive VP/ director of broadcast production at Grey Advertising, New York, recently completed an unofficial survey of her colleagues, and determined that at least 80 commercial shoots had been done in New York—bringing in somewhere in excess of $17 million—from just after Sept. 11 to early December.
It should be stressed that these numbers are by no means exact. "We just did a rough compilation," notes Axthelm. While she doesn’t have figures from years past to compare these current findings to, she believes the amount of production post-Sept. 11 to be more than usual for the period.
Some suppliers out there agree with Axthelm’s estimation. Both Alan Suna, president of Silvercup Studios, Long Island City, N.Y., and Hal G. Rosenbluth, president of Kaufman Astoria Studios, Astoria, N.Y., report that they’ve seen an increase in spot production at their respective studios since 9/11.
Much of that work was originally set to go elsewhere. For example, Silvercup Studios recently hosted a Hess holiday commercial shoot, promoting the gas station’s toy for 2001: a Hess helicopter. The ad was originally slated to be shot in Canada. "The helicopter [for the shoot] had already been fabricated in Vancouver, and they shipped it down to New York," Suna notes.
Silvercup Studios, as well as its sister studio, Silvercup East, also in Long Island City, hosted other jobs that had been slated to go out of town, including a Colgate ad, out of Young & Rubicam, New York, and a Johnson & Johnson ad via McCann-Erickson, New York.
Meanwhile, Kaufman Astoria Studios garnered spot work produced by bicoastal/international hungry man and bicoastal Epoch Films.
We Love New York
Why the recent rise in commercial work in the Big Apple? It didn’t just come about by accident. The advertising industry has banded together and rallied to increase New York-based production in the wake of Sept. 11. As previously reported, the Advertising and Entertainment Industry Coalition—a.k.a. the We Love New York Coalition—has been a major part of that effort (SHOOT, 10/5/01, p. 1). The group includes representation from every facet of the industry, including the AICP, the New York Production Alliance, the Association of Independent Creative Editors (AICE), the New York City Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting, the New York State Governor’s Office for Motion Pictures & Television Development, the Association of Music Producers (AMP) and the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As), as well as unions and individual suppliers, production houses and post facilities.
It seems as though everyone is participating in the Herculean effort to keep—and lure—spot business to New York City. "The major suppliers—and even the smaller ones—in town are all working with the production companies and the agencies … [They’re] being more helpful in whatever arrangements need to be made to give them the wherewithal to say to their clients, ‘Well, it still may be a little more expensive in New York, but we’re working with everybody to keep the costs down,’ " Suna relates. "The production companies are also making a concerted effort in this regard and working with their clients to say, ‘Give me a number, and I’ll tell you whether we can get it done or not.’ "
Studio executive Rosenbluth also credits Patricia Reed Scott, commissioner of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting; and Pat Swinney Kaufman, deputy commissioner and director of the New York State Governor’s Office for Motion Picture and Television Development, for immediately stepping up to the plate to keep spot production—as well as feature film and television production—in New York. "They have done a tremendous job in trying to let the world know New York is ready, willing and able to go back to work," Rosenbluth notes.
"The city office was able to within the administration get up and running and be issuing permits very quickly after Sept. 11," concurs Miller of the AICP. "They were issuing permits for the four outer boroughs, I believe, by Sept. 15. And [they were issuing permits] in Manhattan, everywhere north of Canal [Street], by the end of September, which is pretty miraculous."
The efforts of the film commissions were key, but ultimately many industry insiders give the bulk of the credit for keeping spot production in the Big Apple to the advertising agencies themselves. After all, the real power lies in the hands of these agencies: They have the closest contact to clients, who decide where their spots will be shot.
And via an effort started by Heads of Production—a four-year-old group consisting of agency production heads and executive producers from primarily New York shops that has since folded its efforts into the We Love New York Coalition—agencies have been flexing their muscles in recent months. They’re going all out to keep whatever spot production work they can in New York, which essentially involves talking to clients, selling them on the idea of shooting in five boroughs. Spearheading The Heads of Production effort have been: Axthelm of Grey Advertising; Ken Yagoda, managing partner/director of broadcast production at Y&R; Peter Friedman, senior VP/director of broadcast productions at McCann-Erickson, New York; and David Perry, executive VP/director of broadcast production at Saatchi & Saatchi, New York (SHOOT, 10/19/01, p. 1).
Overall, clients—flush with patriotism and pro-New York sentiment—have been eager to pitch in and help the cause. For example, Perry was instrumental in convincing two Saatchi & Saatchi clients—Oil of Olay and Tylenol—to shoot in New York work that was slated to go elsewhere. "People are rediscovering New York," Perry says. Edouard Nammour of bicoastal Cylo tvc helmed the Oil of Olay ads—"Mud Pack" and "Picture Perfect"—and Bob Giraldi of bicoastal Giraldi Suarez Productions directed the Tylenol ads.
Of course, New York has long struggled to compete with Los Angeles in terms of production. "The reason New York has never been quite as big a film center as it could have been is that the directors don’t live here; the business goes where the directors are, and they all live in L.A.," reasons Perry. "A lot of companies have made up the notion of being bicoastal. They were never literally so. They had offices in both places, but the directors were only in one place. Now [in the wake of Sept. 11], they’re really acting bicoastal and making their people available [to work in New York].
"In the old days, an L.A. director would make it very hard for you to work with him in New York," continues Perry, "because he’d want to bring his cameraman and his makeup person and his girlfriend. Now, they’re traveling very light—maybe just him and a producer."
New York hasn’t just lost out on business to Los Angeles over the years; the city and state has also had to compete with shoots that went outside of the U.S. "For a lot of years now, the agencies and the clients have fallen in love with bringing work overseas that never really had to go overseas," states Miller. "And I think that what [the events of Sept. 11 have done] is give a little bit of cognizance to the fact that we really owe it to the production industries that we rely on in so many instances to keep as much work here as possible. That’s a national effort, not just a New York effort."
Axthelm concurs with Miller’s point about the goal being not just to bring spot production to New York, but to keep work in the United States in general. "Because we’re New Yorkers, and the advertising hub is here in New York, we thought we could direct more of it to New York," Axthelm says. "But it is a United States-based effort."
As for New York, it isn’t a given that spot production will continue to rise as many in the industry assert it has over the last few months. If anything, industry insiders seem to agree that the winter months could be particularly tough. Plus not everyone is so sure that the economy is going to pick up dramatically any time soon, and that problem is not so easily solved. "Unfortunately, we’re probably facing one of the worst economic times in this business," says Miller, "and I believe that in the coming months it’s only going to get worse before it gets better."
But it will get better, Miller maintains. He is optimistic about the future, reasoning that, for now, getting the job done is a matter of making the best of a bad economic situation. Many of his counterparts agree that patience—and perseverance—are in order. "It’s just one step at a time in the right direction," notes Axthelm.
