Says ITS-Sponsored Industry Financial Profile.
Commercial advertising represents the highest percentage of overall revenue for the average teleproduction/ post facility. That’s one of the prime findings of the annual Industry Financial Profile sponsored by the Association of Imaging Technology and Sound (ITS), headquartered in Vienna.
Compiled by the accounting firm of Aronson, Fetridge and Weigle in Rockville, Md., the Industry Financial Profile is based on ’98 data provided by 65 of the 280 North American facility members of the ITS. According to the 65 respondents, the spot business generates 25 percent of total annual revenues on average. This is followed closely by broadcast television at 21 percent. Next are corporate postproduction and cable television, with 18 and 11 percent, respectively.
Respondents also collectively reported that on average they derive nearly half of their annual revenue from online editing (analog and digital), graphics/ animation and duplication. Other tidbits of info from the study included:
•The average facility staff size is 61, including 52 full-time and nine part-time employees.
•Respondents estimate that the amount they spend on fixed assets this year have increased as compared to ’98.
•Most respondents are organized as corporations: 53 percent are S-Corporations; 35 percent are C-Corporations; seven percent are publicly held C-Corporations; three percent are partnerships; and two percent are Limited Liability Corporations.
•And in terms of physical size, respondents are on average using 19,935 square feet for their headquarters and 13,931 square feet for their remote locations.
"The data, collected nationally, regionally and by revenue size in North America, is a useful tool in helping production and postproduction firms deal with a variety of vendors and banks," said ITS president Terry Rainey. "Most importantly, it provides an industry benchmark with which a company can compare its financial picture with that of the industry at large and to firms of similar size and geographic location. The survey can also be used to help a company assess its strengths and opportunities for improvement."
This is the 13th year of the Industry Financial Profile. Respondent facilities receive a copy of the full report at no charge. ITS member companies that did not participate can purchase a copy of the report for $500; non-members may obtain a copy for $1,000.
Edward Berger Envisioned “Conclave” As A Political Thriller–With A Spiritual Dimension
Robert Harris had just completed a trilogy of novels about Cicero when he watched the election of Pope Benedict live on television. As a chronicler of power and its mutations, the scene — the Sistine Chapel smoke signaling a decision, of course, but also the whole, secretive tableaux — fascinated him.
"Just before the pope comes out onto the balcony and reveals himself, the windows on either side fill up with the faces of the cardinal electors who had come to watch him," Harris says. "And the camera pans along the faces — elderly, crafty, cunning, some benign, beatific. And I thought: My god, that's the Roman senate. That's the old men running the whole institution. I thought: There must be stories here."
That stoked Harris to write "Conclave," a 2016 novel that went inside the Vatican to imagine how "the ultimate election," as he calls it — with the added intrigue that the contenders must pretend they don't want to win — might unfold.
As page-turning as Harris made his novel, it might not have seemed the stuff of Hollywood. A bunch of old men in robes sitting inside and picking a pontiff is not your average elevator pitch. But director Edward Berger's adaptation, starring Ralph Fiennes as the cardinal leading the conclave, manages to be that rare thing in today's movie industry: a riveting, thoughtful, adult-oriented drama acted out through dialogue by a sterling ensemble.
"Yeah, we used to have 'em. A lot. We don't really have 'em anymore," says Stanley Tucci, who co-stars as Cardinal Bellini. "You have people who have been doing this for a long time, so it's a very mature film. If you take all of our ages and add them up, well, I don't want to know what the number is."
"Conclave," which Focus Features releases in... Read More