Being by someone else’s phone at the right time was the improbable entree into spot production for Chuck Sloan. He was visiting a friend, prop master Anthony Mazzola, at production house Cascade in Los Angeles.
A phone call came in from commercial house Wakeford/Orloff, asking Mazzola if he’d be interested in a prop master’s gig there. He put the call on hold and asked Sloan if he was in the market for a job.
Sloan–who developed a thermoplastic surf board, and had gone into business with actor Steve McQueen to manufacture the board only to see that venture fall by the wayside–was unemployed at the time but was a bit reluctant to say yes in that he didn’t know the first thing about being a prop master.
An hour later Sloan was in Wakeford/Orloff’s offices, taking down notes during a two-hour meeting.
Within months, Sloan moved up to line producer and then went to New York to open up Wakeford/Orloff’s East Coast office. He spent about five years at Wakeford/Orloff before going off to do a feature. He returned to the spot biz at The Film Consortium in Los Angeles, again involved in major ad campaigns.
About a year after exiting The Film Consortium, Sloan went entrepreneurial and launched Plum Productions with director/cinematographer Eric Saarinen.
Now after 26 years, Plum is winding down operations and has spawned a new shop, Wild Plum (SHOOT, 10/12). The original Plum could have gone on turning a profit but Sloan wanted to focus on documentaries and public service work.
SHOOT caught up with Sloan and asked him to reflect on the commercialmaking business, including the changes he’s seen during his long industry tenure.
SHOOT: Your partnership with Eric was long and successful. How did you meet him?
Sloan: Eric came to me when I was at Wakeford/Orloff. He was an experimental DP. I liked him but there wasn’t the opportunity for us to work together at the time. A few years later, though, I was doing a Coca-Cola job for The Film Consortium. We needed a DP and I thought of Eric for that particular job.
A few more years passed and I was in-between companies when Eric called me and told me someone wanted him to direct a commercial for the Arizona Lottery out of a small agency in San Diego. We worked with a great creative team, art director Duncan Milner and writer Hal Maynard. Duncan is now a creative head of Apple at TBWAChiatDay. Hal is a successful freelance writer/director.
The Arizona Lottery job went well and those creative guys later went to Phillips Ramsey, another San Diego agency. They had a San Diego Zoo campaign and came again to Eric and me–and by that time we had set up Plum in a small office in Los Angeles. We later moved Plum to a nearby house and 19 years ago came out to Santa Monica–there was only one other production house out there at that time. Now most of the industry is in Santa Monica.
During our 26 years together at Plum, Eric has been a terrific partner. We enjoyed a great run.
SHOOT: Beyond the geography relative to Santa Monica, what are the prime changes in the industry that stand out in your mind’s eye?
Sloan: The 1960s and ’70s were fun. Clients weren’t as involved in production. Forty percent was the average markup then, the business ran by the seat of its pants. Bean counters were pretty much in the background.
In recent years and today, the bean counters have taken over. People found new careers in cost consulting. And they’ve solved a lot of problems for clients here and there. But often their lack of knowledge about filmmaking has created a lot of problems. It’s been a mixed bag at best.
It will be interesting to see how consultants deal with the influx of new media when they have no knowledge of the Internet or other emerging outlets.
Another big difference is in the numbers. When I broke into the business there were about 2,500 directors, pretty much all from the United States.There were only four or five legitimate film schools.
Now there are over 130 schools turning out a multitude of directors well versed in current technology. I would guess there are at least 12,000 directors out there flooding the market. Even with the huge increase in directors, there are still just a finite number who consistently work in this business. And of the top 20 or so directors working today in commercials, more than half are from foreign countries.
Meanwhile profit margins are shrinking. Companies find themselves spending a ridiculous amount of money on job presentations due to the competitive climate. You can easily spend $5,000 for a presentation, competitively bid and lose.
I think the survivors in the production company community will be either those houses that are large–with strong director rosters that can support the overhead–or on the flip side, the smaller entrepreneurial, low overhead shops. There’s still a squeeze on the business, though. Top directors used to just take the creme of the work. Now they’re taking work they wouldn’t have five years ago. And that work has the directors below them scrambling.
SHOOT: What about the prospects for new media?
Sloan: There are some exciting possibilities–including having equity in content instead of always being in a work-for-hire situation but all that hasn’t sorted itself out yet. It may take a few years. But I don’t think commercials are going away. Advertising will change but commercials won’t disappear. And no matter what form the content takes, you always need to find and develop good talent.
SHOOT: Who were your mentors?
Sloan: Frank Tuttle was a great executive, a man of personal and professional integrity, and he taught me so much at Wakeford/Orloff, as did director John Orloff. They would be my two prime mentors.
(In ’94 Tuttle received the Jay B. Eisenstat Award posthumously, just several months after his death. The AICP Eisenstat honor is bestowed for outstanding contributions and service to the commercial production industry. Tuttle was the second national president in the AICP’s history, serving from ’80 to ’81. During his presidency, he was with the venerable Wakeford/Orloff, which is generally credited as being the first Los Angeles-based independent firm to make the jump from boutique company to giant bicoastal operation. Tuttle went on to become a principal in The Film Tree and served as a mentor to many in the business.)
I wonder if people today even know who paved the way for them in this industry. How many people reading this article today ever heard of Howard Zieff? I recently talked to Joe Pytka about this and we thought that Howard was the best director in our industry. In my mind, Joe’s right behind him.
SHOOT: What are your future plans?
Sloan: I want to give back more, and plan to focus on public service work spanning environmental issues and stem cell research.
I also intend to produce documentaries for cable TV. It’s a growing industry. I’m looking to do upbeat, positive documentaries, Discovery Channel kind of stuff. I don’t plan on retiring.
