The most significant global economic turndown in most of our lifetimes has taken its toll everywhere, and the Northern California marketplace has hardly been immune from major, far-reaching repercusssions.
Indeed there has been attrition in the Bay Area, among the notable examples being the closure of visual effects house The Orphanage, which had been at one time a success story spanning VFX in features and commercials. And Radium, a mainstay digital studio, which opened in San Francisco some 13 and a half years ago, has shuttered. (Although the Reel FX/Radium facilities in Santa Monica and Dallas have recently expanded–see SHOOT, 4/3/09.)
Radium co-founders Jonathan Keeton and Simon Mowbray have opted to remain in the Bay Area and not head to Southern California to continue as full-time Radium artisans. Keeton said that he and Mowbray will likely stay together and form another venture, at least part of which will be situated in Northern California.
Keeton remains a firm believer in the Bay Area. “Up until the economy in the country and globally went into a nosedive, the San Francisco market was incredibly healthy, as healthy as ever. As the rest of the country and the world recovers, the Bay Area will recover as quickly or perhaps even quicker than the rest of the world does. The economic downturn that San Franciso is experiencing has noting to do with the caliber of the people or the studios here.”
Keeton went on to observe that Bay Area artists have always been pioneering, talented and not afraid to take uncoventional routes that prove to be paths to new business opportunities.
Silicon Valley, digital advertising agencies and the like are testament to that entrepreneurial spirit.
And even in the midst of a tattered economy, there is evidence of some positive movement in the Bay Area, as reflected in several news stories contained in this issue of SHOOT, including the recent association entered into between live-action/mixed media production house Hoytyboy Pictures and animation studio Little Fluffy Clouds, the recent addition of director Sam Ciaramitaro, an ad agency vet, to kaboom, a commercial production house with offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and S.F.-based Phoenix Editorial‘s decision to launch sister motion design/integrated media shop Bonfire.
Phoenix is extending its reach via Bonfire because of what it views as a dramatic upswing in direct to client and motion design work from its stable of Bay Area clients. While Phoenix’s core business of commercial editing is still going strong, the company knows that in order to thrive in the current commercial production climate, it needed to diversify its offerings. Phoenix had always done motion graphic design, but the company will be putting more emphasis on offering soup-to-nuts capabilities.
And while the San Francisco ad agency market remains as nimble and creative as ever–as underscored by the achievements of such shops as AKQA and Goodby, Silverstein & Partners (which was named our Agency of the Year at the end of 2008–SHOOT, 12/5/08)–lesser known shops are also adapting. For example, agencies Grant, Scott & Hurley and BuderEngel recently merged to form Engine Company, San Francisco, the rationale being that these two well regarded smaller creative shops can be better positioned by pooling talent and resources. The combined billings amount to nearly $20 million with a client list that includes California Pizza Kitchen, Rubio’s Fresh Mexican Grill, Catholic Healthcare West, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Bare Escentuals and the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers.
Furthermore, despite short-term pain, there are those looking to long-term gain, including helping to groom young talent. A case in point is a partnership between digital agency R/GA and Miami Ad School (MAS) to launch the school’s first digital Greenhouse training program at the R/GA San Francisco office. This program, which allows students to spend extended time within R/GA’s walls, provides students with real-world, hands-on training in digital advertising. Up to now, only traditional agencies have hosted the MAS Greenhouse.
“We asked R/GA to partner with us on the Greenhouse program so students could experience what it’s like to work in one of the most awarded interactive shops in the world,” said Pippa Seichrist, president and co-founder, MAS. “R/GA has been creating groundbreaking brand experiences for its clients since before our students were even born.”
A number of final-year students from creative and technology backgrounds are being invited to San Francisco each quarter throughout 2009 to spend 10 weeks at R/GA’s office. Students work closely in weekly classes with Mauro Cavalletti, executive creative director, Peter Cole, technical director, and Ryan Denning, managing director, to learn the inner workings of the digital advertising industry.
Students also have the opportunity to enhance their portfolios by working on projects related to new-business pitches and client campaigns. Work created in the program will be entered in D&AD and One Show student competitions. In addition, all three R/GA offices in San Francisco, New York, and London will present regular seminars, either in person or through video conferencing, to give students greater insight into R/GA’s collaborative creative process.
“In today’s world, it’s imperative that students have a strong understanding of how digital technology helps build brands–from the strategic and creative campaign-development process to the delivery of brand platforms. We are very excited to begin this unique relationship with the Miami Ad School and look forward to setting the benchmark for future digital programs, evolving them into solid programs that prime students with practical digital experience to jumpstart their careers,” said Cavalletti.
The MAS Greenhouse program has been established in major design-centric cities around the world, including Stockholm, Amsterdam, London, and Paris. R/GA San Francisco, which opened in May 2008, will host the students in its new 16,000-square-foot office space in the trendy South of Market district. As the sole host agency for San Francisco, R/GA aims to not only equip students with knowledge to succeed in the digital industry, but also provide an enjoyable West-Coast experience.
Feedback SHOOT sought feedback from a cross-section of artisans/execs in the Bay Area as well as film commissioners.
Of the latter, we posed the following two-part question:
As part of California’s economic stimulus program, the state is slated to have a financial incentives package for filming up and running in July. How will this impact the production scene in Northern California? And does the exclusion of commercials from this incentives program concern you, particularly when other states have incentives in place for spotmaking?
As for those in the production community, the multi-pronged query we posed was: What is the state of the business and infrastructure in the Bay Area? How has the economy impacted advertising industry-related work in Northern California? And how is your company adapting to the situation? Please also provide a very brief overview of the ad industry work your company has been involved in most recently (you can cite significant projects): National TV campaigns, regional spots, broadband video/mobile content, sponsored web films, etc. If the nature of the advertising business you’ve attracted has changed over the past year or two, please describe that change (from traditional spotmaking to new forms of content, more national work, projects from agencies outside the Bay area, client-direct opportunities?).
Here’s a sampling of the feedback we received:
Stefanie Coyote, executive director, San Francisco Film CommissionBecause it is an incentive at the state level, I have to assume the intention is to create jobs throughout the state, not just Los Angeles. San Francisco has suffered tremendously as a result of incentives offered in other jurisdictions causing state runaway production (some may consider productions that come to S.F. as runaway production). The state’s incentive should enable more productions to shoot in San Francisco, if they qualify for the program. Personally, I would like to see the program expanded for jurisdictions in the state beyond LA so we keep more production and production jobs in the state. That may be by including all television productions regardless of who is producing or where it will be broadcast, all films regardless of budget, commercials, or increase the amount of the incentives to cover “on-location” consideration, but overall we are ecstatic that an incentive has finally been created and hopeful that we will benefit with increased production.
Mark Decena, director/writer/founder, Kontent Films, San Francisco
I’ve been joking with my crew here at Kontent that we’re barely noticing the recession since we’ve been operating on smaller budgets since our inception. Mostly it has to do with our indie film mentality and background, that we’ve figured out how to efficiently tell our own stories with high production values and minimal budgets. That translates well, especially to brand films for the web. It allows us to use our strength as filmmakers to take things from production all the way through post, which is something that technology has allowed us to do budget-wise, but it’s also our preference. We’re platform and duration agnostic. Our work has mostly been web-based, from a Red Bull sponsored feature to a Hewlett Packard web series. What we’re finding in this economy is that what were previously seen as meager budgeted, ugly second cousin jobs to the bigger production houses, the competition for them has heated up. Not to mention, many of the agencies are starting their own in-house production and editorial arms, and editorial houses are doing production and creative. It’s a crazy wild west time. I’d like to think it’s not just economically driven, but also an awakening to the new paradigms of filmmaking.
Jon Ettinger, managing director, FilmCore (San Francisco, Santa Monica, New York, Chicago)
The Bay Area has always been a community where the quantity and quality of work ebbs and flows. We are currently in a boom cycle for quantity but the overall quality of work has declined. This appears to be a result of slashed budgets and compressed timelines. The challenge for the post community is to devise work flows that address the ever changing needs of our clients. More and more post companies are offering additional services such as production and web design. It will be interesting to see if these prove to be financially viable. Here at FilmCore SF we have worked on projects ranging form small streaming spots for Microsoft out of McCann to conventional broadcast work for Audi out of Venables Bell & Partners.
Amy Lemisch, director, California Film Commission
On February 20, 2009, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation creating tax credits for film and television productions as part of an economic stimulus provision in the new state budget. This legislation passed in response to the increased levels of competition for California’s film and television productions as many countries, and now over 40 states, offer lucrative financial incentives to lure these productions out of state.
If my phone (which has not stopped ringing) gives us any indication, California’s new incentive program will indeed be successful in bringing back jobs. I have already been contacted by countless producers actively budgeting features and series–for other states–who have stopped in their tracks to reconsider California as their primary production base. The tax credits will make it easier for any of these productions choose locations outside of Los Angeles.
Granted, this new program is limited to feature films with budgets between $1 million and $75 million, MOWs, TV series for Basic cable, and TV series that relocate to California from out of state – and excludes commercial productions. However, given the long hard fought battles in trying to get any incentive legislation passed, this has to be considered a great first step towards making California competitive once again.
Stacy Nimmo, principal/creative director, Gunshop, San Francisco
It’s a time for diversity, with growing demand for production houses that design, shoot and post jobs under one roof. For us it’s working out well, because we’ve been doing that with broadcast networks for over a decade.
Infrastructure is improving with agencies keeping work close and developing in-house capacity. This is making for a larger, more experienced local talent pool with a greater understating of production and ability to leverage the work across media platforms. In a recent project with Goodby Silverstein & Partners for example, we helped build and repurpose assets across broadcast, interactive and environmental platforms.
Most recently we’ve been keeping busy with a broadcast project for MTV, online projects for Verizon and American Airlines through McCann Worldgroup, and an eight-screen installation for Sprint/NASCAR with Goodby.
Last year interactive work eclipsed broadcast and the trend is continuing this year. As clients co-op creative and share expenses, multilayer partnerships seem to be more common, requiring equal parts planning and flexibility for navigating layers of approval. We’re also seeing agencies pooling resources under larger organizational umbrellas. On a recent website project, we worked with two different Interpublic Group agencies in different states, and it actually worked out beautifully.
Lauren Schwartz, owner/executive producer, kaboom productions, San Francisco and Los Angeles
Although our main office resides in S.F., our head of production and several directors are based out of L.A., so we do not necessarily rely exclusively on the Bay Area for our production needs. We tend to shoot all over the country and around the world. That said, the state of the Bay Area’s business is quite mixed now. Having Radium close its S.F. operation and The Orphanage shut down was a big blow to the overall industry here. The economy is not strong; there is no doubt about that. But we have always been a place that has looked for more efficient ways to run our jobs and provide high quality production to clients in the most effective manner, so I believe that companies like ours will, in fact, thrive in current economic conditions.”
Peter Sorcher, creative director, Sorcher Films, San Francisco and Mill Valley, Calif.
I think the economy has impacted the ad world in the Bay Area in a somewhat unique way relative to other industries. It’s not across the board. There are some companies who are busy. Some production/post houses must not have been too healthy going into this economic cluster and went out of business almost immediately- possibly just cutting their projected losses. We’ve been busy but definitely feeling the pinch with our corporate clients.
Thankfully, we’re a contained operation and keeping things incredibly streamlined has served us well; we can expand and contract with freelancers as business dictates. We’re also involved in longer format projects so that’s kept us busy. (We have a documentary coming out called Eat The Sun about people who stare directly into the sun–some claiming to get all of their energy from ‘sungazing’ and have no desire or need to eat anymore. Eat The Sun just got into the Seattle True Independent Film Festival and we’re waiting to hear back from some more festivals.)
As small a community as it is in the Bay Area, I know there’s plenty of folks who don’t know we’re here. We’ve had the luxury of servicing a small but loyal client base but it’s time to get the word out.
We’re just wrapping two national TV campaigns; one for Globalstar that spotlights Les Stroud, from the show Survivorman. (One spot showcases action adventure sports and the other is comedy/dialogue). The other campaign is a lifestyle spot for Accuray; they make a non-invasive surgical device.
We’re gearing up to shoot a four-spot PSA package for a water company that’s going to be a regional TV anti-litter campaign.
