Jay Friedman, a researcher at HKM Productions, is a member of the Association of Independent Commercial Producers’ new technologies committee, which is chaired by AICP/Minnesota president Kirk Hokanson, executive producer of Voodoo Films.
Friedman heads a subcommittee that’s examining the impact of personal digital video recorders on commercial production, as there is concern that consumers will use TiVO’s and Replay Networks’ recorders to eliminate spots altogether. To combat this prospect, some feel it’s all the more imperative to make commercials entertaining and/or information-valuable to audiences. While he continues to look into ways of addressing the emergence of personal recorders, Friedman is already using the technology in a way that can prove advantageous for the spot community.
Instead of using his Replay Networks’ recorder to bypass commercials, Friedman is zapping the programs. "He’s deployed the recorder in the totally opposite way," said Hokanson of Friedman. "He’s been able to find interesting commercials on the air that can help his company. Rather than being fearful of new technology, he has embraced it—and that, in and of itself, is a lesson for commercial producers."
Hokanson hopes that his committee will enable production houses to take a proactive stance on myriad technologies, including personal recorders, DVD, the Internet, broadband, enhanced television, convergent media and HDTV. He envisions the AICP committee being able to investigate these tools, formulate recommendations and help production companies make decisions about how to approach new technologies.
Right now, Hokanson said, there are often more multifaceted questions than simple answers, citing DVD as an example. Describing fl-inch videotape as "an antiquated, dumb format which has agencies receiving thousands of tapes from all over the country," Hokanson said that while it’s easy for ad shops to convert to DVD, it’s a more daunting proposition for production houses.
"So much of what we do are customized reels for particular projects," related Hokanson. "How can we make customization cost-effective with raw disks being $40? Burners right now are $5,000. It’s unlikely we could find a glass-mastering approach [that’s] feasible from a cost perspective. What happens when a director switches companies, or has just wrapped some great new work? Initially, I suspect there might be company reels on DVD, which will be followed up with new work on three-quarter inch. Or some companies might go with an authoring program and a burner to cut specific DVDs for projects."
Hokanson said there are also DVD service companies "that house all your materials … But think about the requests we frequently get from agencies. They’ll call at 4:30 [p.m.] on Friday and need a reel containing all our spots with dogs on Monday morning. Can [DVD] companies follow through on those kind of agency requests, and at what cost?" Another consideration, he continued, is that DVD is not compatible with HDTV. "As we make that transition [to HDTV], we’ll be looking at yet another new format."
Meanwhile, Hokanson plans to hold a daylong series of AICP/Minnesota seminars on HDTV, perhaps as soon as next month. The program will be a detailed follow-up to last year’s session, and will delve into what he described as "a big-picture update" as well as origination and postproduction issues. "Education is key," Hokanson said. "It’s what we need to provide our [AICP] members with so they can best deal with new media and technologies."
