The Heartland is not immune to the country’s current economic tribulations. This was reflected in last year’s bankruptcy filings of such Midwest-based companies as United Airlines in Elk Grove Village, Ill.; Conseco in Carmel, Ind.; and retail giant Kmart in Troy, Mich.
But commercial production and post in the Midwest seems to be holding its own. A number of executives report that 2002—if not a great year—was definitely an improvement over late ’01. Darren Larkins, executive producer at Uppercut Editorial, Minneapolis, notes that the company has remained "fairly busy," and attributes this to the large number of local ad agencies that post work in town, as well as the reputations of the shop’s cutters—David Henegar, Bertram Cambridge and Charley Schwartz.
However, Larkins comments, "I don’t think advertising has gotten a lot better—in terms of generating more work—in the last six months." While most of Uppercut’s work comes from such Minneapolis shops as Carmichael Lynch, Fallon, Campbell Mithun, Olson + Company, BBDO and Colle McVoy, the firm’s ’02 credits also include a six-spot Audi campaign out of McKinney & Silver, Raleigh, N.C.
Larkins reports that Uppercut’s participation in the original round of groundbreaking Web-based shorts in ’01 for BMW out of Fallon (produced by bicoastal Anonymous Content) led to other Web projects. (Henegar cut the theatrical trailer and five teaser TV spots for the shorts, while Cambridge cut Driving Techniques, which appeared on www.bmwfilms.com.) In ’02 Schwartz cut a series of Web-based spots for online stock exchange Archipelago, created via Fallon. Directed by Scott Vincent of bicoastal/international hungry man, the quirky ads feature two Archipelago employees who go on a road trip to search for the perfect signal to open the stock exchange. A new spot is posted on the Web site daily. (Each spot also airs at 7:59 a.m. every day on CNBC.) "Charley [Schwartz] was cutting a different sixty-second spot every day for three months," notes Larkins. Archipelago extended the project through this month, and tapped Cambridge as an additional editor.
Like Uppercut, production house Twist Films, Minneapolis, gets most of its work from local agencies. Executive producer Jim Geib reports that spotwork in ’02 was down for the company, whose directors—Rich Michell, Joe Schaak and Barry Kimm—were joined last year by New Zealand-based director Perry Bradley. "Advertisers are looking at how they spend their money, and looking at lots of ways of distributing their brand message," says Geib.
To that end, Twist launched a longform division five months ago, hiring executive producer Melissa Butts to head it up. The new division will focus on developing documentary, corporate training and in-house marketing projects. "[Right now] we’re working with the Science Museum in Minnesota and targeting the corporate world," says Geib. Credits include Transitions, an educational video series for the Hazelden Clinic, which was co-written by Kimm and Butts, with the former handling directing duties. Distributed to teachers, parents and schools, the videos are designed to help kids make the transition from elementary school to junior high, junior high to high school, high school to college.
Geib predicts that commercial work will continue to pick up in ’03. Twist spot credits include the Schaak-directed "Terminal Tower," "Big Rubber Stamp" and "Playhouse Theater" for the Cleveland Cavaliers via Olson + Company; and the Michell-directed "Life Back" and "I Got Everything" for the Marshfield Clinic via Lindsey, Stone & Briggs, Madison, Wis.
Budget Crunches
Executive producer Greg Pope of production house Two Popes, Minneapolis, reports that work in ’02—measured quantitatively—was good. But the quality of the jobs helmed by his twin brother, company director Jerry Pope, was "great." Those jobs include anti-tobacco ads "Breakup," "Packing" and "Stalking," for the Pennsylvania Dept. of Health via the Neiman Group, Harrisburg, Pa., which feature a woman trying to break her addiction to cigarettes—personified by an obnoxious man in a giant cigarette costume. Another Neiman Group job was "Choices" for Sheetz convenience stores. The ad features two guys who push their out-of-gas car past a few gas stations, until they come to a Sheetz, where they spend all their money on food.
While optimistic about economic recovery, Greg Pope bemoans the current business climate. "It’s so client-driven," says Pope, "and so much harder to make the message enjoyable. Clients are spending less and wanting more. Due to the economy, it’s been A directors going after B work for C budgets. That delights creatives, who want to get better quality directors, but I think there’s something to be said for hiring a guy who’s going to [care] about the project—not just about getting the job."
Owner/director Bob Ebel of Ebel Productions, Chicago, has also noted several negative business trends in the past year: smaller budgets, fewer jobs, more cost consultant-driven budget scrutiny and fixed bids. "The question has become, ‘Do we want to work for less money or sit home and twiddle our thumbs?’ We want to be busy, so we’ve always chosen to cut fees," relates Ebel. "Markups are down to twenty-five percent and sometimes twenty percent, even though the costs of doing a commercial are going up. But we have good relationships with clients, so as long as we can cover our costs and get a good product—we’ll do it."
Ebel relates that the last six months have been slow, but says he believes the economy is on an upswing, noting that he has bookings for the first three months of ’03. "I believe that products will become competitive again [in ’03]," he states. "Television is a tool most big products have to have. To be competitive, you have to do commercials." Ebel’s recent projects include spots for PediaSure, Kohl’s and Aunt Jemima.
For Crossroads Films, which has offices in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, jobs proved to be "sporadic" in ’02 for the overall company. According to Cami Taylor, co-owner/executive producer at the shop, job activity for the company has recently been decidedly busier out of the Midwest than the East Coast. "It’s said that January will foretell what will happen throughout the year," says Taylor, "and we have a very busy January lined up. But I don’t know that I necessarily believe that [prediction]."
Some of the company’s recent credits out of Midwest ad shops include: "Roommates" for Secret out of Leo Burnett USA, Chicago, directed by Chuck Bennett; six spots for the Illinois Lottery via DDB Chicago, also directed by Bennett; "Neighbors" for Kraft via J. Walter Thompson, Chicago, directed by Jeff Gordon; "Truths" for Sears via Young & Rubicam (Y&R), Chicago, directed by Russell Bates; and "Funnel" for Westar Energy via NHK&W, Kansas City, Mo., directed by Nancy Bardawil. (Gordon, Bates and Bardawil are represented by X-Ray Films, a satellite of Crossroads.)
At press time, the Chicago Crossroads office was prepping two jobs that will shoot in Chicago in early January: two Prego spots out of Y&R, New York, and four Forum Credit Union ads out of Caldwell VanRiper/Marc USA, Indianapolis.
Diversified Services
GTN, a post facility in Oak Park, Mich., had an "extraordinarily good" ’02, business-wise, says Steve Tocco, director of marketing at the company. Tocco attributes this in part to the range of GTN’s services, which include duplication and distribution, studio facilities, location and studio production, film transfer, creative editorial, graphics and visual effects, audio post and new media.
Tocco cites GTN’s particular draws as its audio post division, and its visual effects department, GTN Travelling Pictures, which recently added Michael Orlando, a visual effects artist formerly with Industrial Light + Magic, San Rafael, Calif. Travelling Pictures artisans recently worked on "Eagle," for Houston oil company Conoco, created by Campbell-Ewald, Warren, Mich. Travelling Pictures provided visual effects, sound design and editorial. The spot shows a bald eagle snatching a fish from the jaws of a grizzly bear; live-action footage of the fish and eagle was composited with stock footage of the bear.
GTN has remained steadily busy on regional and dealer-based automotive spots, including a sizable amount of work for Dodge out of BBDO Troy, Mich., as well as for Chevrolet via Campbell-Ewald, and Lincoln-Mercury via Y&R Detroit, Dearborn, Mich. "The high-end automotive jobs are very competitive and tend to come and go," Tocco notes.
Steve Wild, president of Farmington Hills, Mich.-based Grace & Wild, notes that the company’s various divisions are doing well; those divisions include: hdstudios (formerly known as Grace & Wild Digital Studios), Griot Editorial, Postique, Film Craft Lab, ÷X, Grace & Wild Interactive Development, Projections, IN GEAR Equipment Rental and Detroit Power & Light. Capabilities include stage rental; studio and remote production; motion picture processing and printing; telecine; visual effects; 2-D/3-D computer graphics; cel animation; editorial and finishing services; duplication; lighting and video equipment rental; new media development, authoring and duplication; and presentation graphics services. In June, Grace & Wild acquired AltiMedia, a company specializing in web-casting and streaming media.
"It’s been a strong postproduction market in our area due to lots of advertising initiatives by automotive companies that are producing zero percent financing and other campaigns," explains Wild. "Initially, at the end of ’01 and early ’02, there was a slowdown, but it began to pick up by summer. In a depressed market, clients put on a lot of sales."
Grace & Wild’s ÷X is regularly tapped to create 3-D CGI images of cars for spots, as it has done for Ford’s ’02 vehicle campaign out of J. Walter Thompson, Detroit. The 3-D imaging "gives clients a lot more latitude to change things on the cars—colors, trim, packages—and re-render the car in different situations and configurations," says Wild.
Grace & Wild services three market sectors: broadcast advertising (which comprises 70 percent of the firm’s business), corporate/government and entertainment. According to Wild, it was the corporate and entertainment projects that fell off post-9/11, and the ones that have rebounded in the last half of ’02. "There’s an ongoing demand for our services that remains strong," says Wild, who predicts this year will finally see the industry’s long-heralded transition to HD. "I expect ’03 will be a stable year of business for us."
Chicago post house Optimus ended last year "a lot better than it started," says Tom Duff, president of the company. He notes that there seems to be more solid jobs, based on his conversations with producers and creatives: "It feels like there’s a pulse again." Optimus does spotwork for Chicago agencies such as DDB, FCB, Element 79 Partners, Y&R and Leo Burnett.
While Optimus installed a Unity server last year, Duff says they are holding off on investing in equipment upgrades. "I think manufacturers are going through a transition of their own, perfecting all-in-one boxes," he relates. "We’re going to take a wait-and-see approach." While equipment is always a factor, Duff believes clients will still give top consideration to expert talent in editorial, graphics, color correction and audio. "The jobs will continue to go where the talent is," Duff says.
Optimus editors Randy Palmer, Katie Wrobel and Katy Maguire all worked on a 13-spot package promoting World Children’s Day sponsored by McDonald’s, via DDB; Craig Lewandowski cut the Gatorade spot, "Bleed," out of Element 79; while Jan Maitland cut a number of spots for the U.S. Army campaign out of Leo Burnett. Editors at Optimus’ Santa Monica office, CO-OP, recently completed work on spots for Nintendo and Juicy Fruit, out of Leo Burnett and BBDO Chicago, respectively.
Tim McGuire, founder/editor at Chicago-based creative editorial house Cutters, also reports a strong last quarter. Some of the shop’s recent efforts include work for Toys ‘R Us and Nintendo Game Boy; Cutters editor Steve Stein is currently working on an animated Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes campaign. While smaller budgets have been a recurring trend that is unlikely to soon change, McGuire opines that the industry will continue to recover from the recession. He also predicts that the creative climate, which has been stymied by conservatism, will improve. "The further 9/11 is behind us, the more opportunity we’ll have to do more adventuresome advertising," he comments.
While most executives express optimism about the year ahead, Greg Pope voices a cautionary note: "I think if 2003 is a lot like 2002, we’ll see companies closing exponentially. People who weathered one year like the last one won’t weather two."
