So many details in “Bidding Now and Then” by co-EP Michael Romersa of Passport Films in the Nov. 2010 SHOOT correspond to my experiences as an EP in the Hispanic market. However, many did not.
Formerly, production companies and their directors were synonymous. Today, you have to be a magician to keep track of what company represents which director, especially in the U.S. Hispanic market.
In the Hispanic market the EP doesn’t necessarily call the agency producer but rather the sales rep gets the boards. Together they decide who of their directors is suitable for the job. These days, it’s infrequent that the agencies ask an EP for an opinion.
When the boards arrive and the availability of the director is checked, it’s inevitable there’s attached an unreasonable preliminary deadline. The conference call is thrust upon the creative team; the director, his EP and producers in order to maximize the initial conversation, turn it into numbers and the most important thing, a visualization of how the director will shoot the spot or campaign, to describe what Romersa calls “what is between the lines of the script”.
Unlike any creative process where talented people need to take time to read the details of a project, digest, research and make creative decisions, this process sometimes is asked to be done in the next 24 hours– Yes, 24 hours!
Busy directors will hire “thinkers,” “researchers,” “writers” or their favorite AD, someone familiar with them creatively, in order to meet the deadline.
Also, most likely there will be three or four other production companies bidding and doing the same. “On your mark, get set, go,” the race is on– It doesn’t matter how complicated the camera movements, nor the multiple layers for the VFX, nor the viability or accessibility of locations, the director and his team become a group of gymnasts while turning the ideas to be presented to the client into something logistically and financially feasible. Oh, did I forget the special casting from Mexico, Buenos Aires or L.A.? …and bidding overseas because there is normally not much money ?
It’s the speed that’s homicidal for the concept, in my opinion.
We all work under pressure. In the bidding process however, to come up with new original ideas with a daunting deadline works against the complex composition that is to be a TV spot production. Could that be one reason that talented directors in the U.S. Hispanic market end up with jobs that are never going on their reels?
The client’s marketing team probably doesn’t realize the process is like this– or maybe they do and don’t care. When I read from Romersa, “a couple of days later the same folks gather for another phone call–” I thought, “If we only had that luxury in the U.S. Hispanic Market.”
And have you ever had an agency throw out a job for bidding, where the client has not approved the boards, in order to learn how much it will cost to produce? The whole process turns out to be just a dog and pony show when the phone call comes that, “The client didn’t approve the creative.” As far as the “thanks for your efforts,” that’s something you hardly ever hear.
We’ve got to love what we do.
Leda Barham is executive producer at CineConcepto America, Miami.
See Michael Romersa’s column, Bidding Now and Then
