In many ways the changing landscape of the advertising industry is reflected in the San Francisco Bay Area, long a safe harbor for innovation, new media, entrepreneurial creative, varied inventive business models and generally thinking that’s way outside the box.
And indeed while traditional commercialmaking remains an integral component of the business mix, increased web content and other fare–short and long form–are making their mark in the Northern California production and post communities. Furthermore, visual effects and animation continue as mainstays of the Bay Area infrastructure.
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At the same time, as assorted states and for that matter countries have upped the filming incentives ante, California has struggled to get any such initiative off the ground, translating into lost business. The lack of a tax credit or rebate incentives program of some sort for commercials and advertising sector-related content in California is cause for concern as born out in feedback SHOOT received from production and post executives and artisans in the Bay Area–as well as from the executive directors of both the California Film Commission and the San Francisco Film Commission.
And with the much publicized budget shortfall in California, the chance of finding funds for the establishment of an anti-runaway production/filming stimulus program is remote.
Nonetheless, there is optimism in the Bay Area over prospects for the future generally relative to new opportunities and platforms emerging for content creation. New business models are starting to take shape. And Northern California is poised to capitalize on a changing marketplace.
To get a handle on the Bay Area in terms of business, infrastructure, filming activity and issues of concern, SHOOT sought insights from an industry cross-section of professionals. They responded to a three-pronged survey, consisting of the following questions:
Part 1: Assess the state of the filmmaking infrastructure in the Bay Area. You can tackle a single area (production, postproduction, visual effects, animation, stages, equipment) or multiple categories.
Part 2: Provide a brief overview of the advertising industry-related 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. And has the nature of the advertising business you’ve attracted changed over the past year or two? And if so, please describe that change (e.g., from traditional spotmaking to new forms of content; more national work; projects from agencies outside the Bay Area, more client-direct opportunities, etc.)
And Part 3: Has the San Francisco Bay Area been adversely impacted by the absence of a filming incentives program for commercials? Do you think California’s lack of a rebate or tax credit initiative–or even the elimination of the Film California First program–has put the state and you at a competitive disadvantage in that many other states and countries have upped the incentives ante?
SHOOT received feedback from different sectors of the industry, shedding light on the nature of the business being drawn to Northern California. Many shops have had to adapt. And for those who have adapted intelligently, their business has indeed diversified in a manner that bodes well for the future.
The following pages contain a sampling of people’s takes on the state of the industry in the Bay Area. They provide a barometer of the biz while serving as interesting food for thought and ongoing discussion:
Amy Capen, head of commercials, W!LDBRAIN, San Francisco. 1) The Bay Area is a hub for animation and new media production, and there are a number of companies in the Bay Area that focus in these areas. W!LDBRAIN creates content for traditional delivery platforms such as television and film, but also for non-traditional platforms such as mobile devices and the web. We see a lot of repeat business because of our creative talent pool and the diversity of our work in these mediums.
2) The nature of the advertising business has changed the most in the diversity of media platforms that we are producing for, and that has presented some unique and exciting opportunities for us. W!LDBRAIN’s campaign for Esurance is a successful and ubiquitous campaign. Erin Esurance can be seen and heard everywhere including TV, radio, off-line and on-line. She’s definitely reached pop icon status. Our safety video for Virgin America gave us a unique opportunity to put a humorous and creative twist on a typically mundane message, and the video is met with applause by passengers from coast to coast.
Stefanie Coyote, executive director, San Francisco Film Commission 1) Over the last decade, the film production infrastructure in the Bay Area has shifted from support for on-location production over to post and visual effects. The digital sector of the film business has expanded and the Bay Area is known for its growth and innovation, while the on-location production sector has declined. There are numerous stages and equipment that support the new digital sector, but no fully dedicated, state-of-the-art soundstages for film production.
2) On-location commercial production in San Francisco has been fairly consistent over the last 5 years and there has been a consistent increase in web shorts, mobile content, gaming and other new platform productions.
It is likely that the increase is substantially greater but the film office can only account for productions that require permits which is only if filming on-location on City property or requesting on-street parking.
3) The lack of a rebate or tax incentive program in the State of California has definitely adversely impacted film production in the Bay Area in the feature and television production sectors. A recent study showed that film production has declined approximately 80 percent from the mid-1990s and that over half the number of production jobs were lost between 2000 and 2006.
Jon Ettinger,managing director, FilmCore (San Francisco, Santa Monica, New York)
1) Ever since 1849, San Francisco has always been boom or bust. This is the first year that I have seen in our industry where both boom AND bust are happening concurrently. The bust side of the equation involves traditional :30 spots and the boom involves “new media” and the proliferation of “content”. The overall effect is that everyone is working harder than ever to produce more stuff than ever. Developing a workflow to accommodate the myriad production formats has become the overriding issue of the day. Once again S.F. is the canary in the coal mine for our industry.
2) We continue to work with most agencies in S.F., including: DDB (Clorox, McDonalds), Venables Bell & Partners (Audi), Heat (EA) and Goodby, Silverstein & Partners (Comcast). As mentioned above, we are working on much more web-based fare. The idea that an Agency would only seek to deliver a simple :30 spot is now quaint. Every project needs to be the equivalent of a smart bomb…hitting every delivery channel and working really hard to deliver.
Clint Goldman, executive producer/owner, Hoytyboy Pictures, SF Bay Area 1) The TV commercial production business is quite honestly a bit sparse in Northern California. You are more likely to find a local fire. We work a bit here in town but most of our work comes from further away. There’s a tremendous number of talented technicians and artists here but, for the most part, I believe, they are a bit underused. The exception to this is the vast animation and visual effects disciplines that largely stay busy with work from Los Angeles and afar.
So, the local agency ‘production’ work goes out of town, for the most part, and the feature Animation and Visual FX work from out of town comes to town (much longer story). But we’ve been doing production here since the ’80s and still going strong
2) Right now we have been working considerably with Moscow agencies: BBDO and McCann, primarily. We are currently involved in a multi-year, multi-spot campaign with McCann, Moscow, for Dirol, a very popular gum there owned by Cadbury. Also, in the past year, we have done four projects for BBDO, Moscow. Juicy Fruit, and Bee-Line (similar to AT&T).
We are also continuing into year three of our live action/animated work for Montana’s Restaurants, BBDO, Toronto. We just finished our seventh spot and have also contributed to their website, etc. Director Steve “Spaz” Williams is also finishing a complex spot at the moment for Trix out of Saatchi New York that involves live action, and both cel and computer animation; he has also done four separate AT&T projects for the Bravo Group, Miami, as well as Mirinda for BBDO, Dubai. Also, recently finished Diet Dr Pepper for Y&R, S.F.
Director Richard Kizu-Blair just finished work for Toyota, 22 Squared, Atlanta and did a large Chrysler project for BBDO, Detroit.
Director John K is currently swamped creating a multi-episode animated webisodic for Pontiac Vibe feature his George Liquor character–working with Leo Burnett, Detroit. Rob Schneider’s directorial debut, Big Stan, was just released internationally and doing great business overseas while the U.S. premiere is imminent.
We are about to announce the signing of a very strong live action director/cameraman to complement our current roster. Our work, for the most part, is similar to what we have done over the past few years and we are looking at different new media possibilities constantly.. More of our business seems to be coming from overseas due to the devaluation of the dollar and ease of working over the Internet.
3) Absolutely. The same can be said for the State of California.
Every client we speak to is always looking to do things for less and always looking for ways to have us make that happen. So, it has definitely put the state and the local workers at a disadvantage. We, like many of the big local agencies, just pick up our bags and fly abroad (which most seem to enjoy) to avoid the extra costs that are involved in working here: Residual payments, primarily, but also the cost of production here which includes benefits and overtime issues, additional costs for general labor and materials, etc.
Eric Hanson, CEO, Spy Post, San Francisco 1) The San Francisco Bay Area continues to be a global leader in visual effects with companies like ILM and Pixar and the talent to support them. The region also boasts a thriving independent film community. With both of these influences, Spy Post has built an excellent technical and creative team providing film transfer, color correction, creative editorial, animation, and visual effects services for leading ad agencies, filmmakers, and visual effects houses. We’ve also embraced an end-to-end digital intermediate workflow for several projects. Because of our high-tech heritage, these jobs have been very successful, whether visual effects for features, editorial and color grade for national spots, 4K RED acquisition for HD delivery, or independent film conforms.
2) From our discussions with leading production companies in California, 50 percent of commercial work derives from San Francisco, so we’re fortunate to work with some amazing creatives. So far this year, we’ve worked on a range of high-profile international and national campaigns: a viral Tostitos campaign for Mekanism, theatrically released six-spot Lexus campaign for ATTIK, several campaigns for Jeep through Cutwater, and a client-direct international broadcast campaign for Specialized Bike. We usually leverage the concept of a HD Universal Master, where the delivery may be on the web, broadcast, or cinematic.
3) There’s no question that the entire California production industry is impacted by a lack of filming incentives, the Bay Area included. Its been unfortunate that other countries have offered incentives for both production and postproduction, now other states are doing the same, while California does little. Commercials are still being shot in California, but the budgets are coming down as more experimentation is done with the web and mobile platforms. As a creative boutique, Spy Post has established a deep technical infrastructure to ensure its creative artists deliver a high caliber of work, on every project, regardless of production location or delivery format.
Jason Harris, president/executive producer, Mekanism, San Francisco
1) Fortunately, the Bay Area is a key hub of innovation. Therefore we are surrounded by the top companies making strides in animation, visual design and engineering. While traditional live action is still predominately ruled by L.A. and NYC, the Bay is still the heartbeat of the new. So in terms of emerging storytelling, it is healthy and vibrant.
2) It is such a great time in the industry where clients are asking for the next new thing. And because of this need, companies are figuring out how to build the ideas. It seems collaboration is more and more prevalent than ever.
Some recent Mekanism projects:
Surfwise (www.surfwisefilm.com)
In partnership with Mark Cuban’s HDNet Films and Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, Mekanism produced the documentary feature film, Surfwise: The Amazing True Odyssey of the Paskowitz Family, chronicling the extraordinary life of Dr. Dorian Paskowitz, a Stanford-educated physician who decided to take the road less traveled, surf everyday around the world, and bring his family of nine children with him. Directed by Doug Pray (of Oil Factory, Los Angeles; his credits include Hype, Scratch, Infamy), the film is currently in Landmark Theatres and on-demand across the county
Slim Jim (www.spicyside.com)
Mekanism worked with Venables Bell to create a fully interactive, multimedia gaming, and social networking website for Slim Jim, encouraging users to get in touch with their Spicy Side. The site allows user-based personalized avatars to play, rumble, chat, and become buddies within this imaginative world of spiciness.
Tostitos (www.nolaf.org)
The full-screen video site showcases the fictional organization NOLAF (National Organization for Legislation Against Fun) and their on-going crusade against all things fun, especially Tostitos. The shorts include Q&A sessions with seven hopeful NOLAF members, meetings, and demonstrations that reveal how and why to fight fun. Element 79 partnered with Mekanism to develop the concept, site and content syndication strategy. The Mekanism syndication program worked well, with well over 3 million views on Youtube alone.
Jonathan Hinman, executive producer, Phoenix Editorial and Designs, San Francisco
1) While Southern California enjoys the volume and market stability stemming from the giant feature film and television markets, Northern California’s strong ad agency industry combined with filmmaking visual effects pioneers like George Lucas, Pixar, Pacific Data Images and Colossal Pictures helped establish and grow a booming, state-of-the-art post production infrastructure in the Bay Area. Throw in San Francisco’s independent filmmakers and the substantial, cross-platform media needs of Silicon Valley, and you have a healthy, diverse “creative content” producing industry up here.
2) While Phoenix has historically provided creative editing and visual effects expertise, motion graphics and HD finishing to ad agencies, we are now providing overall creative direction to a growing number of non-agency clients. A substantial amount of our most creative and technically challenging work today is developing original content directly for clients’ marketing departments. The content is often used across platforms, such as product launch events, websites, mobile devices, point-of-purchase, and broadcast spots. Our challenge has been to create content that is engaging to consumers across these various media. Recently Phoenix has supported major product launches for Apple, Microsoft and Adobe by producing creative content for cross-platform use. In addition, the company has cut broadcast spots for Audi, EA Games, HBO, Sega, and the Flex Your Power Campaign.
Jonathan Keeton, head of creative production, Radium, San Francisco, Santa Monica, Dallas
1) Locality isn’t much of a determinant for the best VFX and design work, but rather who’s best for it. Our work comes from all over the country, as always. It helps enormously having studios in Santa Monica and Dallas and we partner with artists from all three studios often; we’re frequently approached in Santa Monica to work on projects that originated in S.F. Most of our artists and producers in San Francisco are full time, whereas in Los Angeles we complement our core team of seniors with a deep pool of freelancers, staffing up or down to an extreme degree depending upon the projects and skills required.
Bottom line, I’m not sure we could succeed in S.F. without also having an L.A .presence. However there’s always been tremendous loyalty and morale from the artists in all the Bay Area companies, and every strong company adds to the community’s strength. There are more companies and better artists here than in some time.
2) We’re working on a campaign of design- and effects-intensive commercials for Target, and just finished a piece for a South African production company with a mix of our S.F. and Dallas studios. Increasingly our work is designed by us, whether it be ‘pure’ design or VFX-based design, and we’re doing more integrated media work as well. Often the integrated media work is client-direct. Advertising is changing about as fast as I’ve seen in 25 years, which really is to say that the nature of television and broadcasting is changing. Also most of our work is now in HD and we’re educating our clients to navigate more easily in that world.
3) There is no question that the lack of a proactive incentives program has adversely affected our community with regard to production, both for feature projects and commercials. California’s pre-eminence in the industry could be very seriously eroded if some bold and innovative initiatives are not put into operation. I would hate to see anything like the same mistakes made in the auto industry made in ours.
Amy Lemisch, executive director, California Film Commission
3) Certainly, California’s lack of production incentives has put us in a competitive disadvantage, especially with feature films. Thankfully, commercial production throughout the state has been relatively steady for the last four years. Many commercial productions are able to take advantage of low cost state property locations such as roads and beaches.
Greg Martinez, owner/executive producer, TEAK Motion Visuals, San Francisco
1) The state of both post and production could be regarded as “scrappy,” meaning if you want to be busy you have to constantly be looking for work and developing relationships with your clients. A lot of the time this means doing favors to get your foot in the door to prove you can provide the same talent that can be found in more productive production areas of the country. If you want to be working on good projects in S.F., then you need to establish yourself as worthy. Competition is tough. And the competition is not with just other S.F. production companies (referring to shooting, editing and web development); competition is at a national level (and for web, at an international level). TEAK has been able to be a viable production business in S.F. because it has developed talent in many areas of production: production (shooting), editing, motion graphics, visual effects, finishing, and web design and development. The nice thing about San Francisco is that it has a history rooted in creativity. Creative people prefer to live here and thus creativity is easy to find here. As a producer and owner of a business in S.F., it is my job to harness this creativity and put it to work on jobs that deserve it. There is not a deficient of creative work in S.F.; it is just a matter of capturing the attention of folks before that work leaves town.
2) We recently brought on Greg Rowan [most recently a director via Hungry Man and before that a creative director at McCann/S.F.] as our creative director. TEAK was at a place where we needed a creative director who directs. We have many direct relationships with clients such as JanSport, Goorin Bros., Hats, Sony, Figamajigs and iCrete. A creative director allows TEAK to give direct attention to our clients’ creative and branding strategy.
[Recent TEAK projects include a viral–co-directed by Rowan and TEAK editor DJ Joo–promoting the Indiana Jones Lego game by Lucas Arts; and an adidas skate journey short directed by TEAK’s Eric Noren.]
Jason Plunkett, director of operations, Crescendo! Studios, San Francisco
1) The beauty of a market like the Bay Area is the exchange of ideas and support that the community creates. The impending digital broadcast conversion, for instance, has created a surge in HD and Surround Sound projects. With these changing demands, we’ve seen a coming together of the production, post and dub houses to insure that we can offer our shared clientele a seamless process. By sharing information, we keep the focus on our clients’ ideas. Our ability to accommodate fully these changing needs speaks to the strength of our local infrastructure.
2) Change is everywhere as we move beyond the :30. Mixing to HD in 5.1 Surround, then shifting gears and using the same content for a web application as we did for Microsoft Windows Server is one example. Many considerations must be addressed when moving between mediums. With Disney we mixed not only TV and radio but created ring-tones. For Rolling Rock we mixed for both web and TV, now an everyday reality.
3) As both California and the Bay Area struggle to create meaningful incentives, other markets continue to grow. This definitely puts us at a disadvantage. The number of productions taking place in San Francisco has fallen for years, and the effects of this ripples throughout our media community.
Lauren Schwartz, owner/executive producer, kaboom productions, San Francisco and Los Angeles 1) In the over ten years I have been on the production side, I have seen San Francisco go through a myriad of production expansions and downturns, and witnessed the production infrastructure cycle with it. At this point, I would say our infrastructure is adequate but not ideal. Luckily we have a few key vendors and top tier crew that can handle production needs locally, but we are lacking in a number of resources that would allow us to handle more and bigger jobs here. As a production company based in both S.F. and L.A., it is disappointing to find that many jobs are better executed out of town than in.
2) We have busied ourselves with a wide variety of work, from TV spots to music videos to web content to long form content. The industry has changed dramatically in the last two years. TV spots are now a rarity instead of the norm, and we have adjusted accordingly and continue to be flexible and nimble–anticipating and embracing changes as much as possible. From the outset I have tried to create a company where our directors are multifaceted and, as such, are able to work in this new landscape. And as we seek to expand our roster, we will select talent that can add to that ability–directors who excel at the traditional model in commercials as well as the new interdisciplinary model.
3) Film incentives are an issue locally (SF), regionally (California) and nationally (U.S.). California, I believe, is thinking in a very shortsighted manner, relying on the mystique of California and Hollywood to lure production here. Locally we have all heard “there’s only one San Francisco.” Well the fact is that every other state and every other country is using incentives to bring in production work and it is leaving our state, significantly in the Bay Area. This work won’t come back without effort. There are certainly other issues beyond incentives that are helping to push out production, but bringing back incentives would be a great first step to solving the issue.
Seth Shukovsky, principal/creative director, Little Red Robot, San Francisco 1) In today’s global marketplace, talent is the first thing people are looking for. Agencies are commissioning works from the top creatives, their location is not important, and the strength of the Internet has allowed us to work with well-known brands and agencies globally. The world IS is getting smaller because of technology and the downside for us is we are constantly losing our bids with the local S.F. agencies who are accessing talented directors and production groups globally. Being in San Francisco is a key component for Little Red Robot attracting visual effects professionals who have gained experience working on feature films at ILM, Pixar and PDI. We provide a world class facility where clients and artists alike can interact and quickly develop innovative content within the fast turnaround required for advertising.
2) This year several brands have directly engaged LRR to provides works for them. Due to our proximity to technology developers in the Bay Area, we’ve worked directly with Ebay, Google, Electronic Arts, Nvidia and Netflix’s big competitor Vudu. LRR’s ability to deliver high end visual content involving visual effects, motion graphics, CG and art direction often within tight budgets and schedules has been utilized by facilities and agencies under pressure in L.A., N.Y., London and here in the Bay Area.
3) The business model our company is built on doesn’t rely heavily on incentive programs.
Marjolaine Tremblay, CEO/creative director, elementFX, San Francisco
1) The Bay Area has always been a hotbed of creativity and out-of-the-box thinking, especially with regard to innovative filmmaking, animation and visual effects. The infrastructure is very experienced and very strong. We have most of the VFX and animation industry’s best talent here.
2) Creatively, the advertising business has blown wide open for all mediums. We just completed two Monterey Bay Aquarium (we love the aquarium, who doesn’t!) spots for BuderEngel, a great agency with true vision. These spots will be aired on television, cinema release and the web. In “Puddles,” we combined beautiful live action imagery with CGI while “White Noise” was entirely a post process spot, relying on a mixture of CG elements, stock footage and mass amounts of sounds.
3) Yes!
To view interactive PDF of San Francisco Feature
as it appeared in print click here.
