Debate over agency- and/or client-initiated spec spots emerged, albeit briefly, during The Broadcast Producers Conference held earlier this month (3/4-5) at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
The spec issue arose at a production company panel discussion moderated by Grant Hill, executive VP and executive production director, DDB Needham Chicago, an agency whose client Budweiser has aired spec commercials that individual production companies have bankrolled. Panelist Matt Miller, president of the AICP, objected to the current arrangement whereby agency and client enlist a production company to work on a spec basis, with the only possible remuneration being that if the spot is picked up, the production house will have its costs reimbursed. Miller said he understood the appeal for a client and agency to get something for nothing, but over the long haul, he contended that such a practice is detrimental to the health of the production house community. And ultimately, the ad business needs a healthy production industry in place.
Miller said it was inequitable for production companies to carry all the risk and financial responsibility on spec work without having some real reward on the back end. If Anheuser-Busch is willing to share in the risk, thats a different story, contended Miller, who added that if a production company is going to foot the bill, it should be entitled to some ownership of the finished spot. Then, if the client wants to run the spec commercial, the production house could perhaps lease it to the advertiser. This, argued Miller, would at least give the production company a fair reward if its spec effort passes muster.
Another compensation formula suggested by Miller was that in exchange for a client picking up a spec spot, the production house would be awarded X-amount of real-world, paying work for that advertiser over the next year or two.
Panelist Blair Stribley, president/senior exec. producer/co-founder of Backyard Productions, Venice, Calif., and Chicago, observed, however, that there is an upside to the current spec modus operandi. Backyard has done some spec work for DDB Needham Chicago and Stribley assessed that the experience has provided good creative and exposure nationally that helps our directors long-term. He noted that if houses are going to engage in spec work anyway to promote their directors, at least theres the opportunity with an agency like DDB Needham to have production costs reimbursed and to possibly gain airtime.
The overall long-term impact, though, dismays Frank Scherma, partner/exec. producer of bicoastal @radical.media, who from the conference session audience contended that giving away work for free can only prove damaging to the production house community. Six years ago, he said, the discussion was about 35% markup. The rationale for companies occasionally reducing the markup back then was AIve got to get the work. Ill only do it on some projects, continued Scherma. The end result was a markup erosion that has hurt the viability of assorted production houses. He paralleled that history lesson to todays spec scenario. If this continues, five or six years from now, he said, the far-reaching impact will be detrimental.
In another confab session, SHOOT hosted a panel on DTV. The discussion was moderated by Carolyn Giardina, SHOOT s senior editor, postproduction, and editorial director of its quarterly DTV and Advertising supplements. Panelists were David Perry, exec VP, director of broadcast production, Saatchi & Saatchi, New York; director John Lindauer of Culver City, Calif.-based Pavlov Productions, the commercial division of Sony Pictures Entertainment; and Dick Voss, president of Post Logic Studios, Hollywood and Santa Monica.
Perry, who chairs the American Association of Advertising Agencies Broadcast Production Committee, urged agency producers to educate themselves and to then take a lead educator role in DTV, including HDTV. This is an opportunity for agency producers to be the experts and authorities in something very important to the business, observed Perry who noted that agencies will logically turn to their production departments for expertise in this area.
Lindauer screened Pixelman, a two-and-a-half minute DTV promo he directed for the Sony-owned HDTV theaters in New York, San Francisco and Tokyo (SHOOT, 10/9/98, p. 7). The promo was shot in 35mm and transferred to Sonys proprietary digital one-inch videotape at the Sony High Definition Center, Los Angeles. (Additional transfer work as well as post and graphic effects were done at Complete Post, Hollywood; and Sony Picture Imageworks, Culver City.)
And Voss pointed out that in a marketplace with different standards emerging, particularly during the transition period from traditional broadcast to DTV formats, downconverting to various DTV standards will become an important part of [commercial industry] vocabulary. There will be work produced in 1080 that will also have to be downconverted to standard definition. A The important thing is that this work should be supervised by agency creatives and producers. A bad downconvert can create artifacts and problems. Do it yourselves. Dont rely on broadcasters [for quality checks on downconverting].
The Broadcast Producers Conference drew in excess of 100 attendees, primarily top-drawer agency heads of production, exec. producers and producers. Confab co-founder, freelance producer Jane Jacobsen, plans to make the conference an annual event.
