Whether you’re going to heaven or hell," the saying goes, "you’ll have to change planes in Atlanta." A lot of the traffic at Atlanta’s Hartsfield Airport these days includes local production companies and agency creatives who board different flights for commercial shoots in points like Los Angeles, New York, Toronto, Washington D.C., Miami, Chicago and San Francisco.
Atlanta has been very busy in commercial production lately, but not necessarily due to collaborations between the city’s production companies and local agencies. Atlanta’s small but talented coterie of commercial production houses does work with Atlanta ad shops, though that is only one source of business. Most production firms work on spots for agencies all over the country, sometimes shooting in Atlanta, and sometimes going elsewhere. The city’s ad agencies tend to award the high-profile, big-budget shoots, editorial and post to out-of-town-based companies, particularly in New York and Los Angeles, and local production companies tend to market their directors to out-of-town agencies all over the country.
"There are years where for a year we won’t work with an Atlanta shop, then the next year they’ll represent half our business," says John McCorkle, executive producer at Fireside Films, Atlanta, and a past president of the Atlanta chapter of the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP), as well as of the national AICP. "Years ago, when I started in this business, the relationship between an advertiser and an agency was almost sacrosanct—they were almost in business together. An account stayed with that agency forever. Nowadays, the advertiser-agency relationship is pretty much like our relationship is with agencies—it’s on a project basis, almost. You don’t see those long relationships any more. Over the course of a year, the whole lineup changes. The agency we didn’t work with a lot the past year—this year we’re working with them a lot because they have a whole different lineup of clients."
"We always try to encourage more work to come to Atlanta," says George Watkins, owner/director at Synergy Films, Atlanta. "We also play the same game the agencies play here. We try to entice other regional agencies to come here to produce. If it’s runaway production when local agencies leave Atlanta to produce, then we try to play the same game on the other side of the fence. It’s classically been that way since I’ve been in this market."
That’s not to say that Atlanta agencies don’t work with local production shops. Sam Crawford, a director at Mom-O-Rama, Atlanta, recently wrapped two Church’s Chicken spots—"Flying Phone" and "Marshmallow"—out of Atlanta agency BaylessCronin. "Atlanta agencies and Atlanta production companies don’t work together that often on big jobs," says Todd Johnson, executive producer at Mom-O-Rama, who has seen it from both sides of the fence as a former agency creative at WestWayne, Atlanta. "But it’s not always the agency. Sometimes the client demands to work with an L.A.-based company. What’s the agency to do? They have to sell the client on doing the job, too, and that’s not always possible. That happens everywhere, not just in Atlanta."
The Atlanta production community is overall quite pleased with the level of the creative at Atlanta agencies. The buzz is particularly strong for the work coming out of BaylessCronin. "They [CEO Tim Bayless and executive creative director Jerry Cronin] are some of the most talented people I’ve ever seen," enthuses Ken Chambliss, president of editorial house Video Tape Associates (VTA), Atlanta.
Like a number of cities’ production fortunes, Atlanta’s dipped a bit in 2000 because of the six-month long strike by SAG and AFTRA against advertisers. "We definitely noticed a falloff in the commercial business last year because of the strike," says Bill Thompson, VP of Crawford Post Production, a division of Crawford Communications, Atlanta. "Maybe fifteen to twenty percent is what most people would tell you they experienced. That dampened the whole market a bit, but that wasn’t specific to Atlanta."
"I’ve been doing this for almost 30 years now, and I’ve never seen a year like last year," agrees Janice Burstein, president/executive producer at production house Black Box Pictures, Atlanta.
Business Upswing
While there was a falloff in spot production, most houses now report a brisk schedule of adwork. Georgia Tanner, owner/director at Black Box, just completed three new spots for the Georgia Lottery via Austin Kelly Advertising, Atlanta. The ads, like a previous series helmed by Tanner, feature legendary singer Ray Charles touting the benefits that the lottery lends to Georgia education. Tanner’s other recent work includes a six-spot package shot on mini DVD for Franciscan Skemp Healthcare via Storandt Pann Margolis, LaGrange, Ill., and three spots for Providence Hospital, also through Storandt Pann Margolis.
Steve Colby, director/cameraman at Pogo Pictures, Atlanta, is busy getting out bids on two projects after recently wrapping several spots, among them, "People Do" for Chevron, out of J. Walter Thompson, San Francisco; "Numbers" for HUD and FHA via BBDO South Atlanta; and "SUV" and "Cop" for the Kroger chain of supermarkets, out of Creative Consultants, Atlanta. Watkins’ Synergy Films finished 2000 with a banner December—the company completed 15 spots that month. Those ads included a package of client-direct commercials for Dexatrim Natural; a spot for Icy Hot, out of Wrightway Creative Group, Norwalk, Conn.; and "Professional" for Pamprin via Infinitee, Atlanta.
The spot work coming out of Atlanta production shops tends to fall roughly into a 60-40 ratio for regional vs. national work. McCorkle pegs Fireside’s work at 30 percent national, and 70 percent regional. Pogo Pictures’ Colby, who has built an agency following in the Midwest and on the West Coast, estimates that anywhere from 40 to 50 percent of the spots he directs wind up airing on network and cable television. Burstein says 30 to 40 percent of Black Box’s efforts air nationally or in major markets. Watkins labels Synergy’s work as being a 50-50 split.
While the amount of work has been increasing for many shops in Atlanta, their rosters have been shifting and changing. Colby left Atlanta-based Means St. Productions last year to form Pogo Pictures, after the decision was made that his former roost would concentrate on more longform work. "That wasn’t what I wanted to do," explains Colby. "The parting was amicable, but we were just headed in different directions." In addition to Colby, Pogo recently signed director Peter Siaggas, whose latest effort is on display in Orkin’s "Insect Safari," via J. Walter Thompson Atlanta.
Burstein says that Black Box still reps Toronto-based Rob Quartly in the States and handles Southeast representation for comedy helmers James Wvinner, who is in Los Angeles, and Marty Driscoll, who is based in Ohio. Tanner herself is no longer being represented by Big Film Company, Toronto, and is currently seeking a new roost for Canadian projects.
At Synergy, partner Lynne Toll retired last year, leaving Watkins as the self-described "sole owner, director and chief bottle-washer." Three-year-old Mom-O-Rama counts directors Crawford, Thom Oliphant and Steven Goldmann, and graphics designer Olga Traynina. Fireside is the exception on the stability front, still representing comedy director John Hilton; Denny Carlson, who specializes in comedy and visuals; and Randy King and Chuck Clemens, both of whom have a highly visual style.
Post Heavy
On the post side, business is good to bustling. Atlanta editorial houses weathered the strike without missing a beat thanks to the presence of Turner Broadcasting, and a bevy of corporate work from Atlanta-based clients such as Coca-Cola, Genuine Auto Parts (NAPA) and BellSouth. Atlanta’s status as a primary uplink for cable networks and Webcasting also ensures a steady amount of work for the city’s post houses; the shops also work often on promos and longform projects.
"It is a magnificent postproduction city," says McCorkle. "We’ve got Crawford, VTA and Cinefilm. We’ve got Click 3X for effects, and other effects houses."
Longtime Atlanta stalwart Crawford Communications, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, has moved aggressively to emphasize its satellite business, Crawford Satellite Service. Crawford Communications’ post business is done under the banner Crawford Post Production. The company serves as the uplink for the Discovery, Learning and Travel Channels, along with several others.
A decision by MARTA, Atlanta’s rapid transit system, to build a new switching and storage station recently displaced several of Atlanta’s facilities, including Crawford. The company’s new digs, on Atlanta’s north side, feature 10 audio post rooms equipped with Pro Tools—five of which have 5.1 surround sound capabilities. Crawford’s audio suites also feature Solid State Logic (SSL) advantdigital mixing consoles for an all-digital environment. On the editorial side, Crawford retired its last analog online room and its oldest 601 analog digital linear suite in favor of four Avid 1000XL non-linear suites. Crawford now operates nine Avid suites, a DS suite, two high-definition rooms that also handle standard-definition video, a Henry online room and two additional 601 digital linear edit suites. Other additions include Fire and Inferno capability, a Softimage digital studio and a Spirit Datacine for film-to-tape transfer work and color correction.
Recent Crawford assignments include a high-def project for National Geographic Television. "We just delivered 13 one-hour shows to them in high-definition," explains Thompson, who estimates that 30 percent of Crawford’s post work comes from spots, with the majority airing in the Southeast, and the rest airing in other regions, or nationally. One of the firm’s spot efforts, Haverty Furniture’s "Founders Day Sale," client direct spot helmed by Kirby Hamilton of Kirby Hamilton & Company, Jacksonville, Fla., copped a Bronze Telly at the 2001 show.
As for the future—will Crawford remain a post facility or move more towards being a communications and Internet company? "I can’t really see a day where we won’t be a major force in postproduction," states Thompson. "The idea that everything is turning into data is where we’re headed as a company. That can be everything from digital asset management to clients being able to browse their archives on their desktops, to being able to send material via the Internet and other kinds of transmission venues so that they don’t even have to be here to supervise an offline edit."
VTA is following a similar course. The firm handles all of ESPN’s upfeeds from Atlanta, as well as uplinks for FOX News, MSNBC and CNBC, and certain segments of PBS’ Nightly Business Report. VTA has also moved into IT Web graphics design, Web site hosting and DVD and CD ROM production. According to Chambliss, recent upgrades include a high-definition ITK Millennium telecine. "We can take a project all the way through—editorial and everything—in high-def," explains Chambliss. "We also just put in two new Prodigy 2 audio systems with servers. All of our sound effects and music now lives on servers and are accessible from any of our Avid rooms, or from any of our audio suites."
Chambliss puts spots at half of VTA’s revenues, with the rest coming from corporate work, longform and promos and bumpers for the Turner networks and other cable outlets. Regular VTA clients include most of the production companies in town, as well as Atlanta agencies such as J. Walter Thompson, Austin Kelly, Fitzgerald & Company, BBDO, WestWayne and BaylessCronin.
Outback Editorial is another finishing house that is active in the Atlanta spot market. Started by president/editor Steve Cox, formerly of Crawford, in 1995, Outback garners about 90 percent of its income from spot work. The company has three fulltime editors—Cox, Tim Vece and Joel Brand—and handles Southeast representation for the Los Angeles-based Rich Clark. "We have two Avid Media Composers and a Symphony, so we’re capable of doing our own finishing," says Cox.
Yet another player is Brick House Editorial, started in ’95 by president Fred Wynne. The big news at Brick House is a merger last year with editorial shop Peachtree Post. The newly enlarged firm offers clients two Avid suites, two Symphony suites, two linear online bays equipped with Abekas Dveous and controllers, a Quantel Henry Infinity, and an Avid audio suite equipped with Pro Tools. Account manager Joe Huggins figures that spot work accounted for 30 to 40 percent of the company’s business last year, but admits that TV commercial work has dropped off recently. "It’s trailed off a little bit lately and we’re trying to build that part of our business back up," he states.
Huggins hopes that the addition of editor Clive Jenkins to the staff will start to attract more agency work. "He’s our Renaissance man," says Huggins. "He has three Clios, handles the Avid creative offline, but can also follow it through to the linear and Symphony suites. He’s also our Quantel Henry special effects person. Clive’s very important to us. He’s done projects for Nike, Microsoft, Sega, and several award-winning music videos when he was on the West Coast."
So, all in all, how is the state of Atlanta? As the old Manfred Mann song goes: "Pretty good, not bad, can’t complain."
