Miami isn’t just about location anymore. Miami-based Deep Blue Sea, the design and visual effects arm of Broadcast Video Inc. (BVI), which has offices in Miami, Coconut Grove and Miami Beach, recently produced "Integration" for the launch of Bayer’s Actron, a headache medicine. Brought to the post facility by BBDO Venezuela, the ad communicates the technology behind the new drug. Primarily utilizing 3-D animation, the spot takes viewers on a twisting, turning ride as an announcer explains the product’s benefits.
The live action portion of "Integration" was shot at BVI’s North Miami studio by the BVI Production Group. Deep Blue Sea’s Bob Geuder served as live-action director and senior designer, employing the Flame. Todd Peleg, also with Deep Blue Sea, was the 3-D designer/animator on the ad, which utilized Softimage 3-D software. John Seberg, a colorist at BVI, deployed the company’s Sony Vialta with the Da Vinci 2K Color Corrector to help create a high-tech look. (BVI counts among its many divisions Deep Blue Sea and BVI Productions, as well as music and sound design arm Rockin’ Chair Creative Sound; BVI Communications, a dubbing and subtitiling subsidiary; and Visual Fire, which handles new media projects and DVD authoring.) The project took five weeks to complete. "We brought [the spot] to Deep Blue Sea because the creative concept they proposed was exactly the path we wanted to take with ‘Integration,’ " says BBDO production manager Santiago Morales.
In the past, Miami was noted primarily as a location destination—producers went to the city for its weather and its vistas. When the Northeast and Europe got cold, Miami got hot with productions looking for sun and summer-like conditions. While location shooting is still a big part of production in the city, postproduction has steadily gained in reputation. BVI is just one of many Miami-based companies that are offering post services to local, national, and international clients. Today, Miami is a year-round destination—and the buzzword explaining it is "infrastructure."
"Part of the shift in our marketing strategy is to help build a better infrastructure here," explains Jeff Peel, director of the Miami Dade Mayor’s Office of Film & Entertainment, who says the city government recently gave economic assistance to Beber-Silverstein, a Miami ad agency, as it expanded into new quarters. "A couple of years ago, doing that would probably not have been on our radar," he notes, adding that the agency fits into the area’s new revitalization theory.
"For any given [production] budget, twenty percent is spent on location, and the other eighty percent is going back to the home base," Peel says. "We’d like to be that home base, and be on the eighty percent side of the equation. I mean, if the agency is here, and the postproduction company is here, and the producing company is here, then they can shoot [an ad here] or they can shoot it somewhere else, but the money ultimately stays here [because they will bring it back for post]."
Such thinking led to the creation of Cineworks Digital Studios in September 2000, an 18,000-square-foot post facility featuring film processing, telecine transfer and nonlinear editing.
Bill Randall, president of AFI/ Filmworks, a Miami production company, feels that Cineworks started a trend. "We had labs, but the level of telecine in this market was pretty dismal compared to that in the rest of the country. Cineworks brought in modern equipment, and since that happened, their competitors have upgraded. Now you can get a first-rate transfer here. A year ago, I couldn’t, in all honesty, say to a client, ‘Stay here and finish.’ "
Prior to opening Cineworks, Vince Hogan had managed Continental Labs in Miami for 12 years. He says he thought he could attract national and international clients with "a higher standard of quality service and support" with the opening of his new firm. Besides modern equipment, Hogan says "all members of Cinework’s lab staff have film industry experience ranging from a minimum of ten years to as much as twenty five years. I felt it was important to staff Cineworks with experienced individuals in order to be able to maintain the high standard of care and respect that handling our clients’ film demands."
He adds: "Miami is known as a great location for shooting. We want it to be known as a great location for finishing, as well. We have the talent and the infrastructure, and the Latin American market is growing; a lot of South Americans are shooting and wanting to post here. A good eighty-five percent of our work is commercials."
Cost Benefits
The infrastructure theory builds on other initiatives by both the local and state governments, such as the state’s tax incentive program. Since Jan. 1, the state has allowed a sales tax rebate for qualified film and TV production companies, to be made at the point of sale for items used in a shoot. What had formerly been a prolonged rebate process has become an up-front exemption. Companies no longer have to file for rebates on reimbursable expenses. If they qualify for the rebate, firms will get a tax-exempt status ID card that will allow them to avoid paying sales tax on certain equipment and services. The rebate is intended to encourage more and easier film, TV, and spot production. According to the Governor’s Office of Film & Entertainment, which is headed by film commissioner Rebecca Dirden Mattingly, the tax rebate has been most heavily used in Miami Dade County.
The state is also working with the Association of Independent Commercial Producers’ (AICP) Florida Chapter to promote both the state of Florida and Miami. The organization produced an interactive CD to market the sunshine state as a high-end place to produce and do post on commercial work. The CD will first be distributed during the 2001 Clio Awards, to be held in Miami Beach later this month. It will contain a wide sample of AICP Florida members’ work and a variety of Florida locations. The CD will target the worldwide advertising industry—especially Europe and Latin America, considered the two markets with the most growth potential.
Because of all such activity, the commercial business, which had dipped slightly last year due to the six-month-long strike by actors against the advertising industry, has not dropped further. Peel admits that 2001 has "not had the most stellar first quarter [for commercials that] I’ve ever seen," but that things could be much worse. From January through April, he reports, 60 commercials were shot, bringing in nearly $7.75 million in money spent by local production companies. During the same period last year, the area hosted 63 spots, totaling $8.7 million.
"One of the things we’re dealing with is that a lot of our clients out here tend to be international, and we’re suffering from a strong dollar," adds Peel. "It’s more expensive for European and Latin American clients to shoot here."
Others say that the strike and higher prices for on-screen talent have hurt the industry. Randall notes that many clients found they could shoot commercials in Canada or Europe for much less, while obtaining the same high quality: "Screen talent is much more expensive [in the States].
"The way the situation is now, it’s driving most business offshore," continues Randall. "I have shot in Canada a number of times. I can produce for the same costs in Florida as I can in Canada—except for the talent. That kills us."
Leaving Home
AFI/Filmworks recently shot spots in Jamaica, Canada and Los Angeles. Similarly, Miami production company Walker/Fitzgibbon, which is headed by writer/director Robert W. Walker and producer/ director Mo Fitzgibbon, often shoots out of state, recently traveling to Dallas, to shoot a commercial and a documentary/electronic press kit for musical group Deep Blue Something. The project was produced by Fitzgibbon, and written and co-directed by Fitzgibbon and Walker, for the band’s Phoenix-based label, Aezra Records.
"We’re very happy tackling national commercials, music videos, TV specials, and documentaries," states Fitzgibbon. "We go where the work is." Sometimes the work does allow the duo to stay in Miami—the two recently co-directed "Cowboy Dave," an ad for Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.-based Internet firm VALIDSites, out of agency BFW Advertising, Boca Raton, Fla. The ad was a co-production between Walker/Fitzgibbon and Gravity Entertainment, Ft. Lauderdale. And Fitzgibbon recently directed a campaign called "City Place, Unlike Anyplace," for City Place, a dining and shopping complex, out of The Boner Group, Palm Beach, Fla.
Mia Films has made a virtue of its international clientele and directors. "We’re handling mainly European directors, and that allows us to offer a slightly different approach to spots," explains Massimo Martinotti, president of Mia Films/The Mia Network. "We are able to offer a European look and a European sensibility." Because the company has offices in Miami, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Milan, it can draw on production services and agency connections abroad, as well as on those in the U.S.
Since the beginning of this year, Mia has produced 17 projects. For example, Spanish director Eduardo Vazquez, who is handled by Mia, shot "Pool" and "Duplex" for Bellsouth Yellow Pages, via IAC Advertising, Miami. Mia also used Miami as the site for a Henkel detergent spot called "Neutrex," out of BBDO Barcelona, Spain, that was directed by Ricardo Albiñana, another Spanish director represented by Mia. And Mia produced "Dolphin" for spring water Vöslauer, out of Austrian agency Demner, Merlicek & Bergmann, with champion swimmer Franziska van Almsick, and helmed by Spanish spotmaker José Manuel Ferrater—another Mia director from Europe.
In the end, say longtime residents, the chief battle in Miami is one of perception. "Every place that is not New York or Los Angeles has the potential of falling into a trap," explains Rick Legow, president of BVI. "You know, everyone has had that conversation with clients where they say, ‘Oh, I didn’t know you guys could do that down there,’—whether it’s special effects, dubbing or whatever. In the past, we’ve been perceived as a great location. Period. But now that’s changing. When you see the Clios coming here, that’s a recognition of change."
"It’s been a struggle," adds Fitzgibbon. "The perception has been, you can do it cheaper here—which is true—but that idea has also hurt us, in a way, because we’ve gotten the reputation that our people are less knowledgeable because they’re cheaper. That’s just not true. But it’s up to us to show them." ;
