Business has been bad, but now it’s getting better: That is clearly the consensus among Miami-based production companies and post houses regarding the current state of the spotmaking industry in their region. Levels of optimism may vary, but clearly things are looking up in South Florida.
Massimo Martinotti, president/director of Mia Films/ The Mia Network, which is headquartered in Miami, is also president of the Association of Independent Commercial Producers’ (AICP) Florida chapter, and a member of that organization’s national executive committee. "The last two years were very bad," reports Martinotti, referring to the local production business. "But, the last two years have been very bad everywhere. Now, we think that things are picking up. We’re not there yet, but it’s getting much better than last year."
Jeff Peel, director of the Miami Dade Mayor’s Office of Film & Entertainment, offers a similar assessment. "Clearly, after 9/11, business came to a standstill," he notes. "It was not in the best of shape even before 9/11 because of the economic recession. Commercials in particular had not been robust all year during 2001, and when 9/11 hit, things went completely south on us."
Peel notes that the events of 9/11 and the subsequent downturn in production came at a time when production normally gears up in the Miami area. "Unfortunately, that’s the beginning of our high season," he explains. "When things get colder elsewhere, Miami is the place that the commercial producers turn to do Christmas, spring and summer campaigns. 9/11 happened at the worst possible time for the commercial production industry in south Florida. As a result we saw very low numbers."
In fact, during the last quarter of ’01, only 24 commercials, totaling $3.5 million of work, were produced in the area. "That’s a pretty paltry amount," says Peel. "On a good commercial, three point five million can be a single commercial’s budget."
Things are looking up, though. According to Peel, 43 spots, totaling approximately $6.6 million in revenue, were produced in the first quarter of ’02. It’s an obvious improvement, but, Peel remarks, "While I think it’s turned around at this point, those numbers are still low historically. We’re not yet back to where I would like to see us be."
Peel’s office hopes to improve the situation by working with local hoteliers to offer discounts to production clients, and by launching a new marketing campaign. The marketing effort grew out of recommendations made at an economic summit held in January, which was headed up by Miami Dade Mayor Alex Penelas. "Number one on [the film and entertainment industry’s] agenda," relates Peel, "was a more aggressive marketing campaign to get the word out to the industry worldwide that [Miami] is a creative destination, that this is a place where you can get it all done, from pre right through postproduction.
"The timing of the campaign will directly allow us to go very aggressively after the commercial production market," continues Peel, pointing out that the Clio Awards will take place in Miami this month, followed by the national ADDY Awards in June. In addition, state and local film commission representatives from Florida and Miami will attend the Cannes International Advertising Festival in June to promote the state and its various offerings.
"Over the next two months, we should be in the face of virtually every advertising agency and client in the world, and in some cases, multiple times," says Peel. "The basic idea is that you can come here and do top-rate creative work. We have the tools to support that. We not only have the locations, but we have the crews, the infrastructure, the vendors, and the postproduction houses."
Mia’s Martinotti echoes Peel’s comments. "We at the AICP are working very hard to create a new perception of Miami," he points out, "because we think that for a certain amount of time, clients from Europe and the rest of the United States only came here when they needed a palm tree and a beach. We want to communicate that Miami and South Florida are not just locations. You can come here because of the weather, the facilities, the costs—Miami usually has better costs than other places."
Mia Films has offices in Spain, Mexico, Costa Rica and Argentina, as well as in Miami, and the company’s 20 or so directors work in various countries. The Miami office produces more than half of its spots for the U.S. Hispanic market, but it also has a number of European and Latin American clients. Recent credits out of Mia include ads for Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Nextel and Delta.
Another Miami-based production company, Kree8, which director Simon Brand founded in 1993, also looks to the U.S. Hispanic market and Europe for most of its spot work. Kree8 frequently works with Young & Rubicam (Y&R), Madrid, Spain; Euro RSCG, Madrid; and FCB San Juan, Puerto Rico. (The production company also has an office in L.A.)
Kree8 executive producer Bettina Abascal feels that business is improving. "People are definitely filming in Miami a lot more than they were six months ago," she says, but adds that spot budgets are down, and that music video budgets are way down. Recent commercials done through Kree8 include three spots for Coor’s Light—"Dinghy," "Camcorder" and "Side-by-Side"—directed by Brand and done via FCB San Juan. Additionally, Brand helmed "Elevator" for Coor’s Light, also out of FCB; and Telefonica Brasil’s "Magnitudes 1," out of AdHoc, a division of Y&R, Madrid.
In contrast to the modest upturn in spotmaking production of late, feature and television work is booming. "In [those] sectors of the entertainment economy, this is probably going to be one of the best years we’ve ever seen," reports Peel. "We’re [about] at the point now where some of our large studio facilities are pretty much booked solid almost through the end of the year."
Peel reels off an impressive list of longform projects shooting in South Florida in the next few months. Among these are Out of Time, directed by Carl Franklin and starring Denzel Washington; and Bad Boys II, helmed by Michael Bay, and starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. (Bay directs spots via his own shop, The Institute for Development of Advanced Perceptual Awareness, Santa Monica.) Also filming in Miami is a spin-off of the television show CSI, called CSI: Miami; an original HBO series, Baseball Wives; and numerous other English- and Spanish-language projects.
Post Effect
Of course, Miami’s post houses benefit from local shooting. Close to a third of the telecine work that Continental Film and Video Labs, Miami, does is for features and episodic television. Some recent longform projects that have come through the facility include Big Trouble, directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, All About the Benjamins, helmed by Kevin Bray, who directs spots through bicoastal HSI Productions; and the pilot for Baseball Wives. But spots make up the bulk of the post house’s business. "We couldn’t live alone on episodic or theatricals down here," says Glenn Newland, Continental’s senior VP of operations/administration. Some recent commercials to pass through Continental include spots for Stouffer’s, Hotel.com, and Polar Beer.
At press time, Manhattan Transfer Miami and Broadcast Video, Miami, announced that they were merging operations to form BVI-Miami. The full-service post operation has facilities in Miami, Coconut Grove and Miami Beach. BVI will be the managing partner, overseeing operations of BVI-Miami.
VP of BVI-Miami and former managing director of Manhattan Transfer Miami Bob Corti traces the beginning of ad business woes in the area all the back to May ’00. "The last year was tough, but it’s been difficult for a while now," he relates. "It started with the SAG strike, and when that ended, the economy started tanking a little bit, and, then obviously, there was Sept. 11, so it’s really been in the doldrums more than a year," says Corti. But his company’s business has been good for the last couple of months: "It’s a little early for us to tell if that was a fluke; we are certainly hoping it was not." Some recent ads to come through the former Manhattan Transfer Miami include "Navy" for the U.S. Navy, done via Accentmarketing, Miami, and directed by Mike Fuller of Shoot L.A.; and a client-direct spot for Burdine’s called "Father’s Day/Kenneth Cole," which was helmed by Michael Maher of bicoastal Zooma Zooma.
Cineworks Digital Studios, Miami, launched in September ’00—right at the beginning of the economic downturn. The company does a mix of commercial, music video and feature work. Vincent Hogan, president of Cineworks Digital, talks about making it through tough times. "If I’d had a crystal ball, I wouldn’t have gone into business the year we did," he admits. "It was a very difficult situation. If we can make it through that, I think we can make it through anything."
Despite the general economic downturn, life goes on, and businesses start up. Creative editorial shop JefCo, Miami, officially launched three months ago—when Jeff Sternberger, formerly of Jefferson Edit, and Mike Coe, previously of Coe Creative Post, merged their operations. How’s business at the two-man shop? "We’ve been real busy," responds Coe. "This year we’ve definitely seen an increase."
"Going back a year or a year and half, everybody was hurting a bit, including the advertising business in Miami," observes Sternberger. "We’ve been lucky enough to have relationships with some of the bigger agencies here, like Crispin, Porter+Bogusky, Miami, and del Rivero Messianu/DDB, Miami." For the latter shop, Sternberger recently cut three spots for Bud Light—"Open Open," "Sandance" and "Juntos Toether"—which were helmed by Pablo Guiterrez of Cielo Films, Los Angeles. Coe recently edited the aforementioned "Navy."
How will Miami fare for the rest of the year? Jeff Peel believes the general state of the economy will determine how well the area’s spotmaking industry does. "If the economy continues to look strong and rebound like it seems to be doing right now, we can expect to see a return to more normal levels of production, which means in the neighborhood of thirty to forty million dollars in the commercial sector through the year," he notes. "That may be a little bit off, because the year hasn’t started very strongly. In any case, I’d like to see us get back to twenty-five or thirty million, because that would signal to me that we’re back on track.
"Nothing sells success like success. I do think we saw a huge boom in the ’90s largely based on the run of Miami Vice. Art directors, production companies and other people took a cue from that and came down here for their campaigns," Peel continues. "CSI: Miami being on the air in the fall will probably be the biggest advertising campaign that we could ever hope to have. This will spark interest in all sectors: movies, television shows and commercials."
