The average cost to produce a 30-second, national TV commercial in 1999 was $343,000—a 16 percent increase ($48,000) from the previous year—according to the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s) ’99 Television Production Cost Survey. That’s the largest hike in the 13-year history of the annual 4A’s study. Significant increases were also reported in such areas as the average cost to edit and finish an original :30 (26 percent), sound recording and mixing costs (23 percent) and music (35 percent). At the same time, production company markup went down to an average of 25 percent, a one percent decline from the 4A’s ’98 figure. Full details on the 4A’s report will be in next week’s issue of SHOOT….Director Bill Mason has joined Sweet Dreams, A Film Company, New York….Pinnacle Studios, Seattle, and U.K. new media company Digital Animations Group have formed an alliance whereby the former will represent the latter for spot production and collaboration in the U.S. Both digital studios envision creating virtual characters for commercials and expanding mutual production capabilities…Santa Monica-based Primal Scream has added several composers to its spot roster, including George S. Clinton, Alan Elliott, Russ Landau, Todd Cochran, Michael Wandmacher and Karl Fredrik Lundeberg.
