NEW YORKaJ.D. Williams, best known for his tenure as an executive producer at BBDO New York, and former freelance agency producer Scott Weitz have formally launched The Production Department. Williams described their New York-based venture as simply being an independent agency production department.
For The Production Department, Weitz recently produced Buicks TV Tower, Training Camp and Fantasy Golf, working with McCann-Erickson Detroit, Troy, Mich.s creative manager/executive producer Rita Cox. Weitz spent the past five years as a freelancer.
Williams worked at BBDO for more than seven years. Prior to that, he served as a senior producer at Ogilvy & Mather, New York. While at BBDO, he produced Snickers Chefs, Batman and Team Prayer, as well as Charles Schwabs Ringo, Retirement Home and Trash. At the Production Department, hes continued his affiliation with Schwab and BBDO on the spots Sally Field and Jackie Collins. Hes now finishing work on Snickers Acting Debut, also through BBDO. They outsource me, he explained.
Weitz and Williams currently constitute the production staff, though they also work with several freelancers and are looking to add more producers.
Williams outlined the companys goals: Were focusing on agency production, the development of Web-based new media tools for the commercial production industry, and were working with commercial production companies on the development of content for the Web.
Williams and Weitz opened The Production Department because we just felt like there was a niche with the advent of new media and all the new technology, [especially] the ubiquity of broadband and all thats happening on the Web. Were hoping to develop short-format Web content as well, [though] thats further down the road, offered Williams.
The move marks the first formal partnership for the duo, who have been friends since childhood. We grew up together in Pittsburgh; we went to nursery school together. We worked at BBDO together, said Williams, adding that forming a company has always been a goal of theirs.
Williams continued, We want to keep on producing and developing these Web-based tools that were talking to people about as a resource for creatives and people in the communications industry. Well consult, well produce, well offer production services and Web-based tools used to facilitate a lot of the production process. As producers, we sit in the middle of everything; were the liaison between the client and the production company.
Williams believes there is an opportunity for creatives to play an important role in Web advertising and content. With the advent of networks like AOL, the producers and creatives are going to be incredibly valuable assets. … Producers, art directorsaall these skills are prime for new media. Furthermore, he said, since were in the business of developing short-format stuff for commercials, its natural that we should develop content for the Web [in the future].
