The World Producers Organization held its 12th Annual Summit in Cannes under the organization of the AICP, APA and CFP-E. During their get-together, more than 100 production company owners and executives from 33 countries discussed pressing issues facing the global production industry. As a group, there was absolute resolve that in order to deliver the highest quality product to marketers in the most efficient fashion, bidding procedures must be fully transparent.
Major factors for transparency include marketer expectations such as disclosure for budget range, and complete knowledge of other bidding entities.
The concern that advertising agency-owned production entities could be involved as competitors continues to be of paramount concern to the industry, and is part of an ongoing investigation by the Department of Justice in the United States.
Several countries have issued industry-wide statements regarding anti-competitive bidding practices and the reluctance to engage in business under these conditions.
The open market–where production companies compete for work based on expertise and price–is the guarantor of value for advertisers. Anything that distorts that competitive balance, such as agency-owned entities engaged in multi-bidding for work, where they have access to insider information regarding independent production companies’ bids, is contrary to the interests of advertisers–as well as being unfair to the production companies also bidding.
Writers of “Conclave,” “Say Nothing” Win Scripter Awards
The authors and screenwriters behind the film โConclaveโ and the series โSay Nothingโ won the 37th-annual USC Libraries Scripter Awards during a black-tie ceremony at USCโs Town and Gown ballroom on Saturday evening (2/22).
The Scripter Awards recognize the yearโs most accomplished adaptations of the written word for the screen, including both feature-length films and episodic series.
Novelist Robert Harris and screenwriter Peter Straughan took home the award for โConclave.โ
In accepting the award, Straughan said, โAdaptation is a really strange process, youโre very much the servant of two masters. In a way itโs an act of betrayal of one master for the other.โ He joked that โYou start off with a book that you love, you read it again and again, and then you end up throwing it over your shoulder,โ crediting author Robert Harris for being โso kind, so generous, so open throughout.โ
In the episodic series category, Joshua Zetumer and Patrick Radden Keefe won for the episode โThe People in the Dirtโ from the limited series โSay Nothing,โ which Zetumer adapted from Keefeโs nonfiction book about the Troubles in Ireland.
Zetumer referenced this yearโs extraordinary group of Scripter finalists, saying โprojects like these reminded me of why I wanted to become a writer when I was sitting in USCโs Leavey Library dreaming of becoming a screenwriter. If you fell in love with movies, or fell in love with TV, chances are you fell in love with something dangerous.โ
Special guest for the evening, actress and producer Jennifer Beals, shared her thoughts on the impact of libraries. โIf ever you are at a loss wondering if there is good in the world,โ she said, โyou have only to go to a... Read More