DISQUS

Confessions of an Executive Producer: 'boards summit review

  • Steven Shore · 2 months ago
    It was great seeing you Jerry. I also gotta give a shout out for that excellent 20 year old mix tape you gave me that I stumbled upon the other day!

    Inspired by you, here's my attempt to both blog and offer a potential solution:

    http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/commun...
  • jsepoch · 2 months ago
    great as always running into you. glad you found that mix tape.

    read the piece in ad week. you make a very compelling argument
    especially agencies being developers of a new breed of diy filmmakers.
    mtv is a great example. however here's my arguments against:

    1 - just because production tools are cheaper, more accessible and
    easier to use doesn't make you a producer or a director. i have a
    computer and microsoft word, that doesn't make me shakespeare.

    2 - developing and creating talent is very hard. it takes time,
    investment, willingness to make mistakes and experimentation. this is
    a culture the agencies don't posses.

    3 - talented people don't want to be limited by platforms and
    products. they also don't want to assigned projects. this is why there
    is no longer a studio system.

    i believe the friction created by separation of church (agencies) and
    state (prodcos) create fertile ground for great work. remove those
    competing agendas and we'll get mediocre work. at least it will be
    cheaper and they'll shoot the animatic.
  • Steven Shore · 2 months ago
    To your points:
    1) Access to tools had been a barrier to entry. That barrier no longer exists. You still need talent but those with talent will no longer be held back by such barriers.
    2) I appreciate what it takes to develop talent. In fact, as an executive producer, I consider talent development to be a strength. One of my directors one the First Boards and I've put ten different directors on the New Directors reel at Cannes. But just as production companies develop talent, so do agencies. It is very much a part of agency culture to develop creative talent, my column suggests simply extending this service.
    3) You’re viewing this through an old-school lens. I’m proposing the organic development of film/videomaker types within creative departments. In cinema, the most respected filmmaker is the auteur. Why shouldn’t there be a filmmaker rather than an art director in the room with a writer? In today’s more complex ideation mix is the traditional writer/art director team the only way to go? I’m not suggesting that a director be on staff to execute the ideas of other creatives. The film/video maker should be part of the idea-generation mix and execute her or his own ideas. You know as well as I do that EPs roll their eyes when agencies approach them with “guerrilla filmmaking” concepts. This would be much closer to that. Write it, pick up a camera and shoot it yourself!
    4) Costs are going to have to come down Jerry. The economics of production will no longer work like they have for TV in the digital space. I'm not predicting the death of the prodco - I'm predicting an explosion of low-cost video production production that cannot be serviced within the business model that we've been working from these many years...
  • kris nicolau · 2 months ago
    i agree that there will be an explosion of of low cost video production and the pro cos will have to turn into small factories full of young people/filmakers who will be cool with 500 bucks a day....to prep/shoot and edit ....in fact outsourcing to another country could be good too.

    yes that day is coming in fact a few months ago the creative director of a job i was doing
    actually did shoot himself doing the actors action and showed it to the client - after my casting they showed it to me and said they wanted to recast it doing exactly what the creative director showed to the client......what they should have done is just used that footage and put it on air ....instead of going to all the expense of shooting it - i mean they had it in the can right there on a digital tape.....we didnt need to cast or have a shoot
    because the client loved what the creative director did on his little digi handicam.....

    i have a whole office of young filmakers willing wanting and able to do lo cost video
    let me know steven when you need samples of their work.
  • Steven Shore · 2 months ago
    I can't believe that this sentence got lost in the mix as I wrote my rebuttal since it was the most important one... to your first point, that just because you own a computer you're no shakespeare - Jerry, you are my (and many other's) hero. You started this blog, you've become a noted industry voice, an in-demand panelist and a rising star in the AICP all because you have a computer and with no barriers to entry to the blogosphere, you have created a presence for yourself!
  • jsepoch · 2 months ago
    i walked right into that one. now that's an argument that is hard to
    refute although blogging is an individual sport not a team sport. even
    still, your make an excellent point. hard to believe, me of all people
    are under estimating the power of the DIY generation.
  • Fern Martin · 2 months ago
    Although, "many a truth is said in jest", and we pride ourselves on our level of gallows humor and cynical outlook....ultimately, it does not make for satisfactory discourse. I totally agree, we are all struggling and often feeling blown off course. Managing director to freelancer we are all grappling with the path ahead. In a business with little history or precident, where tailoring the work to the job is our daily mantra.....charting the future is a tricky trick.
  • Name · 2 months ago
    Dude!! There's the hope I was ranting about in our emails a couple of weeks ago!!
    Right on.

    Paul
  • sharonlew · 1 month ago
    Apologies. Im catching up on your blogs backwards so forgive me Jerry. I felt much the same way about the transparency of the Boards Event. I've been to many of these before, and it was surprising to hear the level of honesty that existed last week. I guess panic will do that to people.

    That aside, there is still a shocking amount of negativity within our industry. As justified as it may seem to be, it is disheartening to hear it from our Industry Leaders in such a cynical or 'i told you so' way. Unlike some of the CD's who spoke, I don't really want to wait around for the shoe to drop or the sky to fall. Even more so, I don't like being told we are fucked at an industry event- maybe it's the girly girl in me, but i was down right offended.

    The wind was fully out of my sails on the first day, and then back in again on the second. I decided not to let the nay-sayers bring me down, and to reevaluate what i had to offer the future of this business. In the end, I came to some major life decisions of my own and decided I needed to make some big changes in my own career, if i wanted to remain relevant longer than the next six months. We'll see what happens next - but i plan to keep working as hard as ever to MAKE things happen.

    Well, really I'm just hoping that S.Shore offers me a good job once he starts his in-house company!