Confessions of an Executive Producer

free ideas

When you go to the Epoch website we present a "Free Idea". This concept was thought up by Todd Lamb. Director. Writer. All around creative force. And, a friend of Epoch. I love it. It embraces the spirit of today's culture in a subtle amusing fashion. Participate and share at virtually no cost. 

In the short time since the launch we've received an unexpected amount of contributions. Unexpected since as an industry I don't see a lot of public participation. I was happy to be proven wrong. Although I found out that despite the large number of entries the vast majority of them used pseudonyms instead of their real names. 

I've written about lack of transparency before. For every comment on my blog I receive five times as many personal messages. They are usually questions, additional thoughts or requests. 99% of the them are positive. On occasion, I get negative feedback. In the best cases, I've heard disagreement with my opinions. In the worst, I've actually been accursed of offending someone. The common thread with the negative comments is they are, with the rare exception, through a third party and never made public.

Let me make a public confession. Many of things I write I don't completely agree with. I'm trying to think out loud, unfiltered and honest. It's to raise issues of the day. Spark a debate. Create community and dialogue. I never intend to offend. If I have, I apologize. Snark is not my aim. 

Lately I'm a little down on this whole blog thing. Maybe I'm too sensitive when I hear negative feedback without the ability to respond. It makes me think I may be doing more harm than good, to my company and possibly the production community. Is it too much effort for not enough satisfaction? Or impact?

George Patton once said "If everyone is thinking alike than everyone isn't thinking". This is one of several reasons I started this thing 11 months ago. I welcome divergent thought. I desire constructive debate without the negativity. I'd like it to be public and I want more of it.

I'll end on a question since that might make it easier to evoke response. Why isn't our industry more transparent in their opinions? Obviously I have my own thoughts on it but would love to hear yours. 

passing kindergarten

As a kid my sister, Susan, loved to tease me by saying I failed kindergarten. She said I had to repeat it because I didn't learn to share. It use to piss me off. This was Susan's ploy to guilt me into giving up something I possessed that she thought should be shared. 

Last week I had a meeting with three different companies on three separate days. The first was on Wednesday with the Whitehouse. They are an international post facility with offices in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and London. They developed a business model for editorial that raised the bar and many others emulated.

The meeting stemmed from an email from Sue Dawson who asked if I could meet with her, Dave and Rick. Dave was curious about the monthly cultural report Brielle generates for us. Over breakfast at The Fig, we spoke on a wide array of topics only briefly touching upon the Epoch cultural cheat sheet. They asked me about my blog, my business and the AICP. They told me about happenings at the Whitehouse. We engaged in a lively exchange about going direct to client. The future of content. In-house agency editorial. 

Thursday I met with Bruce and Paul from the Quarry, a London based edit house. They were on a fact finding mission.  Mindy (in NY) and myself (in LA) took the time to meet them. In my meeting we discussed the American market. Past models. Current trends. Ideas for the future. I gave them the American perspective and they gave me the British one. 

Both of these meetings were mind opening. I was able to get a perspective on business from creative people who are also entrepreneurial. Equally as important as learning from their experiences was being forced to articulate an honest assessment of my own business. Those meetings were great experiences but none greater than the one I ended my week on.

On Friday, I was in San Francisco. I stopped by and visited the offices of Mekanism. A couple months ago, my wife had been contacted about doing some work for them. I'm a big admirer of their company and encouraged her to do so. In our experiences with Dandelion, Mekanism routinely beat us out on projects. They are setting the standard in the branded content arena. I was curious to meet them and understand their model. With the utmost grace and hospitality, Jason Harris and Tommy Means took time out of their day to talk to me.

During my short stay at their offices they showed me their operation, talked to me about how they built their company, told me of anecdotes from their jobs. It was beyond generous. I tried to reciprocate in kind although I felt I had a lot more to learn from them than they from me. 

What I gained from these meeting is that sharing works, even amongst present or potentially future competitors. It's needed more than ever. It's how we get better. It's how we innovate. It's how we move the industry forward. 

According to Susan I may have passed kindergarten by the skin of my teeth but I'm smart enough to know Sue, Rick, Dave, Paul, Bruce, Jason and Tommy all passed with flying colors. 

be thankful

I'm in New York City for the week to celebrate Thanksgiving. Between work, family and other obligations I'm not sure how much writing I'm going to get accomplished this week. This may be my only posting until the 30th although don't count me out. There is no better place for inspiration than NYC.

As tis' the season, I was thinking about Thanksgiving. No matter where I have had the Turkey meal inevitably the question arises, "What are you thankful for?". I thought what if we did that as an industry, especially this year, what would people say?

We have all heard the prognosticators declaring the end of the TV commercial. The death of the production company model. We've been deluged with talk of preferred vendor lists, AICP dysfunction, in house production. All of this points to a declining industry causing anxiety, fear and uncertainty. This is year very few found a lot to be thankful for, at least professionally. Many worked harder for less or the same. I still believe there is a lot to be thankful for.

Be thankful for the crews and vendors that have adapted to the new economic climate.

Be thankful for the production company community that is beginning to realize the industry is as important as the individual

Be thankful for an industry that not only rewards but demands innovation

Be thankful talent matters

Be thankful for the NFL, Olympics, the Oscars and all live TV events

Be thankful we make films not cars or clothes

Be thankful for realizing there is opportunity and time to adapt 

Be thankful for our dedicated staffs

Be thankful we're not in this alone

And, I'm sure there is much that I've missed.

2009 is quickly coming to a close. Let's also be thankful for that. 2010 presents us with a new beginning. A chance to end the negativity. To stop focusing on the problems and start finding solutions. To take responsibility for your own actions. To realize our future is not rooted in preserving the past. 

It often doesn't feel it but we as filmmaker and communicators and branders have potential to create a new industry and business models. Many industries in this country are not afforded that same luxury. This chance of promise alone is enough to be thankful for. 

peer chatter

Business is supposedly getting better but business practices seem to be getting worse. Yesterday I wrote about GM's new "deliver now and we'll send you a check much later" payment policy. Of course this isn't an isolated occurrence. 

There have been two other issues of note. Imbev, the owner of Budweiser, has been rumored to be sending their American agency work to Canadian production companies. And, they aint looking for Canadian directors. 

They are looking for US directing talent that is represented by Canadian companies. I guess they don't know those deals are predominantly with the production companies not with the directors. I'm sure they don't care. They just want to get top US talent at a cheaper price via producing through Canada. For the great American beer company personifying the regular working man, this action doesn't seem very, well, American.

Once again it's the devaluation of producers and production companies. It isn't worth paying for our producing expertise but we make great suppliers of talent and, on occasion, pretty good interest free banks.

The other is the P&G preferred vendor list. P&G, or as they like to refer to themselves - the world's largest advertiser, asked production companies this summer to lock into pre-negotiated rates below market value. Prodco's provide documentation and agree up front. If it meets P&G's standards, your company would have the privilege of bidding on P&G commercial projects. If you didn't make the list or comply with their requests, you are ineligible. 

The majority of the top production companies refused to participate. This week P&G started kicking the ineligible out of the bid pools including these top companies. I give P&G credit for sticking to their guns. I wonder if the creative directors will too.

There's a silver lining. I learned about most of this from my peers. There was a very informative, open and often humorous dialog going on amongst a group of EP's and company owners this week. Gotta love the "reply all" button. They shared their current experiences, the most recent updates and their company stances on these subjects. I found this not only helpful but also wildly encouraging. 

Production companies, unlike many businesses, is built upon saying YES. We are problem solvers. We see a near impossible obstacle and want to figure a way around it, or over it, or under it, or just smashing through it. However, in these particular cases the solution is saying NO. It's against our natures. It's even more difficult to do it alone but a lot less so with community support.

In these times of transition a hint of unity, a little bit of trust and a lot of sharing goes along way especially amongst competitors. Although most of the conversations are still held privately (see the comments section on yesterday's posting), I'll take what I can get. 

Baby steps often turn into strides.  

finding faith

I was sitting in Temple on Saturday morning for Rosh Hashanah services struggling to keep my eyes open. Wanting to set a good example for my kids, I feigned interest in the service. As my mind drifted struggling to stay in the moment, the Rabbi said something that grabbed my attention. He started to talk about the meaning of the Jewish New Year.

The New Year represents many things. The beginning of the Jewish Calendar. The celebration of the creation of the world. It is also the day of judgement marking the beginning of 10 days of atonement. As the Rabbi said, it's a dedicated time period to reflect on the past year. Mistakes you made. Things you may have done differently. Ways to better the world we live in. This 10 day period of reflection culminates in Yom Kippor, the holiest day of the year. For the gentile crowd, on Yom Kippor you fast for 24 hours symbolically cleansing your body of past sins with the intent to committing to a better future for yourself and your community.

In the past I've contemplated and fasted. Rarely works. After a week I'm back to making the same mistakes and committing the same sins. This year it's going to different for no other reasons than it has to. The stakes are too high.

So as I listened to this reconstructionist Rabbi, who would be perfectly cast for an episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm", I thought of 5 things we can all do make our community better.

1. Thou Shalt solicit open, honest and transparent conversation with competitors and peers
2. Thou Shalt not enter into any agreement that poses a threat not only to your business but also to our industry
3. Thou Shalt stop complaining about industry problems and start acting upon them 
4. Thou Shalt set a good example for our employees by practicing the fair business practices we want to be practiced upon us
5. Thou Shalt not strive to give back as much as we take

For all you non-believers, this list is purely non-denominational. It only requires being a member of the production company community. And, placing value and faith in a higher power. That higher power is you.