Production Companies Fuel Projects With Revenue:

By TyFord

As predicted, the increase in the number of cable channels has increased the demand for content. In addition to traditional programming sources filling the pipeline, production companies are also tossing in. This is not a new concept. Many traditional post-production facilities figured out years ago that, with the loss of business to smaller facilities with lower overheads, program origination was one way to keep a facility's edit bays busy. While the reward requires risk, not taking the risk means lay-offs, Chapters Eleven or Thirteen, or chucking it all, embracing the new technology and reinventing yourself.

These days shooters edit and editors shoot. Everybody is doing everything. While there are still specialists required for high-end or very tweeky work, they frequently can be hired as-needed from anywhere around the world. That's connectivity for you. And as fiber to the curb for consumers becomes more prevalent, that increased connectivity will do two things; further increase the demand for content and further fractionalize market share for any individual effort. In future issues, iCOM will address the implications of narrowcasting on our industry. Stay tuned.

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But meanwhile, how does it work? Who's doing the work and how are things getting done. iCOM spoke to four production companies in the Mid-Atlantic. Although each story is slightly different, the common thread is that almost all have their sights set on creating their own programming with the hopes of getting it on the air somewhere.

LOST WORLD MEDIA
At Lost World Media (www.lostworldmedia.com), owner Steve Gibson recently moved from Alexandria, VA to Frederick, MD where life is a little slower and equally historic. He seems to have the best of both worlds; steady clients, with enough revenue to fund his more personal projects. "I love the idea of history. There's something magical about more simple things and places. It's not exactly 'Pleasantville', but Frederick has a sense of a bygone era in which there was more beauty, more art...where the architecture is more important than how many places can fit in a square city block."

Although Gibson would rather be shooting film, he has come to grips with budget realities. "I worked with 35mm in Tulsa and always liked the look of film, but I've found the Panasonic DVX100a, Final Cut Pro and Magic Bullet can sometimes cheat it well enough. Obviously there's a difference, but my clients seem to like it.

Gibson's biggest client is Virginia-based America Online. "I produce 'The Startup', AOL's reality series about small business. (http://smallbusiness.aol.com/thestartup/year2/video). They've created quite a buzz with it. For the first year, we shot the profile vignettes and gave each company a DV camcorder so they could shoot their own 'diaries' and send in tapes every week; you know, all the things people go through to make it work, the highs and lows. What we got from them was a bit rough, so for year two, I'm going out on two of the locations and we've hired a local producer for the third location. We'll shoot interviews and B-roll with the Executive Producer from AOL asking the questions." Gibson says Entrepreneur Magazine provides articles that accompany the videos each week.

"Although I like to work with other editors, I shoot, edit and do the compression for the AOL project. I love Final Cut Pro. I can edit easily and export the pieces to the specs we need. The pieces are short, around two and a half to three minutes. That ends up being about 5 GB, uncompressed. We'll use H.264 in the future for iTunes and PodCasting."

Gibson says he's getting an increasing number of inquiries about shooting and producing for iPods. "There's a buzz that PodCasting will be the next new medium. I don't know for sure, but my clients seem to be asking for it. They're seeing it for short form, in-hand, kill-some-time video for consumers in waiting rooms and airports - like those commercials pitching V-Cast. I'm working on a series budget right now for an antique dealer, which will ultimately be a Learning Channel, HGTV sort of project shot in bits and pieces.. It's still in the pre-production stage right now but recent conversations have been about the format to use for the intended audience. Obviously you don't want to budget for full-on HD production if it'll never see more than a 3-inch screen or be streamed through a web site."

It's clear that Gibson would much rather be shooting something more creative than talking heads and his work with AOL and other clients has allowed him to do just that. "In a former life I was Director of Production at MHz Networks, channels 53 and 56 in Falls Church, VA. We did a four-camera national music show and picked up some Emmys. We'd seen about 300 bands come through the studio for our programming; jazz, rock, blues, mostly acts who played the 9:30 Club and Constitution Hall in Washington, D. C.. We did that from 2000 to 2003 weekly, plus a live, five night a week hour long entertainment show. The half hour concert series, MHz Presents, went national."

Before leaving Virginia for Maryland, Gibson also produced the behind-the-scenes (electronic press kit) for the feature film 'Crazy Eights', starring Traci Lords and Frank Whaley for DC-based iKoya Productions. "They have the tapes and are still working on the film. It should be out sometime this year. I'm also working on a 7 minute dark comedy that has sort of an Office Space meets The Twilight Zone feel, shot on video."

Gibson says he wants to return to the art and music feel of production, bringing more craft back to what used to be a very craft oriented art form. "Now that I'm settled with my own place, in a town I like, I want to get back in touch with the local music scene and get back into doing music videos again. I just like keeping busy. I'd rather spend my time doing a video for free than waste time watching TV. Eventually, I'd like to retire and paint murals."

HAWKEYE PRODUCTIONS
Darren Williams has been operating Hawkeye Productions

Hawkeye travels to Doha, Qatar. Hosts Linda Gasparello and Llewellyn King (White House Chronicles-PBS) interview Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA 49th).

(www.hawkeyeproductions.com) in Springfield, VA, just south of Washington, D. C. for 16 years. Like many production companies, Hawkeye is small, hiring on an as-needed basis. "We're sort of cross-market between government, corporate, and association clients. We also produce and direct live multi-camera shoots and staging events. We'll produce the event and/or do the live visual support."

Williams says he's not on a fast track to own production gear, because it changes so rapidly. In house, Hawkeye has BetaCam, DVCam, DVD hardware and Final Cut Studio 5.0. "I can do a lot of jobs in-house that I couldn't do that four or five years ago because decks and editing systems are cheaper now. I have editing experience, and will typically do most of the basic cut/dissolve editing. The caveat is knowing when you're better off delegating or outsourcing the work. There are some fantastic talent and facilities locally; as good as you'll find in Chicago, New York and LA. I use them especially for

It's lights, camera, action for this Spanish-language PSA on recycling.

higher-end work."

Commenting on decreasing budgets, Williams says he sees budgets remaining about the same, but the client expects more. "They may ask for high-end DVDs with chaptered menus, or for you to manage their webcasting deliverable. You have to be able to find those resources for them these days, with archiving so the webcast can be watched later. Hawkeye doesn't equip for live webcasting, but I will send a program feed from a switcher to a webcasting company's real-time encoder." Williams says Windows Media Player files are still the way to go for his government and corporate clients, with Real and Quicktime as other options. "Coming out of FCP, I'll use Flip4Mac to convert Quicktime to a Windows Media file, but rendering a decent resolution .wmv usually takes about three times the length of the show, even on

Darren Williams of Hawkeye Productions (right) with White House Chronicles (PBS) Producer Mike Marlow (left), Hosts Linda Gasparello & Llewellyn King (center), and Qatari production crew on location in Qatar.

my dual 2GHz Mac."

The biggest near-term growth market Williams sees is making sure Hawkeye's production work is Section 508 compliant. (Check out the Section 508 FAQ at www.tinyurl.com/of7ph, or www.ncd.gov/newsroom/news/2003/r03-415.htm). "The federal law was passed in 2001. Section 508 deals with mandatory subtitling, captioning, and audio description. The webcasting side is far more complicated. I don't think the industry is fully prepared to deal with 508. There are general Congressional guidelines (www.section508.gov), and each government agency has its own sub-guidelines."

Williams says he's found companies like Automatic Sync Technologies (www.automaticsync.com) that offer economical solutions. "I can export an .mp3 from my edited timeline, and upload it via the Internet to Automatic Sync. They transcribe it and return it to you with captioning (.scc) and subtitling (.stl) files that have timestamps and can easily be imported into DVD Studio Pro."

CANYON PRODUCTIONS
After cutting his teeth producing Evening Magazine at WJZ TV in Baltimore and moving around similar stations and assignments in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Salt Lake City, Eric Temple stepped out on his own 14 years ago to form Canyon Productions (www.canyonproductions.com) and never looked back. "I've always been a shooter, editor, producer. I can wear many hats."

After moving to Bethesda, Maryland, Temple targeted the high-end corporate video market. After the DotCom and telecom crash, he shifted to government clients to pay the bills. "Some of the DotCom and Telecom businesses are still around, but they aren't outsourcing much video work. The ad agencies we were working though experienced a similar catastrophic reduction, so the loss eventually cascaded down to us. For the last six years, most of my business has been coming from government script to screen projects.

Temple says business has leveled off, but comfortably. "We don't feel much pressure to go out and get new clients. We have several continuing, long term clients and don't really spend much time marketing ourselves other than by our website." Temple says keeping clients happy is a function of experience. "We get totally immersed in their projects, naturally, hoping they'll keep coming back. So far we've been very fortunate. I've been working in production since my teens. I'm almost 50 now and know what works and how to get things done."

Temple's team consists of himself, his wife, who does the book keeping, and a consortium of friends. "There are four other guys I work with. We all have our own production companies. I'm the shooter/editor of the group. When one of us gets a project, we all chip in, depending on what's needed. I get my voiceovers from people all over the country using phone patches and FTP sites. I sometimes get my audio mixed at MVI Post in Arlington. My graphic and web design guy is in Israel. He's been my web master for six or seven years and we've never met."

Timing technology advances is critical to survival. Temple says he's just switched from Avid to Final Cut Studio. "I did it because of cost and because Avid hasn't been very innovative recently. My old Avid Media Composer 1000XL is now unused and in the basement. I was able to use the new Apple software right out of the box, but it took two or three projects to get comfortable."

Extra income from outside sources goes right back into funding Temple's own projects. "Small publishing is emerging as a viable revenue stream. There are thousands of rabid fans for thousands of small projects. The internet definitely figures into the equation. It's about reaching people. It's sold on DVD these days, but as the internet opens up a bit more these products will be downloadable."

Temple says the kinds of projects that interest him are are not mass appeal. "I like to challenge myself on eclectic projects. I enjoy throwing myself into very different productions. It's nice to

Paul Wimmer (audio), Eric Temple (with camera) in Jasper, Alberta during taping of Hearts on the Line.

work in different genres and learn from that. My goal on these indy projects is to break even and so far so good. I recently finished producing a seventy five minute concert DVD for singer/songwriter Tom Russell. We went across Canada onboard a restored streamlined train for what turned out to be moving folk festival. I took two cameras, hired crew and two more cameras along the way and put $40K into it. I ended up with an hour and fifteen minute show distributed on DVD. I licensed distribution to HighTone records, the record company, and they've asked me to do another one."

Another recent project was a documentary on environmentalist and author of "The Monkey Wrench Gang", Edward Abbey. "I shot it, edited it, sold it and made my money back. Last year I re-edited it from scratch to fix all the little things that bothered me; new narrator, original music, color correction, and released it on DVD. My new money loser is a documentary on Cowboy Culture in California. I'll be working with Tom Russell again on that. I plan to include Tom, Ramblin' Jack Elliot and Canadian Ian Tyson sitting and picking. There'll also be some cowboy poetry. It'll all be a part of the story of Tom's sister in law, a ninth generation California rancher who has killed her share of bears. Her son is now moving in to help run the ranch. These folks are real old west not just big belt buckles and hats".

WATER FROG PRODUCTIONS
At Water Frog Productions (www.waterfrog.com) in Springfield, Virginia, Owner Kristin Bradley and Aaron Shirley are a case study of the small shop. Bradley started back in the 1990s and after working with Shirley as a camera operator and recognizing his talent, brought him on board about a year and a half ago. Together, they manage a lean shop with two ENG production packages and three non-linear (AVID and Final Cut Pro HD) editing systems (one for remote edits) where they are positioned to meet the needs of their customers.

Aaron Shirley with Joseph Weichel on location in Seattle, Washington.

Although Water Frog Productions might be considered small, from the beginning, post-production was only one part of what Water Frog Productions offered. "We're pretty much a script-to-screen shop with the potential to increase our size according to the needs of the client. Smaller production companies with the right, new equipment today can accomplish a lot more work for a lot less money than many of the larger organizations. When I need additional talent on large-scale projects, I use my network of professionals that I've been working with for over ten years and they know the level of quality I demand on my projects. Since the individuals I hire prefer to move from project to project instead of working out of an office everyday, together we form a great partnership, reducing overhead costs. This savings is extended to my clients while still exceeding their expectations."

Bradley says although most of her time at Water Frog Productions is spent working on industrials, her goal this year is to seek out more commercial work. "If I can work with a client or agency in

Kristin Bradley editing at Water Frog Productions.

pre-production, getting something down on paper first, the client can edit it, it can be massaged by many and we can get the job done. We're also trying to show our clients how to maximize the usage of their footage. When we're in pre-production, we talk about their long-term plans and try to brainstorm ways in which to provide them additional services that fit into their vision. If you understand what the client wants their customer to see, you can help them put their thoughts into motion."

Bradley says, right now, Flash and compressed video streamed on the web for training and marketing are 'in'. As others have found, Water Frog Productions finds that the learning curve is worth the end result. "Companies are trying to improve their websites and get more on them. We're using Flash to spruce up sites because file sizes are smaller and you don't need a player."

Pushing the envelope has become part of the process at Water Frog Productions. "We have clients ask us to venture into new areas of technologies with them, knowing that there is a learning curve. They understand that this learning curve usually comes with additional labor hours. We figure out how much time it should take after mastering the skill, and bill them accordingly. It's a win-win situation!"

After the bills are paid, Bradley uses the surplus to work on some of our her own projects like a production in the early phases of development involving the U.S. Soldiers Home in Washington, DC. As a long time visitor with her dog in the visiting pet program [through P.A.L.], she realizes that the soldiers there have stories to tell and voices to be heard. It is her goal to insure that their efforts from the past do not go unnoticed. "Perhaps it is a way for me to say thank you. I listened to a veteran tell a group of high school cadets from SE that he would do it all again to secure their freedom. It brought tears to my eyes and makes me thankful and proud to be an American."

Newcomers can learn more by visiting the National Association of Television Programming Executives (NATPE) website www.natpe.org. Of special interest is the NATPE TV Producers Bootcamp, July 27-28, in West Hollywood, CA. For more information, be sure to check their industry calendar, www.natpe.org/calendar.

Ty Ford continues on special assignment to iCOM. A longtime journalist, he may also be found working as an AFTRA/SAG talent, location audio recordist and recording engineer/producer. Find out more at www.tyford.com.

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