THIS IS WHAT IT TAKES

                                                         Part the next 3/26/18

Hey, can we produce a series of spots today and get them on the air tomorrow?

…uhh…never mind.

A long, long time ago, I can still remember how the music…..wait….

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away……wait

I remember my first night…it seems like a long time ago…wait!!

Are we sensing a pattern here? Well, let me explain.

I titled this last tease with ‘Why are clients taking so long to make a decision?’ 16 months ago I was approached by an agency to produce a series of spots that absolutely, positively needed to be on the air in 6 weeks. Kinda frightened at the prospect of course I said no problemo. This agency had no concept, no script and no idea what the final product would entail but asked me to put together an estimate “just to see what we were looking at.”

“We won’t hold you to it”, they said. “Just a ballpark…”

Right…Wrigley freakin field. (Junior Soprano, 2004)

I had worked with this group before and knew their limits, however, I decided to estimate these numbers on a project I recently completed with a similar description. I based it on 2 shoot days, numerous principal and background talent, 2 locations and 2 weeks of post.

You should remember this part as it will re surface later. Their initial reaction was like the answer one gets when asking why they need to be admitted to a mental hospital…

It is what it is.

A week later we were presented with 5 concepts and asked to give estimates (Wrigley field again) keeping in mind that a decision would be made within a few days and we should still be prepared for “an air date 5 weeks out.”

So, we prepared rough estimates based on 5 concepts and they decided to flush out 2 and create scripts….they would choose one to produce. 2 weeks later we received scripts and were asked to prepare storyboards and an animatic with original music. At this point, we all realized that the original ‘air date’ was not happening. We were now looking at end of first quarter for completion.

After board prep, animatics and revised estimates we waited…

And waited….and waited more….

My first reaction was that the project was dead….and no one wanted to hurt my feelings…

…no, they just could not decide.

Was the concept correct, did it hit the mark…was it too far out there?

Scrapped!!!!!

What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate…

After weeks of waiting for a response, we were back to the drawing board…literally.

Another round of concepts, estimates, new boards and another animatic (deposit received based on time and materials to date). This time, however, we were asked to present in front of the clients marketing group.

Our team traveled with deck in hand and animatic links again to present the 7th and 8th concept for review. We delivered what was asked to a room full of marketing execs and 4 more voices on a conference call.

Let the discussions begin. Pros and cons of the concepts were hashed out, argued through and eventually deemed offensive to the audience. However, before we dismiss these ideas, they wanted to present to the CEO for his yay/nay.

A few weeks passed and we were asked to return to the boardroom to present revised scripts, boards, animatics, original music and alternate concepts for 2 commercials to pitch to the CEO for his decision on spots that most of the team had previously deemed offensive to the target.

I felt like I was on the witness stand testifying against my colleagues. I was asked to defend what had already been removed from the table. Maybe they wanted me to take the fall….

After weeks of research, revisions, more blah blah (before the final blah, we contacted the Department of Defense for access to DOD videos to be used in another possible concept, contacted a major music publishing house to see about the rights to a song produced in the 1930’s and sought out a broadway choreographer to see about putting together some dance moves for still another concept) blah..……Scrapped!

At this point it became kind of running joke… prepare, present, start again. I guess the issue we were having was who was responsible for identifying what the creative needs to be?

A month later (now 9 months after initial contact) we were assured that the latest round of creative was IT. So again, we built new estimates and boards. Remember earlier when I told you the response to the first round of estimates was something akin to “...are you effin nuts…??”

Well this estimate was in line with those numbers and approved if we were to move forward.

-I liked it Mom, it tasted kinda like chicken.

 -It was chicken.

Let’s jump ahead because this is starting to drag…. just like this process had been doing for about a year.

Well, thirteen months after initial contact we had an approved, very straight forward, non-threatening creative script that was again storyboarded and ready to go. The rest of the process was very standard production world stuff…. casting, pre- pro, scouting, shoot and post. Nothing crazy here.

And the spots are airing and getting a pretty darn nice response.

So, it paid off, all this work. It was a bit of a coaster ride for me with the upfront process dragging me up and down like yo yo. We were busy enough with other projects that this one, in the end, was a gift.

My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives.

So, what have we learned.

 I can’t remember when a project that we were very involved with from the beginning went through so many concepts and scripts only to arrive at the most basic idea that ultimately seems so effective. We literally went from a fully choreographed spot to high end composite and finally settled on tried and true spokes with benefits. Again, thanks to a fantastic crew who had to hump gear and props down a 2 flight of stairs at the end of day because the elevators went down. Without them, success is never possible. Our clients were wonderful to deal with and amidst all the early indecision, were instrumental in contributing great ideas that led to a successful production.

Total time from first estimate to network Delivery: 1 year, 4 months, 5 days, 16 hours….ish