Longevity in the islands
Ken Libby, owner of Light Impressions in Kaneohe, has been in the business for 39 years, the last 15 as a solo act. He both shoots and lights, focusing on the higher end of the market.
Libby ventures to “The Great 48” at times, but most of his work is local spots, through other production companies or direct. Recent efforts include an ongoing gig with Hawaiian Electric, the local power utility; a campaign for the new Cirque de Soleil show called Waikiki Nei; and a series of four spots for the Resort Quest hotel chain. Libby’s largest project is ongoing long-form work for Hualalai, the Four Seasons resort in Kona.
He’s been shooting all of his work in HD and just sold his film camera; today, he owns Sony 900, 350, and EX1 cameras. The latter is a new SxS-format camera “and gets an amazing picture with my old Nikon lenses,” he reports.
So far, his bottom line in 2008 has been less than he hoped for. “But it’s still better than I was thinking it would be this year, given the economy,” he admits. Happily, business has picked up lately.
The gang at Pacific Focus, near Honolulu, can also claim longevity: The company has been in business for a whopping 32 years. With eight full-timers, Pacific Focus shoots and cuts projects that often include industrials, spots and broadcast work, says President and Executive Producer Jason Suapaia.
That can mean in-room programming for hotels like the Hilton Hawaiian Village, which has a network with four channels (including one in Japanese), plus content for various advertisers and vendors on the channels. Pacific Focus also produces and posts spots like Kentucky Fried Chicken from The Harris Agency and American Savings Bank from Laird Christianson; provided production management for a live K-1 fight (mixed martial arts) for a Japanese company called FEG partnering with Liquid Planet Studios on the Pay-Per-View event for the Korean and Japanese markets; and helped with cast interviews and behind-the-scenes location shooting for the last season of ABC’s Lost.
The company owns two Panasonic VariCams, plus a Panasonic HVX200 DVCPRO HD camera and an Ikegami HL-55. It cuts on Apple’s Final Cut Pro HD and boasts a nearly 1,000-square-foot soundstage. Although business has been “up and down” this year Suapaia repots “it’s picking up for fall.”
Beyond LA
The gang at Crystal Pyramid Productions in San Diego often works in the corporate realm for clients like Allied Waste Services and IBM and in the broadcast world, creating segments for shows like Extra featuring Carmen Electra and Kim Kardashian supporting their recent movie, Disaster.
“Business is booming for us,” says Mark Schulze, president and CEO. “We’ve done quite a bit of work in PAL for companies in Italy and the UK. That’s because European currencies are so strong and the US dollar is so weak.”
The struggling economy here at home and high gas prices are affecting the way business has been done lately, he notes. “Production companies in LA don’t want to send crew 150 miles [to San Diego] due to the high gas prices and the four-hour trip, and companies from elsewhere may send one person, if anyone,” Schulze says. “When they think San Diego, they rely on companies like ours because of our longevity and because we’re a one-stop shop.”
Crystal Pyramid’s production kit includes Sony Z1U and EX model cameras, a Panasonic HDX200A and new RED ONE camera. Also on hand are three Sony Beta SP cameras and two DVCAMs. Three Avids (Media Composer and Xpress Pro) handle editing tasks along with a workstation running Adobe Premiere Pro CS3. The company also has a huge stock footage library.
Hollywood-based Walker/Fitzgibbon, a multimedia production house, entered the business in the spot market in Miami in 1989 and moved to Hollywood about three years ago “since all of our clients were pretty much based here,” says Executive Producer Mo Fitzgibbon.
The company has spot and documentary credits as well as bios for Gloria Estefan (for Lifetime’s Intimate Portrait and VH-1’s Legends), Juanes (for the Grammys) and Maria Menunos (for a live Reebok event). It is also moving toward scripted television projects, “kind of a natural progression for us,” Fitzgibbon notes. Those efforts include a talk/reality pilot, anchored in LA and Nigeria, being pitched to domestic cable. It stars Nigerian actress Dakore Egbuson and was completed in conjunction with her new music video, Don’t Make Me, which was released worldwide.
“We want to get to the top of the creative chain, so we’re developing that kind of project,” says Fitzgibbon. Centac is a crime drama in development and planned as a cable series; and Wheeler – The Limo Man is a “dramedy” now in script form and also under consideration.
Walker/Fitzgibbon is also working with Omni Advertising in South Florida on a national Honda spot called Greenest in America. The company often rents cameras, but owns a Sony V1U HD camera along with three Final Cut Pro HD systems.
Diversity in Oregon
The workload at Douglas Technical Services (DTS) in Eugene consists mainly of news, TV magazine segments and corporate projects. Owner/DP Scott Douglas has been in the business for 11 years and often teams with two-person crews. He’s noticed that production companies are using more freelancers, crew and equipment in cities outside of their own, “because it’s too expensive these days for them to fly their own personnel all over the country.”
Recent credits include a segment for The History Channel’s Modern Marvels about wheat from cultivation to distribution; an interview during the Olympic trials with famed track star Carl Lewis for a French network, L’equipe TV, in PAL; plus a segment for CBS Sunday Morning with correspondent Bill Geist on the Velveteria Museum in Portland which showcases paintings on velvet.
Douglas shoots in various formats offering “one of the largest equipment packages in the Northwest,” which includes Panasonic HDX900 and DVX100B cameras, two Sony Betacams, and DVCAM and Mini DV cameras.
Business has been “real good” and Douglas is ready for more HD work and satellite projects; he set up a live uplink after a recent rally in Portland for US Democratic party presidential candidate Barack Obama.
While many companies in smaller markets tend to offer a variety of services, Big Shot Pictures has taken the opposite tack: It tends to stick to projects for the direct-response market, which can mean commercials that run from two minutes to 30 minutes.
In June, Big Shot traveled to Miami to shoot 16 testimonial interviews for its main client of late, NutriSystem. “Out of that material, we’re producing one 30-minute infomercial and from six to eight shortform spots between 60 seconds and two minutes each,” says Executive Producer Mary Jane Wood. The longer piece will air this fall on cable networks nationwide.
The company’s crew also flew to Connecticut to document the NutriSystem success stories of former NFL players and current sports media personalities, Mike and Bob Golic. “We’ll get five to 10 spots out of that material and some of it could be incorporated into an infomercial,” Wood reports.
Other Big Shot credits include an infomercial for ANSR Acne Care for Oregon Aesthetic Technologies and spots with a Bay Area scooter company NextSport.
The company typically shoots film with rented 16mm and 35mm cameras, but it captured the Golics with Panasonic DVCPRO SDX900 cameras. Big Shot edits in-house on an Avid Adrenaline.
Business booms in this Washington
Most of the work at Spokane’s DreamWeaver Productions is derived from the spot market, although President/Director/Producer Mike Weaver calls recent projects “quite varied.” The company’s largest client, Northwest Basketball Camps (or NBC) has generated spots with web video and longer-form work, like athletic training pieces.
Currently in production is a commercial campaign for city-owned Riverfront Park, home to an IMAX theater, which has resulted in work advertising its attractions.
In-house graphics and highlight reels for the Spokane Shock, an arena football team in the af2 league, also figure prominently in the mix. “We’re in a small market and 95 percent of my work is local,” says Weaver. “For a small city, we have an enormous production market here.” And he’s doing well. “This is my best year ever in 13 years,” he reports. “If this is a bad economy, I can’t wait for a good one.”
A fully HD house, DreamWeaver rents cameras while Weaver contemplates what model to purchase, perhaps a Panasonic HDX200 or the Sony XDCAM HD EX1. The house edits with Final Cut Pro HD.
From its base in Seattle, MagicHour shoots commercials and corporate projects, “in all kinds of formats,” says partner Jorge Barrera, a director/DP. Credits include recent spots running in the Pacific Northwest for local concerns like Highline Medical Center and Tulalip Resort Casino, plus instructional videos for Quest Diagnostics and multiple projects for Microsoft.
Most of MagicHour’s work comes from the western US, although out-of-market work comes occasionally from clients like St. Mary’s Hospital in Grand Junction, Colorado.
The company often opts for 35mm, Super16 and HD formats for broadcast, web distribution or DVD. Using different formats, though, has meant “trying to keep our equipment purchase to a minimum,” says Barrera. “Other than our Super16 package and a [Panasonic] P2 camera that we use in corporate work, we rent all the equipment we use.” MagicHour cuts all of its projects in-house, usually on Final Cut Pro HD.
Noting that increasing numbers of projects are being delivered to the audience via the Internet, Barrera and company are casting on optimistic eye toward MagicHour’s bottom line as 2009 comes into view. “It’s been a nice, busy year,” he says, “with a consistent work flow.”
No slow down up north
It’s all spots, all the time – except for the occasional corporate job, which normally comes from a spot client, anyway – at Bill Holden Productions in the Anchorage suburb of Eagle River.
The director/DP’s work includes three spots for ConocoPhillips, two for AT&T for the Alaskan market (all for ongoing campaigns), and a spot for Denali - The Alaska Gas Pipeline, all via Bradley Reid + Associates, a nearly 15-year liaison.
About 90 percent of business for the 25-year industry vet originates in-state, but travel to the “Contiguous 48” is never out of the question. Still, Alaska furnishes breathtaking backdrops for many jobs. And, “as a DP, the light can be boost,” Holden says. “It’s low angle, even during the summer at noon. That allows me to get better lit shots.”
Calling business “really good this year and up from last year’s figures,” he shoots film and HD. He rents the Aaton XTR for Super 16mm jobs and various 35mm ARRI packages from Oppenheimer Camera in Seattle. However, he’s been shooting more HD than film this year, usually with the Panasonic HDX900.
Sean Morris has built Alaskan Nomad Productions around spot production too, but he has a good number of music videos to his credit and also dabbles in the feature world. His screenplay, Rain Bringer, was optioned last year, and he’s polishing another, Raven's Gemini, set in Alaska. A new web-based series is also in development.
Given that agenda, it’s not surprising Morris has an office in Anchorage and another in LA, “where most of my work is based,” he says. “But as my company’s name implies, I'll travel anywhere” – and he’s not kidding. He ventured to Stockholm to direct a commercial for Notar Realty.
Morris owns Super16 and 35mm cameras – although the purchase of his first HD camera may be on the horizon – and a Final Cut Pro system.
Business has been great this year despite the effects of the writers’ and actors’ strikes, as well as the slowing economy, he reports.
