Just say "No, (thank you)"

Everyone wants to work. It's always been difficult to turn jobs down, and nowadays, few folks will no matter what the situation is. A recent experience reminded me of the importance of not losing sight of the "big picture" and knowing when (and how) to say no. This time it was a project for a sizable, national consumer magazine, but the same holds true for other types of clients/projects. The clients came to us for what at first sounded like a pretty cool series of images: three full page conceptual still lives illustrating the changing investment landscape and consumer mindsets due to our tanking economy. We NAILED it, and presented 2-3 sketches for each of the shots. The PE said everyone loved them, but that they weren't quite right for the feature (ie. not literal enough), and could we think about it some more and present some alternative directions? A weekend passed, the deadline loomed closer, and the following Monday, several new concepts were presented, getting a lukewarm reception. We were then asked to revisit the original directions, but to change them so they more closely fit the financial subject material (can you say, "literal"?!). After bastardizing the first round, making further changes, twice, we were finally ready to shoot. At that point, I believe EVERYONE was fatigued, and because it was too late to do differently, we forged ahead with approved concepts that NO ONE felt great about. Unfortunately, it showed in the work, and even after re-shooting one of the concepts, I'm certain both parties will bury these images once the feature runs. Looking back, we took the job not just because we felt it was a good creative opportunity, but because we felt we "needed the work". Even though editorial fees are at the bottom of the industry pay scale, something is better than nothing, right? - especially when things are tight. Sometimes not. We should have bowed out of the job gracefully when they reacted the way they did to the first (and certainly the second) round(s) of creative we presented. By not doing so, we put everyone through alot of frustration, the job went over budget, and most likely, they won't be calling us the next time they need imagery. Lesson learned. Again.

Tough Times, Stupid Offers

I hate to admit it, but I'm old enough to have been on the front lines at Tracy-Locke in the early '80's, which gave me a great opportunity to witness what was then the dumbest marketing idea I'd ever heard of, the introduction of More Nacho Cheese Flavored Doritos, from Frito-Lay. I was an account executive, fortunately working on the smaller F-L brands of the day, Tostitos and Sabritos, so was able to watch the debacle unfold without taking any direct hit personally. The thing was, Doritos ALREADY HAD a Nacho Cheese Flavored product. Somehow, the client became convinced that having more Nacho Cheese Flavor was not only enough news to talk about, but was compelling enough to relaunch the product. They directed the agency (never known for it's creative chops, as it was) to concoct a series of TV spots around the news, which resulted in the most expensive production the company had ever funded. VERY expensive drivel. The CD at the time was euphoric that he'd sold a spot that was going to to cost over a million bucks to produce, which was unheard of at the time. We watched from the sidelines as our account brethren went through the process, which ultimately ended up with the campaign being pulled after a few short weeks from lack of results (duhr...) and the agency getting a black eye. Why talk about all of this now? Because I just heard a radio spot from Frito-Lay which essentially said that because of the tough times we're all going through, they've decided to help out and give us more product in every bag for NO EXTRA CHARGE?! WTF?! You mean the product will no longer feel half empty when purchased? We were always told that the emptiness was to keep the product from getting crumbled...was that a lie? Feels like deju vu to me.

Comrade Takes a Punch

Michael Rodriguez (aka Comrade) just sent me a self portrait he took yesterday. You should see the other guy...

Where's My Check??

Went last night to see a "panel of distinguished guests" speak about the recent news that Omnicom (holding company for the likes of BBDO, DDB, TBWA/Chiat Day and a host of other agencies)has changed its contract language to shift its liability to NOT pay vendors for services rendered until it is paid by ITS clients. In addition, they purportedly will no longer be paying any advances for production. Both changes are incredibly bad news to anyone who counts agencies as clients, and are ludicrous, if they are indeed put into in practice by Omnicom's agencies. My takeaway from last night's speakers panel was that there's not really a whole heck of alot we can do about it as long as there are people willing to work under the new terms, which in this economy, few would turn down. Ironically, we are working with Atmosphere BBDO at the moment. As much as we enjoy the folks we've worked with there, as well as BBDO/NY and Energy BBDO in Chicago, the agency's accounts payable has ALWAYS sucked, and getting money from them on a timely basis is impossible. On that note, one of the panelists made a great suggestion, which is to date the invoice with the date of the shoot, regardless of when it is billed. According to her, the invoice date is not scrutinized by the front line budget folks (ABs, ADs, AEs) but is by the accounting clerks, who schedule payment based on that date. I'm going to try it on my next job. At the same time as this bad news arrived, we're also seeing more clients willing to pay electronically, which speeds up the payments greatly. Could that be the silver lining we all are looking for? Maybe. Now all we need are some projects to bill...

Table for Twelve?!

What were they THINKING?! "We've got two sets of twins...let's take some more fertility drugs and see if we can field a basketball team!" Well, it did bring them their very own reality show on TLC, and thanks to them and the good folks at Discovery Communications, it brought Reimers + Hollar a photo shoot under the auspices of creating an image to promote the show's launch. Problem was, the family wasn't available for a shoot. Solution: Show only hands at a fairly chaotic dinner table. Problem: Budget won't accommodate hiring 12 different talent. Solution: Hire 2 adults and 4 kids, and play mix and match with positions, wardrobe and propping to come up with a combination of all of the elements that works. Oh yeah...and prep it in four days! As it turned out, the short prep time actually worked in our favor, as there wasn't enough time to over-dwell on any of the elements. The shoot was arduous but went smoothly, and believe it or not, everyone had fun! Berns Rothchild pulled another rabbit our of her hat on the production. Big Swing Productions handled all of the post production. Dan Cavey was the CD/AD at Discovery and Susan Wetherby was the AB. We LOVE Reality and hope to get another serving soon!

Kolenko Gets Some Furry Love

Eva Kolenko loves dogs. None more than her own, a pit bull named Bubby. So she was thrilled to work with Colle + McVoy on a campaign for a heartworm medication from Novartis depicting intimate moments between people and their canine pets. She shot four ads over the course of two days at three different locations in the LA area, each with a number of variations. Yes, it was a scramble. But, with strong agency support and a stellar crew she pulled it off with aplomb and left the client promising to come back. Agency credit goes to CD: Mike Caguin, AD: Nina Orezzoli and AB: Chris Peters (another favorite of ours!). Lynn Campbell of Lynn Campbell Productions did an outstanding job as producer. We love you, Lynn! Here are the first two ads to break:

Where's Wanda?

Zachary Scott got to go to Vegas to shoot three ads for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority with R&R Partners and AD Jessica Hazen. The challenge was to create three images with unique environments that integrated the hero talent into their design in a subtle, sophisticated way. The campaign is targeting event planners, portraying them as behind-the-scenes heroes.

Redpath Shoots Glacier Girls

Anthony Redpath teamed up recently with Toronto based agency Grip Limited to shoot the 2009 Glacier Girl calendar for Columbia Brewery and their Kokanee Beer brand. The shoot took them to the mountains in the Whistler-Squamish area of British Columbia for the cold and crazy couple of days it took to produce 14 images.
Here's Anthony setting up the climber image above.

Laara Cerman, Anthony's in-house digital tech/retoucher, using her computer to stay warm.

The production crew from afar.

New Websites

Several of our group have new or recently re-designed websites that are worth a look:
Reimers + Hollar, Michael Kelley, Hugh Kretschmer, Jamey Stillings. Stop by, then come back!

Is it REAL?!

Morgan Silk was just informed that two of his images from his Mongolian series have been shortlisted in the 2009 AOP Awards competition. Word got to him through the grapevine that the image above also impressed the judges and would have been shortlisted as well, but some on the panel suspected that the super-sized statue of Ghengis Khan was faked through cgi, and pulled it from the running! It's real, folks. This situation points to a growing problem photographers face in this increasingly digital age. Namely, that the public at large no longer trusts what they see. That lack of trust is helping further erode the value of the craft, and doesn't help us as we try to maintain the fees we negotiate for assignment work.