FOCUS: TV COMMERCIAL PRODUCTION: Unrealistic budgets hurting creativity: production houses

Creativity and innovation in Hong Kong television commercials are suffering because of unrealistic budget expectations, say production houses. They complain that advertising agencies - in an effort to seduce clients - promise TVCs which can be made for less money than is actually possible. This leaves directors without enough cash to do the best possible job, and clients without the best possible options available to them. Moviola executive producer Campbell McLean said estimations by some agencies were "shocking". "Continually conceding to ridiculously low budgets means no-one is telling the clients they can achieve better results. "There are times when the budget indication is ridiculous. And it becomes apparent they are not based on any sound knowledge of what it costs to produce a commercial." Mr McLean felt agencies let their clients down, by not being prepared to go back and ask them for more money or to reconsider their approach. The cost of a 30-second TVC can vary from HKdollars 500,000 (USdollars 64,000) to HKdollars 5 million; many factors contribute to the cost, including location, equipment rental, processing, transportation and overtime. Centro chief creative officer Stanley Wong complained that quality was not the primary concern of agencies: "money and time" decides who makes a TVC, he said, not how good the production house is or what is the best angle. Bijou Films director Eric Au agreed that agencies do not budget enough for what they expect. But he added that if the concept is good enough, the production house might consider it worth doing anyway. Agencies, however, believe production houses are themselves nursing unrealistic expectations. Grey executive creative director Sam Chung said one of the main problems with cost was that production houses had failed to reassess their prices in the aftermath of the economic crisis. "Certain people are charging much more than they're worth ... some production houses are making too much money, especially in Hong Kong, because the pool is quite small," he said. Mr Chung said production costs in the SAR - compared with many other Asia-Pacific countries - were "really, really high", and that production houses make a habit of overcharging, because they expect to have to negotiate. Triangle Pacific executive creative director Rodney Tam agreed with Mr Chung that production houses had failed to readjust prices in the aftermath of the late '90s crash. He cited the fate of clients in the property market as an example of how things have changed. Mr Tam said some properties were worth half what they were a few years ago, and as a result agencies have been forced to compromise their own prices to continue working with clients - something production houses have not done. "Just because they charged two million dollars for a production job two years ago, it doesn't mean they can charge that today," he said. But Leo Burnett Greater China chairman Eddie Booth said, if anything, it was clients whose expectations were too high. "In terms of the production companies - and the directors available in Hong Kong - there's enough variety. The top-notch directors will cost substantially more than the bottom rung production houses." Mr Booth said the "worst trap to fall into" was to create a really expensive and dynamic board. "And then get a really inadequate production house to do it - and make a bad job."

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