There are many television commercial producers in Ireland and despite the difficulties of the last recession the Irish industry has been booming of late, both at home and abroad as serious players in the commercial sector.
As you can imagine they were impacted by the lockdown restrictions, upcoming campaigns were put on hold, contacts were lost and shooting as they knew it had to change.
As part of the Boost My Business initiative Fiona Alston spoke to two producers who explain how the sector is moving forward and how the organisation championed the advertising sector for a safe return.
Commercial Producers Ireland is made up of 21 separate SMEs who are producing television commercials in Ireland. During the lockdown period the cohort worked out the best working practices to get the industry back up and running in the safest way possible by implementing the government guidelines into their working practices without any negative impact on the creative outcome.
"We're an industry lobby representative group who've come together for common good but we've really come into our own in Covid times. There’s been a lot of collaboration - some of the bits and pieces of being competitors was pushed aside while we all tried to get back to work," explains Max Brady, Executive Producer, Pull the Trigger.
"We primarily make TV commercials, branded content and online video for commercial clients," she says. "We don't just do work for local advertisers; we do a lot of work for international advertisers as well. We provide local services on the ground for income productions so I would work a lot with America, the UK, Germany and France."
Brady’s commercial production company, Pull the Trigger, was working on some big projects at the beginning of the year including the L’Oréal ad for spraying your roots which was produced in Dublin.
"Just before the lockdown happened there was quite a lot of work on our slate from the States and adjust all disappeared in about two hours. I’ve never seen work disappear so quickly," says Brady.
It was during this period that CPI came into its own and proved that adversity can build relationships of support from the unlikeliest of people.
"We really did become family because we were all going through the same thing, despite the fact we were all competitors and normally we'd cut each other's throats to get a job. Every single one of us was supportive of the other," explains Brady.
"Your own family, partners and spouses don't really understand what it's like to be a producer in commercials – to be able to call somebody up to say, I'm really worried about this and to have somebody else who understands that immediately - it was without question, one of the most important things during lockdown, certainly for me, and I would say for a lot of other people too," she adds.
Another production company which felt the benefits of the CPI network was Sweet Media.
"All the production companies have worked hard through the tough times everybody's had and I think we found a way through and are just trying to get back to some sort of normality," says Andrew Bradford joint Managing Director and producer at Sweet Media. "We've given people the confidence that they can go out, get back to work and can be active again."
"We went into this year with the strongest January and February I think in the 10 years we've been open. In March, we were shooting two jobs and we had the guarantee of two or three other things coming up in April - we spent a lot of time last year, making ourselves new and fresh and it was starting to really pay off," he explains.
Sweet Media were shooting for a French client just as lockdown occurred and instead of cancelling the contract, when it was safe to do so, they continued the project with everyone working remotely. It also gave Bradford a chance to try out some new equipment which allows all remote parties to see what is being shot.
"The clients can see what we're filming in real time, anywhere in the world and feedback to us just like they're on set," says Bradford. "We actually took the equipment they brought in for the Ridley Scott movie, which had been cancelled. It was going spare, so we hired it off them, gave it a test and it worked well."
The clients sat in Paris," he explains, "and we sat in Dublin and it was just like they were next door. That gave us, as a company, confidence that we could adapt, and we could make these things happen."
All the casting calls, call backs and postproduction edits are now done remotely which Bradford thinks has injected an improvement into the industry, "I think people are just sharper because of it."
"With CPI we got together as a group of companies and put together some protocols and guidelines for safe working, which we all agree to - we all signed up to say that we would work within these guidelines and we distributed them out to the crew - I thought the committee did a fantastic job," he says.
For the most part the Irish commercial production industry has returned to full working order, on a domestic level, and Bradford thinks that if they all stick together and remain flexible his company will pull through.
"Going into the winter the numbers are going up again, we'll see what the government decides what they want do with that and we'll just react accordingly," he says. "I'm quietly confident that if everybody just holds their nerve that we will have a business at the end of this for sure."
