If my column must "stand for something", it would be that I have tried to show just how many ways one can earn a living armed only with the trusty Toaster/Flyer. Some are "fringe jobs" like High School Video Yearbooks and Video Slide Shows, and some are meat & potato jobs like Video Depositions and Training Videos. This time let's go for the gusto and look at the lucrative cable TV commercial production market.
Forget the big-time television production market! Let the Big Dogs chew each other up over medium to high budget production contracts. Confine your quest for the local and regional cable TV market. Believe me, it doesn't get much smaller than where I live, so if I can tap into this market, so can you.
Cable television has an ominous future ahead of it, but for now it is still the main form of regional "broadcasting" to the urban masses which also offers a commercial market opportunity on a smaller scale than the national norm, with it's associated hefty price tag for air time. Regional and local markets can offer local television spot insertions at roughly the same cost as local radio spots and much cheaper than most newspaper ad rates. Correspondingly, the costs of producing local commercials are typically lower as well. Instead of Betacam, we usually shoot MiniDV on a Sony DCR-VX1000. Instead of Grass Valley switchers and high-end NLE's, we use the Toaster/Flyer. Instead of paying a large production crew I pocket all the money myself.
I am the shooter, the copywriter, the editor, the producer, the voice over talent, the audio assistant, the lighting technician, the gaffer, the grip, and the gofer. So I can make a finished product in these circumstances for considerably less than a shooting crew. Keep this in mind though: Local market clients expect the costs of producing local commercials to be lower than those of the regional broadcasting production crew, but then they also expect the quality of the locally-produced commercial to mirror the higher ticket productions. For that reason, I would advise you to keep your use of the "special" Toaster Effects to a minimum, only utilizing them in a way conducive to the specific customer (like using "Falling Sheep" on an ad for a sleeping aid).
Most, if not all, of the national network of cable television operators are owned by large regional corporations. There are also some giant broadcasting conglomerates and communications companies that maintain cable TV franchises as well. In addition, urban areas are serviced differently than city dwellers. You will need to do some research in your area to find out what the cable applications are, and how (and if) they perform local commercial inserts into their programming.
In my area, the local cable advertising rep sells blocks of advertising time, which are inserted locally in the mainstream broadcast feed. Here the insert markets are CNN, ESPN, TNN, and TNT. At specific times throughout the day and night, those networks send a tone "down the line" which activates a �" player into PAUSE/PLAY mode located at the local cable TV office. When the next set of tones are activated, the machine slams into play and a pre-edited group of local television commercials is inserted into the selected network feed. Since the network goes to and from black at the appropriate times called for in the program sheet, the inserts are (usually) seamless and the effect is impressive. Here's the latest news update on CNN, and then we go to a local commercial for Bob's Feed Store. Most people don't even think about it. So, when local clients realize that they can have a TV spot right in the middle of a national network like ESPN or TNN at roughly the cost (and sometimes LESS) than a local radio commercial, well�.. You get the picture.
Now consider this. The production contracts can come in pretty fast and furious sometimes, and the regional production team can be in for some rough sailing. In most cases, their "production crew" consists of a shooter from the regional office. The local ad rep lines up the production dates and (hopefully) coordinates with the company shooter. The shooter drives to the local market and shoots the schedules in one day, accompanied by the local ad rep that made the sale. The shooter usually drives back home at the end of the day. Back at regional HQ (in my case about 135 miles away) he edits the commercials onto �" masters and sends them off to the master production center in Texas. There, they log all the spots for all the markets and assemble the system masters which have the tones on one channel of audio designed to switch the local feed back to the national feed. This system largely depends on the "Just In Time" method and any holdups can be disastrous to many clients simultaneously.
It was one of those times recently for the regional cable advertising company here in my hometown who had recently been bought out by a larger company. All the wheels of the new regime had not been put in place and they were grossly behind in their production schedules. I got a call from the local rep that had worked with me on several independent commercial projects before. She liked my work and I got along well with her and always delivered a professional product, so she mentioned my studio to the production manager who was in town visiting the new market. He called and asked if he could talk to me about doing some contract camera work for him.
After visiting my facility (and seeing the spot reel I produced with my Toaster/Flyer) he regrouped and asked if I would be interested in doing all their local production work and then sending the masters off to Texas. They shot on Betacam but he was familiar with the VX1000 and the format difference didn't seem to matter to him. They worked in �" for a final master anyway, and I was already set up that way. I knew that their production fee for a finished "standard commercial package" was exactly two hours time at my current studio rate. I figured on the average I could shoot the location in an hour and edit and produce the spot in an hour. They would furnish all the materials. We were set.
As he was walking out the door he turned around and said "By the way, would you also be interested in the next market over (50 miles away)?" I told him I'd be happy to if they'd pay an added $15 per hour drive time We shook hands and that was it. I didn't know it then but I had just increased my studio's gross income by 15%. Right now I am averaging about 3-6 spots every ten days in both markets. I drive once a week to the secondary market and do all my shooting in one day. I am already looking for a shooter in that market who can do that chore for me. And, once again, thanks to NewTek, I am producing quality local television commercials that have "professionally produced" stamped on them
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