Many advertising agencies, no matter what they call themselves or how they position themselves within the industry that makes brands appeal to the people they depend on, are finding this current period of change a challenge. What about production companies that, by and large, depend on robust advertising agencies to support them? The Stable asked Photoplay, Exit, 13CO and Finch to discuss that. It became a story about the elements of resilience.
PHOTOPLAY: OLIVER LAWRANCE, MANAGING DIRECTOR AND EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
What changes in the industry, and in advertising, have affected/are affecting how you do business? What changes in the world have affected how you do business?
What have been the challenges and what have you done to meet them? What changes have been helpful?
Our goal at Photoplay has and will always be the same – to make the best films we can. As budgets shrink and new technologies spring up we are always doing a bit of a juggle to make sure what we put on screen meets the high expectations we place on ourselves. It has been an interesting year, exploring growing technologies like generative AI and doubling down on what our own, unique, human creativity can bring to projects to make them cut through. It definitely feels like a fast-changing industry at the moment, and yet, when it comes to what we at Photoplay want to produce the answer remains the same – the best stuff we can with whatever helps us achieve it.
Recently we were asked to pitch on a film to launch the Traveloka brand in Australia and the idea of a virtual production studio and Unreal Engine was discussed. When we drilled into the creative idea and what would give us the best film we decided that it would be better to build a custom camera rig and shoot it on location for real rather than fake it around our lead talent with a virtual world. Essentially it became a question of how do we make the best film for the script in our hands, with all the tools at our disposal. There’s a lot of clutter out there and we need to stand out.
Where do you see opportunities – now and in the future? What do you need (or would you like from) agencies? What do you need (or would you like from) clients? Is there anything else that would be beneficial?
The answer is always “great original ideas” And obviously the budget to make them. That is what we got into this business for – to make cool films – so give us your cool ideas and let’s make some creative stuff together that people respond to, that people really want to watch. At Photoplay we love to work with open-minded creatives and clients who are happy to explore new ways of doing things, but if the best result requires a hand-crafted approach we love the opportunity to use all the colours of the film production palette to make something, not just passable, but truly remarkable.
What do you think are the greatest assets of your company and why?
At Photoplay we are all creative problem solvers who come from a range of backgrounds and disciplines. We embrace the challenge of filmmaking and bring to all of our work an undeniable hand-crafted approach as well as the best that tech offers. We put a lot of love in.
We have a diverse roster – fresh, young directors, more experienced legends of the craft and everything in between. Not to mention the creative producers and the team to back them up. We also have a unique relationship with our sister company, Photoplay Photography, that has an equally diverse roster and represents some of the best photographers in the world. Sharing the same roof allows us to offer an extraordinary amount of creative collaboration, cohesion and communication across all aspects of a campaign. As a company we have done this for a long time now and with that comes invaluable experience when it comes to how to make budgets go the farthest, how to best tell a story and how to make the entire process run as smoothly as possible. We’re also curious, we’re excited by what the future holds and are constantly looking for new ways of doing things – as long as it doesn’t compromise the quality and craft of what we end up making.
EXIT: WILF SWEETLAND, CO-MANAGING PARTNER
What changes in the industry, and in advertising, have affected/are affecting how you do business? What changes in the world have affected how you do business?
There are two constants in our industry to be relied upon. One is change. Technology, numbers of deliverables, platforms, aspect ratios and myriad other elements frequently shift (sometimes backwards). The second constant is that as producers we adapt to change.
I think it would be safe to say we are seeing a bit more development of scripts being asked of directors, rather than being fully formed. This can have positives and negatives, but ultimately results in a closer working relationship with agencies, which is a good thing.
Where do you see opportunities – now and in the future? What do you need (or would you like from) agencies? What do you need (or would you like from) clients? Is there anything else that would be beneficial?
The changing tech offerings gift us opportunity. As we are in the early stages of gen AI, we don’t yet fully know how the opportunities will play out – and I am not just talking about how good gen AI will become at producing realistic media and content here. It will change what we do from how we do it today for sure, no one knows how much yet though. It is super clear that storytelling craft, and human imperfection will continue to be highly valued.
What do you think are the greatest assets of your company and why?
EXIT is a studio of great people. We have always produced exceptional work with very, very talented directors and this commitment and desire does not waver.
Nice, creatively passionate, caring and supportive people with empathy and an open understanding of the importance of collaboration in the exposition of craft.
Rejoining EXIT last year, I was struck immediately by how wonderful our ethos is. Woven through EXIT from the beginning, that culture is as prevalent today as it was some 30 years ago, and that is a very rewarding environment to come to work in every day. I could not be happier to be among everyone here, that is for sure.
13CO: ROY DE GIORGIO, FOUNDER & EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
What changes in the industry, and in advertising, have affected/are affecting how you do business? What changes in the world have affected how you do business?
High inflation and low economic growth in Australia have forced many clients to reassess their advertising spend. We’re consequently seeing smaller budgets and media spend moving from motion to other mediums. We’ve used this as an opportunity to push more into photography through our FR13NDS offering. We now support a number of incredible photographers, some of whom love to work in content as well, which has opened up many more projects for us.
What have been the challenges and what have you done to meet them? What changes have been helpful?
As well as reduced budgets, we’re facing the headwinds of agency in-house production. Some companies are acing it, some are really struggling, and that’s where we’ve seen opportunity with production services. We’ve worked out new ways to be supportive, whether it be white-labelled production for agencies or even just the compression of production roles. As my partner, Charity, and I are both ex-agency, we find ourselves managing production more for the smaller and medium-sized independent agencies. In 2024, we did a record number of white-label jobs, mostly under NDAs, so we, inconveniently, can’t talk about them. The challenge has never been to land the good jobs; the challenge is to avoid the bullets…and there’s a fuck load of bullets flying around at the moment.
Where do you see opportunities – now and in the future? What do you need (or would you like from) agencies? What do you need (or would you like from) clients? Is there anything else that would be beneficial?
The expected answer would be something that mentions AI :-). While we have always embraced AI in our workflow, we consider it more of another tool which we’re using more and more. We see the opportunities are being able to solve more problems for our client by growing our offering. As advertising moves away from the 30sec TVC (or 6sec bumper), we are looking at supporting new types of innovative filmmakers and photographers. Whether that be our newest director, Neil Sharma, who comes from the long-form TV world, directing projects like Heartbreak High, Critical Incident, and Strife, or filmmaker, Adam Kiers, who is equally at making dark gothic horror short films, to dance commercials to award-winning comedy promos for Paramount+, to photographer and content creator, Kenny Smith, who can create just about anything with a camera.
Our biggest opportunity to make better work will always be collaboration – agencies and clients embracing the idea of reaching out earlier on jobs. Agency producers speaking to us. Agency creatives connecting with directors and photographers. Great ideation is one thing, but we need to work harder protecting and nurturing that idea through production – whatever form that production takes.
What do you think are the greatest assets of your company and why?
Our greatest assets will always be our people. Without them, we are nothing. Whether they be our creative filmmakers and photographers or our amazing producers, they are all driven by their passion for what they do. When creatives work together (whether that be agency creatives, creative producers, or directors and photographers), magic still happens.
FINCH: COREY ESSE, MANAGING DIRECTOR & EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
What changes in the industry, and in advertising, have affected/are affecting how you do business? What changes in the world have affected how you do business?
There are fewer commercials being made now than there were a few years ago. To combat that, we are doing more branded, more experiential, more product development – different projects that don’t fit into the traditional box.
What have been the challenges and what have you done to meet them? What changes have been helpful?
The changing production landscape has helped us find new partners, people who might not have been in our world a few years ago. We are working more closely with government and have partnered with more celebrities to bring ideas to life and reach audiences. We have also been developing more of our own original content and products for consumers.
Where do you see opportunities – now and in the future? What do you need (or would you like from) agencies? What do you need (or would you like from) clients? Is there anything else that would be beneficial?
At the moment, there is a healthy commercials industry, but I think the greatest opportunities are going to exist in the ever-changing way we experience brands. What we would love to see is more partnership and trust from agencies and clients, with the three working together to get the best results. We have a lot to contribute and share with agencies and clients who are good partners.
What do you think are the greatest assets of your company and why?
Our people are our greatest asset. With them we feel like we can do anything, and that keeps things interesting. FINCH thrives on adventure, so we will continue to try to do things differently and make a difference to everything we do. From 30-second commercials to cultural change projects, we love crafting things and making them as impactful as they can be.
Cover image by Kenny Smith at 13CO
