AD FILMMAKING IN CHENNAI

If you ask any ad filmaker what ad filmmaking is all about? he will probably say, its all about cutting through the maze of advertisements that appear on television, and about standing out in the given 15 or 30 seconds. What goes into making an ad? Well! well! remember the Reynolds..Titanic ad? The ship featured in the ad is actually a scaled-down model of the Titanic made to float in a mini tank.

Chennaibest speaks to D G Bharat, Ranjan Pramod and Satish Vishwanathan of Autumncart Communications Pvt Ltd, an ad film production company, about the ad filmmaking scene in Chennai. Autumncart was started in 1997, and its campaigns include Reynolds, Sprite, Coffee Bite, Thomson TV, BSA and Fa, just to mention a few. About the above mentioned Reynolds ad, Bharat, who is the Executive Producer at Autumncart, had this to say..."We were asked to first shoot in a real-life situation, and we found that it would cost us a mini-fortune to hire a ship and do this shoot, so we got Sabu Cyril, who is 'the' special effects expert in India, to make the model for us".

So, where does the idea come from? According to Ranjan Pramod, who is the Director at Autumncart, the script and the basic idea for the ad comes from the agency. The ad film maker and his team add his or her inputs when the film is shot. Once you get the brief, the director gives a direction to the script and along with the team decides on how he would treat the script on film, and how he would go about doing it.

As far as the scene in Chennai goes, "a lot of work is happening, but a lot more is going to Mumbai". Even for clients based in Chennai, the ad agencies think only of producing the film in Mumbai. Alternatively, the shooting is completed here but is sent for post-production work to Mumbai. The reason for this is that Mumbai is well established as the place for ad film production, they have good editing and post-production facilities and it has a good network for this kind of a work. The problem in Chennai is the editing houses do not update their technology on a regular basis. They are not used to a lot of work. Sometimes they take a lot of time to complete a single project. But Mumbai is used to a lot of work. There its like a factory, they are loaded with a lot of work, so they finish work very fast. And the best part is, it happens without loosing out on the creative aspects of the work.

Once upon a time, Chennai was the hub of all post-production processing activity, but now the scene is totally changed. The main reason being, the lack of investors in post-production facilities. Also, the amount of work is very less, technicians here are not exposed to work. The equipment are all outdated. During the analogue days, Prasad Laboratory had the best post-production facility in Chennai, but once it all became digital, Mumbai caught up with us.

Satish Vishwanathan, the Marketing Producer at Autumncart keeps in touch with the agencies, and Autumncart are the first such production house in India to have a Marketing Producer, who markets the production house to the agencies. According to Satish, "this is inevitable as the field is becoming increasingly competitive". A production house can basically be divided into three segments, the director, who is only concerned with the creative aspect of the ad. He will not be bothered by the nitty gritties of how it is to be done. The producer takes care of all that is required for the ad, he makes all the arrangement. And finally the marketing producer, who is responsible for getting the ad campaign from the agency in the first place.

When asked about, on what lines a particular production house is chosen? Bharat said, pricing and treatment are the two important grounds on which you are chosen or rejected. Are there any specialised courses in Chennai for this kind of a work? According to Bharat, Loyola College and MOP Vaishnav offer the Visual Communication Course, then the Advertising Club, Madras, offers a diploma course in advertising. But there are no Institutes or colleges that offer specialisation in ad filmmaking. What about availability of talent? "A lot of new people are coming up. In Chennai, there is no dearth for talent, but technically we are on a weak wicket".

And how does ad filmmaking compare with filmmaking? Says Bharat, The duration of the ad film makes it different. The message has to be crisp and given in a short duration. And what would a 30 second ad cost? If the agency is an established one, the minimum you can expect is Rs 5 lakh, but a small agency can do it even for Rs 1.5 lakh. Where does this money go? According to Bharat, the money mainly goes into film or video (depending on whatever it is shot in), the set, art direction, camera equipment, post-production, music and the models. Approximately, 70% goes towards production.

And who do they all look up to when it comes to ad filmmaking? Rajiv Menon, pat comes the answer, "when it comes to getting the best out of the actors". Does Chennai have the kind of talent required for this profession. Yes, says Bharat, there is no dearth of talent...the only thing we are lagging behind in is the technology, but there is hope... as there are talks of Prasad Studios, restructuring its facilities.

E-Mail: autumn@md2.vsnl.net.in

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