CAPITULO 4. GESTION DE LA CALIDAD BAJO EL ENFOQUE
4.3 CONTROL DE CALIDAD
4.3.8 ACTIVOS DE LOS PROCESOS DE LA ORGANIZACIÓN
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“The bigger the production company the more that top layer of management there is, so we, the directors of the company, do stuff as well as managing… . It is the balance between how much of a risk do you take by doing less and managing more – because then you are an overhead – and if you do more and manage less then you have less opportunity to develop, so the future of the company isn’t there . So it is a potentially, massively unstable process .” When possible however, David focuses on giving the company creatives as much distance as possible from the managerial duties . “It is about IP: The overall company strategy is a bit chaotic but we had this vision of providing an umbrella that keeps the crap that rains down on us off the creative people, so that they have space to be creative and come up with ideas and stuff .”Winning the commission: Pitching and spinning
However, business success requires more than merely coming up with ideas; the creative concepts must be pitched to and commissioned by broadcasters before they can be produced and further exploited .
The pitch itself is a brief but catchy proposal for a programme, including perhaps a title and format, or typical synopsis, which is formally submitted to commissioners for consideration . Sometimes commissioners will encourage producers to pitch ideas within general themes or genres, but typically
production companies submit unsolicited concepts and must compete against other creatives for commissioners’ attention and money . Indeed the BBC has established an online facility, BBC Pitch, for receiving programme proposals from producers, writers or directors anywhere in the world* .
Pitching becomes perilous for producers when their concepts float around in casual conversations or formal meetings as mere ideas, which are not protected by IP laws, as it is not the idea itself but the expression of the idea that is protectable . The television industry is seen as being notorious for pinching ideas, with several TV sector interviewees indicating that they believed an idea of theirs had been produced by another independent production company or by in-house producers at broadcast companies .
At the same time however, in TV it is widely accepted that ideas are ‘in the ether’, and that someone else is likely to arrive at a similar concept . Therefore, David believes that winning commissions is not so dependent on the
monopolistic ownership of an idea, but on the way the concept is spun and sold:
“We have got to be grown up about this you know . There is no such thing as an original idea . The chances are that whatever it is that has stimulated us into thinking something, somehow, somewhere else, someone else will have had the same stimulus . But what we try to be is original in our take and that is what
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“I will give you an example: We have recently been pitching CS Lewis – the 50th Anniversary of his death is this year – and we pitched two versions of this . Both of these were welcomed with enthusiasm by the commissioning editor and finally dumped .
“Well we don’t let these things die and our team had discussions today with RTE Television . We are trying to put together a co-production because Lewis was Irish in his roots, Northern Irish, and we are trying to put together a co- production between RTE and BBC Northern Ireland with some public money in it as well .
“It is in the take and how you are going to spin it – ‘What is the conceit?’ they say . What the hell does that mean? It means what is your take on it, what is your interpretation, what is your angle? What we would say is that the IP is not just the idea, it is the spin and it is how you do it . For instance, you might describe in one paragraph a long running television series based on a fairly crappy regional English hotel with some fairly eccentric and useless people in it . Is that Crossroads or is it Fawlty Towers?”
Selecting talent
The next factor to consider in the pitching and commissioning process is the talent – the presenter, the actors, and the director who will add value to the programme concept . Part of Tern’s revamp of the C .S . Lewis pitch included a different presenter, who was considered more appropriate for the new target audience in Northern Ireland, as David explained:
“It is a choice of presenter which is different for different people, you know . The presenter we are working with for RTE would not have done at all for [the BBC] network because he is not really known to the BBC . But for RTE particularly, and I suppose for BBC Northern Ireland to an extent, some posh English commentator coming along and passing judgment on CS Lewis is —, a spin is all .”
The dynamics of the relationships between the production company, talent and commissioner, David believes, “depend on the personality of the people and the power that they exert” . For the production company it is important to build strong relationships with the talent, to ensure their commitment to the programme, he explained:
“If you look at celebrity chefs and so on, they actually have set up production companies . How the parent production company works is that it is a vanity thing – they say ‘Well, you can have your production company, and [the show] is called this, and we will put in an association credit at the end of the programme . But we will manage the day-to-day business of the company and in return you will get a percentage and we will get a percentage .’ So it is a way of tying the presenter into you .”
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Building trustBeyond creating spin and hiring the right talent, David believes that winning commissions requires building trust, through strong relationships and sustained reputation, so that commissioners are persuaded to take on the financial risk of a production .
“There is an over-supply of production companies because it is not that difficult to get into it . It is a low-cost entry . The number of bits of business that we win in any year is quite small and they are all quite high value . One commission was £1 .5 million at one fell swoop, and the smallest thing we do is about £40,000, so that is the range of value . But the process of winning that is not just as simple as ideas – it is all about trust and winning that trust . “That is why they call us ‘luvvies’, because we have to be good at parties . You have to do an enormous amount of sucking up and in a way you cannot blame the guys, because how do you define the ethos of a programme? It is affected by the mindset, the world view of the person who is in charge of it, and even although television is made by teams, the choice of people that you have around you in that team is affected by your vision . So the relationship between the executive and the commissioning editor is absolutely crucial . “We are essentially going to them with some bits of paper or a chat over a drink and saying, ‘How about you give us £150,000, £1 .5 million? And by the way if this all goes wrong, yes our reputation will not do well out of it but neither will yours, and you have next to no power over it except to trust us to get it right for you’ .”
Ultimately, Tern’s approach to winning commissions shows that considering a programme concept alone, as an owned property, is somewhat futile in the television industry . No-one has a monopoly right over an idea and the infringement of any foundation IP would be difficult to enforce unless there was blatant copying of a script or perhaps format . Many production companies, therefore, focus on preparing a creating the right conditions for growing the seed of the idea – on presenting the right spin on the IP, securing the best talent and sustaining their relationships with commissioners to develop trust .
Finally, the gardening metaphor for Tern’s careful approach is more than poetic license – one day the actual Beechgrove Garden may become an essential asset in the company’s business model: “We are the only production company that employs full-time gardeners . And that actually may be
something that helps us to develop as a business,” David said, “because we are working with the City Council to try to open the garden up and make it a bit of a tourist attraction .”
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Great North Air Ambulance Team
Cairngorm Mountain
The Small Animal Hospital with John Barrowman – Dalmation hearing test