S.D. Video Producers Seeking Niche

Most of the dozens of video production companies in San Diego can’t hope to compete with Los Angeles for big entertainment and advertising productions. Even San Diego advertising agencies regularly take commercial and broadcast work to Los Angeles, instead of using locally based houses.

But thanks to a large and lucrative demand for corporate and business videos, San Diego is still considered a healthy and growing video market judging by the number and growth rate of local companies.

Video has become the tool of choice for companies interested in conveying a message, either to the public or its own employees. A flexible, durable, relatively inexpensive medium, it is used for video “brochures,” advertisements, sales pitches, training and a half-dozen other purposes.

Ken Anderson, general manager of Primavera Video Productions in Solana Beach, said a video for corporate use usually costs approximately $1,500 to $3,000 per completed minute, although “if it’s a talking-head corporate president delivering a Christmas message to the staff the price is much lower.”

“Companies are finding more and more reasons to use video,” said John Mincey, president and owner of Mincey Productions in San Diego. “People don’t read anymore. They want to absorb stuff faster.”

Hired a Big Name

Coronado Hospital, for example, recently paid B&B; Communications of San Diego approximately $30,000 to produce a video brochure for use in fund-raising and public education activities. The cost did not include paying actor John Houseman to star in the tape.

“We felt video was an effective way to get a message across in a short period of time,” said Tami Brown, director of development for the hospital. “A video holds people’s attention better, instead of us just getting up and talking.”

B&B; Communications is basically a two-person operation, typical of the small companies that comprise the vast majority of the San Diego video industry. With little equipment of its own, B&B; acts as a liaison between corporations with something to communicate and the means to produce it. “We function as medium,” said B&B; co-owner Gary Bulkin.

B&B; will rent equipment and facilities from larger San Diego houses like Primavera, Mincey and World Video Productions, sometimes for as much as $1,000 to $1,500 a day for a full set-up. Winner of five local “Emmy” awards in B&B;’s 4-year history, partners Bulkin, 25, and Chip Bruss, 30, believe the lack of equipment allows them flexibility to use different tape or film formats for different projects.

B&B; produces a Sunday morning TV show, “Aspire,” for Channel 6 XETV, but most of its time is spent working on videos for businesses. In addition to the Coronado Hospital project, B&B; recently completed video projects for the Police Peace Officer Research Assn. of California and Asics Tiger, a running shoe manufacturer.

“San Diego is still in the shadow of L.A.; it’s very difficult to get entertainment things,” B&B;’s Bulkin said.

No Support for Film

Most projects for TV are still produced on film, which provides a noticeably better image quality than tape. “You can’t even buy 16-millimeter or 35-millimeter color film down here,” Bulkin said, “and you can’t process it here. So what kind of film industry is going to be down here?”

The lack of film-transfer facilities is one reason Phillips-Ramsey, one of the largest advertising agencies in town, goes elsewhere to have most of its video and film projects produced, said Kirsten Conover, Ramsey associate producer. “There is nowhere even to view dailies (the results of each day’s shooting) here,” she said.

Phillips-Ramsey will go as far as Minneapolis to hire a director to shoot a filmed food commercial, although it will occasionally use local companies for video projects. Ramsey hired Mincey, for example, to produce a commercial for the Del Mar Race Track.

“It ends up cheaper to go to a facility than to bring them here,” she said. “There are some good directors here, but there’s no comparison to L.A.”

Facing such problems, San Diego video companies are attempting to establish themselves as a low-cost alternative to Los Angeles production houses, especially to businesses.

“You can pay one-third or more (in L.A.) for the same product you can get in places like San Diego,” said Mincey, who also has production facilities in Irvine and Portland.

In April, Mincey bought a majority share of Western Video, which he said filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy code last year. Mincey said he is in the process of making $1.8 million in improvements to the Western facility, including the addition of digital equipment, which will give them the ability to do broadcast-quality special effects.

Recent Mincey projects have included promotional spots for Channel 39, a commercial for an insurance company and a commercial for a Phoenix business.

Like most of the large houses in town--including Mincey, World and A&G; Productions--the 5-year-old Primavera augments its income by renting equipment and facilities to other companies and local producers; Primavera’s editing equipment rents for $350 to $700 an hour.

Primavera was operated out of owner Vince Regalbuto’s Del Mar home until two years ago when it moved into a 22,000-square-foot facility in Solana Beach. Primavera recently expanded, opening an Orange County office, as did A&G; Productions.

Sometimes Primavera operates more like a travel agency than a video production company. In order to woo business from the Orange County and Los Angeles markets, Primavera offers clients such as Lorimar Telepictures and Cannon TV an opportunity, in the words of general manager Anderson, to “bask in the sun” with the use of a condominium on the beach. Air transportation and limousine service is also sometimes held out as a carrot to attract clients.

In the extremely competitive San Diego video industry, Primavera is considered one of the largest and most successful production facilities by virtue of its ability to aggressively pursue out-of-town work.

“We’re dealing with a finite amount of business here (in San Diego),” said Anderson, explaining the incentives he and other production houses offer.

The competition among video companies for that corporate business is fierce and the mortality rate among fledgling video businesses is high.

“It seems like everybody wants to do it,” said Mitch Merback, who started a video business, Merlin Productions, last year with his wife, Karen Franklin. A little more than a year later and many thousands of dollars poorer, they shelved Merlin.

Like many of the young video producers working the San Diego market, Merback was more suited to the artistic than the marketing end of the business. And, because of competition, marketing know-how may be more important to succeed.

“You have to be aggressive,” said Merback, who now concentrates on Tag Team Productions, a company he formed with three other local video producers to supply crews and free-lance talent to producers like Primavera, World and Frontline Video.

“San Diego’s biggest market is industry and you can’t be a young punk pitching the corporations. It wasn’t our bag. We just wanted to do productions.”

The competition among local video companies will probably intensify before it eases up. Although more businesses are turning to video, some corporations are going a step further and establishing their own video departments.