All About Reps. Transcript

Shiny Masterclass held at Iris, 6th Jul 2023

Caroline: Andre is from Somesuch, Somesuch are a UK & UK production company with many accolades and Andre looks after their Music Video Repping Next to him is Mia, Mia works with Pretty Bird, a London & LA production company with a stand out track record, Mia is Pretty Bird’s head of UK Business & strategy. The first questions are about Repping, Andre can you explain to us what you do as a Music Video Rep?

Andre: My main job would be to source videos for our Directors in regards to music videos as well as strategise with them, in terms of understanding what it is they want to do, what direction they want to go in and help put a plan in place and help them achieve it.

Caroline: So you’re working with your Directors, learning more about them, where their strengths are and you’re also getting work for them?

Andre: Yes, so that includes speaking with commissioners or managers, I’ll source jobs however I have to - if I’m at a party and I see someone, I’ll chat to them - any means necessary to get that.

Caroline: Mia, can you tell us how your role is similar and different at Pretty bird?

Mia: I also bring in the money I need 5 zeros on the end of a project, just in case you want to give me a script! As business & strategy I represent a roster of 32 Directors I also strategise with them to help their career, working from very junior level talent all the way up to the big names. Beyond that, it’s also about the marketing strategy - how we’re represented as a company, we’re at events all the time, it’s a very broad facing role so it’s important you can talk the talk but also walk the walk so; discussing projects and scripts with producers and being able to navigate and drill down what the particulars are before we then engage with and pitch with our Directors.

Caroline: Andre, while we were talking before you mentioned something about how as well as working with labels, managers and artists you are also increasingly working with brands?

Andre: As you probably are aware, music videos don’t make that much money and Directors may go over budget so that’s when we come in, in regards to sourcing extra funding through brands. So we’ll send over the idea and give them a rough timeline, from there they’ll tell us whether they want to be involved or not. If they do then we talk about how we can seamlessly use their products in the music video without it being too bait. 

Caroline: The next section is pitching and winning, Dan & Matt are going to answer these questions for us. Dan is from Kode and specialise in branded content and music videos. Matt is from Dark Energy a london based production company who are known as a traditional production company but were also the first to loan out directors to other in house agencies and it one of the largest pools of in-house Directors in the UK. Dan, can you take us through your response to a typical brief for 50-100k, what kind of work is there at this budget level? And what makes you choose one Director over another? 

Dan: First things first, anything that’s typically of that budget will be a … first campaign however, as we’re seeing more & more frequently event TV commercials might come in at 85k or below, we pitched on one campaign and the content side of the job was about the TVC side so it there’s kind of a flip in that regard, or more of a realisation that the future is probably going to be TVC. But the approach, it’s a tricky question to answer because what is the brief? But I would say first and foremost what you want to do it where the budget is, respect that someone has put their trust in you to say can you work with us on this job? And your response has to be the same if its 50K or 500K because it’s all irrelevant, you never know where a 50k job may lead you so if you’re a director then you would imagine you would go to newer groups used to working in this way, but this does a disservice to established directors who want to keep themselves relevant. We’re a production company who started with nothing and worked our way up, it’s much easier to start with nothing and work up than start with a lot and work down. So the assumption would be it’s a young up & coming director but actually it could be anybody, it’s the creative that we’re interested, does it stir some kind of emotion in them, is it something where they go “hang on, I’ve got an idea, because I thought of something years ago” then that would work brilliantly for this particular campaign. So in terms of who you put forward for a job, you never cut your ankles you take them completely open. If it can be done we’ll do it and if it can’t we’ll explain why and give options as to how we might be able to - show them examples of what we’ve done for 50k jobs. No job is ever the same.

Caroline: Matt, as the MD have you decided who to put forward for a job? And how many people have you put forward for a job? 

Matt: It varies, it’s so different in house or not.

Caroline: Tell us why?

Matt: If you’re not in house production company you’re another level back from that . They want to see numbers and see a long long list.

Caroline: And when you’re putting people forward, what are you actually putting forward?

Matt: We’re always tailoring briefs so you’ve got a script you tailor that, you don’t just send them the script. With traditional agencies it’s different to in-house. 

Caroline: What gets a Director repeat work? And what makes a Director stand out?

Andre: There’s a lot of levels to that, i do feel like good characteristics that goes a long way. Even if you don’t have the biggest budget behind you it’s more about how you approach your idea, in this day and age you should be unique.

Mia: What makes a director stand out in my opinion is their personal brand, we work in branding and people want to latch onto that. Not only is this person making a piece of work for you but also everything that surrounds that, you have to be your own biggest champion nowadays so having a common thread throughout your work, having consistency. When we talk about tailoring reels that common thread is what’s going to get you over the line, on top of all of your other work being fantastic. Personal brand and the thing that hopefully produces that is personality, above all it’s working with nice people no one wants to work with a wotsit. And how do you get repeat business, that comes from the whole ecosystem of the company so if you are working together as a collaboration that’s when you’re going to get repeat business when you’re working together. 

Dan: One of the things we do say to Directors is that we are looking after a big roster of Directors but it’s also your career, so you have to be proactive. We will do everything in our powers to make sure you can get the scripts, you can treat… etc but you  have to keep in touch with people. If you like the creative team and what they’ve done, tell them there’s no harm in massaging someone’s ego people like that. It’s a collaborative thing, a production company look after directors and the directors also have to be visible. Go to events, go to things like this, go to soho and have a few beers and be visible and be proud of your work - there’s no harm in self promotion.

Matt: Be enthusiastic, be good at your job, make people want to work with you because you were fun to work with and a good laugh and a great collaborative team player. 

Bradley: You also want to work with someone who respects the craft because it is always about the work at the end of the day, if there are nice people with it as well then that’s great.

Caroline: Bradley works with Iris, a network creative agency. Goldie is form Uncommon, a famously unconventional creative studios and Goldie is Uncommon’s head of production. How often does your company work with reps in relation to new directors? 

Bradley: Firstly, there are thousands and thousands of Directors, it’s impossible for us to know all of them. So what a good rep does is curate, so I use reps for every job. I call up my network and ask who’s good, who’s doing what? Good Producers will use reps a lot.

Goldie: It’s a complete mix really, and it’s about relationships, whether that’s a rep or line producer. So it does depend, but reps are super important in what we do especially with younger/newer directors, you need that inside intel to have those bigger conversations. Also to help figure out what they’ve done outside of commercials.

Bradley: We all know we cast directors for a job based on how good they are, or it can be about personality as well. A good rep will really get to know their directors and know what makes them tick. I know some young directors you put them into the lions den and they’d be fine but some may be not, so a rep can give you a bit more information other than what they’ve worked on and how good they are.

Caroline: Goldie, do you work more often with rostered Directors or freelance? Or a mixture of both?

Goldie: It’s a real mixture, portfolios are so broad I’d say branding things rostered directors is the standard but we do lots of other work (with branded content, music videos and film with photographers and artists) we do work with freelance. And with brand campaigns it’s typically rostered.

Caroline: What kind of things to you take into account when narrowing down selection? So say you’ve got 7 directors put in front of you let’s say they’re all fairly new, and it’s a low budget job, what kind of things are you going to be looking for?  

Goldie: It;s a bit like extra curricular knowledge, if it’s not on their reel how can you find out how that would come to fruition. What’s we’ve done before, when we wanted something narratively driven but with a football headline - we chose someone who was an absolute football nut - so you have to talk to Reps or EPs to get that knowledge.

Bradley: We’re so lucky with such a wealth of talent often when I’m looking at Directos I look at the script and pull it apart a bit. So you pick it apart and look at the different elements with a creative, like the casting and try and relate it back to the project you’re working on.

Goldie: Yeah that’s really important, it’s like the idea vs the execution - sometimes you need to interrogate that. 

Caroline: Would you recommend that Directors contact you directly about getting work? 

Bradley: No, the only reason I say that is we are very time poor as producers and agencies. You could get lucky at a time when I’m not busy and I’ll watch it but personally I would say if you’re a director try and link up with someone who can sell you, because it is pretty tough. 

Goldie: The inbox is always full but it is worth approaching people, but don’t rely on it. Don’t give up on it, but find other ways and means.

Bradley: Find out who the in house producers are if you are an independent Director and you may have a bit of luck that way.

Caroline: What difference does a rep make? Let’s talk first about not having a rep, as plenty of people don’t have reps. 

Andre: I would say if you don’t have a rep you’d have the luxury to win jobs yourself, approach companies that you’re interested in and say “hey I got this job for X amount of budget would you be interested?” I’ve had freelance Directors approaching me with interesting ideas and if the idea/art is interesting then it is something we’d definitely explore. Direct contacts, so if you’re able to build your own network and sometimes you can add more value to your production company if they see you are able to bring in your own work and when they hopefully sign you they know not only can you bring in your own work but that can also benefit some of the other Directors. You have a lot more freedom and opportunity to work and build your brand. You may have less pressure some directors that I talk to, especially when we’ve just signed them, some sign and don’t feel any pressure but some sign and feel a lot of pressure.

With thanks to Curious Connections, who initiated the idea for this talk