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CA Milk Commercials to Film in New Zealand


Richard Lightstone, CAS

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Wow,

California is well was the place to shoot television commercials. Where is our State government when we really need them? This from the Los Angeles Times.

Filming of state milk ads is heading abroad to save moola

Unions are sour on The California Milk Advisory Board's plan to shoot "Happy Cow" commercials in New Zealand.

By Richard Verrier

The California Milk Advisory Board may have shot itself in the hoof.

The board, which promotes the state's dairy farmers and is overseen by the California Department of Food and Agriculture, is again preparing to film commercials touting California milk from California cows -- in New Zealand.

In January, it plans to shoot part of its new series of 10 California "Happy Cows" TV commercials in Auckland, taking advantage of that country's low production costs.

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Wow,

California is well was the place to shoot television commercials. Where is our State government when we really need them? This from the Los Angeles Times.

Filming of state milk ads is heading abroad to save moola

Unions are sour on The California Milk Advisory Board's plan to shoot "Happy Cow" commercials in New Zealand.

By Richard Verrier

The California Milk Advisory Board may have shot itself in the hoof.

The board, which promotes the state's dairy farmers and is overseen by the California Department of Food and Agriculture, is again preparing to film commercials touting California milk from California cows -- in New Zealand.

In January, it plans to shoot part of its new series of 10 California "Happy Cows" TV commercials in Auckland, taking advantage of that country's low production costs.

Again? Apparently no one complained loud enough the first time or offered to match the New Zealand rates to keep the work in CA.

Eric

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This one really got to me.  I just called my state assemblyperson's office and told them about this.  It pisses me off that our state tax dollars that are paying for the California Department of Food & Agriculture are being used against us and that they are allowing commercials to be filmed outside of California.....and outside of the USA is even more outrageous!  Please consider doing like I just did and call the office of the state assemblyperson or state senator in your district and express to them your concern and displeasure.

Darryl Linkow, C.A.S.

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Just a few thoughts...they may have decided to film here in New Zealand because it is the opposite season to you..its summer here and the light and color intensity is stunning at this time of the year with sufficient daylight to film for 12 or 13 hours...also New Zealand produces the best quality milk products from beautiful lush green pastures....if you were looking to film anywhere in the world at this time of the year,this would be the top choice.....

Our rates downunder are surprisingly similar to yours so i doubt if its the crew rates that have attracted them.....and you only get tax breaks down here if the budget of your film exceeds $50 million....so again..the TV commercials are not in that league.

The film and TV business is a world wide business with skills that equal those available in the US.....the equipment is first class with technical skills and infrastructure right up there.

You may have genuine concerns and that is perfectly understandable....on a world market though they have gone for where they can get the best value for the tax dollars....and no I won't be working on the project.

BVS

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I think the issue hear for we California movie people is not at all about the qualities of New Zealand that make it an excellent place to film these commercials, or the seasons (as these commercials are an annual campaign with a hefty lead time.  It is certainly not a reflection of the excellent NZ dairy industry (although the point of the commercials is to encourage consumption of California's excellent dairy products!)...

It is about the California state government sending the work not only out of California, which is also a leader in movie production, as well as dairy), but out of the country.

for you Kiwi's,(the people), it is the equivalent of the NZ government filming commercials for Kiwi's, (the fruit), in California, USA.

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Guest Ken Mantlo

Are you saying that the California Milk Advisory Board is a government agency? or are they a  board of California milk producers?  If they are a government agency then they should be slapped down, if they are a board of milk producers then it is their right to take advantage of incentives.

If you ask me, the problem lies in the California policies that refuse to match incentives out of state.

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What really stikes me as strange is that the milk is produced in CA for use in CA predominently. If the CA milk producers have such a monopoly on the market why do they need to produce commercials to encourage use of their product? I can't believe that the total cost an advertising campaign will substantially increase milk consumption enough to justify the costs.

Eric

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the advisory board is one of those quasi-governmental agencies; some of these, like the advacato board have also been in the news for the salaries, and especially the perks of the board's members, and a lot of that money is state government money, thus the issue is political in California...

of course the arguement they make is that they are going on location to shoot Kiwi-cows (don't ask, it is complicated!) and the money saving aspect, lessened, of course, by the trips all the board members and producers, etc. will be making is only an added benefit (along with all those trips!)

OTOH, Eric brings up a valid point, and that too would apply to other similar promotion boards; that of course could lead to a broader political discussion of, for example, the 50 cents per pack of cigarettes tobacco tax being used to pay for cute billboards, and bus signs, with pictures of young children, and the words "take care of them" for the message!!

Hey, it is the government!

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Thank you for clearing up any confusion on my part guys...if its just the money then they could have shot it locally or closer to home than NZ.....your local production houses need to be able to put in competitive quotes for these jobs. So what does this tell you about the quotes that are coming from your side,if they can fly their team to NZ,accommodate and feed them,hire vehicles....hire a studio and NZ crew and equipment and still be within their budget....your production houses should be able to slaughter our quotes with the overheads involved in relocating to another country. Now I don't know how you go about your pricing,above and below the line costs etc...but your quotes need to be more realistic in these recessionary times.

There's been a seachange in the industry...competition is everywhere in all facets of business...just because thats the way its always been done is no longer valid.

We have learnt through bitter experience over many years that to survive you need to be able to give competitive quotes that will attract overseas companies...nothing outrageous,just realistic.

And I'm sure Mike's comments were very much tongue in cheek....a NZ specialty...:)

.

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A point made by RVD reminded me of something...  Isn't there a US Federal Law, (Truth in Advertising or something like that) that requires advertisers to show what they are selling.  It essentially says that if you're selling hamburgers that the picture must be of real hamburgers, and the grill marks have to be grill marks not magic markers, etc.  If the CA diary folks are representing NZ cows as CA cows that could be a misrepresentation of their product.  After all, milk is only as good as he cows that make it. 

Also Rich, if you're lactose intolerant, try real, unpasteurized milk from real grass fed cows.  It comes with the lactase intact.  It is essentially, self digesting.

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Just to be cynical, if you were on the board and you could shoot in CA or shoot in NZ and get a 1 - 2 week vacation, I mean "business trip" out of it while "supervising" the shoot, which would you pick?

I guess that is just my Chicago Machine mentality speaking...  "What's in it for me??"

I have no ill will towards our brothers in NZ who might make some cash off the shoot, but this is quite clearly a way for a bunch of boardmembers to get a free trip south of the equator.

Just my cynical .02.

---Matt

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TV movies about 9/11 and its aftermath were shot in Canada and not New York, in order to save money.  This is how much producers give a shit about honesty of the final product.

California could easily match incentives, and truly compete in the race to the bottom.  We already have to a certain extent.  The problem is that it costs a lot more to live here.  So as the rates get lower to compete with other states and countries, soon it will only be the producers that can afford to live in Los Angeles.

Robert

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Without seeing any evidence of the comparative cost to shoot the spots in California versus New Zealand makes this an impossible argument.

It is very likely that the reporter for the L.A. Times was simply quoting a press release, with out any investigation to verify the facts in the statement.

RL

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" are they really going to film in New Zealand with New Zealand livestock and suggest that these are California livestock living in California? "

apparently, not! the storyline is Kiwi-Cows trying out to become CA cows, or some such nonsense...

" if you were on the board and you could shoot in CA or shoot in NZ and get a 1 - 2 week vacation, I mean "business trip" out of it while "supervising" the shoot, which would you pick? "

I'd bet that the travel expenses involved are not being considered in evaluating the bids and selecting the production facilities....those charges are going to some overhead account that covers the perks, er costs of the board...

" TV movies about 9/11 and its aftermath were shot in Canada and not New York, in order to save money.   "

but that was not taxpayer money!!

" Without seeing any evidence of the comparative cost to shoot the spots in California versus New Zealand makes this an impossible argument. "

there are a lot of alternatives in CA, in a lot of price ranges!! and of course, there is negotiating...

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Guest Ken Mantlo

TV movies about 9/11 and its aftermath were shot in Canada and not New York, in order to save money.  This is how much producers give a shit about honesty of the final product.

California could easily match incentives, and truly compete in the race to the bottom.  We already have to a certain extent.  The problem is that it costs a lot more to live here.  So as the rates get lower to compete with other states and countries, soon it will only be the producers that can afford to live in Los Angeles.

Robert

The incentives in other states are usually tax breaks and fund matching up to a certain amount.  The states do this because they know that the money spent in the state will be taxed as income by the people that recieve it; stores goods, employees, ect.  The states get the money back later by the increase of jobs and an injection of out of state money being brought in.

California is too retarded to figure that out.  They're willing to let the jobs go.  If there is a race to the bottom, California is winning.

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...its summer here and the light and color intensity is stunning at this time of the year with sufficient daylight to film for 12 or 13 hours...

Not to get into a pissing match here, but trust me: LA is beautiful at this very moment, and grassy fields can look very summery with 30 seconds of color-correction magic. If it ain't raining, and it ain't snowing, trust me: we can make almost anything look beautiful with the right talent in post. Even cows.

My opinion: this is a budgetary move, not one made to get beautiful seasons.

TV movies about 9/11 and its aftermath were shot in Canada and not New York, in order to save money. 

Small correction: I worked for a week or so on ABC's The Path to 9/11, and while a lot of it was shot in Toronto, a good chunk of it was actually shot in NYC. I did all the NY dailies myself -- ironically, in Los Angeles -- much of it shot guerilla-style on 16mm. I was stymied as to why they'd cheap-out and not shoot it all in the U.S. as well.  [And I also pointed out to the producers that a rooftop shot that was supposed to be on 9/11/2001 showed a giant (contemporary) Apple iPod billboard in the background, which could not exist since the iPod wasn't introduced until a month later. They left it in and hoped no one would notice.]

--Marc W.

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As someone who works in a "location" market (SF) I can tell you that I've worked on many jobs over the years where I could not figure out why the agency or whoever made the decision on where to shoot came to our town (but thanks!).  In at least some of them it was a simple matter of our town being a place where the high-ranking people wanted to hang out for awhile, as opposed to wherever they were from.  They controlled the budget, so they built their travel etc into it.  That certainly could be the case w/ the milk spots shooting in NZ.

Philip Perkins

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Yes that post production sounds very long....unless there's a lot of CGI material being added...like trying to wipe the smile off the NZ cows faces.....

I can remember back in the early 90's when a US production house came here to make 2 x 60 sec. TVC's for US use only for a big coffee company.

They were here because the story line went that the best coffee comes from the top of the mountains in Colombia.New Zealand was chosen because it was safer and had all the scenery in a compact area.The shoot schedule was for 10 days and the budget was so big we could have made a feature film with it. It was by far the biggest commercial shoot to come to this country.

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However bogus it is, it's interesting to see that RVD got a quick response to his email.  That mean's they're listening.  How many other people here have sent an email to askus@realcaliforniamilk.com?  It's not logical, in their quest to create Dairy jobs inside California, to send Production jobs outside California.

Laurence

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