Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1957)

OPINION CONTINUED same east does both the program and the commercial. Q: Are you in favor of integration of filmed commercials in a film program? A: Yes, as much as you can. Q. What has happened to the cost of commercials? How much has the cost gone up? A: Well, it's gone up because of the high cost of producing due to increased wages and union contracts — but as a matter of fact, with us, percentagewise, it's gone up very little. Q: Why is that? Because you're making more now? A: We make more, we know a little bit more and we are not making them so complicated. As I said, they are simpler. Q: Well, it's more money for the advertisers. It hasn't cut the advertiser's costs. A: No. Q: Do I gather that one commercial today is approximately the same cost as one commercial in say 1948? A: I think, really, the average we are charging today is not so much different from 1948 or 1949. One of the reasons is that neither we nor the agencies write or design big cast productions as we did in the days before the Screen Actors Guild contract calling for re-use talent payments. Better commercials are the result because we know that closer shots with fewer people on the screen "read" a lot better on tv. Q: Do you believe in "hard sell" or "soft sell" commercials? A: Frankly, I don't think it's a question of how you sell something. I think each commercial should be approached in its own individual way. Some products can be sold best by a "soft sell" approach, while others might take a more straightforward demonstration approach, which some people might call "hard sell." Q: What do you think is the primary function of a tv commercial? What is it supposed to do? A: If we make a commercial say for a necktie, what is it supposed to do? I imagine if the client has ten stores with a million neckties, he expects to sell a million neckties. Q: Mr. Sarra, how many other commercial firms do you know, besides yourself? A: There are quite a few. It is true some come and go overnight, but I think the majority of work is done by a dozen or so very reputable studios. Q: I have a two-part question. Are you doing anything in color? If you are, are you doing more in color? A: Yes, we're doing color. Every day we're doing a little more in color, and this is sure to increase as more and more color sets are in use. With the increasing interest in color, many of our clients are requesting experimental spots in color td start preparing for the day when color will be more widely used. We have done a great deal of experimental work ourselves at our own expense. Q: What percentage of commercials are in color? A: A very small percentage at the present time. Q: Does color make the cost go up? A: Yes, much more. Page 124 • October 14, 1957 Q: How much more? A: I think about 30-45% more. The camera and crew time are pretty much the same. Color film is a bit more expensive, but the big question of cost is in the processing of the film. Lab work and opticals on color film account for most of the added cost. I'm not convinced yet that from color you can get just as good black and white pictures. Lately, I've been shooting black and white and color at the same time. Now they say you can really make color commercial films in the lab just as good as the black and white. Well, I'm still not sure, so lately I've been making both at our own expense. We make the color spot and we make a black and white from that and then we put the black and white on the projection machine and see if we lose anything and how much we lose. I think we're going to lose something. But again, frankly, we have competitors who try to tell us we don't lose anything. I won't say yes or no. Q: What's the advantage of making a black and white from the color? A: Well, take Pet Milk. That's color once a week. But also they use that spot in black and white. No spot that's made today is for color only. There are no such things yet. You use it both in black and white and color, so you can finish the spot in color and from the color make a black and white negative. I think we still lose too much quality. Q: Do you feel that you get a better black and white print out of a color negative than if you had shot that black and white. A: No. I think you get a better one from black and white. I'm sure of that. I'm not sure until 1 see, but I think today to say you get just as good black and white from color as black and white from black and white is just a little ridiculous. O: Do you feel that any quality is lost from film commercials when the prints are sent from one station to another and shown in various parts of the country? A: Yes, if you mean are the prints damaged by continuous use. Q: Is there anything the stations can do to prevent that? A: Yes. If the station would check the prints carefully and when they find the print is dirty, scratched or damaged, request the agency to supply new prints, you will find a great improvement in the quality of reception of the commercial on the tv set at home. After all, what the client is interested in is how the commercial looks on the tv screen. We were so concerned with quality of release prints about seven years ago that I put in my own lab so we could have complete quality control over our tv prints. Q: How do you define soft sell and hard sell? A: The soft sell is like this: Somebody is very nice to you, and he's just going to go off and take your pocketbook — you see? And the hard sell: Somebody just steals it from you. Personally, I don't like the expression "hard sell" or "soft sell." To me, it's just "sell." Q. Can you think of anything you'd like to say? A: I think we have covered everything. We try to assemble the best staff possible, just like the agencies try to get the best people for their own tv departments. We have to pay more money for such personnel and as a result we get more money for the commercial to be able to produce a better commercial. For this reason I don't approve of the competitive bid system, but would like for the agency to buy television commercials exactly the way they would buy artwork. Broadcasting ABOUT FILM BUYING; IMPACT OF COMMERCIALS "I don't approve of the bidding system . . . the agency should buy tv commercials the way they would buy artwork." ". . . The simple approach is best if for no other reason than it is easily understood and remembered."