So you want to vent.

Between the serious On The Spot topics (how-tos for young producers, the Canadian ad identity or lack of it, etc.) are coming a whack of theme suggestions for everything from a best and worst-dressed list of the advertising and production community to a stinker spots of the season salute.

But one request occurs repeatedly, coming from production houses that want to take issue with mechanics on the agency side that are making the spot shops’ jobs more hellish than necessary.

Ample space, they argue, has been given the agency folk to point out ways to more easily navigate the spot negotiations waters in column’s such as Martin Shewchuk’s ‘Tips for novice directors on dealing with creatives’ (Playback, Jan. 1, p. 9). They would like equal time.

Equal time, sure, but none, for obvious reasons, are willing to take the plunge identified. A couple have consented to air their beefs in print, but a written summary was a no-go since the tone of the piece and language used could uncover the culprit. Thus, the following: a set of ‘whys?’ that get to the point. A representative from the agency side feeling compelled to respond is invited to call. Anonymity guaranteed on request, of course.

1. Why won’t agency producers tell you their budgets or their short list of directors?

2. Why don’t agency producers call you back after you submit an estimate and you find out on the street that the project has been awarded to someone else?

3. Why do creative people open their mail, read a magazine, or not come out of their office when the director has come to make his pitch based on their creative?

4. Production puts so much up front. Why do agencies take 30, 60, 90 days to pay their invoices?

5. Why don’t account people make their clients aware of production scheduling requirements?

6. Why don’t agencies feel any sense of loyalty to a director who helps by doing a ‘favor’ shoot and then go elsewhere when there is a job with a budget?

7. Why do agencies have competitive bids for psas?

8. a) Why don’t production houses get enough time to research bids?

b) What have these account people been up to?

9. Why do agencies force the production house to spend thousands of dollars on a pitch when they already know which director they want?

10. Why is the creative idea so often so much bigger than the client’s budget?

11. Why, at the eleventh hour, do they say, ‘Can we shoot it both ways?’