The Talent Hub That’s Bursting Bubbles and Creating Symbiotic ‘Production Ecosystems’
Who knows what kind of production landscape we’ll be facing when we come out of this pandemic, but even before these strange times shook everything up the ground was shifting. Philipp Haeberlin-Collet has been thinking about this shifting landscape for some time, as it’s become more and more fragmented. He’s watched as new players from consulting firms to tech companies and branding agencies got involved in making video content deeper each day. But he’s noted how differently each of these relies on video production.
That’s why he and Jo Glenk have co-founded .fount - what the duo call an “independent talent hub for film: advertising, content and digital formats“.
Their goal is to help both clients and talent to “leave their bubble” and work with the right people in the right set up. Philipp and his colleagues are building a curated pool of talent that clients will be able to select from whenever they have production that needs doing. But connecting individual talents to clients is only the beginning.
Parallel to that they are setting up an “integrated digital production consultancy”, enabling integrated producers to consult clients at the very beginning of their campaigns. They want to figure out what is the best “production ecosystem” for a campaign to produce the necessary assets.
Alex Reeves caught up with Philipp to find out why he believes the industry needs .fount right now.
LBB> What recent changes (pre-coronavirus) in the production landscape have been most dramatic, from your perspective?
Philipp> The production landscape changes drastically as there are more and more clients entering the market that need content. So the good news is: The need for and amount of content increases day by day (video will account for 82% of internet traffic by 2022, Cisco says). The bad news (for the “old” production model): Different clients have very different needs when it comes to their content. And from our point of view, a majority of established production companies are not able or willing to understand these needs and adapt their production approach accordingly.
So there is a gap between the demand for content and an according production approach.
LBB> Who are the new players on the landscape and what sort of film content do they need?
Philipp> User centric, performance oriented and data driven content is becoming more and more important. Especially for tech companies, branding and digital agencies. Furthermore creative business consultancies also need content that has to be business oriented.
In both cases we assume that more agile and multidisciplinary teams that function like cells will be the key. Multidisciplinary means to broaden the perspective and fuse of digital talents (data, UX, UI, VR, AR etc.) with classic production people. This combination is rarely to be found out there and we close that gap.
LBB> Can you talk about what you mean by people in this space having a “bubble” and the downsides of this?
Philipp> When we speak about the “bubble” we refer this to the professional comfort zone of a professional working in film. This can be the location where film professionals mostly work, the top five clients / production companies they work with, the profession they have been carrying out for years etc. For the last 20 years the film production business was very straightforward and not leaving the bubble was fine. But as the industry is changing film professionals need to adapt and open up their minds in the direction of new clients and formats.
From our point of view this is a huge chance for personal growth: Film professionals can work with professionals coming from digital. They can both benefit from each other and therefore get future ready. We feel that people don‘t need to neglect what they have been doing in recent years but use their skills in other contexts.
LBB> And how do you help both clients and filmmaking talent leave that bubble?
Philipp> This is possible as we push forward with digital and in-person consulting before the actual production. From our point of view it is absolutely necessary to integrate digital and production expertise as early as possible in the production process. This will help to uncover blind spots, create an efficient production set up / ecosystem and get the right people together for the actual production. We function as a facilitator that anticipates both client and talent side and translates the needs in both directions. The entrance point for .fount thereby is always to understand the clients campaigns KPIs and main goal. As soon as we understand the goal and find a production approach that matches both timing and budget we can assemble teams based on their skills and not their job titles. This will account for new team structures (like agile cells) that are both flexible and adapted to the clients’ actual needs. We are breaking up standardised structures which became obsolete in a more and more digitised time where besides creativity also agility and flexibility is needed.
The .fount team has his background mainly in advertising production and digital project management and strategy, which entails not only a connection to highly skilled talents but also the recognition of the rapid change in the production of film and content of today and tomorrow.
The integrated perspective anticipates both the campaign goal and aligns it with the best production solution. We want to work based on a bigger picture and not a single briefing for line spot.
LBB> What is a "production ecosystem" as you see it? And why is it so important to clients today?
Philipp> Different formats require different talents and production approaches. As we see .fount as an independent hub we are not influenced by or own internal talent. We work on the basis to bring the best parts together. Therefore we can consider a production ecosystem - production partners of different sizes collaborate - creating a win win. For example: Often you have TV Spots (hero content) where clients attach social media teams (hub and hygiene content). This is a good approach but often these two teams don‘t work well together. They rather compete and there is no symbiosis as they are not part of the same ecosystem. Talking to the client early before the shoot brings us in a position where we can understand what is the goal of the campaign and propose a production ecosystem where production companies and social media teams collaborate before the actual shooting with us as a facilitator between client and the teams.
LBB> What do you offer the production talent that you work with? What problem does .fount address for them?
Philipp> First of all we offer them jobs that match their individual skillsets from clients outside the (film production / agency) bubble. They get the job offers via SMS or email and just need to hit the button “Interested” or “Not interested”. It‘s super easy to get access to new clients with almost zero effort. They can focus on their skills and not be limited by job titles that only cover parts of their skillset, which means more opportunities. It’s possible to get future ready in the production landscape and work in interdisciplinary teams. And in the end the service is free for them as we charge a commission on the client side.
LBB> What is the closest kind of business to your model that already exists, and why is .fount so different?
Philipp> From our research there is no business that actually covers what we do. One could say we are a digital, agile consulting producer with access to a very fragmented and rich talent base. Actually we combine the expertise of a talent agency, with the knowhow of a production company, with an agile, digital-first and production-focused consultancy - so there are models that exist but we recombine those in a new way while focusing on digital narratives instead of only video formats.
