LOS ANGELES

"SAG is killing the business," says one exec prod speaking rather candidly about the LA board flow. "It's opened up a vein and it's bleeding slowly."

Production houses are competing to maintain a healthy shoot schedule, relying on boards from existing clients and the profiles of their top-line directors for work. Projects underway are described as far from ground-breaking.

For many commercial producers, the strike has made for an erratic board flow. "We've come to accept that it's an up and down thing," confides one insider. "Just because we had a lot of boards last week doesn't mean we'll have any next week."

Comedy/dialog, automotive, airlines, telecommunications, and dot-com creative are tying up fax lines. Thank God for car season and promos!

South Africa, South America, Toronto and Vancouver are still prime real estate for companies shooting through the strike. So if you're in business, you'll be looking for a place to do lunch. Give us a ring at Boards HQ - we'll hook you up!

DALLAS

Right-to-work state or not, the SAG strike has slowed Texan board flow. Not only has the number of boards up for grabs fallen, but the talent being specified for performance-driven projects has morphed. Hand and feet models as well as real people have been popular choices for many of the local and table-top jobs coming down the pipeline, with more talent-driven jobs being taken north for shoots in Canada. While all agree the summer months are a slow time for shoots in Texas, boards for fast food, petroleum interests and high-technology clients are passing through the hands of local reps. Hispanic market productions have not been spared by the SAG strike, although those with links to Mexican production companies are readily able to secure talent and shoot south of the border. Overall, producers are happy to agree that things are not as bad as they could be, although one director commented: "[Agencies] have gotten to a point where they are repackaging, retagging or rerunning ads. I saw a telecom spot I shot back in January just the other day!"

TORONTO

Toronto producers have reported, on a fairly uniform basis, a significant upswing in production levels as of mid-July. Area commercial players have been snapped out of the hazy summer stupor induced by a period of relative quiet that occurred in early summer and now have that somewhat perky, yet slightly crazed tone that's a sure indicator of a bustling board flow. Degrees of reported activity vary from "It's picked up," to "It's so fu**#!g busy, it's hard to find enough gear," and sentiments in between. The viscosity of the board flow has been reduced, with scripts acting less like maple syrup and more like soda pop (which is one of the many product categories making up the collective commercial slate, together with banks, beer and savory foods) and as they stream out of agencies. But the local work is supplemented in a very large way by international commercials coming to town to shoot. Of course, the lack of an end in sight to the US strike is a factor, and the ACTRA announcement of several weeks ago (in which an independent mediator decided that SAG's interim agreement could not be imposed on shoots here during the strike) did have an impact, say producers. While Vancouver had previously been seeing much of the US action, Toronto is now handling more of that work. But it's not just US jobs filming on the clean streets of TO; projects are reported from a diverse array of global origins.