LOS ANGELES

If Jessica Fletcher were going with the flow, the motive would be auto. Car boards are cluttering the desks of executive producers who are relieved the strike is over.

According to the usual suspects who participated in an informal poll, the end of the strike was punctuated by a week of solitude before the boards began trickling in.

"It took three or four days following the announcement for the boards to come in," said one head of production at a small shop, "but now that it's over, the floodgates are open."

"I wouldn't exactly say 'floodgates,'" disagreed another. "We are getting a lot of visual boards for cars, high-tech spots and clothing. We're back to business as usual."

"It's brisk but no avalanche," chimed a third.

So things are picking up like Vince Vaughn at last call, but producers say it's still not as busy as it was this time last year. Given the aptitude of exec prods to quip entertaining remarks regarding the board flow, it's safe to say a few must have some time on their hands.

Boardflow Rating: 6/10

TORONTO

Not busy but steady would best describe this month's board flow in Toronto. Overall, boards are slightly down from last month's volume, resulting in a quieter than usual month. The slowdown has been reported from the majority of exec producers although a steady flow of boards is allowing production to continue.

"A lot of our work during the summer was dollar related, not strike related, and the agencies are calling back," admits one producer who has seen an upsurge in work of late, but this was the exception rather than the rule this month. One rep encapsulates the Toronto scene stating: "I wish that I could report a very busy time of late, but the boards are just not flowing as freely as last month."

The board flow is a crop of product-oriented boards leading the way amid the regular fare. Spots include cars, retail and packaged goods, newspapers, financial and insurance institutions with comedy/ dialog scripts reported from a number of execs.

Boardflow Rating: 5/10

NEW YORK

The general consensus among New York exec producers and reps is that board flow is up, but not as much as companies crippled by the arduous SAG strike had expected and hoped for.

"Board flow has picked up, maybe not to [the extent] that people thought, though," comments one exec producer. "The floodgates did not open as much as people wanted. The strike ended at the same time as the dot bomb, so it could be three months before the market adjusts to a pre-dotcom market."

That said, calls for availability of directors, and boards for automotive, food, beer, cereal, banks, athletic apparel, dotcoms, technology, insurance and soft drinks have made life in the production community far less bleak than in recent months. Murmurs of forthcoming projects for BBDO's recently won client DaimlerChrysler abound and Super Bowl ads are being shot with the usual cloak-and-dagger secrecy shrouding each project. Most importantly, comedy/dialog, beauty and performance driven ads are again being cast and shot in New York, with scripts from ad shops in New York, Boston, Richmond, Atlanta, Miami, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Dallas making the rounds.