LOS ANGELES 8/10

There are queer rumblings coming from the Golden State these days: no one can agree how strong board flow is.

"It's very, very busy now," says one production executive, describing the increase over the slimmer pickings as 2004 began, and contradicting the view of another across town, who declares: "The last two months were gangbusters. Now it's just steady." Other opinions include "running at 75%", and "changing daily".

One topic everyone in the production community can agree on is gay marriage - recently performed up Highway One in San Francisco. "They deserve to be married - they'll have all the same problems as straight people," says one production insider, with tongue in cheek. "I don't know one person who is against it except my mother," says another. "I can't imagine the quality will be better than straight marriages though."

Ah, quality. The thing that keeps the job fun. "There is good creative stuff out there. Car work that's more than just sheet metal. Better than your average 'cheese bowl' shots - not that there's anything wrong with that," says a production head, who describes flow as steady with some multiple day shoots. "Some of these boards will be reelable," she adds, brazenly expanding the norms of the English lexicon.

Sports gear and some European work were cited as current examples of great creative. Other work was coming in from "mostly the East Coast, but also from Europe, Chicago and LA".

A couple of execs claim to have some Japanese boards on their desks, while another is pleased to mention that most of his work will be shot Stateside rather than say, Canada or Belgium, where gay marriage is already legal.

And thank God for variety: financial, auto, beauty products, beer, computer games and unholy matrimony were all frequently cited as things to be happy about this spring.

TORONTO 8/10

Our Canadian friends are busy pleasuring themselves, because no one else seems to want to do it. Luckily, there's a lot of pleasure to be had.

"The US dollar has hurt the foreign work but the Canadian work has picked up significantly," says one happy prodco owner, adding that local board flow is "incredibly busy right now, the busiest I've seen in a year and a half." Not only that, but quality seems to be on the upswing too. "There are great scripts coming out of every agency," he enthuses.

Another agrees: "Things have been good!" She cites lots of boards - telecom, cars, beverages - booked from mid-February into mid-march. "It was really unexpected," she says. "Why? I have no idea, but the clients are out there spending money, not playing it as safe as the last two years."

Okay, that's quite enough. It seems Conan O'Brien's visit last month didn't quite suck all the horn-blowing out of Torontonians.

Thankfully, our resident curmudgeon chimes in. "It's crap, are you kidding? I'm not gonna lie to you like everybody else does and tell you how brilliant it is." He says his firm is boringly steady with beer, coffee and soft drinks. An all-liquid diet.