Los Angeles: 7/10
Our calls to the sunshine coast this month found the majority of EPs reasonably pleased with September's board flow, or at least relieved that it wasn't as dry as this time last year. "You're catching me at an optimistic moment," laughed one EP. "Right now, things are pretty good." While not everyone had a similar report ("I'd call it a board trickle," sighed an exec), the general consensus was that a reasonably active late summer is giving way to a potentially pleasant fall. "Right now there are boards but it's not a lot," said an EP. "But from the talk I'm hearing I think we'll be getting a lot of flow over the next two or three weeks."

Jobs range from automotive to home tech (computers, mobile, etcetera), from banks to beer. Creative is described as "actually quite good" to "decent" while budgets are offering no surprises. "One thing we've got has a great budget but given the complexity of the boards, it's coming up pretty short," offered one EP about a project about to shoot in a far-flung locale. "Factor in the location and you have to figure out how to make it work."

Still, as with last month, "the sappy holiday boards are seeping in", reports of auditioning Santas and elves are increasing, and execs expect the Scrooges to loosen the purse-strings a tad.

Toronto: 8/10
Cue the fanfare: hockey season is on its way, and beer is back. While some Toronto prodcos reported a lull in the suds department during last season (the first season after the dreaded hockey strike of '04), several EPs polled report that in terms of beer boards, to use the obvious analogy, the keg is on and the tap is a-flowin'. "Quite a bit of beer floating around, or pouring down, whatever you want to say," said one. Also making the rounds: automotive, retail, pharmaceutical and packaged goods.

Prodcos are also reporting a steady increase in service work - jobs from the UK, the US and Europe are ramping up. "We did a whole bunch of service work this summer and I never thought on a 90-cent dollar you'd be doing that," marveled one EP.

As for the homegrown fare, creatively, reports range from "really good" for the beer and automotive jobs to an overall assessment of "just okay". And as for budgets, while the terms "shit" and/or "crap" weren't deployed this month, there wasn't much resounding praise. "Some are scary bad and some are in the middle," remarked an exec. And while not everyone was reporting torrents of boards, optimism was high for a strong fall season of flow. "It just seems to go in waves," reasoned one EP. "And you're either on them or you're not."

New York: 7/10
The board flow Gods might work in mysterious ways, but it appears that even they pay attention to Labor Day. Most reports out of NYC had things picking up right after the holiday, although EPs disagreed on the extent of the flow. "No one's really gone back to school yet," says one. "We're average to slow. Is it that lull before the storm, who knows."

Luckily, even those who weren't seeing as much work had a significant enough amount of production days to tide them over. Those who were reported seeing a fair amount of cars, beer, banks and other corporate work. Creative ranged from "just good" to "totally crap", the latter forcing certain prodcos to partake in exercises of diplomacy: "There's certain projects that we pretend we want and move on..."

Comedy accounted for "the lion's share of the better stuff" while budgets, believe it or not, were tight. "It runs the gamut from completely ridiculous to a little more realistic," says one EP.

Nevertheless, with autumn around the corner and both New York baseball teams headed for the playoffs, spirits are mostly optimistic. "Since the onset of September, it's picked up," enthuses one rep. "From here on till the end of the year, like with Super Bowl and people finishing up budgets, there'll be a lot coming in..."

London: 8/10
While it's hardly up there with death and taxes, autumn's perennial influx of boards is the closest thing the production community has to a reasonably sure thing, and this September was no different. Buoyed by the return of vacationing decision-holders to their perches, the emptying of 3rd and 4th quarter budgets and, of course, the imminent spate of holiday-flavored work, everyone we spoke to reported a healthy increase from the month prior. "We shot six days in August versus 17 in September," reports one EP. "August was a little bit tragic.'

Drinks, electronics, newspapers, cars, pharmaceuticals and travel dominated, with creative assessed as "a bit better, but missing the super-duper ideas" and budgets falling into one of two distinct categories. "They're either very good or very bad," says a rep. "There doesn't seem to be a middle ground." Another EP sets out the parameters: "Our biggest budget this month is £600,000 and our smallest is £60,000."

And of course, while things were decidedly busier this month, EPs were still holding out hope that things would go gangbusters in October. According to many, the signs are there. "You can see that things are picking up," says one. "There's a lot more requests for reels. We've been waiting for it to come all year, and I wouldn't say it has yet, but you can feel that it might..."