LOS ANGELES 6/10
The consensus among Los Angeles production executives this month is that it's either quiet or busy and not everyone is lucky enough to be busy. "It's like feast or famine and we're feasting," said one exec. "There's this weird thing that happens; a wave of scripts will come back," adds another. "And by Wednesday to Friday it's completely changed and we're slammed."

But the busy houses certainly weren't feeling boastful, mindful of a looming recession that will likely impact adland. "When I go on set and talk to the clients you get the sense they want to spend the money while they still have it," said one. "I do wonder about the effect down the line when clients tighten their belts in order to boost the bottom line. It's rare to see an economic crisis that doesn't affect the ad business."

Creatively, the past month was similarly up and down, with visual jobs for product categories ranging from finance to sneakers coming in as well as plenty of car boards. One exec noted that A-list directors are receiving everything, and are then roped into a three-week bidding process only to have the idea put on hold. "It's either that scenario or they'll call you and say, 'We need to shoot RIGHT NOW.'"

TORONTO 4/10
Pity you, poor Canadian, you who toil without the ability to fast-forward a TV commercial. You're mesmerized by the evening news, and other informational programs with similarly unsexy media buys; you are too busy for a trip to the art house. No Cadbury "Gorilla" for you! Instead, you get "plenty of family-time spots", "typical Canadian comedy", "low-end, retail stuff" and generally speaking, "utterly dismal creative".

"It's an embarrassment to be in this business," says one EP, summing up the general tone of this month's round of board flow calls in Toronto. Despite that denouncement, it wasn't all bad news. There were a few interesting jobs in the mix last month, and by mid-April a couple of shops reported that things are picking up. "We've gone from one script a week to one per day," noted one producer.

Finance, Olympics and telecom scripts were among the board flow highlights. One EP noted that the dire economic outlook has meant a pile of boards for all the top guys, but almost nothing for the B and C-level directors. "It's picked up but it's like fighting a bar brawl to get the jobs," said an exec. "We're fighting over shit jobs and people are losing their minds."

NEW YORK 5/10
How best to describe the middling quality and quantity of scripts seen in New York during this round of calls? Searching for the right way to describe it, one EP likened it to America's flyover states. No offense to the Great Plains, but if you're a New Yorker viewing the board flow situation, hoping for hustle and bustle, it's just not where you want to be.

"Quantity is medium to low because of the recession but the quality of the board flow is low to awful," groaned an EP. "The budgets are even weaker."

Even the Olympic work has seen its usually higher-than-average budgets slashed due to the negative publicity surrounding the Games' host, China.

"People's perspectives started bringing down the advertisers' budgets," explained an EP, who also noted a dip in campaign work.

Unusually, a couple of EPs noted that there have been creative bright spots coming in from Canada. Elsewhere, fast-food and pharma boards haven't provided the most inspiring work.

And where creative and budgets have been coming up short, one EP also noted the same for the length of a lot of spots.

"What's the deal with :15 spots?," asked the EP. "I've seen a lot of these projects in the last few weeks and no :30s in sight. Also, they're scripted like :60s. This equation equals not good."

LONDON 8/10
If board flow was a slow trickle last month, it appears to have graduated into a tidal wave. "We're barely breathing," gasped one EP. "It's been really busy." "It's gone absolutely mad," confirmed another. "The phone's been ringing and everything's been coming in."

Everything's been coming in and, apparently, everybody's been working. Most EPs enthusiastically reported that not only are all of their directors getting work, but the ones who've been quiet over the year are getting some fairly good scripts as well.

That influx of work seems to be coming primarily from outside London. "A lot of stuff is coming in from abroad," said an EP. "In fact, probably more so than the UK." France and Germany led the pack, while creative from Spain, Australia and the US was also prevalent. Even when the creative was homegrown, prodcos saw an upswing in co-producing work in foreign locales with local production companies.

Alcohol, PSAs and telecom were in the mix and while some EPs weren't too excited about the creative, they weren't completely in the doldrums about it either.

"Creatively it's gotten better," said one. "We're not passing on absolutely everything that comes through in disgust, that's for sure."