I am a screenwriter/director looking for work outside of Hollywood. I
understand that certain US Federal and State agencies have budgets to
contract out educational film and video projects to competing private
bidders. I want to know which government agencies are doing this and
whom to contact. Also, I want to know which companies are getting
these contracts and are producing these films/videos so that I can
contact them to see if I can be hired to write/direct them. For
example, I was told Ogilvy & Mather Advertising Agency produces such
films. I don't know whom at O&M to contact. I sent a cover
letter/resume to O&M's Human Resources-Creative Services Department at
the NY headquarters, but have no idea if this is the right approach
there. I live in California but can go anywhere in the country to
meet with the people I would be working for, so please make the list
as extensive as possible.
Thank you very much for your help. |
Clarification of Question by
pickyvatic-ga
on
15 Jul 2004 22:54 PDT
So far I have not heard back from anyone. Is anyone out there? I am
tripling the price. Can anyone take this on? Thank you, if you are
the angel who can come to my aid.
|
Request for Question Clarification by
pafalafa-ga
on
16 Jul 2004 09:22 PDT
Hello pickyvatic-ga,
Thanks for your question.
Contracting with the federal or state government is messy business,
and requires a pretty long learning curve to even figure out how to
find out about the relevant opportunities, much less try to win a
government contract to produce a video.
There are two main ways to get on board:
(1) as a contractor, where you compete for (and hopefully win) the
contract directly from a government agency;
(2) or as a sub-contractor, where you are essentially hired by another
firm that has (or will have) a contract from the government.
In either case, you need to keep tabs on what contracts are being
offered, and who is getting the awards to produce educational videos
and the like.
Despite a good deal of effort by the feds and their state/local
government counterparts to streamline the process, and make it more
accessible to small businesses -- it's still a huge, unholy mess.
But that doesn't stop folks from diving in...business is business, after all.
I can answer your question by pointing you to several sources of
information on government contract opportunities that you can use to
keep aware of what's what. I've included two examples, below, of the
type of opportunities I'm talking about.
I can also provide information on how to set up automated searches
that will give you email notifications anytime new contract
opportunities appear that are related to video productions.
I don't know if these searches are likely to provide any direct
contact information to e.g. Olgivy & Mathers. However, if this type
of information would meet your needs, let me know, and I'll see if I
can help you out.
Best of luck,
pafalafa-ga
==========
[examples of video-related government solicitations]
Intent to conduct negotiations on a sole source basis for the
production of a new 8-10 minute training video for Katmai National
Preserve.
Notice Date
3/26/2004
Contracting Office
HFC - Acquisition Management National Park Service Harpers Ferry
Center P.O. Box 50, 230A Zachary Taylor Street Harpers Ferry WV 25425
Description
The National Park Service, Harpers Ferry Center, intends to conduct
negotiations on a sole source basis for the production of a new 8-10
minute training video for Katmai National Preserve, King Salmon,
Alaska with Mark Emery, 246 NE 59th Street, Ocala, Florida 34479. Mr.
Emery owns stock footage that can be incorporated into this training
video on proper catch-and-release methods of sport fishing in Alaskan
rivers and streams. Due to the remote location of Katmai National
Preserve contracting with Mr. Emery would be the most economical and
advantageous avenue for the Federal Government to accomplish this
training video. FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY.
==========
Services to Produce Public Service Announcements
4/12/2004
Notice Type
Solicitation Notice
NAICS
512191 ? Teleproduction and Other Postproduction Services
Contracting Office
Social Security Administration, Deputy Commissioner for Finance,
Assessment and Management, Office of Acquisition and Grants, 1710
Gwynn Oak Avenue, Baltimore, MD, 21207-5279
Response Due
5/28/2004
Point of Contact
Maria Hill, Contract Specialist, Phone 410-965-9532, Fax 410-966-9310,
E-Mail Address
maria.hill@ssa.gov
Small Business Set-Aside
Total Small Business
Description
The Social Security Administration (SSA), located at 6401 Security
Blvd., Baltimore,MD 21235 intends to procure the services of a
contractor to provide on an as needed basis all personnel, equipment
and facilities to produce an indefinite quantity of Public Service
Announcements. Due to the complicated and involved lengthy production
and post-production process, the contractor?s production and editing
facilities must be within 50 mile radius of SSA?s headquarters located
in Baltimore, MD. Contractors that feel they can meet this requirement
and are outside the 50-mile must submit a detailed capability
statement. This requirement will be procured utilizing procedures in
the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) Part 12, Acquisition of
Commercial Items and Part 13.5 Test Program for Certain Commercial
Items. The North American Industry Classification (NAICS) code for
this requirement is 512191. The size standard for this NAICS code is
$25 million. SSA anticipates awarding a firm-fixed price contract for
this effort. The period of performance will be for one year (12 months
in duration) with four 12-month option periods, if exercised. It is
anticipated that the Request for Proposal will be issued on or about
April 27, 2004. The RFP will be issued under solicitation
SSA-RFP-04-1042. The solicitation and any related documents for this
procurement will be made available to interested parties through
electronic media for downloading via the internet at Federal Business
Opportunities (FedBizOpps) at http://www.fedbizopps.gov. No paper
copies of the solicitation will be available. Potential offerors shall
be responsible for monitoring the internet site for release of the
solicitation, amendments (if any), and responses to any questions
submitted in accordance with the solicitation provision. Offers
received from other than a small business will be deemed unacceptable
and given no further notice.
|
Clarification of Question by
pickyvatic-ga
on
16 Jul 2004 13:55 PDT
Okay, second attempt... don't know where my 1st paragraph went...
disappeared off the screen. Anyway...
TO: pafalafa-ga
FROM: pickyvatic-ga
Hi pafalafa-ga:
Thank you for your efforts.
I want to be a sub-contractor to companies who get the contracts from
the govt. agencies, as I do not have my own production facilities.
Your plan of attack sounds good to me, that is, to get the govt.
postings by e-mail. Are you telling me, though, that I can't get the
info about which companies are gettings the contracts? They are the
people I need to contact about how to sub-contract with them. I am
wondering if the govt. agencies will tell me who they give the
contracts to as they happen. Maybe some of the same names will come
up and I can get on board with the larger video production companies.
Please do get back to me.
Thankx. Vickie
|
Request for Question Clarification by
pafalafa-ga
on
16 Jul 2004 16:29 PDT
OK. Let's try this, and see how it works for you for starters...if
the information here seems useful, I can provide some additional
sources and strategies as a full answer to your question.
Head for the site of the Central Contractor Registration for the
Department of Defense (even though is a DoD-only site, many of the
companies listed here act as contractors for the entire spectrum of
federal, state and local governments):
https://www.ccr.dlis.dla.mil/ccrinq/scripts/search.asp
On the search form, fill in the following:
SIC/NAICS Code: Enter the number: 512110
This is the code for "Motion Picture and Video Production" businesses.
I ran the search without any geographic limitations, but if you want
to, you can specifiy a particular state or city or zip code.
Ditto for the socio-economic factors -- I left them blank, but you can
select any of interest to you.
Select: List only active vendors
and hit "Search". This should take you to a results page along the lines of:
1723 Companies Found for Code 512110
That's a lot of production companies to choose from! The first few on my list are:
001025543 7B325 TRANS-RADIO PRODUCTIONS INC NATICK MA USA
001120278 28181 CHANNING BETE COMPANY, INC SOUTH DEERFIELD MA USA
001317056 0AJB4 CBS INC NEW YORK NY USA
001665954 3SSV0 GILBERT, ANGELA MC LEAN VA USA
002606994 7V098 AUDIO-VIDEO CORPORATION ALBANY NY USA
002739571 1UWQ4 VISIBLE PRODUCTIONS, LLC FORT COLLINS CO USA
Clicking on the "details" button brings you to a page of additional
information (doing so also, unfortunately, causes the list of
companies to disappear -- you'll have to click the back button on your
browser, and then the reload button to recreate the list each time you
return to it).
For instance, the record for CBS includes several active addresses for
CBS in NY and Santa Monica, but the real listing of interest is this
one:
CBS INC
Electronic Business POC Primary
Name: VEC RUSSO
Address Line 1: 830 MORRIS TURNPIKE
City: SHORT HILLS
State: NJ
Zip/Postal Code: 07078
U.S. Phone: (973) 376-1313
==========
In actual fact, the phone number listed is for a CBS affiliate, King
World Productions. You can see more about them here:
http://www.kingworld.com/contacts.htm
CBS Enterprises / King World Productions Inc.
==========
Not every company is the size and scale of CBS. A typical smaller
operation may be these guys:
TOPICS EDUCATION GROUP LLC
809 WEST HILL STREET, SUITE C
CHARLOTTE
NC
28208-5348
Note the listing of their NAICS codes, which gives you a good idea of
their range of activities:
512110
MOTION PICTURE AND VIDEO PRODUCTION
516110
INTERNET PUBLISHING AND BROADCASTING
541430
GRAPHIC DESIGN SERVICES
541511
CUSTOM COMPUTER PROGRAMMING SERVICES
541613
MARKETING CONSULTING SERVICES
541810
ADVERTISING AGENCIES
541820
PUBLIC RELATIONS AGENCIES
541830
MEDIA BUYING AGENCIES
541890
OTHER SERVICES RELATED TO ADVERTISING
541910
MARKETING RESEARCH AND PUBLIC OPINION POLLING
611710
EDUCATIONAL SUPPORT SERVICES
And of course, there's contact info:
PHELPS SPRINKLE
Phone: (704) 358-3198
Fax: (704) 358-3199
==========
Play around with this list. You'll see that some of the companies are
highly specialized -- for example, a medical imaging/video company --
while others are general support companies.
Let me know if this is of interest to you, and if I should provide
additional information as an answer to your question.
pafalafa-ga
|
Clarification of Question by
pickyvatic-ga
on
18 Jul 2004 08:47 PDT
Hi pafalafa-ga
Thank you for your answers so far. Looks very promising. I need a
couple of days of regular business hours to make calls to see if these
references will take me where I need to go. Also, can't even start
until Tuesday as I am tied up till then. I will get back to you as
soon as I know if I need more references. Thanx. Vickie
|
Request for Question Clarification by
pafalafa-ga
on
18 Jul 2004 08:53 PDT
No problem...I'm a patient fellow.
Good luck with the calls. I look forward to hearing how they work out for you.
pafalafa-ga
|
Request for Question Clarification by
pafalafa-ga
on
03 Aug 2004 08:34 PDT
Hello Vickie,
Just thought I'd check in and see how things are coming along? Were
you able to contact any of the firms from the CCR database? Were the
contacts helpful?
Let me know when you have a chance.
pafalafa-ga
|
