“We’re idiots!!! We are just idiots! We produce for television because we love it! It is our hearts. We have stories to tell and important information to share, but turning a profit so far, has been impossible”. This is the cry of an independent producer of television content who manages a project budget of up to and beyond fifteen million dollars, but laments that neither she nor the production company retains any of it.

This is not a new chorus. Producers and traditional distributors of local audiovisual content have been subsidising that process for decades. I found several articles by esteemed authors dating back decades that have made the point that creating local content is an expensive undertaking. A case has also been repeatedly made for a transparent and adequate means of providing seed funding for local content production to stimulate that segment of the audiovisual industry and induce growth.

I spoke to four independent producers of television content about whether it was time for a new thrust to stimulate capital for content production. “Hahahahahahahah.Hahahaha,” was one response. This went on for a while then, “Chuups! Deborah, you are wasting your time.”

Respectfully, I disagreed. I think it is past time for Jamaica to contribute more meaningfully to the professional audiovisual market worldwide. That market was estimated at 183 billion dollars in 2018 and forecast to grow to 230 billion US dollars in 2023. I also think it is time, in addition to telling our stories, to be able to ensure that our storytellers can make a decent living from it. And, it is time in this new economy to move from being despondent and claiming idiocy for thinking that we can. There is too much potential in this sector for us to fail to be able to find solutions for our challenges. I think it is time to use our competitive and comparative advantage to thrive.

Reel Costs for Studio Productions

To do this, the first step must be to understand real and realistic reel costs. Yvette Rowe and Livingston White of CARIMAC tell us from their research that funding television shows depends on a number of issues including the size of the market and the complexity of the programme. The laughing producer estimated that all in, it costs anywhere between $500,000 and $850,000 to produce a single episode of a popular local television programme recorded in studio. The cost centres that are not in that costing are profit margins and allocations for retained earnings.

This is part of the problem. Traditionally independent producers under-report the costs of television so that they don’t look too high to scare away potential funders. On the back end, therefore, there is little to reinvest in new programming; and often the producer is the only person on the production team that has earned nothing from the project.

Another producer estimated about $1.2 million all-in per episode for their production. This is also recorded in-studio, with controlled costs. ”People see the programme on air, they watch it and enjoy it. After it is finished and they move on. They may not give it a second thought that you are left holding the bag.” According to the producer, “… if you don’t have a minimum of fifteen to twenty million Jamaican dollars, there is no way that you can bring thirteen episodes (a standard season) of a television product to air at high quality,” adding “It sounds like a lot of money right? Well, you make sure to tell everyone that but the producer does not see a cent of it — it is all sunk in production costs — used to pay other people”.

Producers say they manage cash outflow by leveraging relationships, shooting three or four episodes of a series in a day and other creative means. Jamaican crews are multi-faceted and double up on roles. I saw for myself a producer of a popular web-based series use four mobile phones to shoot an entire series. She played all the roles on set herself — camera operator, interviewer, set designer. The only thing she didn’t do was the makeup. That was a direct expense.

Expensive Drama

We love drama! A conservative estimate to produce a television drama series, with extreme cost-cutting measures in place, can run a producer an average of three million Jamaican dollars per episode in real costs. Jamaican television budgets often cover modest talent fees to multiple characters, locations and crew, pre and post-production expenses as well as distribution costs “…and that is taking into consideration a lot of shortcuts we have to take to make it work”, outlined the producer of a popular drama series. For a thirteen episode series, that is about 40 million Jamaican dollars, or just over 250 thousand USD to produce a thirteen episode television series on a tight budget.

Sponsorship has been the mainstay of the production side of the audiovisual sector. Producers smile pained smiles and gratefully take the modest expressions of confidence, hoping to make-up the difference with other small sums from multiple sponsors. I remember presenting a $50-million budget to a sponsor for the production of the dramatic education television series A Graders. Following the offers of two hundred thousand dollars, in cash and kind and a long list of restrictions and demands for product recognition, placement and brand alignment it was clear, very seldom will an independently produced programme see full sponsorship coverage of their production.

All the content producers I spoke to told me of the compromises they have to make, but are reluctant to fully disclose for publication the challenges they face in sponsorship negotiations. This is because content production still depends heavily on sponsors.

From The Harder They Come back in its day to Lime Tree Lane, Royal Palm Estate, the recent Thicker Than Water and everything in between and beyond, the challenge of identifying production funding in Jamaican has been incessant.

Whither Online?

So why not go online? Putting content online may solve the distribution challenges faced by producers. It does not, however, adequately address the front-loaded costs that are involved in the production of diversified audiovisual content. You have to produce the show first before you can upload it. Those costs don’t go away. It is a vicious cycle. For Jamaican producers of content, next to accessing finance, profitable distribution opportunities remain their greatest challenge. Not having clear, profitable channels of distribution makes loan and even equity financing a hard sell.

This is why, while local content distribution processes were dithering, the world developed new, measurable distribution models, methods, platforms and enterprises online. Scores of Jamaican ‘contentpreneurs’ have chosen these online distribution options or were forced to use online formats to solidify their forward integration strategies of IP ownership and creative control.

I happened upon the work of Richard Brown Productions on YouTube and was amazed at the simple, earthy, honesty, Jamaicanness and proficiency of their storytelling. I went in search of them and found them in western Jamaica. Brown started in wedding photography and began experimenting with telling audiovisual stories. With a small team of cast and crew they organically produce remarkable dramas. They now have 96 videos, over 92 thousand subscribers, and hundreds of thousands of views. The online content story is for another time, but it is important to note that there are scores of teams across the country constrained by the ravages of formalisation and funding who need to access capital to move forward.

Adult Undergarments and Inverted Supply Chains

Sherando Ferrill, an actor, director and producer, insists that even as producers lament, solving the funding problems requires an earnest, strategic push, fuelled by concerted will. “It is time we put on our big girl and big boy undergarments, take the leap to properly assess the risks and develop a model that can provide work for our people and profits for our financial risk-takers”.

The predominant question is, therefore, what will it take for producers, financiers and distributors to design a funding model that allows the entry of new players and projects, sustenance of existing ones and do justice to the inverted production supply chain that requires the bulk of its working capital in its development phase.

There is, however, a mischievous elephant in the room that is still unsettled and undefined. The matter of establishing clearly defined domestic supply chains for television content production, from development to distribution has to be addressed for any funding proposition to work. Until these are defined, the local television sector , producers and distributors, will not have completed its transition from institution to industry.

Content Creation Context

In the two turbulent decades of transition following the liberalisation of television in 1997, sector-players have experimented with various local supply chain models. Over time the local content subsector of the Jamaican audiovisual sector had begun to show signs of ‘settling down’. Diversified technology removed some barriers to entry to the production process. There was greater upskilling as training and education opportunities increased. The increasing cooperation and convergence of production subsectors had begun to take root as music, design, film, animation, games and other creative sectors became increasingly co-dependent. Slow but steady signals of economic growth and commercial optimism had begun to emerge.

Audiovisual content production continued in earnest. Cash projects continue to keep the sector alive. Corporate, advertising and music video production remain its mainstay. Some of Jamaica’s most creative audiovisual dramatic storytelling and production is hidden in plain sight in the wide range of music videos that can be found online, except from a specific youth market. There remained no question of Jamaicans ability to tell stories. Yet at every step, identifying financing for content production was constrained by the missing links between content production, content distribution and the financing of both within Jamaica’s small market.

Financing Models

Advertising and sponsorship remained the central funding model for both production and broadcast. The slices of the pie thinned as the audiovisual sector grew. Godot’s discussions continue regarding the establishment of a public, private or PPP Film Fund. A cess on cable stations to fund production had been mooted. The CHASE FUND was established as a possible source for funding. Co-production options were also explored but were challenged by trade policy support and financing. A hybrid of television deficit financing, used to procure overseas programming – where the broadcaster pays the creator a licence fee in exchange for the right to air the show, was another option. Because the licence fee is significantly less than the cost of producing the programme, this model was unhelpful for local producers, given the hefty price tag of production.

Shared risk financing models became more popular. Television stations and producers shared in the financial risk when considering adopting a new programme. The issues of shared rights and creative control, constrained the producer while the notion of sharing the advertising market constrained the broadcaster. While the shared risk model allowed for the perpetuation of production, it was still not a perfectly comfortable fit for all. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

Sponsorship took a hit. One producer outlined: “We are grateful for those who share the dream and see our vision for content production. COVID-19”.

Globally, production staff, being largely freelancers, were laid off and entire filming operations shut down or mothballed. In Jamaica with lockdowns and stay at home orders, focus shifted online to sources of audiovisual content production and content sharing at domestic levels. On the production side we saw shut downs, postponements and scaled down production; suspension of travel, closure of cinemas and other viewing spaces. Production activity, content, marketplaces and festivals moved online. We saw new platforms for distribution, increasing production globally, and diversification of content. In some instances this content production translated to revenue. In others, monetisation was a myth.

Opportunity to Regroup

There are several pockets of discussions about private, public and PPP film funds and new funding initiatives are being discussed in Zoom rooms, as those with ‘raw meat’ seek fire. We can least afford to avoid big picture matters of finance. Is it time for the financial and creative sectors to engage in discussions to face the ROI questions squarely? Is it time to stop thinking that we cannot create the creative/finance models that will build out an industry, and begin to craft them.

In the Real Vibz Film Festival staged last week, television producer Dahlia Harris indicated that it took her seven years since the production of the first season to be able to fund and produce the second series of Thicker Than Water, now airing locally. There are more where that came from; from her and from countless others. In part two, we will look at some global financing models for content production and examine possibilities for creating distribution and funding models for audiovisual content in Jamaica.

Dr Deborah Hickling Gordon coordinates the Cultural and Creative Industries and Entertainment Management programmes in the ICS, The UWI, Mona. She is a member of the UNESCO global, Caricom regional, and the UNESCO Transcultura Cultural Economy expert facilities. She is a director of Ink and Vision Ltd; president of Women in Film and Television — Jamaica; and Convener of the Public Relations Society of Jamaica.