Collider’s Tom Slater Named Commercial Producers Council Co-Chair to Tackle AI and Pitching, Champion Creativity

​Collider executive producer Tom Slater has replaced former Electriclime EP Martin Box as co-chair of the Commercial Producers Council (CPC), joining Scoundrel’s Kate Gooden to lead the industry body.

At a time when new technology is changing how production companies make work and conduct business, Tom said CPC’s ability to bring commercial production companies together is more important than ever.

“The production community is like a very rich ecosystem, and everybody who works in production loves their job and is really passionate,” Tom told LBB ahead of a packed CPC networking event in Sydney on Wednesday evening.

“All the different offices are dealing with similar things, so it's great to be able to put our heads together and see how each company is responding to things, and learn and share notes.

“We’re working together to put energy into making sure we can make the best work possible and create thriving companies. The CPC is a nice way to bring all that together so this wonderful, artful industry continues to be sustainable for everyone.”

Tom feels bullish about the future of production, with Australian work continuing to perform well internationally, and clients and agencies investing in ambitious work.

“We’ve got clients that are trying to make a name for themselves,” he said.

“Australian work has done really well at Cannes, CICLOPE, and LIA. Producers and directors I've been speaking to recently overseas have all remarked to me that they’re really impressed by the work coming out of Australia.”

Tom is a relative newcomer to the CPC, but was asked by Martin specifically to step into the role. Kate said Tom’s youth and legal background were appealing to the CPC.

“Martin and I were discussing someone on the younger side to ensure we’re keeping the CPC relevant to [the] needs of younger producers and people in the industry … broadening our membership and our relevancy,” Kate said.

“He’s also someone who is passionate about creative work … that was a priority.”
The CPC, like other industry bodies and all industry businesses, is navigating “the AI question”. Many different producers are contributing to developing best practices for using the emerging technology, and Tom is eager to continue creating opportunities for CPC members to contribute.

“AI is a big thing we're all talking about, and we're trying to form a collective response and position – in a way that's supportive of our enduring business model, but doesn't choke off access to the emerging technology.

“I'm realising our job is to ask questions and listen to what everyone else thinks to encourage people to take the lead on things they're really passionate about.”
Kate added the potential impact of AI is “looming over everything” in the production industry.

“Is there a way to manage the impact AI has on our industry?” she asked.

“It's such a huge topic worldwide and the discussion affects a number of industries. It will be very interesting from a government perspective how that's tackled … but what we do immediately, locally, that may impact and sustain production work is a big challenge I can see in our future.

“We're still trying to find our feet with it, because it is so complicated. I personally don't see the same creative standards in AI outputs … but of course, there's room for that to grow, change, and improve exponentially.

“It's got to be embraced to some extent. It could be a really helpful tool to keep budgets in check and allow for better creativity. Clients no longer have to spend millions of dollars creating something in CGI that can be AI-generated for very little cost.

“But I also think monetising it will be an interesting thing as well, because at the moment, people think it's almost free. I don't believe that that will be the case moving forward, because you’ll have to have experts and people who are entrenched and embedded in generating high craft AI, and that's going to take time and money.

“Hopefully, there'll be some equilibrium between what the AI can generate and what can be human-made.”

The CPC has also spearheaded best practice guides over the past few years, particularly around pitching.

“Often our agency producer friends are supportive in making sure our business model endures,” Tom said.

“Pitching is a high-cost exercise for production companies, and trying to do that in a way that's sustainable helps us, but also helps the agency ecosystem as well.”

While implementing these guidelines can “seem small”, Kate said agencies coming on-board has made a big difference to production companies.

“Prior to the best practices guide, we implemented the pitch cancellation fee policy, which seems to have been taken up quite well by all the agencies,” she said.

“It’s a policy encouraging a pitch fee be paid if a client cancels a project after it's been pitched.

“The Best Practices Guide [has also] been really helpful for agency producers to have something they can point to when they're dealing with their senior management, who may not be as across the needs of the production industry.”

The CPC is also working to standardise deliverable formats across all TV and online files. Tom hopes narrowing “down the scope of codecs and bit rates” will not only benefit production houses, but particularly post-production companies, as well as media agencies.

“Every single place has its own specs, which takes post houses and some production companies days sometimes to roll out everything to brief,” he said.

“Some places need nine different versions, all with slightly different specs in case [it causes] issues in the software. It's wildly complicated.”

Kate agreed the task will be a mammoth undertaking.

“It sounds simple, but it's really complicated and difficult to achieve. [We’re] often creating hundreds of files for one campaign to deliver the assets required.”

She noted while the CPC isn’t an official governing body, setting best practice and discussing issues collectively creates “a sense of community for the production industry.”