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One would think that getting PSAs and other low-budget work off the ground on a shoestring would be a major challenge. But agency producers say working on such projects is easier than it seems. From creative to production to post to the audio mix, such campaigns often become collaborative efforts, allowing everyone on the team to stretch their legs and try out new ideas. The engine behind these labors of love, however, is the broadcast producer who calls in all the favors to get the ball rolling.

When Jessica Coats, broadcast producer at GSD&M, in Austin, Texas, was approached by agency creatives to take on a PSA for The Lance Armstrong Foundation, Austin, she more than rose to the occasion. Pulling favors from production company, editorial boutique and audio facility alike, she produced "Ride for the Roses" for a measly $9,000. The PSA, which aired in late April and featured leading cyclists from around the world, promoted a Memorial Day weekend bike-a-thon to raise money for cancer research.

"World-class cyclist Lance Armstrong has overcome testicular cancer [which spread to a lung and his brain] and has started riding competitively again," Coats explains. "He set up a foundation for cancer research in Austin, which is a print client of GSD&M. I got involved when the creatives, copywriter Mike Woolf and art director Juan Perez, came up with the spot and were trying to find someone who could get it produced. So they came to me and asked if I knew anybody."

Coats, who has been at GSD&M for two years, following a five-year stint at Dallas-based The Richards Group, gets assigned PSAs a few times a year. She works on them in between her usual jobs, which include work for such accounts as Fannie Mae, SeaWorld, Texas Lottery and the Texas Department of Safety. Coats says she tapped relations forged in larger projects to make "Ride for the Roses" a reality.

"I had worked with Gregg Stern [executive producer at Moss/Petermann/Holtzman, New York] and with one of their directors, Henry Holtzman, many times," Coats continues. "I was getting ready to shoot with him again and I knew Gregg was an avid cyclist. He rides about 40 miles every day. I called Gregg and he was really excited about it. We went with M80 Films [Santa Monica], one of the companies that Gregg works with, and director Doug Taub. Doug - who doesn't race but mountain bikes and is a real sportsman - was also really excited about it and agreed to do it for no fee."

Public Good

With virtually no budget for the spot, Coats set out to find money for film and tape. "The creatives came to me and said they had no money," she says. "So I went to GSD&M's accounts guy, Louis Briones, who's also a cyclist. I said that they really wanted to do the spot and we had to come up with some money. I told Louis I wanted to pay for any kind of hard costs. The production company got less than $5,000 for film and telecine transfer. Everything else was donated."

The spot, which compares the growth of a cancer cell to the perseverance of the featured cyclist (played by executive producer Stern) riding a marathon in the heat, was shot on location in Salton City, Calif. "The agency paid for us to travel to California for the shoot," Coats continues. "We went to Salton City because it's dry and flat and [so] we could get that heat-wave look. The production crew donated their time because they wanted to do it. We edited here in Austin at the 501 Group and paid only for tape stock. For sound design, Chris Erlon [owner/chief audio engineer at Digital Domain, Austin] donated his time. People were willing to do it because it was for a good cause."

Coats notes that there were some creative challenges in pulling off the PSA on such a low budget. The spot opens with what appears to be a cell under a microscope. Then as the diffused image becomes larger and fills up the screen, it turns out to be a cyclist in a spandex suit riding on the open road under the heat of the sun. "The challenge was whether to create the opening in-camera or in post?" Coats explains, "Gregg and Doug figured out how to do it in-camera, which made it more cost efficient without having to figure out some post trick.

"If it's really good creative, you can always get it done because people want to do it," she concludes. "I have never had to compromise on the creative. I've always found a way to get it done how they want it. The creatives had an idea but weren't sure how to get it done, but they talked to the production company and the editors and figured it out."

Good Causes

Boston-based Arnold Communications broadcast producer Joe Togneri agrees that getting people to do work on pro bono projects is not hard if the cause is a good one and the creative is intriguing. Arnold Communications recently served as creative consultant on "Save Fenway," a series of four PSAs that tap into the legendary rivalry between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees. The PSAs promote a Save Fenway Park! Preservation Alliance campaign to keep Boston's famed baseball stadium from the wrecking ball. Directed by Christian Hoagland of Boston-based Redtree Productions, the spots feature New Yorkers giving testimonial on why Fenway Park should not be torn down.

"We went down to New York and basically interviewed people at the cookouts before the game in the Yankee Stadium parking lot and on the street," Togneri recalls. "There was no money, so it was a total freebee. We pulled in many favors to get it done. The production company and director Christian Hoagland did it for nothing. [Boston-based] post house Pisces Productions onlined the spots and Flamed out Yankee team logos from hats and T-shirts. Soundtrack Studios [Boston] created the audio mix. It became a real collaborative effort. There were no budget concerns. It was a good cause and everyone got involved."

Togneri contends that pro bono projects can often provide agency creatives an outlet for new ideas. "That is why so many creatives are interested," he says. "Pro bono work is not as heavily scrutinized as ... a pay job. It's an opportunity to really express yourself without having the spot be focus-grouped and tested. You can really let loose and do really interesting things."

Good Concepts

Jennifer Allen, broadcast producer on "Horn Away," a PSA out of CF2GS, Seattle, for Project Action, Seattle-based Northwest AIDS Foundation's educational AIDS-prevention program, says that PSAs provide an opportunity for creatives and vendors to rally around a good concept as well as a worthy cause.

"I love working on PSAs because, if the work is good, the creatives have an opportunity to have more of a voice," she says. "I have good working relationships with vendors, and they really came through and helped me out. They gave me a break on pretty much everything. It is great to get the community together, especially if it's a cause they believe in."

Allen - broadcast producer at Bozell Worldwide, Seattle, of which CF2GS is a division - got involved in this, her first PSA, at the behest of CF2GS creative director Mary Knight. "CF2GS does pro bono for the Northwest AIDS Foundation," she says. "The project had been floating around for six months to a year when they finally had a budget they were comfortable with. They were doing radio, some outdoor, as well as television advertising. We had $60,000 for radio and TV, so it was not ridiculous. We had some money. We started screening different reels and ended up with Russell Bates, a director who had just gotten signed by [Crossroads Films subsidiary] X-Ray Productions. He is from Seattle, and we'd heard good things about him. And he had a film look that we wanted. We wanted to shoot 16mm and make it look sort of low-budget."

To pull it off, Allen says, she got breaks from everyone, including the copywriter Andy Kivistik and the art director Troy Nebeker: "I got a lot of favors," she says. "The production company took a cut in fee, and the editor [Johnna Turlano, at Slice Editorial, Seattle] edited for free. We set aside money for her, but she donated it back to the Northwest AIDS Foundation in her brother's name. [Seattle post house] Modem Digital donated the online editing and telecine transfer. We just paid for tape. Bad Animals [Seattle] did sound design at half-price." Mike McAuliffe was the sound designer and Martin Lund, of Admusic, Santa Monica composed the original music.

Original appears to be the operative word with these PSA's. They are unique not only for allowing creatives to express themselves almost entirely unfettered, but they also promote worthwhile causes, a quality not usually associated with the world of advertising.