INTERVIEW OF BILL THOMPSON, DEPUTY COMMISSIONER OF FILM MUSIC AND DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT DIVISION OF GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

(This is a transcript of Rob Hassett’s interview of Bill Thompson, Deputy Commissioner of Film Music and Digital Entertainment Division of the Georgia Department of Economic Development for B to B Magazine)

ROB: This is Rob Hassett for B to B Magazine. Today, I’m going to be interviewing Bill Thompson, who is the deputy commissioner of the Film Music and Digital Entertainment Division of the Georgia Department of Economic Development. Bill, it’s good to have you on today.

BILL: Well, thank you Rob. I’m very happy to be here.

ROB: I know that you have been in the film industry for many, many years, and you were, I know, with Crawford Communications for fourteen years. And there you ended up as vice president of post production.

BILL: That’s correct.

ROB: And you’ve been the deputy commissioner and in charge of the Film Music and Entertainment Division for about two years, right?

BILL: Right.

ROB: What’s the mission of your division?

BILL: Well, it’s much like the overall mission of the Department of Economic Development. We are trying to grow the entertainment industries in Georgia, and part of that means attracting projects and permanent business locations to the state. We go about this in a fairly traditional way. It’s really all about business development which includes promotion, marketing and advertising. We are doing a lot of sales calls to potential clients all over the United States. So it’s a fairly traditional business development and sales kind of approach.

ROB: In addition, Bill, you also worked with the governor’s office and the legislature to enact a special tax credit incentive for video game, film and television production in Georgia, isn’t that right?

BILL: Yes, that process started in the summer of 2007. And of course we worked closely with our private sector industry partners. We met with the governor on three separate occasions. Each time was probably about six weeks or so kind of apart from each other. So it was a process that took quite a bit of time; different versions of the proposed legislation were examined and finally we came out with something we felt was pretty good, and the governor agreed.

ROB: And it went into affect in 2008, right, about in the spring maybe?

BILL: Yes, the bill was signed on May 12, 2008. Of course, the legislation itself is retroactive to January 1, 2008. And so since that time, we’ve had significant success in developing an increase in our number of entertainment projects.

ROB: As I understand, it offers tax credits of twenty percent to any video or film production, or video game production company that spends five hundred thousand dollars or more in Georgia on production. And it offers thirty percent if they add a State of Georgia logo somewhere on the film or video, is that correct?

BILL: Yes, absolutely. It’s a two-part incentive with the base incentive being twenty percent as you’ve mentioned, and then an additional ten percent for a total of thirty percent if the customer will place a Georgia logo either in the titles or the credits of the project. Believe it or not, we’ve actually talked to some folks about the possibility of product placement within the actual film. Some folks have not only included the logo as we require, but they’ve actually offered us other opportunities. For example, Lion’s Gate Films actually used our movie logo on the movie posters for some of Tyler Perry’s movies. They actually placed it on the internet site for some of those films. So there are some unique types of exposure that we’ve been able to get so far with the logo.

ROB: Bill, where does Georgia rank as a film and television production center as compared to other states in the country?

BILL: Well, as you know, we’ve been at this a long time. In the modern era, it really began for us in 1972. So we’ve been at this for 36 years. We have during that time, over six hundred projects have been filmed in the state or made in the state in the case of video games. So those are film projects, television projects, music videos, commercials, video games. So that’s kind of where we’ve been and where we are. Also, we have a significant number of supplier companies and vendors within the state that make it very attractive to folks to come and work here.

ROB: Where do you think we rank for film and television?

BILL: I think that now with our new incentives, we are certainly in the top five in the United States … maybe even number three.

ROB: Who would be first? California, then New York second?

BILL: Well California doesn’t have any incentives but yet still the most film making in the Unites States certainly continues to happen in California. But they have no incentives at all. So if you limit us to strictly to the incentive states, we are definitely probably number three.

ROB: Who are the others?

BILL: Well let’s see, New York has a very competitive incentive and they have the infrastructure to go with it. Michigan as you know is sort of struggling with their new incentive even though it is very competitive. They have very little infrastructure and they have to import almost everything. I think you’ll see some changes with that program. Louisiana is competitive but Georgia’s incentive is actually superior to theirs. Those are probably some of the highlights.

ROB: In the amount of TV and film production actually made, California would be first, New York second, and about where would Georgia fall?

BILL: I would say that probably right now, Louisiana is still probably making more films than we are, but we’re going to fix that really soon.

ROB: Well, good. Okay. Now you do a lot more for the film industry than just encourage them to produce their films here. What other things do you do for them?

BILL: Well, you know, first and foremost, we’re a resource for customers. And all of our services are provided absolutely free. So customers come to us for help about identifying certain locations that they may want to shoot in. We have a 90,000 image database, where we can easily identify those sorts of locations and we can put together what we call a package and send it out electronically to folks. If customers want to come and physically be here, I have two location scouts on my staff that can help show them around the state. And then of course, we’re sort of an information clearing house for different types of resources that customers may need, including the hiring of crew people, the identifying of local suppliers and things like that; that can help them do their work here.

ROB: Bill, what activities have you been involved in in the last, let’s say, three months to bring films to Georgia?

BILL: Well, since the legislation was passed, we’ve been making trips out to Los Angeles to educate some of our customers there about our new incentives. And we’ve had some pretty good success, certainly since the bill was signed. We’ve had many, many television series projects and feature films shot here. For example, we had a project that came in called “Van Wilder III.” That project started shooting in August. Even before that, we’ve had a docu drama that was shot here called “The People vs. Leo Frank.” And that was a very good example of a docu drama here in the state. We’ve had a project by Warner Brothers called “The Preacher’s Kid” which just finished shooting on November 17. There’s a movie in town now that is going to wrap here in a few days called “The Joneses.” And that stars Demi Moore and David Duchovny. We had a Paramount project this fall called “Road Trip II.” And there was an independent feature film made called “Our Child is Missing.” That was produced out in the Carrollton area and was produced by a Los Angeles company that’s since relocated to Georgia.

ROB: What company is that?

BILL: It’s called Red Five Entertainment. And they’ve made two movies now out in the Carrollton area. They seem to really like working in that part of the state which is great.

ROB: Other than the incentive, what are other draws does Georgia have for the movie industry?

BILL: Well you know, as I’ve mentioned, we’ve been in this for a long time, so we have a high degree of experience level. We have a very well established and professional crew base. We have a good infrastructure in terms of suppliers and equipment rental companies and other source of vendors that are needed to support production. And you know, we also have numerous diverse locations all over the state. Georgia’s the largest state east of the Mississippi River. Consequently, we have more diversity than some other states would. We have mountains in the northern part of the state. We have over a hundred miles of coastline on the Atlantic Ocean. We have lots of diverse looks in the central and southern part of the state; with historic towns like Savannah, Augusta, Macon, and Columbus. And lots of rural areas with small towns. So a customer can come to Georgia and literally get just about every look that they could possibly need from huge metropolitan areas like Atlanta to very small rural types of areas. So that’s one of our greatest strengths.

ROB: And we have a mild climate.

BILL: We do. We’re very fortunate in that we don’t generally experience any major hurricanes. We don’t have a lot of winter type climate. Its fairly moderate and which means there’s a longer shooting season. So people can come here and they don’t have to worry about … boy, like I’ve got to get done before its hurricane season or I’ve got to get done before it starts to snow. People can come here and pretty much shoot literally year round.

ROB: And I guess with the drought, we have generally good weather.

BILL: Well, we do. Certainly we have rain and we have thunderstorms and things like that occasionally but in general, compared to most other states, our climate is very, very moderate.

ROB: Now your division also promotes the music industry in Georgia.

BILL: Yes, we do. The music industry in Georgia is a two billion dollar a year industry now. It’s growing exponentially at the rate of a hundred million dollars a year. And just like our state itself, the music industry is extremely diverse in Georgia which is actually a very positive thing. We have a huge hip hop and rap kind of industry here. We have a tremendous alternative rock industry up in Athens and other parts of the state. We have lots of southern rock, bluegrass, country music and jazz, classical music. So the music industry is an incredible economic boost to our efforts.

ROB: And it’s been growing at a hundred million a year. That’s incredible!

BILL: It is! And, of course, you know with some of the economic down turn, that could slow down a little bit, but that’s exactly what we’ve experienced in the last three years.

ROB: How big is the film industry in Georgia?

BILL: The film industry is not as big as the music industry at this time. But my goal is in short order, maybe by the end of 2009 or maybe 2010, my goal is for the film and television industry in the state to be a one billion dollar industry. We’re well on our way. In 2007, the economic impact of all of our entertainment segments, was six hundred seventeen million dollars. You can see, with the film and television segments certainly being the most of that, that we’re on our way to having a one billion dollar or more film industry here.

ROB: So film and television was six hundred and what?

BILL: Six hundred seventeen million in 2007, in terms of what we call economic impact.

ROB: And finally, you’re also encouraging video game companies to operate in Georgia. Where would you say Georgia ranks in the United States in video games, in that industry?

BILL: Well, certainly California would be number one. Massachusetts has a strong industry because of MIT and some other things. Certainly, New York is strong. You know, Austin, Texas is very strong. And then maybe secondarily a little bit, Seattle, Washington with the whole Redmond area; that’s pretty strong. But you know I would say that Georgia today may be somewhere, number six or something like that, you know when you look at those other states that have a more mature industry. But as I said before, we are growing exponentially here in Georgia, so that’s a good sign.

ROB: What’s our gross revenue in Georgia on video games?

BILL: I think in the last three years, it’s been about a hundred eighty million dollars of revenue which translates to about three hundred million dollars of economic impact. And as I’ve said before, it’s growing every single year so we’re very happy to be a part of that growth, and certainly we’re doing everything we can to foster that growth.

ROB: I know you seeded and promoted the SIEGE Conference which is in the computer game industry, that started last year, and doubled in size for this year.

BILL: Yes, and we quickly kind of identified that the SIEGE Conference was something that was very much needed in the state. And by the way, SIEGE stands for Southern Interactive Entertainment Game Expo. So we’ve been very happy to be a significant sponsor of that event for the last two years. This year we saw that event double in size in terms of attendance. We think it’s an important component of what we’re trying to do within the state along with trying to attract one or more video game publishers to Georgia, and also one or more video game testing centers which we’ve learned will be key components of growing our industry here.

ROB: If anyone wants to reach you guys about film, music or video games, how should they contact your office?

BILL: Well, the best way to reach us is really the main line because most of my staff is very mobile. So it’s always best to not dial anyone person direct. It’s better to call the main line in our division, and that number is (404) 962-4052.

ROB: I meant to ask you this earlier, how many video game companies are in Georgia?

BILL: There are approximately fifty video game companies in Georgia, and of course, we’re hoping that number will continue to grow. And there are about approximately two thousand employees working in that industry in the state. So keep in mind, some companies have very large staffs and some companies are very small. So anyway, we’re anticipating that that will continue to grow.

ROB: How many people work in the film industry in Georgia?

BILL: Georgia right now has a resident crew base of about fifty-two hundred, and that number continues to grow.

ROB: How about music?

BILL: Music actually has the largest of all. There are ninety-five hundred people working in the music industry in Georgia.

ROB: Bill, if somebody is calling your office about film, who should they ask for first?

BILL: Well, generally if they are calling us about film, they want (a) to talk about the tax credits; and (b) they may have some interest in doing a location scout or something like that, so I would say that all film calls should probably be directed to Lee Thomas. Her number is (404) 962-4048.

ROB: What about music?

BILL: Any calls for music related things should be directed to Brenda Brayton and her number is (404) 962-4047.

ROB: And what about video games?

BILL: Video games would be under a guy named Asante Bradford and I don’t have his number in front of me but I think it’s (404) 962-4056 but I just don’t have it in front of me. Sorry.

ROB: Bill, thanks a lot and I really appreciate your working with me today.

BILL: Well, thank you, Rob. I appreciate your interest and I hope we can do this again.

(This is a transcript of Rob Hassett’s interview of Bill Thompson, Deputy Commissioner of Film Music and Digital Entertainment Division of the Georgia Department of Economic Development)