Building the Biz

The Georgia Film and Advisory Commission

By: Brent Dey

Michael Coles is a believer in the power of positive thinking. In 1977, shortly after opening his first shop in what later would become a national chain of cookie stores, Coles was involved in a motorcycle accident that almost took his life.

When doctors told him he wouldn’t be able to walk without a cane, he decided to take matters into his own hands. Setting up a stationary bike in his basement, he trained every day to break free from the handicap his accident had imposed. With the support of his family, Coles was not only able to strengthen his legs so that he could walk, he went on to set two transcontinental biking records. In 1984, he biked from Savannah to San Diego in eleven days, eight hours and fifteen minutes. In 1989, he became part of a four-man team to race 3,000 miles from Los Angeles to New York in just five days, one hour and eight minutes. Both records still stand today.

In 1998, Coles sold the business he had opened shortly before his accident to Mrs. Fields Cookie Company. Although the amount of the transaction has not been disclosed, his Great American Cookie Company had annual revenues in excess of one hundred million dollars at the time of the sale. If you want to see what one hundred million dollars tastes like, you can still buy a cookie from The Great American Cookie Company’s original location in Perimeter Mall.

On October 21st, 1999, Coles was appointed by Governor Roy Barnes to chair the Georgia Film and Video Advisory Commission. Coles claims his only qualifications to chair the commission were a passion for movies and a desire to do something positive for the state. The Governor would say he was impressed by his power of positive thinking, and his demonstrated track record for building successful, profitable businesses. “The fact that he successfully built a company from only one store in Atlanta to a national franchise proves his marketing savvy and business acumen,” says Governor Barnes.

Coles’ acumen is complimented by a fresh, unbiased view of Georgia’s film industry. “I don’t come to this with any preconceived notions of what we should and should not do,” he says. “It’s the same as when I went into the cookie business. I had come from a background in retail and knew nothing about the cookie industry, but by focusing on repeat business and quality of product, we were able to build our business from one store to a successful, national chain.”

Coles plans to take the same approach to building Georgia’s film and video industries. “Building this business is no different than building any other business,” he says, showing his trademark optimism. “What are the needs and what are the obstacles?”

Defining those needs and obstacles has been a major undertaking. It is what has kept the board busy since it’s first working meeting in February 2000.

The Problem

It’s no secret that film and television production has dropped in Georgia over the past five years. What may be a surprise is how far Georgia has dropped in production revenues. “Last year Georgia did $200 million in film business,” Coles says. “Our next competitor did $300 million more than us.”

That drop in production coincided with the decline of the last Film and Videotape Advisory Commission, which disbanded four years ago due to lack of involvement. During the following four year period, Georgia went from its place among the top five production centers in the United States, to the eight or ninth—behind obvious production centers like New York, California, North Carolina and Illinois, and less likely rivals like Texas, Florida and Virginia.

Much can be linked to Georgia’s decline over the past five years. Unions have definitely played their part, imposing restrictions on what was once one of Georgia’s greatest assets—it’s status as a right-to-work state. The other problems that have affected the film industry are the same ones Atlantans deal with every day: urban sprawl that cuts into the idyllic back country locations that were once so close to the city and lost time, thanks to unpredictable traffic snarl. Crews from Los Angeles used to come to Atlanta to escape from those problems. Urban sprawl has bought those problems here.

Coles points out that Georgia is suffering a loss of business that is affecting the film industry nationwide. “The overall number of projects shot in the United States is declining,” he says, “Even in Los Angeles. At one time, only ten or fourteen percent of all film productions were shot outside the United States. Now it’s forty to forty five percent.” Television has seen a much more rapid exodus. Within the past five years, sixty to sixty five percent of all American television has been shot outside the country.

Much of that work has gone to Canada. Last year eleven television series, including “The X Files,” were shot in Vancouver—a city that barely had a television presence ten years ago. “Canada has been brilliant in developing and promoting its film industry,” says Greg Torre, Director of the Georgia Film Office. “About fifteen years ago they set some goals, and they’ve been aggressive in pursuing those goals through self promotion and government subsidy.”

The Canadian government offers an 11% subsidy on labor for film projects, which is often matched by an additional 11% by Canadian providences. Add to that an exchange rate where the American dollar can buy twice what a Canadian dollar can, and it’s no wonder the Canadian film industry is rolling.

The Georgia Film and Videotape Advisory Commission has taken a cue from the Canadians. “There’s nothing we can do about the exchange rate,” Coles says, “but we can be more aggressive in the incentives we offer filmmakers. I want Georgia to be the first place producers think of when looking for locations in the United States, but outside of L.A. or New York. It’s going to take a lot of funding to do that. It’s going to require some help from the state to do that.”

The Commission

The Advisory Commission has spent the last six months determining which incentives will most benefit the film industry, and will present their findings to the State Legislature in September. “We don’t offer any tax incentives at the moment,” he says, “so this is new. We’ve got to define which incentives will be the most beneficial, and we’ve got to narrow our requests down to those we can actually get.”

The commission already has the support of a governor who sees the substantial and widely dispersed economic benefits a healthy film industry can offer. Film and television is a non-polluting industry with professional, high paying jobs. The indirect benefits are strong as well. Film crews bring business to hotels, restaurants and retail establishments. Film and television exposure builds Georgia’s national presence, and movies like “Forrest Gump,” “Fried Green Tomatoes” and “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” draw flocks of tourists to the state.

“When I meet with rotary clubs, they’re always interested in how Savannah has built a cottage tourism industry from its film exposure,” Coles says. He also points to Joliet, where “Fried Green Tomatoes” was shot. “At the heyday, after that movie came out, there were sixteen businesses where there was previously only one. Now, almost ten years later, twelve of those businesses remain.”

The Board

Because the film industry benefits so many other industries, and because it relies on the support of so many businesses and government agencies, the 40-member Film and Videotape Advisory Commission is peopled by a diverse group of Georgia business leaders, including marketers, accountants, government officials and entrepreneurs. “Michael and the Governor are targeting individuals who are at the top of their fields, people who can bring a level of expertise in a specific area,” Torre says. “Some of these people provide valuable connections that can help us accomplish the things we need to accomplish. Some are advocates for the film and video industry in state senate positions.”

Most of the advisory commission members are production company principals in the local television and film community. They bring with them not only the concerns and issues of professionals working in the business, but the critical eye a buyer or producer would bring when considering Georgia as a production location. “This board has been more reflective of the industry than past boards,” says Bill VanDerKloot, President of VanDerKloot Productions. This is the fourth board he has served on.

The board is divided into five committees: an executive committee, a technology committee, business development, music and marketing. Advisory commission members serve on a voluntary basis, without compensation. The commission meets quarterly, and the sub-committees meet as often as necessary to accomplish assigned tasks.

What has Been Done So Far

Each committee is working on tasks simultaneously, although some projects are waiting for other committees to develop goals and objectives before they can continue. “We’ve only been together for seven months,” Coles points out. “Much of that time has been spent learning about this industry, learning how to work with each other, and finding ways for the commission to be the best benefit to this industry.”

Joey Reiman, President of the ideation company, BrightHouse, chairs the marketing committee. The committee is using an ideation model developed by BrightHouse to identify Georgia’s unique strengths, and is taking non-traditional steps in developing a strategy to exploit those strengths. “It’s an enormous task, but I think this commission is up to doing it,” he says. “We have to find Georgia’s unique selling proposition. Our proposition shouldn’t be to outsell our competition, but to create a whole new set of rules where everyone wins.”

Reiman hesitates to discuss the ideas the committee has discussed because those ideas are “still simmering,” but he will say the scope of the exploration has been expanding. “The predisposition of this commission is to create something much broader, much bigger and much better, that encompasses all the talents that make filmmaking monumental. The result will be not a better film and videotape commission, but a creativity commission who’s task is to create a marketplace - a state of mind in the state we live in - for all of the people who want to create in this particular realm.”

So far, the ideation process has been limited to the executive committee. Many members of the marketing committee weren’t even aware it was going on. “My committee has never met,” says VanDerKloot, who sits on the marketing committee. “The last scheduled meeting was canceled at the last minute and nothing else has been communicated to me, so I don’t know anything about it.”

The business development committee, chaired by Senator Connie Stokes has been investigating possible tax incentives, and a system for gauging how much production is being done in Georgia. “Right now, believe it or not, we have no reliable way to measure how much work is really being done here,” Coles says. “Are we ninth in the nation, or fifteenth?” These numbers will help justify tax incentives, help with promotional efforts and help the board determine which are the most profitable sectors of the market - local independent and corporate productions, music videos, television commercials or motion pictures.

The technology committee has worked directly with the film office in developing hi-tech tools producers can use to make location scouting easier from their cushy offices in Los Angeles or New York. “The film office has been really good about compiling a photo library of locations in Georgia,” says Larry Culbertson, technology Chair and Co-Founder of iXL. “They’ve got an entire room full of photographs, and they go out and shoot more every weekend.”

Culbertson has been working on a system to catalog the photographs for delivery on CD-ROM, or over the Internet. Without boarding an airplane or even waiting for a FedEx package, film producers will soon be able to see hundreds, even thousands of Georgia locations via the Internet. “I don’t know if any of the other states are doing this, but it’s been a priority for us to have these photographs available on line for real-time delivery.” Culbertson estimates it will take six to eight months to complete the process of transferring all of the files to a real-time delivery system.

“Greg (Torre) and I are also working on developing a DVD that can be mailed out or used in presentations as a sales tool,” Culbertson says. The Digital Video Disk will have locations, cost analysis calculators and behind-the-scenes looks at films that have been shot in Georgia.

Beyond these projects, Culbertson is investigating the role technology will play in the future of media in Georgia. “I’m interested not only in how technology will help the film industry, but the new industries it might create,” he says. “Atlanta is at a pivotal point, primarily because of the Internet community here - Earthlink, iXL, Mindspring… Media First. Content will continue to be produced the same way, but now we have new avenues to deliver it.”

The Film and Video Advisory Commission has also worked to promote the efforts of the commission - and to give something back to the community. The “Best of the Fest” event on May 8th bought some of the most talked about films from the Sundance Film Festival to Atlanta, strengthening Atlanta’s ties with that festival and raising over $150,000 to support independent film.

Guage of Success

“I still think it’s too early to tell the effectiveness of this commission,” says VanDerKloot, who resigned from the last board due to it’s inactivity, “but I think this is a pretty good group of people. Hopefully we can accomplish something, and the way to gauge that will be if production dollars come back to the state.”

There has been concern that the process isn’t moving fast enough, and in some cases, committees have had difficulty clarifying their objectives and maintaining lines of communication among committee members.

Concern also has been expressed that the Film and Video Advisory Commission is more focused on bigger budget, national films than the day-to-day bread and butter productions that keep film and video professionals busy. “I think it’s the mandate of the Department of Tourism and Trade to bring more work from outside to the state,” says VanDerKloot. “It brings revenue and a certain level of prestige. On the other hand, I’ve made a very strong case that unless you have a healthy local production scene, you can’t offer facilities and expertise to people coming in. We’re very lucky to have quite a bit of film equipment and some really great production companies in Atlanta, but without a regular production and post production scene, we risk losing some of that infrastructure.”

Michael Coles realizes this and points out that small projects and major motion pictures co-exist in a larger plan. “It’s all part of a big puzzle,” he says. “Without revealing too much, it goes back to an emphasis on building a better and bigger film school, greater incentives for independent films where there’s low budgets and every dollar counts, making Georgia a haven for independent filmmakers… these are all going to be part of the whole big picture. We won’t be able to build this business by creating just one piece of it.”

“I think we’re moving, frankly, at lightning speed compared to the way things could move in a process like this,” he says. “My goal was to have a proposal ready by our anniversary in November, and we’ll have something to present in September, so we’re already two months ahead of schedule.”

Coles’ satisfaction with the progress is a reflection of the optimism that has driven him in his professional and athletic life, but he also reveals a pragmatic side. “I didn’t expect to come in here our first year and start shooting off big rockets,” he says. “I’m a realist. I come from a business background. If you build a business too quickly, you’ll have a quick ride and a fast fall. As we build this business, we’ll build it in a way that will continue to grow every year.”

Oz The Journal of Creative Disciplines is published bi-monthly by Oz Publishing, Inc. 3100 Briarcliff Rd, Suite 524, Atlanta, GA 30329. Copyright 2000 by Oz Publishing, Inc. (404) 633-1779. All Rights Reserved. Reproductions in whole or in part without express written permission of the publisher is strictly prohibited.

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