Working with Film Commissions – FAQ’s

Working with Film Commissions – FAQ’s

Panelists

Bonnie Marie Taylor

Susannah G Robbins

Paul Audley

Matthew Earl Jones

Transcription from talk:

Bonnie Marie Williams:

Well, hello, everybody. Welcome to tonight’s crew talk. It’s great to be here. We’ve got a lot of things to cover and some fabulous panelists here with us tonight. So we’ll go ahead and we have Susanna, Matthew and Paul here. I’d love for you all to introduce yourselves. Tell us a little bit about you get to know you a little bit and we’ll go from there. Whoever would like to go first.

Susannah G Robbins:

All right, I’ll start. I’m Susanna Greeson Robins. I’m the executive director of the San Francisco film commission. This is my 11th year in the job. I used to work in locations back in the 90’s, did a lot of Robin Williams pictures back then. And our office does all the permitting for productions in San Francisco.

Paul Audley:

And I’m Paul Audley. I’m the president of FilmLA. Filmla is actually a nonprofit organization. That’s under contract to the city and county of Los Angeles, 18 other cities and six school districts to be their film office. And so we’re building back to a pre-COVID staff of 108 and looking forward to hopefully staying in a normal production cycle this year.

Matthew Earl Jones :

Hi, I’m Matthew Earl Jones. I’m the director of the Arizona film and digital media program. Affectionately known as the Arizona state film commissioner. I’ve been in this job for four and a half years prior to that. I was a commercial line producer for over a decade in Los Angeles. And I am originally from New York city.

Bonnie Marie Williams:

Love it. Excellent. Los Angeles is in the house tonight. I love it. I’m from LA. So that makes me very happy when I see other people from LA. I love it.

Paul Audley:

I’m from Connecticut, Bonnie, but you know, I’m in LA now. So.

Matthew Earl Jones :

Where in Connecticut Paul.

Paul Audley:

I grew up in Westport and I was the mayor of Fairfield.

Matthew Earl Jones :

I think we discussed this. I grew up in New Canaan, Connecticut. 

Paul Audley:

Yeah I was a cop in Darien. And we’ve talked about whether I ever arrested you actually.

Matthew Earl Jones :

Probably I’m sure. Several times eventually I had to stop going to Darien.

Bonnie Marie Williams:

All right. Well, I know I have some questions here that I’d love to ask, but I also just want to let our audience and our viewers know that you can add your questions at any time using the Q & A icon in zooms. You can drop them in there and we’ll go ahead and we’ll get to those. So don’t be shy with those. But my first question is can you elaborate on permits, permitting and getting the ins and outs of getting what that process is like, anything in that area.

Paul Audley:

Thanks in Los Angeles, it’s an all online system through film la.com, you can do everything you need to do remotely. And that was pre pandemic post. We’re now unveiling actually a new permit system, which is connected to geographic information systems and all the kinds of layers you might hope to find underneath it. It’s a single permit for crossing all the jurisdictions under one fee. And that permit is good for up to two weeks under a single fee.

Susannah G Robbins:

So in San Francisco we also have an online permitting system and you know, basically every our fees run by the day. So for instance, if you’re a still photo shoot, it’s a hundred dollars a day to shoot as many locations as you want. If it’s a TV commercial, it’s $200 a day, or if it’s web it’s 200 and if it’s film or a television or documentaries 300 a day, however, we do have low budget numbers also. So depending on what your budget, it could be as little as 50 or a hundred dollars a day. And it’s pretty easy system. We work with all the city departments to make it so your filming can happen. We work with the SFPD, the DPW people rec and park and muni. So we take care of all those needs at one time.

Matthew Earl Jones :

So as a state film office, we cover various jurisdictions within the state of Arizona. We actually do not write permits on like my other panelists here who have that, that power. But we have links on our website for every locale, every county, the federal lands that are within the state, the tribal lands that are within the state. So basically we can facilitate permitting anywhere within the state of Arizona.

Bonnie Marie Williams:

Excellent. Thank you. This is all very, very new for me. So I’m learning a lot tonight. This is great. So aside from that, what other benefits does the site provide? Any, anything on that? Yeah,

Matthew Earl Jones :

So for the Commerce authority, we also have a very extension extensive location database. I believe there’s over 16,000 categorized locations. We also have a crew database. We list all the, the local film offices. We have a category called film resource coordinators. I believe there’s 94 of them. Those are either government officials or industry professionals spread out through the state that can also facilitate and help out. We also have a information on our real savings program. Arizona does not have a state tax credit, but our real savings program was designed to help reduce costs below the line. So there are various state resources that are free special pricings on hotels and rental cars and restaurants, as well as discounts and rebates from vendors. The beauty of the program is either it’s free which pays out immediately, or in terms of the vendor rebates. It pays out up to 30% within 30 days, and there’s no paperwork, there’s no audit because this is basically a public private sector partnerships. So that’s basically what you’ll find on our website.

Susannah G Robbins:

Okay I’ll jump in here, so in San Francisco, our office, you know, we really, we’re a very small office for four people. And we really hold your hand while we’re doing a permit with you. Some permits are really complex and they require a lot of coordination on our part. Again, working with SFMTA, the, you know, the muni department to, you know, reroute vehicles or if you want to rent a vehicle or if you need to fly a drone and we have to have the overhead wires turned off, like we help orchestrate all of that. I have an amazing staff that everyone’s really patient and really nice and no matter what you throw at them, they will not get flustered. We also we, we don’t actually have crew lists and recommending vendors because we’re a government agency and we really can’t be showing you know, favoritism to one or another.

Susannah G Robbins:

But what we do offer is a vendor discount program. It’s one of our incentives that we have locally, and that’s on our website where you can see what vendors want to offer you, at least a minimum of 10% discount. And that can be at hotels, restaurants production houses, post-production facilities, and even entertainment stuff in the city. So if you’re shooting in the city and you want to go take a Hornblower cruise, you can get a discount on that too. And then another incentive that we have is our scene in San Francisco rebate program. And this is for feature films and television. We rebate up to $600,000 per film, and that is a cash back rebate at the end of production. And the way you qualify for that is if your budget is under 3 million, you have to shoot 55% of your shoot days in San Francisco.

Susannah G Robbins:

And if it’s over 3 million, you have to shoot 65% of those days in the city. So if you do that, then, you know, we do this paperwork thing. And at the end of production, you submit all of your proof of what your bills are. And we basically rebate any fees you paid to any city agency after $600,000. So that could be, you know, your police officer fees. It could be street closure fees. It could even be stage and production office space fees. So you can find out more about that on our website, but it’s a really great incentive.

Bonnie Marie Williams:

Fantastic. Thank you, Paul.

Paul Audley:

So if you go to filmla.com, you’ll find a lot of resources for you about filming in Los Angeles, including some tutorials, pretty extensive FAQ’s of things we normally get questions on, but we always recommend in particular, if you’re going to do a larger scale project or you’re new to Los Angeles, we have a free production planning service that you can consult with to talk about the best way to do it, maximizing your permit. Because like I said, it’s two weeks in multiple jurisdictions. We’ve had people come from other other places and apply for a permit in LA, a permit and Santa Monica permit in a unincorporated county when they could have done it under a single phase single permit. And so they’ll work with you on that. They also can help guide you into one of our sites. It’s called Loco scout, Loco scout.

Paul Audley:

One word. It is all the government properties. We like Susanna cannot refer out to private organizations that are providing commercial services, but local scout is all the government properties. And in particular, in the city of Los Angeles, almost all of them are free to use. And so it could save tens of thousands of dollars using facilities owned by the city or the county or others. And the thing to be aware of is they’ll guide you through this, but it’s like going to realtor.com you put in, I want a red barn cause you’re filming new England. There’s a red barn that looks like new England, the city of Los Angeles owns, and it’s free to film it. And so we encourage you to look through local scout. It’s easy to use to use the FAQ’s and to use the free services by just sending in a message to [email protected] or calling the general number and spending some time it’s free use it. And I think you’ll have a great successful film.

Bonnie Marie Williams:

Fantastic, so what’s a good guideline for when a permit is needed or not

Paul Audley:

So in Los Angeles, everywhere that we serve except Santa Monica, anytime you’re filming anywhere you are going to have to have a permit, if it’s for commercial purposes, that’s totally on private property, on public property, anywhere Santa Monica, it applies to government, property and streets only, but all our other jurisdictions, if you’re going to film and it’s for commercial purposes, you need a permit.

Susannah G Robbins:

Yeah. In San Francisco, basically, if you’re filming on city streets and sidewalks and any other city property you need to get a permit. And if you’re filming on private property, you don’t need a permit. However, a lot of productions, even though they’re filming on private property, they want to take out parking. And that falls under our jurisdiction. If you want to reserve parking. So sometimes you might end up taking out a permit. Anyway,

Matthew Earl Jones :

That’s pretty much the same for Arizona. Private property does not require a permit. Anything else usually does depending on the jurisdiction, whether it’s state county, local you know, and fees vary city of Tucson, there’s no fee for anywhere to shoot in the city city of Phoenix. It’s a hundred dollars, $150 for the year. So it can really vary. Some of those more small rural areas will allow you to shoot pretty much anywhere for free. And in terms of timing, obviously the more time we have the better Susanna, I actually have you beat my office is three people to cover the entire state of Arizona. Paul, if you have some people you can send over my way. I’m happy to

Paul Audley:

No. I’m recruiting if anybody. We got job openings folks.

Matthew Earl Jones :

Wow. So much for neighborly love. No. So we asked for, obviously we always ask for a little more time you can give us the better our record though, is we turned around a permit for Beyonce to film in the havasu falls in the grand canyon in four hours. But please don’t ask me to do that again, that required a special meeting of the tribal council. And unless they’re a fan of your music, I don’t know that we can turn that around again, that fast. So it depends on jurisdiction. Federal permits are usually more in the two to four weeks, local ones. You know, we say two to three days, but again, it, it depends on exactly what you’re doing. Drone use, things like that can require a little more time.

Bonnie Marie Williams:

Ok so Beyonce gets things done. We knew that, but now,

Matthew Earl Jones :

You know, I was impressed. I got to say the tribal council really jumped. So I guess they wanted to put a ring on it.

Bonnie Marie Williams:

I see what you did there. I love it. Well, that’s awesome. So this might be, you know there’s a lot with this question with everything we’ve been through in the last year, but over the past couple of years, what have you, excuse me, have you noticed significant changes in media and or video production over the past few years, especially maybe this last year, now that we’re coming out of it, I’d love to hear your thoughts on that

Paul Audley:

Because the technology is advancing. So we’ve seen the ability for the film industry to reduce scale and size of some of its equipment and equipment needs as a result. We’re also seeing as we come out of the pandemic, a lot of the producers are continuing the remote work for a lot of the crew that used to be on site because they’re finding it really workable who knew. And the other thing that we’re seeing right now in our region is the use of technologies that in the past, weren’t quite good enough for replacing on location filming, but there’s new technologies. For example, there’s a company based in London and LA called disguise, and they they’ve replaced the green screen with really high Def work that can, can do more than the old days when the weatherman would look at the monitor offsite and be pointing at a wall of green, they’re actually in the, in the video now. And so we’re seeing their ability to get so realistic and have the actor be present that they’re not needing to do as much location. It hasn’t replaced it by any means, but it’s a new, a new era. I think coming down the pike on technology allowing people to stay central instead of having to move out as much,

Susannah G Robbins:

I would just say from what I’ve seen, you know, definitely a lot more streaming content being shot in San Francisco and a really large increase in web content. When I look at our numbers every month, which I do for our commission meetings, our web content just seems to be going up and up and up. And yeah, that’s pretty much all I can say. Oh, and actually I’ve had more requests for litter permits where they, and to be honest, at this point, we don’t even have a permit for them because they don’t under anything in our code, but we start getting more of that. We’ll probably need to do that because it’s, I don’t really understand the technology that well, but it sounds like, kind of may, I was talking about, they go out and they take 10 million little shots of a location and then they can put it up on a screen and the actor can be there.

Susannah G Robbins:

So kind of hurts our location managers honestly, but hopefully they won’t do too much of that. Cause I do think that, you know, I talked to directors all the time who saying, oh, they love shooting in San Francisco because it’s such a character. It’s really a character in the film. And their actors really feed off of that being in the city, when, if they’re trying to fake it elsewhere, they want to have the same performance. So hopefully that will keep directors wanting to come to San Francisco and just shoot in person. Instead of doing one of these things on a set with the background

Matthew Earl Jones :

I Would echo what my, what my fellow panelists have said in terms of remote filming and technology, and also a lot more projects for streaming services. I think what we’re seeing in Arizona is a lot more projects and a lot of them smaller. So instead of a large project coming in there may be 10 smaller ones coming in. So we’re trying to address ourselves more to to those types of projects, more independent features projects for streaming. And that could quite frankly be because Arizona does not have a state tax credit, which tends to be part of the funding mechanism for more studio projects and networks. So though that that could change, we’ve been chasing a large project, which would be the largest thing to come to Arizona. So we’ve got our fingers crossed, but in general, we’re more trying to support smaller filmmakers commercials have been our bread and butter because of our locations. The diverse topography you can be, you know, in the wintertime you can be skiing and Flagstaff and come down and shoot spraying and in Phoenix. So that, that has we, we are a location driven destination that we’ve been making a substantial growth in the, in the infrastructure, but I would say smaller projects and more of them is what we’re seeing in the last couple of years.

Bonnie Marie Williams:

Excellent. So smaller projects technology. Okay. yeah. Do, I’m sure you do, but do you have any tips or advice for small video production companies?

Susannah G Robbins:

I’ll just throw something out there. I mean, I’m assuming when I, when I hear that I’m thinking maybe they’re working with smaller budgets. So for us, you know, one of the things, if you’re shooting within our regular permitting hours of 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM that helps because when you shoot outside those hours, there’s more work that has to be done to get sign-offs on that. And so that can actually increase your budget because you’ve got to hire a PA to go around and do this work. And yeah, just for anyone small or large calling our office and having a conversation with us about anything that you have questions about is really helpful instead of submitting you know, an incomplete application where we have to just track you down, we’re happy to have conversations with you, answer questions and I just encourage communication.

Paul Audley:

Yeah. I think that, that, that the point I’m Susanna made about calling the office is critical, especially for smaller productions because you have the opportunity for that office. And in our case, it’s our production planning staff to guide you in a way to maximize the value and avoid costly things. So, you know, we had someone come in and say, you know, we’re, we’re pretty small budget. And we said, well, what is it you’re doing? And they said, well, we’re going to do a car chase scene with gunfire. We’re going to have all cops like, well, you’re no longer a small production and this is going to be really expensive. And so we were actually able to shift them out of where they wanted to go downtown to an, an area that gave them the, the look they wanted, but was not going to cause us to have to shut down a multiple sets of streets.

Paul Audley:

And so by consulting and allowing some guidance and sometimes rewriting in order to make it happen we all want you to be successful and therefore we want to help get you to that place. And another example, using the municipal facilities that are often free, and a lot of our jurisdictions, you know, a guy was gonna rent a mansion home in a wealthy part of our community. We shifted them to a big pink stucco mansion owned by the city of Los Angeles. And it was free. He was going to pay 20,000 a day. You know, you just paid for the budget. So use us. That’s what we’re there for. That’s the best advice I think.

Matthew Earl Jones :

So Bonnie, the benefit of going last is you get to say, I, I you know, echo what my, my brilliant panelists have said. So let me say that now. And, and Paul kind of stole my thunder here, but likewise, you know, one of the things that the state does under the real savings program is we offer free use of state roads. So we had we had a movie that was gonna, you know, come across state lines and they were going to come from New Mexico, Arizona, and they wanted to film it on the New Mexico sign. You said, and they would’ve paid substantial. He said, well, you know, if you can go five feet more west we can give you the state roads for free. We shut down three major freeways on St. Patrick’s day weekend in the middle of spring training for a Nissan commercial that came in and there was absolutely no charge.

Matthew Earl Jones :

So people file a permit, but we waive all permitting fees for the use of state roads. If you need a road closure, if you need the department of public safety, AKA the highway patrol that’s extra. But basically what we would do is, you know, if you scout a county road or a, or a city road that might cost you, we will try to find you a location that looks just like that, but it a state road so that you can, you can get that for free. So the same way, Paul, you know, will direct you to a mansion. And I think we’re, I think what you’re hearing is we’re all here to help you maximize the amount of money you spend and get most of that on the screen. I think we all have, have experienced, they have more experience than I do, but I was a line producer. So I’ve, I’ve worked, you know, with film commissions in that capacity. So we’re all about trying to help you get the most bang for your buck and have a pleasant experience in our jurisdiction. So you’ll obviously want to come back.

Bonnie Marie Williams:

I love that. I love that, that the, the, that you want everybody to succeed. I think that’s really great. That’s what it comes down to communication and making sure everything goes well. I love that. We have a question from Tony. Tony says years ago, I worked on a production where the producer director shot handheld for exterior’s believing, if you didn’t set up a tripod, you didn’t need a permit. I always thought this was false. Could you clarify what the rules really are?

Paul Audley:

That is not correct. There are exemptions for certain kinds of productions that are really, really tiny, like three or few crew. They don’t take up sidewalk space, they don’t block. And it may be where that concept came from not having the tripod cause that would trigger a sidewalk issue. But in almost 99% of the time, based on the size of your production, you’re going to need a permit. It doesn’t mean people don’t do it, but it does mean that they’d be doing it out of the rules here in greater Los Angeles,

Susannah G Robbins:

Same for San Francisco. I mean, really the real reason why is because we want to make sure that it’s tied to insurance in case anything happens. So it doesn’t matter how small you are. If you’re on city property, which is streets and sidewalks or certain buildings, you know, you really have to have a permit. I think in New York, that might be true what he’s saying, but not, I think every jurisdiction is different.

Matthew Earl Jones :

And for Arizona, we’ve, we’ve heard the legends of the rule of three. But I would advise people to be very judicious in invoking it. We want you to be safe. We want you to have insurance. You know, we want you again to have a positive experience here, if you are on private property. And certainly you don’t need to file, but I’ve always said to people, if you, even if you’re on private property, I would let the film office now, because if you’re parking on the street or if a neighbor calls and says, Hey, Is this crew filming here? And I’m about to call the police and we can say, no, no, we’re, we’re aware of that. So communication with film offices and, and playing by the rules I think is, is worth whatever cost that might incur.

Bonnie Marie Williams:

So it’s not one of those, you know, beg for forgiveness first, it’s ask for permission type of deals. Got it.

Matthew Earl Jones :

Having had to beg for forgiveness on many occasions. Yeah. I it’s, it’s better to do it by the rules, better do it right the first time.

Bonnie Marie Williams:

That’s great life lesson right there. Do it right the first time I love it. So do you have any fun or maybe not so fun projects you’ve worked on that you can share?

Paul Audley:

So I, I love it when Chris Nolan comes to town, because we always ended up in this conversation where he says, we can’t film that in LA because he loves location work. He does not like green screen and he’ll come in and they’ll say, we can’t make that here. And then we’re like, well, what is he going to do, Chris? And he tells us, and so far, he’s never stumped us yet from one of the Batman movies turning the LA river into ice to, to dumping for two weekends in a row, hundreds of thousands of gallons of water and crashing a train into downtown Los Angeles. So he he’s my favorite because he always comes in with that. We can’t do it and then we get to solve it and make him happy. So he’s been my, my favorite experience. I think working with folks here

Susannah G Robbins:

I think for me it was fun. It was also really intense. We had matrix four film in San Francisco last year, right before the pandemic. And they filmed for the month of February in downtown the financial district for every night, for the month of February with helicopters, low flying helicopters. And machine guns mounted on helicopters and motorcycle chasing and it was probably the most complex production we’ve ever worked with. And it took so much coordination, but, and I, and I actually, at one point thought, gosh, I might lose my job over this. If I give them permission to do everything they want to do. Just because it just seems so outrageous, but honestly the production had the most amazing location team. And I also have one of my perimeters in the film office is fantastic at communication and working with all the departments and you know, our chamber of commerce and all of the different business groups in the neighborhood groups.

Susannah G Robbins:

And we just had this great flow of communication between everyone. So everyone was ready for it before it started all at the businesses, in the area, all the hotels in the area, all of the residents in the area, everybody knew what was going to happen because we had all of these meetings ahead of time. And then when it happened, like people are so excited about it. And I think, yeah, where they tired of hearing helicopters flying overhead until three in the morning, four in the morning, maybe, but they were also excited about what they were being part of and also having Keanu Reeves and your film doesn’t hurt at all. So I’m really looking forward to how that comes out, I think is coming out in December. So take a look at it.

Matthew Earl Jones :

I would say, and this was Bonnie right before I took this job, but probably the most fun thing I’ve done at here was I supervise those cars being pushed out of the C130 at a hundred and at 14,000 feet on fast and furious seven. And, and got to see some you know, amazing rigging people. And, you know, the guy who did the rigging was this grizzly old guy. And I went up to up to him and said, wow, this is amazing. And he’d been in the military. Says I’ve been dropping crap out of planes for 50 years. I don’t care what it’s for, you know, so that was, you know, to watch the precision and that what went into getting that shot and the expertise of, you know, everyone from the helicopter pilots to the three guys who jumped out of the plane with cameras on their helmets to get that POV.

Matthew Earl Jones :

It was it was quite amazing to be a part of, you know, getting to put that together. So and I believe that trailer is on our state website. So that was, that was a lot of fun. I actually, Suzanne also when I was a producer set down the bay bridge at rush hour for a Japanese spot and in about 18 hours of notice and, and also put a crane on the first interstate tower for a Japanese commercial. So both LA and San Francisco have been quite accommodating into some of the crazy things I’ve done so many things. Oh, no, they were, they were great. You know, a lot of respect for both your offices.

Susannah G Robbins:

Thank you.

Bonnie Marie Williams:

Well, that was cool. There was Batman Keanu Reeves and the fast and the furious. That’s like three of my favorite things right there. That’s this is definitely the coolest call I’ve been a part of all day. So thank you for that. I’m geeking out a little bit, but I’ll contain myself. It’s okay. So with that, are there any upcoming features or events that you’d like to talk about that you’d like to share? We’d love to hear more about that and see what’s coming up on your radar.

Susannah G Robbins:

Oh I was just going to say we have ant man three. Yes, it is number three coming in. They did a little bit of second unit filming like last weekend or two weekends ago, and they were going to be shooting first unit in October, but they’ve now pushed to January, but we’re really excited about it because originally they were only going to shoot like two or three days with first unit. And now we’re hearing, it’s really being greatly expanded. They’ve rewritten the script and we should get a significant chunk for us, you know, without just the location work. So looking forward to that.

Paul Audley:

We’re seeing for the first time, in a long time, some very large features at levels we haven’t seen in probably five or six years as this incentive and tax credit race, heated up and took most of the largest productions overseas or to other states. But with those other places still being under COVID restrictions, some of them have, are sticking around. So we have a Spielberg film now filming in LA and some others at scales going back to where we saw them five and six years ago. It probably won’t last when and if the COVID stuff gets under control in the rest of the world, but right now they really can’t go. And so we’ve been working with them here. And the other thing I wanted to mention, if you haven’t filmed in LA before, and you’re going to the new system is called my film LA, and if you’re filing a permit, I would encourage you to ask if you can go into my film LA, it doesn’t actually go live to the general world until August 1st, but we’re working with people now. And so rather than learn, the old system asked to come into my film LA and test it out. It’s pretty amazing.

Matthew Earl Jones :

I would just say this is not about a specific project. There is one that we are all crossing our fingers for. And, and if that, if that happens, hopefully I can come back and share that news. But you know, one of the locations that Arizona does not have is a beach. And we’ve been blessed with pretty much a real diverse topography as has California and our neighboring states. So recently we made a deal with the state of Sonora which has some of the most beautiful, pristine beaches in the world. I think Jacques Cousteau’s said it was the world’s aquarium if I’m quoting him correctly. And so back in 2019, we made a deal with the state of Sonora that we could facilitate filming in Sonora through the Arizona film office, on our website, there are contacts for film offices on the state film office for Sonora.

Matthew Earl Jones :

The structure behind this is that people would have access to pristine beaches in Sonora, but can’t get infrastructure from Arizona. So crew vendors facilitating cross border travel. So we’ve, we’ve got it streamlined with the customs and border protection for both countries where we can guarantee speeds, safety, et cetera. So if all of Paul’s beaches are booked or, or if, and Susanna’s I have shot on both on many beaches in Los Angeles county. But if you’re looking for a slightly different look or, or their booked solid, we now are able to offer pretty much unseen, beautiful, pristine beaches in the state of Sonora at pennies on the dollar compared to their domestic partners with equipment and crew and vendors and permanent coming from the state of Arizona. So you can deal with a us film office and be taken care of in the state of Sonora, Mexico.

Susannah G Robbins:

I think you should take us all on a little press junket down there.

Matthew Earl Jones :

You know i would love to as a matter of fact We bought a house down in Rocky point. So it’s a little humid there now, but we would love to host some of you guys there I’m one for cooperation and especially having had great experience shooting in LA and my cousin’s the deputy mayor. So though I am loyal to the state of Arizona. I have friends and family in LA who were very kind to me when I was producing. And San Francisco has been, has been very kind to me in the productions that I’ve done there. So, yeah. I’ll get everybody’s contact information. When, it’s not quite so humid. You have a standing in from a invitation and my wife has two fishing boats. So we’ll take you, we’ll take you out fishing.

Susannah G Robbins:

I was kind of joking but okay

Matthew Earl Jones :

I had a great time in San Francisco, so, you know, we’ll definitely have you down.

Bonnie Marie Williams:

Okay. I’m going to hold you to it cause I’ll, I’ll bake or I’ll bring sangria or something.

Matthew Earl Jones :

There you go If you can make a tortilla. You’re welcome.

Bonnie Marie Williams:

You know, I think I can do that. I think I can do that. All right. Let me just get this here. Susanna, we were, you were talking earlier about the San Francisco rebate program. You were talking a lot about that. Was there anything else that you wanted to add on to that just to make sure we’ve got that?

Susannah G Robbins:

No, i Don’t think so. I kind of, yeah, I think I pretty much covered it was just that you know, so many people don’t know that we have this incentive and I swear I’ve been, you know, advertising it and all the trades and at film festivals for years. And I still meet people who say, oh, I didn’t know you had that. So anytime I can speak about it and get the word out and, you know, let it kind of filmmakers, especially it’s, you know, it’s a, it’s an incentive that I think really works well for independent films that might not have a huge budget. And it doesn’t matter what the, what your budget is. It can be, you know, $10,000, you’re still eligible for it. But you know, maybe it’s not going to work for the big blockbuster films as being a really big, impactful thing. But I think for, you know, films that are up to like, I don’t know, 10, $18 million films, it can be a significant help. So cuts the cost of filming in San Francisco.

Bonnie Marie Williams:

Absolutly, thank you. And Paul, could you give us the my film LA website address? Cause we’re, we’re not finding it on our Google search.

Paul Audley:

It’s, it’s not up as a site cause not open to the public. So that’s why I was saying, if you’re going to file a permit you can do that through when you file it and you can ask for it or talk to production planning when you’re doing it and say, you’d like to go and file your permit through my film LA, which is the new system, but it’s not, it’s not on the website as an active site right now because it is not generally open til August 1st, but you’re welcome to call in and ask and they will let you do it.

Bonnie Marie Williams:

So the code word. Okay. Code word, my film LA. Got it. That’s how we get it till August 1st. Excellent. Thank you. Just wanted to make sure in case somebody was looking for it, we’ve got that all covered. Thank you so much. I have a personal question. This is something I like to ask people and get to know them better is what do you love most about your job and why you do what you do?

Susannah G Robbins:

I’ll, I’ll go for that. Really what I love most about my job is providing jobs to people in the industry. And I think a lot of it was because having worked in locations back in the nineties I still see a lot of people that I worked with back then on sets when I go visit sets today. And I just really love the feeling, knowing that the work that my office does is really valuable in providing jobs because everybody needs one. And yeah, that’s, that’s my thing.

Matthew Earl Jones :

I’m gonna, I’m going to echo that because you know, when I took this job, we, the state film office had been closed for six years. And so we were, you know, a lot of things were in disarray and so it’s been it’s been quite a privilege and honor to have been trusted with putting the patchwork back together. And the film office, the state film office is under the Arizona commerce authority. Some state film is, are under tourism, but we focus more on on jobs and obviously with an emphasis on local jobs. So we’ve been working with colleges and community colleges about you know, rebuilding our crew base with ideally a younger, more diverse crew base that kind of more fits the demographic, the emerging demographic of the decision makers in Hollywood and also the, the people who are moving here, half of California is moving Arizona. So we’re, we’re seeing a lot more diversity. Our state recently went purple. So it’s been really great to kind of have a hand in shaping the next generation of crew of people that will serve the state of Arizona.

Paul Audley:

So unlike my colleagues, I have had no experience in the film industry prior to being appointed to this job. In fact, my immediately prior position was in Arizona as the state director for the trust Republic land, which was wonderful. I loved it. What I love about the job now is not only that I’m working with some amazing people, it’s pretty large group and they’re terrific. I like the fact that we’re constantly problem-solving and making things happen that people don’t believe can and I’ve really enjoyed being able to expand the reach of film LA into a whole array of underrepresented film, community groups to help provide both financial and practical support to them. As the industry now in more recent years, it’s become very focused on this, but we’ve been working on it for more than a decade. And for me that’s been one of the greatest joys of the job is working in those areas and trying to get a broader exposure to the industry and the world of these cultures, because it’s critically important.

Bonnie Marie Williams:

Excellent. Thank you. We’ve got a question for Matthew for Mexico. Is there any other, is there any coordination with other Mexican states, specifically Durango as they are looking for the light and vistas unique to that state?

Matthew Earl Jones :

There is not at this point, but we’ve got contacts there’s, there’s not formally. So we have a formal agreement with the state of Sonora and with, with Puerto Penasco, which is kind of their little Juul just south of the Arizona border. But if there’s a specific request, there might be some people, some Mexican nationals, you know, from, we have friends in Guadalajara and Mexico city and, and be more than happy to make some referrals. Guest on Pavlovich who produced the Irishman for Netflix, his cousin is the governor of Sonora, which is what facilitated this relationship. But he’s dialed in throughout the country. And, you know we, we believe in good relationships with our neighbors, whether they’re bordering states or bordering countries. So we would be more than happy if there’s a specific question question to at least point them, get them started on a path.

Bonnie Marie Williams:

Excellent ,awesome. Thank you. So hopefully our anonymous attendee will be able to contact you in regards to that. Are there any other questions that anybody has go ahead and drop them in the question and answer box There’s anything you’re wondering about this is the time to do it.

Matthew Earl Jones :

Bonnie, if I may, on the subject of our relationships with our neighbors we are about to sign a similar agreement with the Navajo nation, which will open up the largest track of tribal land. I believe in the United States, they span three states they’re primarily in Arizona, but they also have territory in Utah and New Mexico obviously is the state film commissioner for Arizona. We focus more on the part of their nation that is in the state of Arizona. But we can also, I would say by close of business on Friday we should be able to formally help with relationships with the Navajo nation right now we have listed their film office on our website. So we hope that, you know, good name good relationships with your neighbors is always a win-win for everybody.

Bonnie Marie Williams:

Absolutely. That’s fantastic. We are getting another question here. Do do you all have a resource directory that production companies and crew can add their information to? So

Paul Audley:

We do not in LA because obviously there are so many resource directories because of the amount of filming and film support that exists here. We do refer people over to several catch-alls and they’re also available in our FAQ’s. So we encourage people to do that. A lot of the film offices around California do, and Suzanne and I both belong to an organization called flicks which is film liaisons in California statewide there at filmcalifornia.com and a lot of those film offices, because they’re not as concentrated with thousands and thousands and thousands of vendors and support services. Do you have those lists. And they also have a lot of information. They also have the ability to say, I’m looking for a location and all those film offices around the state may reply to you with help. So I think Susanne and I both enjoy that relationship with flicks and think it’s a great opportunity for filmmakers in the state as well.

Matthew Earl Jones :

And for Arizona, if you are, you know, if you have a footprint in Arizona, you are in you’re in the industry, you are, we have databases that are free for you to join. Like any government agency we refrain from recommending anybody. So this is not a situation where we can promote one business over the other, but we are, we do provide free listing to any resources, whether you’re a film company, whether you’re a hotel, whether you’re a restaurant picture, car company, any resource that has an application for the film industry as well as crew and talent we provide access to a free database that you can be a part of.

Bonnie Marie Williams:

Excellent, thank you. Are there any other questions from any of our audience members? We’ll give that a minute.

Susannah G Robbins:

I also just wanted to say for San Francisco, we also don’t, you know, put up different businesses unless you’re part of our vendor discount program. And in order to be part of that, you have to be within the 49 square miles of San Francisco. But there is a, I think a really good directory called reeldirectory.com. It’s reeldirectory.com. And that’s where we usually tell people to go. And if they’re calling us and asking us for production houses or crew or whatever, we tell them to go there. And it’s kind of like the, I guess, LA 411 guide for creative handbook. Yeah, yeah.

Matthew Earl Jones :

Was that, used to be the Northern California directory. Is that? I think so. Yeah. I remember, you know, our paths might’ve crossed in the nineties when I was up there and knowing people, shooting Japanese commercials in San Francisco, wearing out my welcome with every change they made.

Bonnie Marie Williams:

All right. Reeldirectories in the chat. And we have the link to that, but I would love to know if we, how we can find you, if we have follow-up questions or if we can stay in touch, can we add you on social media? If you want to give us your handles and your websites where we can reach out, if that’s cool with you? I think we would love that because I think we have a trip to Mexico coming up. So

Matthew Earl Jones :

Definitely Paul promises, he won’t arrest me though. So he’s welcome to come here.

Paul Audley:

That’s a long time ago. Yeah. Everything that you need from us. So you can get through the filmla.com site. There’s a bunch of sub places in there to, to follow on I’m at [email protected]. And then [email protected]. Will get you to production planning in any other department. We also have a twenty four seven operation by phone at 213-977-8600 All of that’s on the website though. So, you know, if you didn’t write it down, just filmla.com, will help you out.

Matthew Earl Jones :

You can, same with us. You can find us at gofilmaz.com. When you get there, you’ll see a banner that says film and digital media. There are navbars is above it, that belong to the Arizona commerce authority. So unless you want to buy a building, don’t go there, but there are navbars to the left, starting with home, and it lists all the film offices, all the programs we’ve discussed frequently asked questions and you know, all of our location photos, all of our permitting informations with direct links to whoever you might need, whether it’s state local county federal. So, and my email is [email protected] and please feel free to contact us. We’d love to hear from you.

Susannah G Robbins:

And lastly our website address is filmsf.org. And all of our information is up there about our rebate program, how to get a permit, pretty much everything you need to know. It has links to our Twitter and Facebook and Instagram sites, which I wish I could just core off the top of my head, what they are, but I’m just drawing a blank on the actual, you know, at whatever, but it’s, it’s got all, it all has filmedsf in it, but if you go to our website, you will find it there. You can email me directly at [email protected].

Bonnie Marie Williams:

Excellent. So now we know how to stay in touch and as you all can probably tell my name is Bonnie or Bonnie Marie, if you’re my mother, when I’m in trouble or my agent, when they call me and you can find me online vosuperhero.com. That’s VO as in voiceover, not BO as in body odor. I just have to specify that because you never know voice actor on camera, do all of that, but you can find me there and my socials are all there because sometimes you have a character limit for what you can and can’t use for social media. But I love staying in touch with social media, and I would love to stay in touch with all of you. And if there are no final questions, I’d like to thank you all so much for being here and sharing all of your experience and your knowledge with us tonight, and thank all of you for attending and for watching. This has been really informative. I’ve learned a lot of new things that I had no idea about tonight. So thank you all so, so much. I’m looking forward to that Mexico trip. It’s going to be great I’ll bring the sangria it’ll be awesome.

Bonnie Marie Williams:

Thank you all so much. Bye.

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