Business as Usual: Dawn Keezer, Pittsburgh Film Office

Good afternoon, everyone. This is Audrey Russo, President and CEO of the Pittsburgh Technology Council. Welcome to business as usual. And we have a great guest here today. I haven't seen her in a long time, I'm glad to see her. And um, you're gonna be really excited to hear about what's happening in Pittsburgh and film and all the things that she's been up to probably over this last year, if not longer, and probably the next few weeks, who knows she's always got a zillion things going on. And it's Dawn Kesser. And I will formally introduce her in a moment and bring her to the front. Jonathan Kersting, is joining us as always, and he is vice president of all things media and marketing at for the Tech Council and a major storyteller for the region for over two decades. He is going to be monitoring chat, we have a chat, we've put you on mute, the chat is not for you to sell your wares. The chat is only to ask questions of our guests. It's all about our guests today. So appreciate all of you joining us I want to give a shout out to Huntington bank, for them being a sponsor, and joining us in partnership on all things innovative. We have been working on doing these daily noon zoom since the third week of March, we never thought it would last this long, but we're still having fun. And there's so many amazing people for us to talk with. And today is no exception. Also 40 by 80. That's the wholly owned subsidiary of the Pittsburgh tech council the longitude and latitude of Pittsburgh. And we focus on workforce development, as well as supporting entrepreneurs, you're going to hear a lot more about the work that we're doing in terms of apprenticeships and workforce development for people in the next couple of months. So we're very excited about that. So now I'm gonna pretty much be quiet because I'm going to bring to the forefront, Dawn Kesser and Dawn Kesser is the head of the Pittsburgh film office. And, you know, I've known her since I've been in this job at the tech council just because of so many different areas of intersection. But she's been at the helm of doing a lot of things in terms of economic development and prosperity for this region, leveraging the leadership through the film office, and she's been doing it for a while. I'm not going to call out how many years but I looked it up and said, Oh, that's a while. And I think you're going to be thrilled to hear from Don, I am going to now welcome Dawn Kesser, I, Audrey. Thanks

for having me today.

No, it's great to see you. It's been a long time. And we're thrilled. So So let's start. How are you doing? You Dawn Kesser, How you holding up through this pandemic?

Great and not, I'm great. And you know, I'm fortunate to be able to work from home and it's, you know, our clients want to be in Pittsburgh. And so we're doing everything in our power to safely get them back and get them to work. Thankfully, that's happening right now. We have two shows shooting one it's in prep that we'll be going filming in March. And you know, we're doing okay, this industry is okay.

That's great. That's great. You and talk a little bit about your career. Can you talk a little bit about dawn because you've been located in LA for a while you were you know, you're back here in Pittsburgh, Leanne, I

know, I know, you don't want to talk about the fact that you and I both started these jobs when we were five years old, because you were a child prodigies and you were amazing. But I've been in Pittsburgh over 26 years now. Which if you told me when I got hired that I would still be here this luck later, I wouldn't have fully I would have laughed at you. But luck will go way back. I went to UC Berkeley to college, my degrees in communications. I am not a film geek. I am not I like movies, but I don't know everything about them. I can't trade movie lines with you on Casa Blanca or anything else that happened, you know, 20 years ago. But I consider myself outside sales for Southwestern Pennsylvania. This office we represent all 10 counties. So I came here from Santa Cruz, California. I was the director of tourism and film Commissioner there. They're known for Lost Boys Keisha, remember that vampire movie. But I came in 94 we've had we're up to over 218 shows since I arrived in southwestern pa and we created a very successful film tax credit program and we've got a great board and great support and great friends like you and things seem to be going in a great direction. Just

talk about the mission though, be you know specific and tell everyone what the mission is. I mean, it's it's quite

it's really simple. Our mission is to get as much Film Television anybody wrote I used to say anyone rolling any type of film, but how we say anyone rolling any type of media to be here in Pittsburgh. We have I think there's three commercials shooting this week, both national and then two big regional suits. We help them the film office. We're really the one stop shop and we're the connector for the film industry. So whether or not they need crew, a place to stay where to get catering where to get their office supplies. How to get their permits, how if they're going to shoot in Westmoreland County Verse selection and county, how to get access to SCI Pittsburgh. Were the ones right in the middle of all that. We've been doing it since 1990. And the second Director of the Office, the film office has, we have a board of 25 people, I have a huge staff of three that make all this happen. And you know, we bring it in anywhere between 100 to $150 million of new money into this region's economy every single year. And those numbers are based on audited financial statements. They we don't use multipliers. So I always find it's important that we're just not throwing big numbers out. It's really about this is what they spent on transportation on local crew. The biggest thing that people don't realize is these are your friends and neighbors that work in this industry. Much like we have someone from the tech council working in this industry now. It's your friends and neighbors. We have 15,000 statewide, that work full time in this industry. There's 5000, here locally, 1000 of which are working today. And those are the things we're really proud of is how many people we've got working and how many more opportunities there is for the future for those people to work.

Yeah, it's incredible and to talk a little bit about the businesses and the kinds of professionals that actually are impacted and leveraged because it when I first got to know you, I it was just like, I never even thought about all the dimensions and all the market sectors.

Well, that's always what's really fun is people think the movies it's glitzy it's glamorous, it's the fancy clothes, but in you know, in Pittsburgh, Paul's lumber. That's one of our biggest vendors because they've got the lumberyard right there at Bloomfield, and we buy the plywood from them when they're working in this city. Tyler mountain water delivered a pallet full of water every day, during the filming of Dark Knight Rises. It's office supplies, it's dry cleaning. It's the obvious ones where it's the carbon soles in the hotel stays, of course, but it's all those other businesses. It's the basket providers, you know, those welcome baskets that people make, that's part of the business to you because they welcome the crew, they welcome the talent. It's it's every little thing that you're using to run your office is what they're going to have to need when they're filming. What's nice is our crew because so many of them are local when they're out in the other regions. And you know, we did Netflix has a show called I am not okay with this. It's geared to a younger than me audience, but I enjoyed it a lot of fun. But while they were in Brownsville, they made a point of buying all their food from Brownsville restaurants. And there was a Boy Scout troop having a pepperoni rolls sale, that you know, their pepperoni rolls. So they went and bought all the pepperoni rolls three days in a row, so that they're supporting those local organizations. So it's because it's our local crew, they really try to help when they're out in those communities as well. Pretty much anything you can think of including using your house or your business is a unique location. They're using them on the movies, if you're using it to run your office, you need office supplies, you need a place to buy the paper you place to rent your coffee machine, you need place to get the furniture, all of those things count.

So how does a company decide how does a company decide? Like you take Netflix right now you've got the chair. That's that's running here with a lot of famous people whose names I will get twisted, but you probably know better than I do. Who's in the chair right now?

Well, the standard Oh, is the star. And what's exciting is Amanda Pete, who some you know, most people will know is recognized as an actress. She's the showrunner. This is her show, she wrote it, she's in charge of it. And she's, you know, in the executive producer role on this show as the showrunner too and then Holland Taylor.

No, right.

I think it's Bob badolato. There. So I mean, there's so many and that one that it's it's a really big show for Pittsburgh and

some Arrested Development. Right,

right. Exactly. Exactly. I'm picturing in my head, the list of them there. You know, there's eight of them, and that everyone should recognize their names, but they chose Pittsburgh. Look, the number one reason anyone comes here to film is because of our successful film tax credit program. We created it 16 years ago, and it's incentive for the industry. And it was created as a way to build upon an existing sector. Because we've been making movies here since 1914. A lot of people don't realize that. And in 19, it was perils of Pauline. You know, one of the girls laying on the railroad track helped me Help me one of those movies really popular. Then in 1968, we made neither Living Dead, produced by restauranteur who's the film offices current board chair, directed and created by George Romero. And that really kicked off our commercial filmmaking in the region. 1990 coincided with the film opposite start, which was silence of a lance, which ended up being our second best picture behind Deer Hunter, which was done in the 70s. So little by little, we kept growing this business and in 1990, Pittsburgh in the region got really serious, started the film office and really started outreach, marketing and really trying to bring all that work here. The key is the tax credit program. It's been capped it's $70 million. Thankfully, the governor included it in his budget this week. First $70 million. Again, we have several legislators trying to increase it to at least 125 million. But their first question on every call is, are there any incentives left? Is there any funding left? And if the answer's no, they move on to the next place. Wow. And we're in competition with places like Georgia, which is a 30%. uncapped credit, the state of New York has $450 million. California is handing out their incentives up to 300 million. And again, just a real quick on this is it's a 25% tax credit. So they spend $1, we give them back a quarter. And it's on Pennsylvania spend, it has to be a Pennsylvania business, Pennsylvania resident, it's all Pennsylvania spend that gets gets in that quarter.

Is this the same tax structure model as the other states like Georgia? Yes, it is. It is. It's

just Georgia didn't put a cap on there.

Right. Right. Right. Right. I know that I just meant in terms of monetary amounts. This year, you're so busy. And it's just February. So how do we look for the rest of the year?

Well, the funding the film tax credit was exhausted, it's over funded under funded and oversubscribed every year. So we that that money was allocated second week of July. So the work you're seeing now is the work that we awarded back then. And now we're starting to see the applications coming in for summer, spring and summer of this year, there's a lot of interest, there's so much pent up demand for content. A joke I'm sure a lot of you have seen is the you're running out of Netflix, right? Netflix is going like I've made it to the end, what do I do? It's funny, but not really, right? Like people are running out of content. And they need there's so much pent up demand. And they love coming here. Because of our crew and our locations, we can look like anywhere in the world. If you don't need a beach or a desert, where your place to be plus our crews great. And financially, it's less expensive to film here. So they all want to come. But unless we can get the incentives up, we're gonna see the same amount of work. We're limiting the ability to grow this industry by capping this up by capping that incentive really are

we really are. So I'm good. I'm going to just ask one question How to companies and then pass it to Jonathan there questions out there? How do companies get sort of like on the list like to let you know, we worked on that years ago. So talk about how we can get companies to be on the list, like I have a service, I have a product.

And we have a link on our website, which is PGH film.org, it comes all the big secret, those emails come straight to me. But we have a form you fill out, it's entered into the vendor directory. I mean, we have three people. So it's not like we're this huge operation. But you fill out the form and we get you entered into the vendor database. It's really that simple. And this industry, they like to get the best deal possible, right. So they might have used Bob's dry cleaning, the last five times they were here. But if we've got Jill's dry cleaning, who comes in and says I can, I can do that better for you. In the film industry, whatever is worn on set, it has to be dry, cleaned and returned to set the very next day. So it's a very quick turnaround, just to keeping my dry cleaning analogy going. So they, they like to find the best deal who's going to give them the best service and they move. But if you're on the if you're on the final vendor list, like you did the last five, they're gonna look at the vendor list and said, Let's hire Jill's dry cleaning. So it's really easy. When we have production say they're coming and they're ready to be public. That goes on our website to usually with an email, we always tell businesses, they should reach out directly. Hi, this is me, this is what I provide. I've got a coffee cart I can bring to your site, whatever it is reaching out directly, so they know about you, making sure the film office knows is always a key to because we're talking all the time. But it's really simple. And they want to use local because they get tax credits. They've got to spend local to get the credits.

I'm gonna pass this to Jonathan, but Seth was asking my next question, does anyone film here without using?

Very, very rarely? I had a call yesterday from a major studio that wants to leave Canada, they would have been here in two weeks. And the moment I said there were no incentives they left. It's just not not gonna happen. And they don't have to, right. There's too many options for them. And this is a very mobile industry. It's not tied to a brick and mortar location. So it's, you know, a lot of factory making widgets. They spend more money than that, but they can go wherever they want. Yeah, but it's not

Pittsburgh, you know,

we don't have Audrey's house. So you know,

my house was going on there. So let's there's a bunch of questions. Let Jonathan grab some. Okay.

It's great to see you today. And thank you for taking the time to join us. This is a great conversation. So Mark Freeman wants to know who has the critically acclaimed fences. And marinis black bottom changed Pittsburgh's already prominent destination for the movie industry. And you anticipate that Denzel Washington will be able to accelerate the production of the remaining eight August Wilson plays.

We've got a great perception. What it's really done is it got us more people here that may not have been here before. Because the trick we've always had is once we get them across, they drive across the fort Pitt bridge through the through the tunnel across the bridge and go low and then they want to be here forever. Which is great. I've yet to Figure out how to say this without sounding obnoxious. But in my conversation with Denzel Washington, the one conversation I had with his intention is to be here for all 10 of those feature films. And he bought the rights to the cycle, the 10, the 10, August Wilson plays, he wants to film them all, where they were written. We were all very surprised that Marini film here, because it's set in Chicago, right? But and I said that to him, when I was introduced this, we're just thrilled you're here, we really thought it would be Chicago. And he said, Now, I'm doing all 10 of these here. So Pittsburgh has a great opportunity. It's why we're spending some time trying to create a workforce development program to see who's out there who wants to work in this industry. These are good family sustaining union jobs that have entry levels, that college isn't a requirement. You know, these are jobs you can walk into, and be able to, you know, take care of yourself and your family and whatever else. So we're really looking at diversifying who our current crew and vendors are, and really trying to grow the industry from that side

to an apprenticeship program.

And the unions are we don't have one here locally in Pittsburgh, but their union brethren do and like New York and Los Angeles. And so they're working with us to create a program so that people can it's important, as you've already learned to get paid while you're being trained. Working for free doesn't help anybody. Right. So we're we're working out those kinks and COVID slowed everything down.

So that was a challenge as well. Okay, that's great. Don Johnson.

Yeah. So our guy Ken cassock wants to know, and I'm interested in as well, what's what's the next best thing to attract them to Pittsburgh, besides the tax credit?

We're working on building purpose built soundstages getting facilities that are up to their standards. You know, we have some great facilities locally, these are 31st Street studios. We have a former American Eagle warehouse out in warrendale, that McKnight had brought up to standards as well. But we don't have anything purpose built. We don't have anything that looks like what's going on in Los Angeles with, you know, all the high tech bells and whistles. So we've had a lot of interest from some of our studio partners. We're hoping to put this in Rankin next to carry furnace. So we're hoping that might be the next big thing that helps attract, in addition to more tax credits.

That sounds amazing. That is really cool. And so has it been difficult to do the physical filming, you know, with all the strict COVID protocols?

Well, it's a great question. The unions came together nationwide and came up with their safe set program and getting themselves safely back to work because they're then the frontline on in the sets being asked to come to work and keep themselves safe. Netflix has set the gold standard. So we're thrilled. They're the ones that's here, they have a multiperson COVID safety team on each set. They do their own on set COVID testing, the production is broken down into zones with the red zone, being close to camera, you know, the talent, the camera, the people that are really close, then there's a yellow zone with people supporting the red zone really. And then I think it's the green zone. Of course, that's the further out where they're building and doing some things that may not interact with some of the talent. It's been working. Yeah, we've had a few positives, but for the most part, they're catching them, they're able to contact trace. And then most importantly, our local union crew is back at work, and they feel safe being back at work.

So it's worked out real quick. I mentioned this earlier, before we got on Sandra rose, who's my assistant. And actually it was part time as we shut down is now on the set of chair doing this work and sabbatical. So big ambassador of your work, so thank you.

Well, it's great. And we've we've actually got a training program we're putting together for COVID safety officers, they're called, but it's essentially the people making sure that you're staying six feet apart, that your temperature is taken when you arrive, you're getting they're handing out the PP. E when they show up, right. So to make sure everybody's got the mask, and they're wearing a 95 and the full face shields, and so far it's working. But we've got several people working in that position. And it's a new job on an A in the industry. So didn't know how long we're going to need these people. But it feels like it'll be a while. So we're setting up.

Definitely I have a quick note in the private chat. He wants to know if you can just restate the direct financial impact. Again, let's drag this down. If you have it,

I'm sure it's between 100 and 150 million per year every year. I think 2020 is gonna come in a little light, because we shut down in March and it was, you know, but we did have sweet girl in there. So my guess is it'll be close to 85 million. But on average for the last five years, it's been a between 100 to $150 million. That's new money into the region's economy. And that's based on the financial statements that are audited that we receive directly from the productions. I bring this up because especially in Pittsburgh, we like to use fuzzy math sometimes about Oh, yeah, there were 20 million people out my front yard. We use the hard numbers. I don't know how to use this multipliers, so we still do it.

That's a lot of people in your front yard.

Yeah, a lot of people the neighbors are not

often this question about wardrobe and design.

Yeah, let's see here, um, in regards of wardrobe and set design. Do they I guess I can't quite read the question here. Do you take any of these if they are retro or old

meaning We take the wardrobe, there's some prop houses that used to store retro, a lot of that stuff goes to New York or comes out of California. And now also Atlanta, Georgia, it's hard to have space. But a lot of times if they're looking locally, Ian's and shadyside, Richard parisiens business, he does a great a great business, but the industry because he's got amazing clothes and all kinds of resources to find things. So it just depends, sometimes you get really lucky, there's this job on set called the buyer, it's really their job to me, it's gonna be it's gonna be my dream job when I'm done with this, because you get to run around shopping, but they've got to look for very specific things. And when you speak to some of them, including Barbie historic, she talks about going into these little hardware stores to find old rolls of vintage wallpaper. You know, it's all these different things that you don't really think about that, you know, you threw out of your grandma's house, and now you know, the movie wants them. So it just depends on what they're looking for.

That is fantastic.

Well, is there anything else? I want to jump into some other questions?

I just came in from Amy Kaminski here wants to know, will 5g have an impact on filming and production? That's a cool question.

Well, we've been very supportive the film office and then the local industry text I think, you know, I think it could help right? I don't think it's gonna hurt us. So what the direct impact will be I have no idea. But we're all for faster, quicker, better, more detailed.

Right? What do you think the future the movie industry looks like? even post COVID?

I think that people I think people really set up a lot of some really cool home theaters. But I think people still want to go to the movies. I don't think the movies are going away. You know, it's always a theaters are always everybody always says oh, there's no more movie theaters. I don't believe that's happening. And what I see that's being prevalent to everyone. It's an insatiable need for content. Yes, when things get back to normal, you're not going to have as much time to sit and watch Netflix. But people want choices. And they want to be able to see quality programming and thankfully for Pittsburgh and Southwestern PA, Netflix is here. Amazon's here. Hulu has been here. We've got them all coming. And Dave Curran is on here somewhere occur? Who's on here, you know, he's gonna make sure HBO Max is coming to so yeah, shout

out.

Yeah, I think we're gonna be fine. I just think if we can get the tax credits to the point where we're not turning business away, which dried as a salesperson, which is how I consider myself I it drives me crazy to say no to business, we've worked so hard to build it up. And then we're like, oh, yeah, nevermind, we'll see you in July. That doesn't quite work. But I think we're going to be busy. And I think people will go back to the theaters. And so,

I mean, I've been watching on my phone. Now, all of a sudden, I've been watching movies on my phone. And it's changed the way the portability is of, you know, what I'm watching. And I never would have thought that before. COVID. So, you know, the more that we have, and the more that we can do, the better it is. But obviously, I think that people, the amount of content that's been produced, particularly on Netflix, and on Amazon has been shockingly amazing. In terms of proliferation of content, right? I mean, I

see original programming, which is so fun to see. Cuz otherwise, I mean, I don't know how I'm not a big fan of let's do a, you know, a remake of this and a remake of that, especially if they weren't filmed in Pittsburgh, we're done with this. Let's get the ones that were you know, that want to come and that are new and that are interesting.

Who there are two right now, what's going on right now, this this moment.

And Netflix is here with two shows. One's called archives. It's kind of a science fiction. It's based on a podcast of the same name. And that's season one. We're excited because that's a multi season show. We expect them to be here for seasons into the future. Nice. And then we have the chair which is the Amanda Pete Sander, oh project. That's a miniseries we'll call it because it doesn't have it right now. It doesn't have a second season plan. But if everyone loves the chair, and it's amazing, they'll do like they did with Big Little Lies, and there'll be a second season. But right now there's they're here and then Showtime is here with a show called rust and it's being produced and starring Jeff Daniels, and that's based on the book is that in Allegheny County and Fayette County, this show has taken us six years to get here. And they were set to start filming day one Principal photography on March 16 2000 2008, which is when we shut the world down. And so now we're hoping they're gonna be backup by March 16 2021. But they're here. They're in prep, and we expect them to start filming soon.

Wow. And he's from here, right?

He's lives in Michigan.

Oh, Jeff Daniels. I'm thinking about Mike. Someone else's from different the fly show. Okay, so you have an annual fundraiser event. That's that's always an amazing quote unquote, production. It's a ton of fun. Lots of activities. You make it just just amazing in terms of the setup. What's What are you planning for this year?

Well, thankfully, our event happened in February last year, you know, they move the Oscars up to February. So thankfully That's the lifeblood of the film off. We're a 501 c three nonprofit we raise every dollar some people don't understand that we we get some funds from the county Thank you county executive rich Fitzgerald, we get a little bit from the state that for that we raised this money. Typically we fill an Oscar event used to be on Oscar night, couple years ago, we moved it to the night before so we can all stay home in our pajamas and watch the Oscars. This year we're planning on a Saturday before the Oscar event, we're thinking about doing some movie lines. We used to do this at our pre party in the old days where people could do their favorite movie lines. So that's what we're looking at setting up the details are going to be coming out in the next few weeks. But we've gotten a lot of support from our ongoing corporate sponsors, which we wouldn't be able to live without, you know, midnight Realty and Highmark being our two biggest locally. And they're going to keep us going, and it's going to be a fun, you get to participate from home, we're trying to figure out something fun, that's movie related, that'll show up at your house. And there'll be a way to still support the ongoing efforts in the organization and keeping filming happening in southwestern PA, and have a little bit of fun at home too. Because hopefully, by April, we're going to get closer to being able to leave lockdown. But I think it won't be safe to have group events yet.

So what as we wrap up this this time with you, which I can't thank you enough. What What do you want to say to the tech community in the innovation economy? How can we help you? Well, you know, what's

fascinating to me is there's so many things being created here all the time that everyone doesn't know about. And I tell this story, but I was at the Javits Center, you know, pre COVID, walking down the aisle. And there was this really cool helicopter that was about the size of a suitcase, you know, a big duffel bag helicopter. And then behind their head was the words Carnegie Mellon University, right, I know them and they created this whole camera helicopter. We didn't know anything about it, right. And I think if we can figure out a better communication chain, so that when we've got projects in town, they can know what's happening in the local tech community that is only being created here. So we will

do a better job because we spend a lot of time telling stories and doing expos A's on lots of things. So my commitment to you is to do a better job and keeping you up to date. That'd be great. What

there's some cool stuff that they might want to incorporate into storyline, they may want to put in part it, you know, if you've got this cool camera, they want to put it part of the thing. And I think luck is just telling the story about Southwestern Pennsylvania being a great place to work and live. We were just ranked number three best place to live and work for movie makers, for filmmakers, by Movie Maker magazine.

You know, we're

not number one yet. But last year, we were number four. So we moved up the spot.

We're happy about that. My hat's off to you for bringing the panache here for being based in in Pittsburgh for you creating the linkages between here in LA, you've been relentless. You've been at this for a while. There isn't anyone who knows more about the film industry than dawn, who's around here. So she gave you the link, if you want to get access, she said, those emails go directly to her. And I promise that she will get back to you. There's lots of ways I saw there was a casting call today, as well. There's always casting calls that are that are happening if you want to have fun. And I know that there people are, you know, all over the neighborhood, Chatham University, they're setting up some shoots in squirrel Hill. And I think all over the region. So thank you for that. It makes it it makes it exciting, and fun and know that people, you know, some of these movie stars are paying attention to what's happening here. And it leaves an impression. And I think that that piece is valuable to us as well, because they can be our ambassadors also. So I wanted to tell everyone that a two o'clock today before you log off at two o'clock today, you can pre register on our site, we actually have Chief Marketing Officer insights with a woman called Carol carpenter. She is the Chief Marketing Officer of VMware, and it's today at two and you can you can log in. We are busy each and every day. And my hat's off to dawn. More info about the film fundraiser is on your site, right?

Uh huh. PGH film.org. Okay,

that's great. So if there are ways that you can help, and you want to any kind of charitable giving, they are a 501 c three, and all that really matters. So thank you, Dawn, so great to see you. And thank you for being a champion for the region. And your work matters to all of us. And Jonathan, how are we wrapping up the week,

wrap it up on a better note than having PPG stopped by to talk about a $20 million commitment they're making over the next five years to really ramp up their efforts towards inclusivity and more equity for all involved. So it's gonna be a great compensation.

fund the PPG foundation then right? Absolutely. wonky here. Stay safe. Thank you so much for being with us, everyone. Thanks for joining. And we will see you here tomorrow. Same time. You guys. Thank you

Transcribed by https://otter.ai