Oz Magazine September/October 2016

film. tv. entertainment.

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MAGAZINE

SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2016

STAFF Publishers:

CONTRIBUTORS Christopher Campbell

Tia Powell (Group Publisher) Gary Powell

Scout and About, p.58

Christopher Campbell is a writer specializing in nonfiction film and television. He is the creator of the documentary review website Nonfics and an editor for Film School Rejects and Movies. com. He has also contributed to Indiewire, MTV News, Paste, New York magazine and Documentary Magazine. He has a Master’s degree in Cinema Studies from NYU and now resides in Georgia with his wife and children. www.nonfics.com

Publishing Coordinator: Hilary Cadigan

Assistant to Publisher:

Zachary Vaudo

Editorial: Gary Powell

Adjoa D. Danso

Sales:

Adjoa D. Danso has varied writing interests but usually finds herself covering race, gender, sexuality, and their intersections. She has an MA in Communication from Georgia State University, where she also obtained a BA in English. Adjoa aims to bring social and political issues into mainstream conversation through pop culture.

When she’s not writing for Oz, you can find her managing events for Creative Loafing. Adjoa would sell her soul for a lifetime supply of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream (select flavors only). joadanso@gmail.com

Kris Thimmesch Martha Ronske Kristina Foster Greg Savage

Contributors:

Christopher Campbell Adjoa D. Danso Joseph Litsch Isadora Pennington

Creative Director:

Color Theory, p.46

Joseph Litsch

Voices, p. 42 Upon graduating from the University of Georgia with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism, Joseph Litsch was hired as a sports writer for The Atlanta Journal, where he worked for seven years before moving on to Atlanta Magazine for one year and The Atlanta Constitution for six as a sports writer, feature writer and movie/ theater critic. From there he worked in publicity and public relations and was unit publicist for several films before joining the industry as a set decorator. He earned an Emmy nomination for his first film as a decorator, and since then has earned three Emmy nominations and one Art Directors Guild nomination. In 1995 he won an Emmy for the television mini-series Scarlett, the sequel to Gone with the Wind.

Kelvin Lee

Production and Design:

Kelvin Lee Michael R. Eilers Ted Fabella (Oz Logo Design)

Cover Image:

Greg Mike

Isadora Pennington

Threading the Needle, p.52

Isadora is a photojournalist and multidisciplinary artist. Born in Nashville, TN, she spent her early life moving often between states on the East coast, before settling in Atlanta to attend Georgia State University, where she got her BA in Studio Art. She has worked as a designer and photographer for local print publications, and has also discovered a joy for writing, specifically when it’s about artists and their work. A lover of all things creative, she stays busy with new projects that span a broad spectrum of mediums. www.isadorapennington.com

Greg Mike www.ozmagazine.com www.facebook.com/ozpublishing www.twitter.com/ozpublishing (404) 633-1779 Oz Magazine is published bi-monthly by Oz Publishing, Inc. 2566 Shallowford Road Suite 104, #302 Atlanta, GA 30345 Copyright © 2016 Oz Publishing Incorporated, all rights reserved.

Reproductions in whole or in part without express written permission of the publisher is strictly prohibited. This magazine is printed on recyclable paper.

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Oz Magazine - film. tv. entertainment.

Cover Art Born and raised in Connecticut, childhood trips to NYC in the mid’80s exposed Greg Mike to the creative potential of reinventing public spaces through art and design. Mixing the take-no-prisoners bombast of classic NYC street art with the eagle-eyed precision of mass market illustration and animation has been his goal from the beginning. Mike is the founder and creative director of ABV Agency/Gallery, a multi-platform studio specializing in branding, apparel design and visual production. A hub for Atlanta innovators, ABV also functions as a gallery, exhibiting artists from around the world and highlighting emerging talents alongside globally recognized names. www.gregmike.com, www.abvagency.com

SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2016

CONTENTS

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62

Ozcetera

Oz Scene

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42

63 Georgia Music Partners Summer Celebration

Voices

Amsterdamned

44

63 42

Cover Story

67 Marietta International Film Festival/24 Hour Film Race 69 Unapologetic Melaninated Cinema

46

64

Color Theory

52

70

Let Me Give You My Card

52 65

Feature Story Threading the Needle

58

64 Indie Film Loop Conference Showcase 65 re:imagine/ATL Purple Sparkle Carpet Bash

How I Got Into The Business

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62 Macon Film Festival

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Off the Wall with Greg Mike

58

67

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69

Feature Story Scout and About

September / October 2016

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OZCETERA

Georgia Ranks Fourth for Pilots

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eorgia now ranks fourth in television pilot productions, according to a new report by nonprofit organization FilmL.A., Inc. Of the 201 pilots shot in 2016 to date, Georgia claimed 15, following Vancouver (25), New York (28), and Los Angeles (79). This marks a 67 percent increase in pilot production for the Peach State, compared to last year’s nine pilots filmed. By comparison, Los Angeles saw a 13 percent drop in pilots from last year (91). FilmL.A. attributes the decline to a 23 percent year-over-year decrease in local comedy pilot production.

“While we were disappointed to see a

decline in local comedy pilot production, recent growth in drama pilot and series production is encouraging from the standpoint of overall area jobs and economic benefit,” says FilmL.A. President Paul Audley.

Coupled with Georgia’s economic impact of $7 billion during the last fiscal year, announced

by Governor Nathan Deal in August, Georgia continues to rise as a steady competitor to the top three slots. Total film spending in the state topped the $2 billion mark for the first time ever in the 2016 fiscal year. Total filming and other movie and television production expen-

ditures were up nearly 19 percent compared to the 2015 budget year, over seven times what Hollywood spent in Georgia in 2008. The governor’s office said a total of 245 television and film projects shot in Georgia in fiscal 2016, down by only three from last year.

“The film industry has created a home in Georgia ... employing thousands of Georgians while developing infrastructure and boosting small businesses,” Deal says. “I am committed to retaining this relationship by constructing a strong, film-ready workforce that will continue to help the industry thrive.”

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OZCETERA

Stranger Things Loves Georgia

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tranger Things, the Duf fer Brother s’ 1980s-based sci-fi/supernatural thriller series, is currently the hottest show on Netflix.

Praised by critics and viewers alike, it marks the first Netflix series to be filmed in Atlanta.

The series tells the story of young Will Byers, who vanishes under mysterious circumstances, while a strange young girl appears with extraordinary powers. She aids Will’s friends in their search for him as they, and others in the town, uncover the string of otherworldly secrets.

Originally titled Montauk and set in the Long Island town of the same name, the creators reportedly changed the show’s location to Indiana in order to film in Georgia (a better proxy for the Midwest than the unique terrain of Long Island).

Production launched in fall 2015, setting up camp at EUE/Screen Gems for stage-work and filming on-location in numerous Georgia locations, including Emory’s Briarcliff Campus, Marietta Square, Stockbridge, the Bellwood rock quarry (notably featured in The Walking Dead), and various spots in Butts County, specifically the town of Jackson.

“We have been grateful for the cooperation and interest in Jackson from the people at Netflix,” county government relations director Michael Brewer said in an official statement in November, when the show began filming.

“The city and county have worked very well together to help them in any way possible and we’re excited that they will showcase our town and community in a positive way.”

Image Credit: Netflix

Jackson officials benefitted even further when the production repainted buildings using Downtown Development Authority-approved color charts, which factored into future planned revitalization efforts.

Like many filmmakers today, the Duffers are very partial to filming in Atlanta, but for more than just the tax credits. “There are just little pockets, these neighborhoods that really haven’t changed at all,” they said of Atlanta in an interview with Men’s Journal. “They’re little time capsules to the ‘80s…the neighborhoods where we shot recalled so much of our own childhood.”

Netflix will continue to utilize Atlanta for future projects, with Jason Bateman’s first season of Ozark filming here now, using Atlanta as yet another Midwestern location.

September / October 2016

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OZCETERA

September / October 2016

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OZCETERA Donald Glover, Keith Stanfield, Brian Tyree Henry

Atlanta Gets Its Own TV Show

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onald Glover is the writer, producer, director, creator and star of the new series Atlanta on FX. The show follows his character’s journey as he and his cousin try to succeed in Atlanta’s music industry. Filming took place in a number of true local spots: crews were spotted at Club Rio in Marietta, the Atlanta Civic Center, and a host of other city locales.

Atlanta is a comedy that’s not afraid to delve deep into dark themes like police brutal-

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ity. “The thesis with the show is to show people how it felt to be black, and you can’t really write that down. You have to feel it,” Glover told reporters during a recent press tour. “So the tonal aspect was really important to me.

There really isn’t a limit to how abstract you can get as long as you believe it. There has to be a grounded nature to it. If you have something that is grounded on some level, you can go anywhere and people will go there with you.”

G lover is originally from from Stone Mountain, and his personal experiences influence his new series. Apart from being Atlantaborn, he is also a rapper in real life under the name Childish Gambino.

“What was important to me was that this show is personal and had a specific take,” Glover explained to the press. “That’s all you can really ask for from shows now—having a specific point on something.”

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September / October 2016

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OZCETERA Dan Cathy speaks at the Georgia Film Academy ribbon-cutting

Pinewood Studios Announces Sale

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inewood Studios London announced its sale to an investment group at the end of July. Pinewood Atlanta, owned by Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy and other investors, will retain facility ownership of the Atlanta division. It is unlikely the deal will slow operations at the Fayette studios.

Pinewood’s Atlanta campus is currently undergoing an expansion: Cathy and fellow

investors have announced a mixed-use community surrounding Pinewood Atlanta, dubbed Pinewood Forrest, which will include residencies, shops, restaurants, hotels, and health care facilities.

Pinewood London has been considering strategic options, including sales, as far back as February. “Pinewood has grown in recent years into a global operation which sits at

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the forefront of the U.K.’s creative industries,” Pinewood CEO Ivan Dunleavy said in July. “We believe we have found the right partner for the business and one that shares our long-term vision for the future of the group.”

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OZCETERA Cicely Serene Pringle

Rene TV Network Launches

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PROFESSIONAL PHOTO RESOURCES

roducer and music A&R Cicely Serene Pringle has launched Rene TV Network, a new entertainment channel for independent artists and filmmakers to showcase their work from multiple TV genres by producing more original and relatable content. The network launched worldwide on Roku and locally on Comcast Atlanta 24 in August.

“Rene TV Network is the new BET and MTV for the indie industry,” says Pringle. “All dreams matter; what’s the use of having talent if you can’t showcase it to the world?”

Rene TV Network channel was derived from Pringle’s former publication, The Urban Surge Magazine, founded in 2013 and featuring a variety of independent music talent across the southeastern region of North Carolina.

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The participants will also feature in the Portfolio Walk, giving review participants the opportunity to present their work to the general public at a casual reception, open to all.

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September / October 2016

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OZCETERA The 90th anniversary celebration of Goodwill of North Georgia

Malcolm Mitchell reads The Magician’s Hat to a Valdosta elementary school audience

three squared Gets Good

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tlanta digital agency three squared produced the 2016 highlight reel for Goodwill of North Georgia’s 90th anniversary celebration. Spanning the past year of accomplishments, the reel was screened in June at the 90th anniversary event, held at the Delta Flight Museum. The reel will be used by Goodwill throughout the remainder of 2016.

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Oz Magazine - film. tv. entertainment.

From Balls to Books

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ube Creative par tnered with Golo Productions to edit and finalize a short video project telling the story of Malcolm Mitchell, a football player from the University of Georgia and author of the children’s book, The Magician’s Hat.

Mitchell entered UGA as a freshman with the reading level of a middle-school student.

While looking for a good book in an Athens Barnes & Noble, Mitchell met a woman named Kathy Rackley and asked her for recommendations. It turned out that Rackley led a book club out of her house made up of women over 50, and Mitchell became its newest member.

Mitchell learned and grew through the book club, which eventually inspired him to write his own book.

Led by producer David Goldstein, Golo Productions shot a book club meeting in Athens, covered Mitchell giving his book to students at a Valdosta elementary school, and more. Tube Creative put the piece together, which was shown during the NFL Network broadcast of the NFL Draft. Mitchell was chosen by the New England Patriots as the 14th pick in the fourth round. The feature, Malcolm Mitchell: The Right Read, is available now on NFL’s website and Vimeo.

OZCETERA

September / October 2016

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OZCETERA

Horror Hotel Goes Feature Length

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ward-winning web series Horror Hotel, an Atlanta-made sci-fi/horror anthology, has released a new feature film on Amazon Prime titled Horror Hotel: The Movie. The series first gained recognition upon release in 2013, winning numerous awards in festival circuits and running on Hulu, DirectTV, AT&T U-verse, Xfinity, MSN videos and other online platforms. The movie contains a collection of six new tales that feature aliens, clones, brain swapping, and a futuristic world without men. “We were looking for a way to increase our exposure and bring the films to more people,” says creator Ricky Hess. “There are more opportunities for distribution with a feature film so we decided to combine our new episodes into an anthology feature.”

Ricky Hess works side by side with his mother, Debbie Hess (producer) and father, Al Hess (writer). All cast and crew hail from Atlanta and surrounding areas. “We are very proud of the tremendous talent that has contributed to our productions from the large pool of professional film folks that call Atlanta home,” says Ricky. “Our goal has always been to give them a platform with successful distribution to showcase their abilities and something to be proud of.” Horror Hotel is currently in production on a new third season.

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Oz Magazine - film. tv. entertainment.

OZCETERA

September / October 2016

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OZCETERA

Digital Cinema Society Showcases VariCam

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he Digital Cinema Society held its first ever Atlanta area event at John Sharaf Photography in July, showcasing the Panasonic VariCam line of Digital Cinema cameras along with complimentary Codex recording systems.

Panasonic’s Steve Mahrer hosted an in-depth rundown of the new VariCam LT, which features a compact and lightweight form factor, wide latitude and color gamut, 4K resolution, and extremely high sensitivity with a dual native ISO base of 800 and 5000.

Kellie Hiatt from Codex presented vari-

ous recording solutions, particularly Codex’s collaboration with Panasonic on the VRAW Recorder. Also presenting was Illya Friedman, owner of L.A. based VariCam dealer and outfitter, Hot Rod Camera, discussing various ways the VariCam can be configured to create the most versatile camera package.

Cinematographer and DCS Founder James Mathers teamed up with John Sharaf to lead practical demos under various lighting conditions so attendees could experience the capabilities of the VariCam 35 and LT firsthand.

Maggie McDaniel Joins c21

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ommunications 21, a full-service marketing, public relations and interactive firm, has hired Maggie McDaniel, a Columbus, Georgia native as its newest account manager.

Before being promoted, McDaniel served as an intern where she developed social media strategy and managed email marketing and public relations.

“Maggie is a talented team member, bringing with her a great set of journalism skills,

Maggie McDaniel

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Oz Magazine - film. tv. entertainment.

including videography, writing and communication,” says c21 President Sharon Goldmacher.

“Our clients will greatly benefit from her already strong skill set.”

At c21, McDaniel will work with a variety of clients including Meals on Wheels Atlanta, Buckhead Community Improvement District, Partnership Against Domestic Violence (PADV) and more.

OZCETERA Cathy Hughes

Media Completes Production

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adio One founder and chairperson Cathy Hughes recently completed the filming of Media, the story of a wealthy family battling competitive challenges in the wake of a brutal crime, as they strive to keep their status and position in the media industry. “This storyline has been in the works for over six years, and I am thrilled to finally bring it to our audience,” said Hughes in a statement. “My entire life has been dedicated to creating media outlets to entertain and inspire our community. We know our audience loves drama, and that’s what Media is all about.”

Filmed on-location in Atlanta, Media was created and produced

by Hughes and her creative partner Susan Banks (Fright Night Files, Fear Files, Second Sight). It is the latest addition to TV One’s slate of original films and will premiere in early 2017.

“There are few movies that show all shades and sides of the political and economic spectrums, in particular, films featuring persons of color, without catering to one side,” said Media actor Brian White (Scandal, Chicago Fire, Stomp the Yard) in a press statement. “Here we see everyone represented, and every character has a purpose in this unique story. This family didn’t come from wealth; they built it.”

Vintage fabrics at KaliCollection

KaliCollection Brings the Goods

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ew vintage clothing and accessories house KaliCollection ha s o p ene d a t 37 1 5 N o r t hcres t Roa d in At lan t a .

KaliCollection services motion picture costume departments and provides props and set dressing. They carry authentic vintage clothing and accessories from the 1940s through the late 1980s, all hand-selected by owner and operator Deborah Cha Blevins, an industry veteran with over 30 years of experience as a costume supervisor.

KaliCollection also offers vintage fabric, trim, lace, curtains, linens and quilts, as well as periodicals, umbrellas, eyeglasses, jewelry, and more.

September / October 2016

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OZCETERA

In Memoriam: Pete Shinn

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ete Shinn, electrics manager and lighting designer for the Alliance Theatre, tragically passed away after a battle with cancer. Shinn began his time at the Alliance as an intern in 1978 and went on to spend the entirety of his career designing more than 60 productions for the Alliance Stage and Hertz Stage series. He also designed shows for every size theater in Atlanta, and beyond.

“His dozens of mentees have gone on to design hundreds of shows in an untold number of theaters around the country,” the Alliance Theatre said in a statement. “He is a true legend of his craft. Because of Pete’s long tenure, when the [Tony] award was conferred, he was the final person to touch [it] before it was

placed in a glass display box in our theater lobby. He was beloved by all who knew him.”

In his honor, the Alliance has established the Pete Shinn Memorial Fund, designed with Pete’s blessing, to offer funding for professional development and opportunities for technicians and designers across Atlanta. “By doing this, we not only continue Pete’s legacy, but also bolster our commitment to providing top notch, award-winning experiences for technicians, designers, craftspeople, and artisans who will carry our art form forward to a bright future,” said the Alliance. Interested parties can contribute through the Alliance website’s contribution page or by mailing Jamie Clements at the Alliance directly.

Pete Shinn

UP TV Greenlights Date My Dad

U

P TV has greenlit a new original series, Date My Dad, which will make its world television debut in late spring of 2017. Produced by 50° North Productions in association with EveryWhere Studios, the yet to be cast 10-episode family dramedy tells the story of a single dad raising three teenage daughters. Three

years after losing their mother, the daughters make it their mission to get their dad back in the game…the dating game, that is.

“As a mother of a young son, there is little, if anything, on television that mirrors the joys and challenges of my life,” says Nina Colman, the show’s creator, writer and executive producer.

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“Family life shown in an authentic way with a heavy dose of warmth and humor is surprisingly absent from television, and I am thrilled that UP wants to bring that back.”

OZCETERA

September / October 2016

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OZCETERA A ski stunt from Ore’s class

Atlanta Gets the Stunts

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obby Ore Motorsports, a long-standing organization in sport, tactical and stunt driving, opened its Atlanta stunt driving classes this year at Atlanta Motorsports Park in Dawsonville. “This is a hotspot,” Ore told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “There are a lot

Extreme Stunts demonstrating camera insert cars at Pinewood Atlanta Studios

of stunt people moving to Atlanta and Georgia because of all the film business going on here.

We want to give people a chance to take the school and help give people the basic foundation to become a stunt driver.”

Ore’s courses offer one, two, and three-

day options, teaching the fundamentals of stunt driving techniques both in-classroom and on-course, with an advanced course for graduates of the three-day program.

Members of the Extreme Stunts team on a shoot with the Russian Arm Mercedes

Georgia Gets Extreme

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inewood Atlanta Studios has a new neighbor. Grady Bishop, operator of Extreme Stunts and Driving Team, has transferred operations to Sharpsburg, Georgia after nearly 17 years in Florida.

Bishop invited members of the Georgia film community to a recent showcase of specialty insert vehicles and equipment. Attendees were allowed to get up close and personal with a variety of equipment, including the Academy Award winning Sci-Tech Russian Arm Mercedes, the Porsche Cayenne with elevator arm, the Polaris 6x6 PonyCam, and the highspeed MustangCam camera car.

“Growing frustration with the dwindling legislative support and rapidly disappearing opportunities in Florida were the primary

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Oz Magazine - film. tv. entertainment.

reasons for my decision,” says Bishop. “I had worked diligently trying to save the Florida film industry with many visits to the Capitol in Tallahassee, to no avail. The continued growth of Georgia’s film industry was appealing.”

It was helping his friends at Left Digital Media Productions move to Pinewood that spurred Bishop’s own relocation. He was displaying the Russian Arm Mercedes and Racecam with the Porsche Cayenne at a Georgia Production Partnership event when he was asked about when he would move.

“Actually being told ‘we need you’ were words I hadn’t heard in a while,” he says. “It felt good.”

Bishop has had a long career as a stuntman and stunt coordinator and working live action shows at Universal Studios Florida and Disney/

MGM Studios where he played Indiana Jones in the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular. Extreme Stunts has shot numerous car commercials and done extensive work for top companies like NASCAR.

Extreme will use their stable of professional stunt drivers, coordinators, performers, second unit directors, Precision Performance Stunt Driving Team and car prep teams to continue growing. “We have been welcomed by those who know us and networked with them. We have been welcomed by Pinewood, numerous grip and lighting houses, all the DPs and camera assistants we’ve worked with, and so many more,” says Bishop. “Georgia gets it! Don’t take it for granted!”

OZCETERA Hank Azaria

Author Dennis Lehane

Brockmire Comes to Macon

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Dennis Lehane Comes to Forsyth

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orsyth Reads Together, a countywide literary event in Forsyth, Georgia, will celebrate its ninth year at the Lanier Technical College Forsyth Conference Center on September 27th with bestselling author and television producer Dennis Lehane.

Best known for his books Shutter Island and Mystic River, both adapted into award-winning films; Lehane is also credited as a screen-

writer on HBO’s Boardwalk Empire and The Wire.

Lehane will speak to the audience about his experience as a novelist and screenwriter before holding a question and answer session. Admission is free, but the Forsyth County Public Library requests attendees register in advance.

h e n ew I F C s p o r t s co m e d y s e r i e s Brockmire, starring Hank Azaria (The Simpsons, Ray Donovan) and Amanda Peet (Togetherness, The Good Wife) has completed filming in Macon.

Based on a hit Funny Or Die short film, Brockmire centers on a famed Major League Baseball announcer (Azaria) who suffers an embarrassing and ver y public meltdown on the air after discovering his wife’s serial infidelity. A decade later, Jim Brockmire decides to reclaim his career and love life in a small town, calling minor league ball for the Morristown Frackers. Peet will play Jules, the strong-willed owner of the struggling team.

September / October 2016

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OZCETERA Isaiah John

PSI Acquires SMG

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uluth-based optical disc manufacturer Professional Sound Images, Inc. (PSI) has acquired digital media company SMG Enterprises. The combined businesses will move forward under the PSI name.

PSI is a market leader in digital media services and is home to the only CD and DVD replication lines in Georgia. With the merger, clients will be provided with a much broader set of services, including streaming audio and video, on-site media solutions, printing services, distribution and fulfillment.

Isaiah John Lands Pilot Role

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tlanta actor Isaiah John is the latest to be cast in a principal role on the FX pilot Snowfall, John Singleton’s 1980s cocaine-epidemic drama pilot set in Los Angeles. Co-created and executive produced by Boyz N the Hood director Singleton and Eric Amadio, and directed by El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, the pilot, now shooting, had been undergoing a revamp. John will play Leon Simmons, the hot tempered best friend of main character Franklin Saint (played by Damson Idris).

John, whose credits include Hulu’s When the Street Lights Go On and Barbershop 3: The Next Cut, is represented by Artists Media Group and RBJ Talent Management.

Ann DeGuire of SIM Group

LA Celebrates Georgia

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n June, the Georgia Film, Music & Digital Entertainment Office held a special event, Georgia Night, at the Sunset Tower Hotel in Los Angeles to promote film and television production in the Peach State. The annual networking event is designed to strengthen ties with producers who’ve brought projects to the state in the past or are considering doing so in the future. It included an appearance by Governor Nathan Deal who addressed the state’s commitment to supporting the production industry.

SIM Group, a Georgia-based supplier of production equipment, workflow and post-production solutions, was a corporate sponsor of the event. “Georgia’s film market tax incentives have been an unqualified success,” says Ann DeGuire, President of SIM Group’s Camera Division. “We want to remind producers of the many benefits to shooting in the state, including the presence of strong brick and mortar support companies like SIM Digital and Bling Digital.”

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OZCETERA Event hosts celebrate Shanti Das (center) and her 25 years of success in the entertainment industry

Vivian Green

Shanti Das joins performers onstage

Atlantans Celebrate Shanti Das

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he June edition of ATL Live on the Park at Park Tavern was a special celebration of perseverance, strength and love as music industry veteran Shanti “Shoestring” Das celebrated 25 years in the entertainment industry.

Hosted by Das’ friends and family, the evening included special performances by emerging and seasoned artists Benjamin Brim, The YRS, and Vivian Green. The night concluded with

surprise performances by hip-hop legends Too $hort and Kwame.

Event hosts Devyne Stephens, Kawan “KP” Prather, Dee Dee Hibbler, Phillana Williams, DJ Eddie F, and Council Members Ceasar C. Mitchell and Kwanza Hall presented Das with an award commemorating her success in the industry. The group accredited Das as the driving force behind establishing hip-hop in the

South. “Shanti was the product manager for my first two albums,” Vivian Green told the crowd during her performance. “She was there for me at my first photo shoot. Shanti took care of me and made sure no one took advantage of me.

So, thank you.”

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OZCETERA

Taylor Alxndr

Southern Fried Queer Pride Takes the Screen

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t l a n t a LG B TQ c o l l e c t i v e S o u t h e r n Fried Queer Pride will host its first ever Cinequeer Film Fest at Eyedrum Gallery downtown on September 25th.

“The Cinequeer Film Festival star ted because we saw that a lot of the folks in the community were really interested in film but felt disadvantaged as to how to go about [breaking

into the industry],” says Taylor Alxndr, SFQP co-founder and Atlanta-based performance artist. “We made this festival as an outlet for that creativity.”

The one night screening event will showcase the cinematographic talents of Atlanta’s queer and trans community, featuring films that have challenged the mainstream narrative of

what queer cinema looks and sounds like.

“Queer and trans people are finally being seen and heard and the dominance of mainstream gay film is faltering,” says Alxndr. “I think the current space of queer film is one that is more honest and bold about our experiences, and not concerned about how the mainstream will react.”

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OZCETERA A still from Critical Crop Top’s PYTs Webshow

Meet Critical Crop Top

C

ritical Crop Top is a new Atlanta-based collective of artists and comedians creating free web content with a focus on women’s stories. Founded in April by local filmmakers Nicole Kemper, Hillary R. Heath and Sarah Alison Hodges, the collective specializes in comedic sketches, short films, web series and podcasts. The women of Critical Crop Top produce content from unique female perspectives and give voice to both women and men who are interested in providing social commentary

in a comedic light.

Prior to the group’s official formation, the three founders shared a desire to tell the kind of stories not often portrayed in mainstream television and film. They independently produced several short films and web series including Hi, Grandma, PYTs Web Show The Mother Load Web Series and other programs which can be found on the Critical Crop Top Vimeo Channel.

Upon formation, Critical Crop Top immediately released 80s Dating Video Remix, their first

collaborative short, which spoofs the viral YouTube video, 80s Dating Video Montage. It premiered in April at Ladylike Variety Show at the Village Theatre and is currently available on Vimeo.

Their second short, Dick Pic Professional, is currently in post-production. A mockumentary about a fictional “dick pic” photographer, the short is inspired by a real-life woman with the same job.

Kees Van Oostrum Voted President of ASC

T

he Board of Governors of the American Society of Cinematographers has elected Kees Van Oostrum to serve as president of the organization. This is Oostrum’s first term, which will run for one year, beginning immediately.

The ASC Board also selected its slate of officers, including Bill Bennett, Dean Cundey and Lowell Peterson as vice presidents, Levi Isaacs as treasurer, Fred Goodich as secretary, and Roberto Schaefer as sergeant-at-arms.

“It is our task as an organization to educate the industry on the value of the cinematographer as authors of the images, to be involved

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in advancing imaging technology, and most importantly, to promote our artistry,” says Van Oostrum. “I’m honored to be selected along with these officers to lead my peers and colleagues into new visual frontiers, and continue the educational mission of the organization.”

Oostrum previously served as vice president and has fulfilled other roles over the years on the ASC Board. He is also the chairman and originator of the ASC Master Classes, an educational initiative taught by award-winning cinematographers.

Kees Van Oostrum

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OZCETERA

Christina Humphrey Moves On Up

C

hristina Humphrey has been named new Programming Director for the Atlanta Film Society.

Starting off her AFS career as an intern in 2011, Humphrey landed the role of Shorts Programmer in 2012. Her latest promotion comes as the AFS prepares for its 41st year of programming.

“The 40 th anniver sar y Atlanta Film Festival enjoyed record-breaking submission numbers, and the 41st is sure to build on this growth,” says AFS Creative Director Kristy Breneman. “Christina’s heart for filmmakers and knowledge of emerging independent films has become essential to our trajectory as an organization, and we’re pleased to see her in such a fitting leadership role.”

Co-founder of the New Mavericks program and curator of the lauded Herstory of the Female Filmmaker shorts block, Humphrey brings a fierce love of inter-genre film, a sharp eye for representation, and an affinity for all things artfully made.

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Christina Humphrey

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September / October 2016

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OZCETERA

OzMagazine.com Gets a Facelift

O

z Magazine’s website has gotten a serious makeover! Completely resigned by our art director and head designer Kelvin Lee, the revamped site features a sleek new look, an overhauled front page, and easier access to our most recent content, including features and blog posts.

Stop by to read online-exclusive stories throughout the year, watch locally made films, stay up to date on casting calls and local events, and access our special industry resources.

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September / October 2016

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OZCETERA Lawayne Bontrager, Ken Feinberg, Doug Kaye , Dewayne Bontrager

Paula Martinez and Ondie Daniel

Gabe Wardell, Paula Martinez, and (winner) Dorian Santiago

48 Hour Film Project Sets New Records

T

he Atlanta 48 Hour Film Project returned for its 15th year of creative filmmaking in July, setting a new record with 94 teams registered, over 1,200 participants, and more than 2,400 screening and award show attendees.

Team leaders gathered to write, shoot and edit a four to seven minute film in just 48 hours.

All films submitted premiered for the public

at Landmark Theatres Midtown Art Cinema, where they were eligible for audience recognition. Those submitted on time were judged for various awards by a filmmaker panel that included podcaster Floyd Hall, Aperturent’s Julie Hunter, and Sundance Ignite Awardwinning filmmaker Kevin Brooks.

The Catalyst by Be The Change earned

the Best Film of Atlanta honor, and will be sent to the international 48 Hour Film Project competition, Filmapalooza, to be screened and judged next March with 140 city winners from around the globe. From there, ten films will be chosen for the Short Film Corner at the Cannes International Film Festival.

Let the Games Begin

T

he Southern Interactive Entertainment and Game Expo (SIEGE) will host the sixth edition of its popular Investment Conference for entrepreneurs with the “next big interactive business” idea on October 7th, hosted by The Georgia Game Developers Association.

Eight openings have been announced for the Investment Conference, sponsored by Tripwire Interactive and the State Tax Credit Exchange, for applicants in the interactive media and entertainment industries in Georgia, including video game and app developers, to connect with interested investors.

“We hope to continue to build on our prior successful programs by attracting more developers with cutting edge and compelling products and products that support health, exercise and education,” says Rob Hassett, an attorney at Gilson Athans P.C. and co-chair of the Investment Conference. “We are also seeing a lot of interest in augmented reality, virtual reality and machine learning.”

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Applicants selected to participate in the conference will make a presentation to a select group of more than 40 panelists including angel investors, successful entrepreneurs, government officials and interactive media/ entertainment professionals. All presenters can attend a one-day workshop with a panel of leading experts in patent, copyright, trademark, entertainment, contract, corporate and private placement law, as well as taxes, marketing, sales, video game distribution, and management. Startups with no prior outside investors may win a cash prize of $1,000.

“We have three goals,” says Hassett. “The first is to help artists and developers become more savvy entrepreneurs. The second is to help entrepreneurs with a worthy business model obtain necessary funding. The third is to offer potential investors more choices and increase their likelihood of success.”

Hi-Rez Studios booth at SIEGE 2013

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OZCETERA

Moon Shine Still Films in Georgia

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oon Shine Still, a new indie film written and directed by first-time Georgia filmmaker Takashi Doscher, has begun filming here in Georgia. Financed by Matthew Murdoch and Joshua Dent and produced by Craig Miller, Gabrielle Pickle, Takashi Doscher and Alex Creasia, Moon Shine Still is a modern suspense drama, rooted in Americana legend and set in present-day Georgia.

In the film, a young hiker stumbles onto an isolated farm after losing her way on the Appalachian Trail. She is taken in and cared for

by a strange yet beautiful couple, desperate to protect a centuries-old secret hidden deep in the mountains.

Madeline Brewer (Orange is the New Black, Hemlock Grove, Grimm) plays the young hiker, with Lydia Wilson (Star Trek Beyond, Charles III, About Time) and Nick Blood (Agents of SHIELD, Babylon) starring as the mysterious couple.

Writer and director Doscher is previously known for his ESPN documentary, A Fighting Chance.

“We hope the film raises questions regard-

ing modern definitions of love, marriage and monogamy,” he says. “Are these concepts universal or simply a product of the limited amount of time we, as humans, have here on Earth?”

In a historic partnership, the production is also collaborating with the Georgia Film Academy and the city of Columbus to provide training and education to a new generation of Georgia filmmakers. The production has thus far shot in Columbus, Pine Mountain, Hamilton, Dahlonega, and Blairsville, Georgia.

New Partnerships for Drama Inc.

A

The Drama Inc. Crew

tlanta-based acting school Drama Inc. has announced three workshop partnerships throughout the upcoming year with some of the most respected studios in Los Angeles and New York. Anthony Meindl’s Actor Workshop in Los Angeles served as the first partnership, with Meindl hosting his two-day on-camera acting intensive workshop in August.

At the end of October, Karen Kohlhaas will partner with Drama Inc. for her Monologue and Cold Reading workshop. One of the founding members of New York’s Atlantic Theater

Company, Kohlhaas is also a director, teacher, and author of three books on monologue technique.

Following that, Sam Christensen Studios, based in Los Angeles since 1985, will hold a free preview class on November 2nd at Drama Inc. Hosted by Sam Christensen himself and SCS co-founder Ken Cortland, this preview will give attendees a look into the upcoming fourday intensive course beginning two days later.

Sumptuous Media Comes Out on Top

D

avid Warren, co -founder of location scouting and management company ATL Locations, and Nigel G. Rowe, owner of Roundel MC, Atlanta’s only Milo motion control camera company, have founded the tabletop production company Sumptuous Media here in Atlanta.

“Atlanta has more fast food franchise headquarters than any other city in the nation,” says Warren, executive producer and partner for

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Oz Magazine - film. tv. entertainment.

Sumptuous Media. “Restaurants are rolling out new menu items which need to be marketed in the most beautiful way possible.”

Table top productions make products— from food to jewelry to technology—the stars of a campaign by shooting in a controlled setting with artistic lighting, motion control camera work, high-speed photography and styling.

Atlanta’s growth as a major production center for film and television has attracted a massive

amount of investment, equipment, and talent.

“We utilize the same cutting edge technology and skilled crew members to produce commercials that make our client’s products irresistible,” says Rowe, who notes that brands filming tabletop commercials in Atlanta will benefit from lower costs and proximity to decision makers.

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VOICES

Amsterdamned T

he Staircase had been difficult— not enough money, not enough experienced crew, not enough time—but that seems to be the rule rather than the exception in this industry. It was a good script, based on fact with minimal Hollywood fantasy mixed in; the story of Santa Fe’s Miraculous Staircase in the Sisters of Loretta Chapel.

My stay in New Mexico was interrupted by the unexpected news that my mother had died of a heart attack. I rushed home to take care of her funeral and other immediate issues. A week later, I returned to Santa Fe to finish the movie. Then came the dreaded trip home to Atlanta, where I was inundated by legal matters and quickly learned that a death certificated was required for literally everything—even disconnecting the telephone.

I remember hearing once that we survive life’s difficult times because we are too dumb to know we can’t. I waded through all the legal red tape and once on the other side, wondered, what do I do now? Thanksgiving had come and gone, and Christmas was fast upon us. A friend in Miami offered a way out: “Come down here and stay as long as you want.” That was it; I would leave that evening, drive as long as I wanted and arrive the next day.

I went out to run some errands and returned home to several voicemails.

One was from a producer I’d worked with before, Gerritt Van Der Meer. “Joe, this is Gerritt. Please call me.” He gave me a phone number considerably longer than ten digits.

I dialed and he answered immediately, was brief and direct: “Are you available for work?” I said I was and asked when he needed a set decorator.

“Yesterday,” he answered. “Is your passport in order?” I told him it was. “Can you leave tomorrow?” I guess so. “I’ll have 42

Oz Magazine - film. tv. entertainment.

By Joseph Litsch

Diane call you in the morning with your travel itinerary.”

“Gerritt, where am I going?” I asked. “Oh,” he said, laughing. “We’re in Amsterdam, and we’re shooting a fourhour miniseries.” In less than 24 hours I was on a plane.

Arriving in Amsterdam, I was greeted by the production designer, who gave me a script and told me to rest up; we would have a staff meeting the next morning. Starving, I decided to venture out, eat as quickly as possible, then hopefully sleep some.

Directly across the plaza was a much too familiar site: Burger King. But what the hell, I had just flown several thousand miles and would settle for a Whopper.

Just like home—except my order included a small container of mayonnaise for the French fries (frites, they call them).

Suddenly I remembered the scene in Pulp Fiction when John Travolta tells Samuel L. Jackson that Dutch people put mayonnaise on their fries. They both thought that was gross. But you know, it’s not bad.

At the meeting I met the art director, his assistant, and three local crew members: Nienka, her husband Michel, and Ann Marie. I learned that I had been rushed in to replace a set decorator from London. “When is the first day of shooting?” I asked. Malcolm looked at me with what I can only call pity. “Tomorrow.

7:30.”

The first day’s work included a scene set in NYC’s Central Park. A hot dog cart, a large trash can, a nondescript park bench. Easy enough. Day three was something else entirely. We needed to create a New York apartment, and I found out that morning that virtually nothing had been acquired. Nothing. It was one of those moments when you want to throw up your hands and yell, “Who do you have

to screw to get off this picture?” I wanted to, but I didn’t. It was 2 p.m.

I grabbed Nienka and a truck driver named Remko. We sped to the store farthest away that had the most American-looking furniture and went through the store tagging pieces with post-it notes. Nienka made a deal with the owner and we loaded up and moved on to the next store. In all, we made five stops in four hours, all across town.

We got back about 6:30, after all the stores had closed, and began putting pieces into place. I added some magazines, some clothing, and the space came to life. Then, I just remember hearing: “What about a TV?” A TV! For this apartment we were using a suite in a Dutch hotel and the television there was a brand I had never heard of, certainly not American.

I wracked my brain, then suddenly remembered the TV in my hotel room was a Philips. It would work. I ran back to plead with the hotel manager, who laughed and kindly let us borrow an extra television he had in storage. Done, at last.

10 p.m.

Later, I cornered Gerritt in the living room and asked, “Why didn’t you tell me Monday was the first day of shooting?”

He patted me on the back, laughing.

“Because you wouldn’t have come.”

By mid-February, we’d finished the Amsterdam scenes and the medical advisor and I boarded a KLM 747 bound for Johannesburg, South Africa, where we would shoot the rest of the miniseries.

Talk about a change. We moved ahead just one hour, but went from winter to summer overnight. And we were in Africa, a place I wish everyone could see.

My first meal there was not at a Burger King.

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HOW I GOT INTO THE BUSINESS How did you get into the business?

Jevocas "Java" Green SFX Makeup artist, actor, independent filmmaker Jymeni Productions, LLC www.facebook.com/jevocas. java.green

Well, I've always been interested in acting as far back as I remember. I got my start doing a lot of acting on stage in school. I did several renditions of The Nutcracker early on, and was fortunate enough to go on to do several other shows that branched into my adult life with Cabaret, La Cage Aux Folles, and Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I was always eager to do stage as I felt it kept me sharp with my skills. There's something so visceral about performing before an audience. My first on-screen role came in 2001 with the horror/suspense feature film The Remnant and the rest was history. I had gotten the bug bad. I feel very fortunate: I’ve been part of the longest running Rocky Horror Picture Show cast, “Lips Down on Dixie,” for the past 14 years. I've been privileged to be in several television shows and I spearheaded my very own Doctor Who fan series called Doctor Who: The Forgotten Doctor where I got to play the man himself!

What’s the best advice you can offer to young people in your profession?

Never stop learning. And make time for your craft. A lot of time we get caught up in our “everyday lives” and

Jenna Kanell 1st AD, actor, stunt performer, independent filmmaker Laser Pigeon Pictures www.laserpigeonpictures.com jenna.kanell@gmail.com

Cameraman, independent filmmaker Muse Of Fire Films, LLC. jppruner@gmail.com

If you weren't doing this, what would be your dream job?

I'd honestly probably be a teacher. Even now I love teaching people new things that I've learned and trying to bring people along with me on my journey. I'd love to teach theatre or makeup.

What makes your job cool or fun for you?

I suppose the process from beginning to end of making a film. It’s like magic, how something on paper can become so amazing with the end result created by all the people who work together and push to achieve a vision.

I’ve been telling stories in one form or another since I could speak; with plastic animals as a toddler, short stories and poetry once I could write, traveling theatre and improv in high school, and on both sides of the camera once I realized that there’s a cozy place for weirdoes in today's job market. So I trained on both coasts, took classes, networked, and tried out a variety of departments while inhaling information like it was water. While continuing to act and perform my own stunts in films and on television, I’ve been 1st AD on commercials, in addition to writing and directing short films, music videos, and fundraising videos.

I have the privilege of traveling to places I've never been, talking to people I've never imagined, learning things I never would have sought on my own. I get to work in a way that sometimes makes me uncomfortable, but always forces me to grow as a result.

Do you have a mantra you live by?

“You are a ghost driving a meat coated skeleton, made from stardust, riding a rock floating through space. Fear nothing.”

If you weren't doing this, what would be your dream job?

My backup career is a coroner. I've seen four live autopsies, and am endlessly fascinated by the capabilities and intricacies of the human body. Film is the cleaner version of examining how we perceive and treat one another.

Pure moxie. No, seriously; I lied my way into being a cameraman and learned by doing. Take that, expensive liberal arts college education! Before that, I came up in theater acting, writing plays, and building sets. I taught Shakespeare and developed curriculum for Johns Hopkins’ Center For Talented Youth and studied playwriting at the Kennedy Center with some of the best writers in the country. Later, I fell into the film collective Dailies as it was fizzling out and the originators moved on to their careers. Realizing being an expert in Shakespeare doesn’t buy bread and that everyone wants to be an auteur director but don’t know squat about how cameras work (hint: tiny little gnome people), I figured out the quickest way to make cash was to hold a camera and look authoritative. That’s how John Huston got his start, right? I’ve since worked steadily in television, film and commercials as my day job and have been heavily involved in the development of independent content.

Flirting with actresses way above my pay grade and getting fat from crafty.

Oz Magazine - film. tv. entertainment.

As cliché as it may sound, “Do or do not, there is no try.”

What do you love about your job?

What do you love about your job?

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Do you have a mantra you live by?

How did you get into the business?

How did you get into the business?

John Pruner

always say, “Well, I have to work,” or “I'll get the next one.” But sometimes doing that makes you miss out on opportunities. Instead, take the bull by the horns. Don't let opportunities pass you by because you may not get the chance again.

What’s the best advice you can offer to young people in your profession?

1. Be humble, be true to your word, and listen.

2. Stop putting “director,” “producer,” or “cinematographer” on your business cards. It’s telling of your hubris.

3. You’re spending the term of your precious little life creating something that can be switched off at an instant for something more interesting or, at best, end up in a Wal-Mart bargain bin. Let that realization sink in and liberate you.

Do you have a mantra you live by?

“Stay with what comes, follow through as it retreats, thrust forward as the hand is freed.”

What makes your job cool or fun for you?

Filmmaking is like living in Antarctica. It attracts a certain type of person: the John Bender types. The personalities who’d rather set their shoes on fire than sit at a desk.

That’s the world I want to be a part of. The kind of people who sneer at the squares and end their sentences in prepositions.

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“I

t’s like a black mecca. Like Black Hollywood,” says Amber L.N. Bournett, one half of the Atlanta-based art film duo, House of June. “You have Hollywood and you have Black Hollywood in Atlanta.” We—Bournett, myself, and the duo’s other half, Ebony Blanding—have been speaking for more than an hour. The quirky Candler Park cafe we’re in will be closing soon, and both women are coming off a full shift at their day jobs. But Blanding and Bournett have plenty stories to tell about being minority filmmakers in Atlanta. Their work has been featured at the Sundance Film Festival, and their short film The Grey Area was featured in the Atlanta Film Festival’s 2015 New Mavericks series.

Since the city’s rise to prominence in the nation’s film industry, Atlanta has been given many nicknames. Hollywood of the South.

Country-fried Y’allywood. The clunky A-T-L-wood. But in conjunction with (or in contrast to) all of these, is Black Hollywood: a mecca for minorities looking to break into film and television production.

Building Black Hollywood In 2008, Governor Sonny Perdue signed Georgia’s tax incentive into law, granting any film or television project that spends $500,000 or more on productions in Georgia a 20 percent tax break, with an additional 10 percent break for projects that put the state’s logo at the end of their credits. Though the incentive is often credited with Atlanta’s production industry taking off, insiders know a strong film community existed here long before the tax breaks went into effect.

Makeup artist Patrice Coleman came to Atlanta to attend Spelman College and has been in the industry for nearly 40 years. She’s a member of the relatively small community of professionals who have been in Atlanta since before the boom. “The thing that stood out to me about Atlanta from the very beginning was that Atlanta was very supportive of black entrepreneurship,” Coleman says. “There was a strong academic community, which included a good number of universities and prestigious HBCUs [historically black colleges and universities].”

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47

Georgia has become the

Georgia has a thriving

$300 Million

Fast forward 20 years

most soughtafter place for film and television production in the world

film and television industry

Coleman says the state’s affordability, climate, and history contributed to a well-balanced quality of life for industry folks. “We’ve always had a pretty solid film community. Even though a lot of people think it didn't happen until they got here, which is funny to me,” she says. “It's kind of like Columbus discovering America. We really were doing okay before.”

In a YouTube video of former Mayor Maynard H. Jackson Jr. establishing the Atlanta Commission on Arts and Entertainment in 1992, the mayor acknowledges the city’s rising film industry. “We have a great, great potential here,” he booms. “The background is that Georgia has a thriving $300 million film and television industry, and we’re well on our way to becoming the third largest entertainment center in the United States.” Fast forward 20 years, and Georgia has indeed become the third most sought-after place for film and television production in the world.

Patrice Coleman

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third

Production supervisor and Great Fortune Films founder Latisha Fortune (The Blind Side, The End Again) and Bobbcat Films EVP Angi Bones (The Negotiator, The Antoine Fisher Story, House of Payne) remember pre-incentive Atlanta as a place of greater opportunity where people could break into the industry on the ground floor. “When I came to Atlanta in 2005, Atlanta embraced me,” Fortune says. “New York was already established, and it was very difficult to get into the circulation, whereas in Atlanta, there was an opportunity basically for everyone.”

Bones came to Atlanta from Los Angeles in 2002 when she was an extras casting director and DGA assistant director. She noticed immediately that there were maybe five films in production but only four DGA ADs in town, so she sought to fill the empty space. It worked.

But Bones’ decision to move to Atlanta full-time was influenced largely by the heavy minority presence on sets here.

Latisha Fortune

She had never seen so many people of color working on one set at one time back in L.A. “Living in Los Angeles, I may have worked with maybe one black teamster and maybe one Hispanic teamster. But when I came here, there were black teamsters, there were black female teamsters, there were black-owned production companies, black directors, black producers,” Bones says. “It was just a hub of people of color that were doing things.”

For those born and raised in Atlanta, people of color doing big things isn’t out of the ordinary. They grew up knowing they were in the birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement. Martin Luther King Jr.’s childhood home was less than two miles from the capitol. Location scout Jen Farris, who was born and raised in Southwest Atlanta, recalls the inspiration that comes with having black leaders who were respected across color lines and across the globe. “It's unusual, from

Angi Bones

“

It was just a hub of people of color that were doing things.” what other people tell me. It's not unusual for me,” she says. “But to an African American little girl, that's almost like seeing a female presidential candidate, so you look up to that. As a child, that has a big influence on your dream list.”

Atlanta’s can-do spirit and history of black entrepreneurship are what drew Bobbcat Films CEO and president Roger Bobb to the city. Bobb initially came here at acclaimed casting director Reuben Cannon’s request, to help direct Tyler Perry’s Diary of a Mad Black Woman.

After years at Tyler Perry Studios, where he produced I Can Do Bad All By Myself, For Colored Girls, and over 200 episodes of House of Payne—the longest-running black sitcom in history—Bobb branched out on his own. Bobbcat Films conceives projects in-house and develops content others create. Like Tyler Perry, Bobb’s projects are deliberately for and about African Americans.

“You have a lot of African Americans who are [here] in other areas of business, who own their own businesses,” Bobb says. “Just that whole attitude of progressiveness is what convinced me to start my own company.”

When Color Matters, Or Doesn’t “The movie industry… I can’t say that it sees color,” says Angi Bones. Alfeo Dixon, a DP whose resume includes The Yard and The Walking Dead, among many others, agrees. Apart from a comfort factor, there’s not much difference between being on a predominantly white set and an ethnically diverse set in Atlanta—or anywhere else—when it comes time for work to be done. “What’s the difference between going to a black surgeon versus a white surgeon?” Dixon asks.

Does it matter who does the work if it’s done well? Blanding and Bournett say no, but also yes, because a “good job” is not a set standard. The pair argues that when it comes to something like lighting, color does matter. African Americans are less likely to be lit well because they historically haven’t had significant roles on screen.

“You would be in the shadow.

There would be no light reflecting off you significantly,” Bournett says, gesturing to me. “And that makes you focus on the other person in the screen, who was more than likely the main character, who was more than likely a white person.”

But with a black person doing the lighting, there’s a different, more level approach, they say. “I know for a fact, that when Amber frames you, she cares about your pigmentation. I know for a fact that she cares about your profile, your nose, your lips, how your hair moves. She understands the movement,” Blanding says of her partner. “We don't

Jen Farris

want you to be ashy. We don't want you to be greasy and oily either. We want you to have a glow.” Talk of greasy and oily characters reminds Blanding of Virgil Tibbs, Howard Rollins’ character in In the Heat of the Night, who admittedly looked oily throughout the series.

“It's small things like that that aren't necessarily that small when they're all composed together. But I think it's very relative to who is the head of that department,” Blanding says. “I think that's kind of like common sense. If you don't have representation in any field, you're not going to see yourself in the best light.” Adds Bournett, “It all comes to if they care about you or not. It all comes to if they care about your character.”

Hair and makeup are two things minority talent has had to work around for decades. On multiple occasions, actresses have shown relief upon getting Patrice Coleman as their makeup artist.

Coleman says people of color would bring their own foundation or style their own hair for fear that the person assigned to the job wouldn’t be prepared to make up dark skin or coif kinkier hair textures.

“I think it's just a question because we're not the majority of the population. A lot of times, other artists just don't really feel required to have the experience to do different types of hair or makeup,” she says. “Maybe it's just a lack of exposure or...we just weren't high on the priority list.”

That said, long-term Atlantans in the industry report a marked difference between this city and, say, Los Angeles, where there is far less access to projects that include other people of color. Veteran line producer and UPM James Tripp-

Roger Bobb

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Haith (Moesha, Zoe Ever After) recalls one instance in L.A. when a studio executive called him in for a meeting just because he didn’t know black line producers existed. “I went in there looking for a job.

He said, 'I ain't got no job. [My staff] just wanted to prove me wrong, because I'm a manager of a major network and two other cable networks, and I don't know any black line producers.' Obviously, because there's none working for this major network,” Tripp-Haith says. “I went on and told him about the projects that he had in his pipeline, because I did my research about who he was and his network and their programming.

He didn't hire me, but I bet you he remembers who I am.”

Ultimately, the ability to do the job and do it well trumps a person’s background or experience. But if a solid skill set is all that’s required, and if minorities are just as capable of building a skill set as their majority counterparts, why is diversity still an issue? Opportunity, Tripp-Haith says, as though I’d asked why the sky is blue or why grass is green. “It’s like a Good Ol’ Boy network,” he says of L.A. Alfeo Dixon says he was once fired from a job in Los Angeles simply because the showrunner didn’t know him. On a different project he worked, a new and unfamiliar hire didn’t perform well, costing the project time and money.

“I think people are more comfortable working with people that they know, and me, coming from L.A., I even have that mentality myself,” admits Bones. “Once you have a team, that's your set team.”

Indeed, wherever you go, there’s a tendency to hire from within; and

“

I need to see people who look like me on set.” sometimes who gets hired is simply a matter of who is already on top. It just so happens that in an industry that struggles with diversity from the top down, white men tend to know and hire other white men. Dixon believes change will only come when minorities with hiring power put their feet down and say, “I need to see people who look like me on set.”

Dixon points out that if there’s a diversified presence above the line, the crew isn’t likely to reflect that diversity.

“Unless they’re instructed to diversify their crew, it’s not gonna happen,” he says. “It might subconsciously happen on small parts, but it needs to happen on a greater scale.” Dixon cautions against the scapegoating that can result from “diversity hires,” but say those may not be the only answer.

Incentivizing Diversity One night in January of last year, Maynard H. Jackson III had the idea to make a documentary about his father’s legacy. “It was kind of a light bulb moment,” he recalls. “I almost shook [my wife] out of her sleep.”

“I’m glad you didn’t do that,” his wife and veteran producer, Wendy Eley Jackson, says with a laugh.

Maynard H. Jackson Jr., Atlanta’s first black mayor, served from 1974 to 1982 and again from 1990 to 1994.

Well-regarded among the city’s most

Amber L. N. Bournett and Ebony Blanding

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prominent Civil Rights leaders and most progressive politicians, Jackson fought for the arts and what’s now referred to as diversity inclusion in government contracts. So when the Jackson family started working on their documentary, MAYNARD, it only made sense to see how the film industry was doing with diversity. As it turns out, no one was really checking those numbers.

The Georgia Department of Economic Development releases annual film industry statistics, including the number of projects filmed here, the number of jobs the industry is responsible for, and how much money it has spent in the state. For fiscal year 2016, the industry’s economic impact charted at over $7 billion. But until this past legislative session, no one had looked into the racial and ethnic demographics of those who work on Atlanta’s film sets.

On the very last day of this year’s legislative session, the House of Representatives passed a resolution sponsored by Representative “Able” Mable Thomas to launch the Study Committee of Georgia Minority Participation in the Film and Television Production Industry, tasked with finding ways to increase participation in film and television among minorities. Observers say that despite the many success stories and Atlanta’s clear lead in diversity over other cities, there’s still a large disparity between the racial makeup of the city (over 54 percent African American, according to the last census) and the racial makeup of your average film set. “When I get out to these studios, I don’t see people who look like me,” Rep. Thomas told the Atlanta Business

James Tripp-Haith

Chronicle. “Even those working in the industry say they haven’t been able to advance.”

The younger Maynard notes that America’s sordid racial history has influenced every sphere of work, from educational opportunity to voting rights to film production. “You have to make allowance for the imbalance that was in place. America was built on the backs of slaves,” Maynard says. Wendy adds that it’s only been 51 years since the Voting Rights Act was signed, and that many black people can only count one or two generations of college graduates in their families.

The Jacksons propose adding a diversity clause to the tax incentive in order to encourage productions to actively seek minority talent on screen and behind the scenes. “It starts from the government, moves its way into corporate, then what we’re saying is, let’s take it from corporate, and let’s move into the entertainment field overall,” Wendy says. “We know that companies like Sony and Fox, they care about diversity because they have chief diversity officers, right? They already care about these things, but when you’re talking about production, that’s just not at the top of their minds. By doing diversity inclusion, that only enhances their mandate and their commitment to do what they’re already doing.”

And by diversity, Wendy is not referring exclusively to African Americans or women. She means Latinos, Asians, members of the LGBTQ community, and anyone else who is capable of working on a set but is less likely to receive a seat at the table by

industry standards. Because sometimes a seat at the table comes with a price tag.

“There’s something on a set that everyone can do, right? I think no matter where you go, balance and inclusion should be at the top of the list in consideration for work,” she says.

“The doors need to remain open, and sometimes the only way to make them open is to offer an incentive.”

Looking Forward The future of Atlanta’s film and television industry—for people of color, women, and others—is bright. But industry insiders cite two key necessities to keep it that way: 1) the tax incentive must stay; 2) locals must be trained in skills that can be used in production and post-production.

Without the incentive, these folks are certain that film and television production in Atlanta will regress. “I think it would be horrible if it went away,” says Roger Bobb. “I think literally we would go back to where we were 15 years ago, where we only had very minimal production happening. Because crew members, they go where the work is.”

Of course, no one is saying the industry would dissolve entirely if the incentive was abolished. But many believe the current studio-heavy environment would shift to one helmed by independent filmmakers pursuing less traditional means of production and distribution, with no studio deals required. “I think what we’d see without the incentive is more people doing it guerrilla-style and taking to the different platforms to be able to get their content out,” Wendy Jackson says.

Alfeo Dixon

James Tripp-Haith says his future work will involve giving back. “One of my passions right now is I want to open up a training facility where I can train people how to build a set, how to be the script supervisor, how to be the electrician or the grip,” he says. “And that'll be my greatest accomplishment: saying I was able to train people, I was able to reach back. Because someone did it for me as a young guy in Pittsburgh.”

In Georgia now, Patrice Coleman sees more people taking advantage of less traditional means of distribution, such as online and independent channels, as well as an increase in large studio projects. She also sees more projects by and about minorities in the city’s future.

“It’s obvious that we are making more of a mark and becoming more visible and people are seeing us more,” she says, “so I think there will be more work for us overall. People are starting to hopefully develop more relationships across cultures and hopefully the situation will get better. Hopefully there’ll be more positive and realistic images of black people in particular. But we’ll have to support that and go out and see those movies and shows that are positive.”

Back at the Candler Park cafe, the staff is preparing to shutter for the day, but Blanding and Bournett could go on all night. Though Blanding sees a bright future for the industry in Atlanta, she believes we’re still a city in progress.

“Atlanta is a robust city, but it's still very much a Southern city that sleeps,” she says. “So there's a lot of growth that we have to do.” But the duo does believe that growth can and will happen.

“It has to,” says Bournett.

Maynard H. Jackson III

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Atlanta Costumers Set the Tone for Georgia’s Most Iconic Productions

Words & photos by Isadora Pennington

“M

ore blood! More blood!’” Mauricia “Mo” Grant, a costume supervisor working on the set of the 2014 film No Good Deed, took a deep breath. She dipped a hand gingerly back into her supply of fake blood, trying to follow the assistant director’s orders while still remaining calm. Grant continued to apply more and more of the red goop to actor Idris Elba’s chest for the next shot, carefully and slowly as she had learned to do, so as not to go overboard, but her pace did not please the assistant director. “More blood!”

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he yelled again.

“It got to a point where in my headset I can hear the assistant director screaming at me to add more blood, so I just scooped a bunch of blood jelly and slapped it on Idris Elba’s chest for the shot. And Idris was like ‘Mo, what are you doing?’ and I just pointed to my earpiece and said ‘he said more blood!’” Grant laughs at the recollection. “It was just really funny because I had kind of slapped it down out of frustration but that’s exactly what they wanted, and they used it.”

Grant has worked on the sets of The Vampire Diaries, Coat of Many Colors and All Eyez on Me, and most recently wrapped work on the new series Brockmire starring Hank Azaria. “If you like clothes, fashion, being creative, if you’re self-motivated and you don’t need to be micromanaged, it’s a really good career,” she says. “There are a lot of opportunities to express your creativity, you just have to be organized and clever. You have to have really good problem-solving techniques, and you have to be fast.”

Of course, the job also requires a good deal of skill and knowledge. It’s important to be sure the characters’ outfits are appropriate for the time period of the script, and that they fit and correspond to the attributes of the characters themselves. Designers also have to consider lighting, set design, the psychological state of the characters, the flow and movement of different fabrics in action, and the timeline of events that could affect their clothing.

“We get a difficult rap when trying to demonstrate how important we are to the entire production,” explains Grant. “A lot of times people look at us as playing with clothes, or just shopping, but it’s so much more complicated than that.”

Film and television production is a game of teamwork, so costumers must work side by side with the director, stylists, camera operators, and writers to maintain a flawless level of continuity and application of their craft. Often scenes are shot out of order, so it’s up to the wardrobe department to ensure a level of consistency in the wear and tear of their clothing as dictated by the story.

“This business will chew you up and spit you out if you don’t watch out,” says Kristin Morlino, a costume supervisor who has worked in film and television for nearly 20 years. “It’s ruthless, but I love it.” She admits that not everyone can handle the long hours, unpredictable schedule, and obsessive mentality that it takes to truly make it in the industry, but if you love and understand clothing enough, says that you can build a solid career in wardrobe.

Life could have turned out much differently for Morlino, who grew up in a small town West Virginia. Her parents encouraged her to branch out and experience life somewhere else, and for Morlino, that was Miami. There, she attended the University of Miami and the experience had a lifelong impact.

The South Beach community was quite small at the time and full of quirky and colorful characters, such as her neighbor, one Gianni Versace. “I had never seen anything like South Beach in my life,” she recalls. “You would have drag queens rolling down Ocean Drive in the middle

Mauricia Grant

Mauricia Grant on set

“This business will chew you up and spit you out if you don’t watch out.”

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"Every day is a field trip, especially when you’re on location.

You never know what’s going to happen.”

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Empress Holley

of the day, fully made up, and I had never seen anything like that, but I loved it.”

After graduating with a degree in psychology, Morlino’s path led her to Los Angeles where she worked on the set of Days of our Lives and then later The Young and the Restless. “When you are doing a soap opera, it’s a great training ground because you do 100 pages a day, whereas most shows do four pages, and a movie will do four to eight pages a day,” she explains. The soaps provided steady, regular, and predictable work that allowed Morlino to mature as a costumer.

After a brief stint as a shop owner back in West Virginia, she relocated to Atlanta in pursuit of more work in the industry.

Now boasting a resume that includes Drop Dead Diva, Finding Carter, Resurrection, Powers, The Detour, and Devious Maids, Morlino has had her fair share of inspiring and star-struck moments. She says it was while working on the set of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno for a skit called Space Cowboys that the delightful absurdity of her career really crystallized for her. “I had Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland and James Garner, and they are all tall men,” she recalls. “So they are standing around me in a circle and I’m looking around them and I’m thinking

to myself, ‘Oh my God, this is the coolest moment of my entire life.’”

For all that the glamorous, exciting, and fun aspects of the job, it can also be rather unsteady, as productions—and therefore work—come and go with little to no real job security. An ability to go with the flow and think on your feet is helpful not only for bouncing between productions, but also for the very nature of the work itself.

“You never know what’s going to happen,” explains Empress Holley, a costumer who has most recently worked on Donald Glover’s new FX show Atlanta, as well as Crazy, Sexy, Cool: The TLC Story, Furious 7, 42, Vampire Diaries, and more.

“Every day is a field trip, especially when you’re on location.”

One such field trip took place on the set of Being Mary Jane when rainy weather prompted the director to change the set from a baseball game to a basketball game. “They were like, ‘Empress, you’re artsy...’ so I spent the whole morning in a trailer actually turning baseballs into basketballs on the jerseys, which was random. I didn’t know I could do it but, I did it.”

Holley got her degree in fashion merchandising from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, and also a

Devyne Johnson

"I remember at lunch standing on a table and yelling, ‘If you’re dressed in 1950, you’re in the wrong outfit! We are in this year!’”

Bachelor of Science from the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut. Her education included lots of hands-on textile manipulation, from testing the durability of fabrics to purposely destroying them with fire to achieve certain effects—skills that would come in handy when she found herself working in a very fast-paced environment, costuming for casts of more than 100 people daily on the set of Vampire Diaries.

“I like the rush of it,” she says, recalling some of the more outlandish situations she has found herself in. “I like when they go back in time, especially like in Vampire Diaries. I remember one day we had three different time periods in a day.

I remember at lunch standing on a table and yelling, ‘If you’re dressed in 1950, you’re in the wrong outfit! We are in

this year!’”

Over the years, Holley has admittedly learned some lessons the hard way, including when to clear the set for filming. “If you’re not paying attention, you can get caught in the scene,” she admits, a bit sheepishly. “It’s happened to me a lot.” Sometimes the director calls for action before she can retreat off-stage, so she has had to become a master of disguise: “I’ve laid down on the ground, I’ve crawled, I’ve hidden behind trees...”

In addition to the practical aspects of dressing and maintaining actors for the screen, there’s also an element of psychology that should not, but often does, go unmentioned. “With costumes you can tell so much about a character before one word of dialogue is spoken,” explains Devyne Johnson, a costumer and

filmmaker who has worked on projects such as Halt and Catch Fire, Pastor Brown, and most recently the Netflix sensation Stranger Things.

“You can tell their socio-economic background, you can tell where they’re going, where they’re coming from, you can tell when there’s something wrong, you can tell if they’re uptight or well put together. It’s just how you costume a person, how you literally put their clothes together that tells you a lot about them psychologically and where they come from,” she says. “There’s so much in the subconscious about costumes that I love so much.”

Johnson worked with acclaimed costume designer Kimberly Adams on Halt and Catch Fire, and again on Stranger Things. “Working with Kimberly was an experience of a lifetime,” says Johnson, detailing how Adams’ thoughtful and methodical approach to costuming and the psychology of the characters inspired her at every step. Johnson learned to love character development, and jumped at the chance to work with Adams again as assistant costume designer on Stranger Things. “It’s so fantastic and wonderful and mysterious, so when we started there was so much that we had to craft,” she explains.

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BJ Arnett

Johnson isn’t done expanding just yet, however, and has recently made the leap into another lifelong passion: directing her first film, Mosaic, which will premiere in select theaters in September.

She says it was her experience working in wardrobe that gave her the tools required to start making a name for herself as a filmmaker and storyteller.

Indeed, clothing and story go hand in hand. When one sets out to delineate the attributes of a character, one of the best and most effective ways to do so is by carefully crafting their outfits based on the story behind that particular character. Having a history of critical thinking about fashion can set the stage for a career in costuming, as it did for BJ Arnett, a costumer for independent film projects such as Stand Your Ground and Evidence of Things Seen and a professor at

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Clark Atlanta University.

“The creative understanding of how to take something from the idea in your head to making it a reality of that fashion isn’t new to me,” says Arnett. “I grew up seeing that.” As a young girl, she watched her very stylish grandmother create patterns for new outfits using only photos from a Vogue magazine for reference. “To this day, I’ve never seen anybody else do that,” she says.

Having grown up in Louisville, Kentucky, it was school that led Arnett to Atlanta. The city has changed a lot since Arnett was a 17-year-old newcomer, and for the better, she says. “It had great promise in the 80s when In the Heat of the Night was here, but what’s going on now is just crazy in comparison.”

These days it’s not only wardrobe and costuming that keeps Arnett busy; it’s

also working on her television program BJA Today, which features interviews and profiles of those working in the entertainment industry. Arnett cites her vast and varied experience on set and past work as an anchor for a variety of news outlets as the stepping stones that led her to this newest passion.

Local creative Molly Weiss has forged a parallel path, full of unexpected changes and surprises. She is now the owner and co-costume designer of Threads or Tales, in Norcross. A novel concept, Threads or Tales acts as a one-stop-shop for all production and costuming needs, with a business model that features rentals, costume design, and even a costume truck. Weiss and her team are able to work as costumers on set as well, filling crew positions when needed.

Weiss’ entry into the industry began

Molly Weiss

“You can be whoever you want to be in this business."

with the occasional photographer or music video director stopping by her consignment shop, Twisted Thread, seeking rentals for their shoots. Before long, Weiss found herself unable to keep up with the demands of bigger productions. She recalls one instance in particular when she had to turn down costuming for the feature film Mena, starring Tom Cruise, because she was too busy with her shop. From that initial frustration and first spark grew a flame, and Threads or Tales was born.

Weiss understands that clothing is

a powerful tool in film. “When people say ‘I didn’t see that coming,’ it’s usually because through mood, texture and insinuation you have implied that this character is a certain person, and you can only do that in certain ways,” she says.

“They do that with scoring, by bringing certain types of music into it when that person is in the scene. You do it with the language that they use, and the character that they’re exuding that says ‘this is who I am,’ but you also do a lot of that with what they are wearing.”

Recently, Weiss has been busy with projects such as Vengeance starring Nicholas Cage, short films The Barn and Queen of Kings, and AMC’s Halt and Catch Fire. It’s an auspicious time for Weiss and her costuming company to make strides in the industry, as more and more productions are coming to Atlanta.

“You can be whoever you want to be in this business, and I think that’s something that’s really special,” says Morlino. “If you’re good at what you do in Atlanta, you will not stop working.”

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On the Job with Georgia’s Locations Scouts

By Christopher Campbell

L

ocation scouts don’t just get in their car and drive around anymore. “I used to carry a bunch of maps with me,” says Tony Holley, a Georgia native who has been doing the job locally for years. “Big map books, various city maps. I don't do that anymore. The internet has been a huge windfall for all that.”

Holley is now also a location manager, his most recent credits being the Netflix series Stranger Things and Ang Lee’s upcoming film Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk. Since his start in the field things have gotten easier thanks to online tools like Google Earth. “But getting past the research part of it,” he adds, “you do get in a car and go knock on doors.”

For a freelancer like Holley, the first step in a Hollywood project is scouting on spec. He receives either a screenplay or a list of locations and tries to find what a production is looking for and sell them on shooting here. Sometimes, as in the

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Tony Holley on location

case of HBO’s The Leftovers, they pass and shoot in Texas instead. Other times, as in the case of Billy Lynn, Georgia can only accommodate part of the picture.

“It was never on Lee's mind to try and do Iraq here in Georgia,” Holley says of the decision to film war scenes in Morocco. “That was always another country. But the show Constantine, when they shot their first season here, they did a scene that was in Darfur and shot that in Georgia. You can make it work.”

Studios primarily look at the state

"‘How about this? No? Okay, back in the van.’

‘How about this? No? Okay, here we go.’"

Bellwood Quarry

Ryan Schaetzle

to save money through tax incentives, though there’s no denying Georgia’s appeal for its topographical diversity, which can look like a lot of other places.

“We have all four seasons that are fairly distinct, and we have a wide range of geography from plains to mountains to farmland to cities to small towns and most everything in between.” Holley says. “That helps.”

Holley has turned away business if he believes it just can’t be done, such as a request for a 1950s Los Angeles setting.

But another thing that has helped with location shooting in recent years is digital effects that can transform, say, Peachtree Street into Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue. “It's an easier workaround compared to what it was ten or 20 years ago,” Holley adds.

Ryan Schaetzle, a location manager and scout who has been based in Atlanta for about ten years, confesses the job takes more time than it seems. “If you figure there are 30 locations on a movie,” he explains, “I'm showing hundreds of places in person to the director, the

Georgia Archives Building, photo credit: Joann Vitelli

producer, the designer, the gaffer, the key grip—everybody needs to see every place we're going to film. It's a lot of driving around in the van and saying, ‘How about this? No? Okay, back in the van.’ ‘How about this? No? Okay, here we go.’”

For the upcoming Georgia-lensed comedy Bastards, Schaetzle estimates they looked at 50 potential houses in person, and ended up shooting three houses on the same street to look like one.

And then there are certain standbys, such as Atlanta’s Grady High School, which is doubling for Peter Parker’s Queens-set school in Spider-Man: Homecoming, for which Schaetzle worked as a scout. The location has been seen in many movies and TV series in the past, including MTV’s Teen Wolf.

But favorite spots aren’t necessarily the best spots. “There are places that are film friendly that we go back to,” Schaetzle admits. “But you can have the greatest go-to, and the director looks at it and says, ‘Nah. What else you got?’ And it goes right out the window. What the location manager wants and what the production designer wants and what the director wants are not always the same.”

Schaetzle also claims some directors don’t want the same locations seen in countless other movies. But Holley doesn’t believe recycling matters.

“I don't think that's in the collective consciousness of [the audience],” he argues. “There aren't too many schools that we can shoot at, because they're usually occupied by kids, and if they're empty, a lot of them are in really bad shape.”

Productions have a limited number of options for schools and hospitals and specific types of architecture or landscapes. “We all sort of play in the same well with certain locations,” Holley

adds. “There's a reason why we all go to the Georgia Archives Building [seen in Ant-Man and Anchorman 2], for example.”

Here in Atlanta, however, the city’s rapid development is causing some film friendly sites to disappear. The Georgia Archives is set for demolition in December, and Bellwood Quarry, which has been used in everything from The Walking Dead to The Hunger Games movies, will soon be transformed into a public park. “We were the last show to ever shoot there,” reveals Holley, on his use of the location for Stranger Things.

He says it’s a bummer to lose Bellwood.

“It’s unfortunate, but you move on.”

As a long-time Georgia resident, Holley takes some of these issues personally. “That’s just me, because I love the diversity of the city’s architecture,” he explains, regarding his disappointment with the fate of the Georgia Archives.

“That’s what hurts me; not so much that it’s a cool location we’re losing. We might lose the Central Library before long.

That’s a travesty, too.”

Holley recognizes that nobody really likes these buildings' “bombastic brutalism” aesthetic. “People don’t know who the hell Marcel Breuer is,” he says of the Central Library’s famed modernist architect. “Atlanta’s always had a problem with that. We don’t keep our history alive.

We tear it down and build something new.”

For the industry, though, new is often great, as a lot of what scouts are after on a regular basis, going door to door, are fresh, never-seen locations.

If nobody is home when they knock, they leave business cards and flyers, and if that doesn’t work they’ll look up ownership information through property records and then cold call.

One homeowner who wishes to September / October 2016

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remain anonymous (let’s call him “Hank”) admits the first time his place was scouted he thought the note on his door seemed “sketchy.” But he called the number anyway and soon enough saw his house filled with crew for a big action movie, set in Miami but filming in downtown Atlanta. That was just at the pre-production planning stage.

Unfortunately, the interior scenes that were to be shot in Hank’s home were cut shortly before filming was to happen.

“Unfortunately” because Hollywood pays good money for the use of properties such as his, even if just for one day.

Hank’s residence was recently looked at for a star-studded comedy.

Again unfortunately, the location did not end up being used, this time because the production decided his kitchen was all wrong. Twice now Hank has given his time and has been inconvenienced without compensation. He’s also been informed of all the disruptive alterations that could be made to the decor of his place. And yet he’s still interested in offering his home as a location.

There’s the excitement of having your living room appear on the big screen, of course. But mostly, says Hank, it’s because of the money. “It would be great to have this little bonus income for what seemingly would only be a limited amount of time,” he explains.

What Hank could do if he doesn’t want to leave it up to chance is register his home with a location services company like Film Friendly GA, which handles a database of properties available for any kind of production. Wanda Morganstern, a former commercial real estate broker, started FFG three years ago while doing some acting work on the side and realizing there was a need. “Whenever I got on set I looked at it as a piece of real estate,” she explains.

There’s also Lisa Collomb, whose South Florida-based All-Star Locations handles many listings in Georgia. But Hollywood doesn’t typically use services like hers over a location manager such as Holley or Schaetzle “unless they’re in a pinch,” she says. “That happens a lot with television shoots.”

“They call me in the 11th hour looking for something they haven’t been able to get,” adds Morganstern, who recently set up locations for The

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“They call me in the 11th hour looking for something they haven’t been able to get.”

Wanda Morganstern on the set of the new Georgia-lensed television series Dead Silent

Walking Dead and The Detour. “There was a situation where a scout could not find a specific requirement,” she says of the latter series. “He needed a garage with lots of cars. I made a phone call and was able to get them into a private garage that has 30 of probably the most spectacular cars in Atlanta under one roof.”

Morganstern says she’s been in Atlanta commercial real estate for so long that she’s developed a very broad network, and location scouts and managers have come to realize that.

Now, it’s not just in desperate times that they come to her. “Sometimes they'll do it on the front end if it's kind of a quirky location,” she says.

There are advantages of going through someone like Morganstern or Collomb, especially in a time crunch.

They’ve done the work finding the locations, photographing the interiors in detail and scoping out the area for other expected needs. Both companies accept submissions from property owners like Hank on their website and then represent them for productions seeking quick and easy options.

“They want their properties shot in,” Morganstern says of her readymade clients. “They've already agreed to it.”

Other places in Collomb’s library have been scouted by her personally with demand and variety in mind. “My eye is trained,” she affirms. “I see the potential for all aspects. A house could be good for a music video because it's high end and over the top. For telenovelas, they almost always use pool areas and decks, and they sometimes use equestrian properties with horses and pasture lands.”

Lisa Collomb (far left) with husband Pete Gandolfo and Serena Williams during a celebrity shoot in Florida

Then there are the essentials that Collomb and other scouts and managers look for with any location. The big one is a need for a lot of accessible parking nearby. A limited amount of noise on the street is another, especially for exterior shoots. They also look for cooperative neighbors.

Homeowners in turn may have their own preferences that might not be compatible. Some turn away a movie if they don’t like the content, for instance.

Hank actually ignored one flyer on his door for a project that looked “too religious.” Others demand more money.

“They've heard what their neighbor got,” Collomb notes, maintaining that different sorts of projects have different budget levels.

“It's gotten significantly more expensive over the last five years to shoot here,” Holley admits. Indeed, location asking prices are rising based on increases in both production and demand.

Schaetzle claims that while prices have definitely gone up, scouting in Georgia has also gotten “a little easier and friendlier.” For now, locals are pretty tolerant. “It's still for the most part like, ‘Oh cool, movies,’” he says. “But I'm sure there are people who are like, ‘Oh god, not another movie.’ There are some exceptions where people give you a go away price.”

Once the production figures out where a scene is going to be filmed, someone has to talk to the city, the police, the ambulance, the fire department, the permit office, local businesses, parking lots, etc. And that can take many weeks.

“We're not in charge of all that. We're responsible for it. There's a big difference,” notes Schaetzle, who also stresses that safety is a huge component. “You might need to get a structural engineer in somewhere to make sure a roof's not going to fall or that those rusty stairs are going to hold, and if not, then you bring in someone to weld or put in safety stairs.

That's up to us to notice, flag and tell the studio.”

It’s also the location manager’s job to figure out where the production base camp, crew vehicles and catering will be set up, where the equipment trucks will be parked and where people can go to the bathroom, as well as keeping everyone comfortable depending on weather.

“Once you’ve got places to park and eat and poop,” says Holley, “you’re generally ready for the day.”

During filming, the location manager is in charge of creating a perimeter and protecting it. Schaetzle calls it “the bubble.” He provides a work space, and the more flexibility he can offer, the happier the crew will be. “Let's say we're filming in downtown Atlanta,” Schaetzle explains. “Downtown Atlanta is going on around us.” There’s an obligation not to disturb the daily grind of the city.

The same goes for residential neighborhoods, where Holley points out that donations are made to the homeowner association if there is one.

“Everybody gets a little something, because it’s often disruptive, what we do,” he says. In turn, his department is tasked with keeping dogs and yard equipment quiet. “That’s my department, keeping

the peace.”

Schaetzle says that some of the trickiest shoots are those where the city is playing itself. “When you embrace Atlanta, it certainly makes things easier in some respects and harder in some respects,” he says, noting the desire to involve landmarks that are unique to the city's identity. “It can be logistically a lot of work.” Schaetzle recalls how the film What to Expect When You’re Expecting wanted to depict Piedmont Park’s movie nights. “It's awesome that it's set in Atlanta, but to shoot in Piedmont Park for several nights in a row and have trucks in the parking lot can be a challenge.”

It’s not just what’s outside the workspace that matters, either. “When we're in that bubble,” Schaetzle continues, “there's real life and real businesses going on. I have to make sure we're not trampling anybody's rights or livelihood.

If there's a sandwich shop and we're killing their business, I'll go in and ask what's fair, if we should buy out their food for the day.”

Location managers sometimes have to monitor the production to make sure they’re being careful, too. “There's always an assurance that we'll do our best to prevent it and an insurance to hold us to it,” Schaetzle says of potential damages. “Any location manager that burns a location won't be shooting there again and won't be working long. I go to a great length to ‘baby-proof’ a house,” for example.

“The contract said our house would actually be in better condition than they found it,” confirms Hank. And there really is a duty to take care of the site.

“We're there representing the property owner,” Morganstern says of FFG’s role. “The scout and location manager represent production.”

Morganstern appoints a site representative to every property during the shoot, and makes a point of employing people who know how sets work and are not just housesitting.

She plucks many of them from Atlanta producer Linda Burns’ PA Academy, a workshop she herself attended three years ago, wanting to learn more about the production side of the business to compliment her real estate knowledge.

In the early days of FFG, Morganstern was gaining PA experience on a television

commercial shooting at a location she didn’t represent. During the day, a toilet overflowed, and the producer just said to put an out of order sign on the door. “That was not acceptable to me,” Morganstern says. “I plunged the toilet. I got towels to clean the water off the floor. That made an impression on me. I knew then my job was to protect the property. I treat them like they're my own.”

Adds Collomb, “We've got to keep the homeowner happy, and also at an arm's length away so they don't impede or interfere with the actual operation of the shoot. I’m not going to tell them they have to leave, but they can't be in the way of production.”

Collomb has seen it all when it comes to residents. “Sometimes you have a husband who likes the shoot because he likes the money and his wife doesn't like the inconvenience,” she says. “Sometimes they both love it and are very overzealous and want to be a part of it. That happens on music videos. They invite friends over and try to make a party out of it. No, it's a place of business.”

After filming is done on a location, the job of the manager or service is far from over. “We also deal with damage control in the end,” says Collomb. “I have to go back and take photos and submit them to production, get quotes for repairs, and they pay the bill or it goes through insurance.” At that stage, she considers herself “a bouncing ball” between the two clients.

Location managers troubleshoot beforehand to prevent an accident from happening, too. Collomb makes videos of the location to protect both the homeowner and the production, because sometimes owners will try to put a claim on something preexisting, and sometimes the crew busts something and doesn’t realize it.

“Our reputation runs on both sides of the aisle,” Holley says. “I care far more about my clients than I do my employers at the end of the day. I want the people who hired me to hire me again, but I need the locations to welcome me and everyone else who does what I do. That’s what’s important.”

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OZ SCENE "Billion Dollar Baby: Georgia Film Industry" panel

Macon Film Festival after party at The SoChi Gallery

July 21-24

Macon Film Festival

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n the weekend of July 21-24, the Macon Film Festival screened 61 competition films, five spotlight films, four special screenings, three after-parties, and more over four days at five venues located within three walkable blocks in historic downtown Macon.

Known as the “Friendliest Film Festival” by filmmakers far and wide, the event opened with a max capacity crowd for the Short Film Master Class presented by the Sundance Institute, featuring Sundance Short Film Programmer Mike Plante and acclaimed film

Filmmakers at the after party

director James Ponsoldt. Later that night, the sold-out opening night special screening of the 80s Brat Pack classic Pretty in Pink featured a Q&A with special guest Andrew McCarthy, the film’s leading man, and festival emcee Terrell Sandefur. McCarthy is currently directing the Netflix series Orange Is The New Black and ABC’s The Black List.

Three other filmmaking workshops were offered throughout the weekend to educate festival attendees on the current state of filmmaking in Georgia, including the Macon

Sundance Institute's filmmaker mixer

Film Commission’s panel “Billion Dollar Baby: Georgia Film Industry” featuring an esteemed line-up of Georgia film power players: Alison Fibben (GA Film Office), Clark Cofer (Georgia Production Partnership), Elliott Dunwody (Bright Blue Sky Productions & Macon Film Commissioner), Jeffrey Stepakoff (Georgia Film Academy), Jeremiah Bennett (Glass Door Studios & Milledgeville Film Festival), LaRonda Sutton (Film City, LLC), and Shelbia Jackson (Dekalb County).

Press conference with Andrew McCarthy

"Billion Dollar Baby: Georgia Film Industry" panel at Tubman Museum, Macon

Q&A with emcee, Terrell Sandefur Sundance Institute Short Film Master Class featuring Sundance Film Festival's Short Film Programmer, Mike Plante and director James Ponsoldt

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Festival party planner Priscilla Esser and her husband, Ned at Travis Jean Gallery's '80s themed after party

OZ SCENE

Mala Sharma, Sen. Jeff Mullis, Stanley Romanstein (Executive Director, GMP), Rep. Lee Hawkins, Steve Weizenecker (Entertainment Lawyer at Barnes & Thornburg LLP)

July 21

Georgia Music Partners Summer Celebration

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n July 21st, members of The Recording Academy - Atlanta Chapter gathered together at The Buckhead Theatre for their Summer Celebration. Everyone enjoyed live performances by Chantae Cann, Chelsea Shag, All Cows Eat Grass, and WERC Crew.

Georgia Music Partners, the advocacy arm of the chapter, as well as Senator Jeff Mullis and Representative Lee Hawkins were on

hand to discuss the Georgia music industry with the Academy members. GMP is working hard to “Turn Up the Volume on Georgia Music” by creating more jobs, bringing more music in our schools, and adding more stateof-the-art facilities and strong music-related industries to the state.

Gina Gentilozzi, Ally Stevens, Ian Schumacher (GMP's exclusive RLand Georgia Music logo) Karen Dahlen, Tim Dahlen (General Manager, W Hotel)

Tammy Hurt and Tai Anderson (Recording Academy - Atlanta President)

Kathy White, Mark Cook, Peter Stroud (Creative Advisor, GMP)

Frank Clark (Chair of Music, GA Tech) and Jay Fly

Joey Sommerville, Bradford Rogers

Yoel B’Nai Yehuda, Kevin Spencer, Diane Durrett, Tom "TK" Kidd

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OZ SCENE Larry Justice (right) with his nephew

Katia Newton and Muamera Dzebo at the SFX Makeup Showcase

Jennifer Denise and Chris Turner at the SFX Makeup Showcase

July 22-24

Indie Film Loop Conference Showcase

T

he Indie Film Loop, a platform for film and digital media professionals to learn, showcase, discover and be discovered, held its second annual conference, presented

by Creative Synergy Design, LLC, at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta. The two-day weekend kicked off with a fun and familyfriendly Moonlight Cinema event, hosted by Blue SkEye Aerial Media, and including food trucks, drone demos, an Extreme Stunt Driving Team, performances and film presentations by film community partners, organizations and talented filmmakers.

As Saturday rolled in, organizers set out to provide attendees with a wealth of knowledge, experience and networking opportunities, which included keynote speakers from Netflix, the Georgia Music Industry Association, Backstage Atlanta and more. Filled with over 18 panels, workshops, showcase events, castings and IFL's inaugural awards show, expectations were far exceeded by everyone in attendance.

Conference founder and CEO Deontae Trundle decided also introduced Georgia to its first industry-focused trade show, which

included industry-leading exhibitors like RED Digital Cinema, LaCie, Matthew Studio Equipment, Innocinema, Norcostco, Justice Gaming and others. “The idea has always been to provide both aspiring and seasoned professionals with the resources needed to make bigger and better productions and help alleviate some of the limitations for more creative storytelling,” said Trundle, “and this was the perfect way to do just that.”

Guest speaker Grady Bishop Featured panel: Cameron Miller, Lawrence Jones III (Netflix), Jose Marquez (Georgia Latino Film Fest), Jimmy Lafavour (Georgia Music Industry Association)

Workshop featuring Ryan Monolopolus & OCC Team Panel discussion featuring Michelle Simpson, Mason Reid and JR McNair

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IFL Showcase Winners Ryan Monolopolus, Deontae Trundle, Lydia Eku, Jennifer Denise, Brigitte Victoria

Todd Grondzki (middle) and the Blue SkEye Aerial Media Team

OZ SCENE Jimi Cravity serenading the audience with an acoustic version of the late Prince’s Purple Rain

July 30

re:imagine/ATL Purple Sparkle Carpet Bash

A

tlanta-based nonprofit re:imagine/ATL hosted their third annual Purple Sparkle Carpet Bash at the Woodruff Arts Center in Midtown to celebrate the conclusion of The Green Room music video camp. The event premiered eight music videos produced by crews of 5th-12th graders from around the city.

Campers had just five days to learn and incorporate different film techniques for their “clients”: local bands Kick the Robot, Jennifer Chung, Jimi Cravity, Hero the Band, Jayla Darden, Dot.s, Secondhand Swagger, and Aww Phooey with Kim and Kooi, who gave campers industry experience by discussing concept ideas and performing in their video under the campers’ direction. Songs inspired the campers’ creativity for “underwater” scenes, projection mapping, green screen masks, animation, original costumes, shadow puppetry and even virtual reality technology

MC of the evening Farouk Jeffries (left)

Teenage actress, filmmaker and writer Sierra Isley

thanks to local experts from ATLvr (Futurus).

“We’re overwhelmed by the support from Georgia’s film, music, and arts community,” said Susanna Spiccia, Founder & Executive Director of re:imagine/ATL. “Mentorship for our kids from industry professionals really prepares them for a career on-set and helps them see their ideas come to life.”

Local businesses large and small came together to provide financial and in-kind support for the campers, while industry folks donated their time to teach specific skills.

Spitfire Studios hosted the first week of camp, giving campers access to top notch facilities and film equipment. During week two, campers took over Castleberry Hill with base camp at MASS Collective, an Atlanta artcentric makerspace and educational facility, and editing spaces at Snake Nation and Atlanta Movie Tours.

re:imagine/ATL exists to bring kids from different backgrounds together through creative technologies in media production. Their Green Room summer camp unites kids from Buckhead and Bankhead neighborhoods, private, public, and homeschooling, kids from the LGBTQ community, Syrian refugees, and more, all working together to produce professional quality videos. Authentic friendships were formed across cultural and racial borders.

The final screening event and wrap party featured performances from special musical guests including WERC Crew, Jimi Cravity, We the People, Myra Sky, and Oryx and Crake.

Campers and volunteers sported 80s attire, danced the night away, and celebrated seeing their hard work on the big screen.

The re:imagine/ATL team. From left, Admin Manager Terp Vairin, Creative Director Adam Davis, Founder and Executive Director Susanna Spiccia, and Program Manager Julie Foster-Straw

Sierra Isley (red bandana) and friends rocking the 80s attire

Friends and family of re:imagine/ATL campers watch dancing and enjoy hanging

Twins Kayla and Brandon Bell

Barbara Griffin

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OZ SCENE

Join us on March 2017 in Atlanta!

The Black Women Film Summit is Back!! This three-day event will celebrate black women in the fields of arts and entertainment. It’s a great way to connect with key players and aspiring entertainment professionals.

For more details visit: www.blackwomenfilmsummit.org

DON’T MISS OUT! GET YOUR TICKET(S) AT WWW.BLACKWOMENFILMSUMMIT.ORG 66

Oz Magazine - film. tv. entertainment.

OZ SCENE Filmmakers take the stage for a Q&A session after the awards presentations

August 6-7

Marietta International Film Festival/24 Hour Film Race

T

he Second Annual Marietta International Film Festival, created and founded by Richard Tavernaro, took place at the Earl Strand Theater, screening 78 films (eight features and 70 shorts) from across the U.S. and 14 countries, with 19 awards distributed for best domestic and international films, shorts, acting, and technical features.

This year's event also included the Sunday screenings for the 24 Hour Film Race, relocated from New York to Atlanta this

Various cast, crew and volunteers pause for a red carpet photo (photo by Doug Mills)

Best Regional Young Actor Sophia Watson sneaks a peek at Oz Magazine, part of her wrap bag goodies

summer under the leadership of Tavernaro and other industry heavy hitters. Teams around the world were challenged to create short films based on a surprise theme, action, and prop assignment. The top 24 winning films and all of the films submitted by regional teams were shown on the last day of the film festival.

Overall Best Film winner for the 24 Hour Film Race was I Came from the Sky by Polesemia Films. Local Georgians who won 24

Kelly and Kenny Keith, owners of Bon Glaze, with their donut/bacon tower at the after party

Actress Zoe Myers presents Sophia Watson with the Best Regional Young Actor award (photo by Doug Mills)

Hour awards include Sophia Watson for Best Young Actor in a Local Film (Reawakening) and Tarique Frances for Best Actor in a Local Film (The Disconnect).

Event organizer Richard Tavernaro on the carpet with Cathryn Miller at the end of the long weekend

Richard Tavernero presents Best Domestic Short Film to Walk a film from California written by Pulitzer Prize Nominee Theresa Rebeck

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- film. tv. entertainment.

September / October 2016

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OZ SCENE Enjoying watermelon provided

by Anamarie Ree of Fort Negrita

July 15

Unapologetic Melaninated Cinema

H

ouse of June, an Atlanta-based indie art film house, shared their work at a special rooftop screening at Eyedrum Art & Music Gallery in July. Aptly titled “Unapologetic Melaninated Cinema,” the event was attended by over 220 viewers and featured House of June’s catalogue of three short films: Q&A, The Grey Area, and Bzzz.

Founded by directors Ebony Blanding and Amber L.N. Bournett in 2013, House of June’s projects are informed by a very simple directive: “to create content addressing the void of women (and people) of color in film living fully and colorfully within our modern context.”

Hot as July and awaiting screening on Eyedrum’s rooftop

Black Joy poem by Tricia HerseyPatrick of Love Gangster Ministries

Unapologetic Melaninated Cinema set installation by Alahana Watson

Billaé Blanding and June Moon collecting admission

Crowd awaiting sun to set for screening to start

September / October 2016

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September / October 2016

73

NEXT GENERATION

OFF THE WALL WITH

Greg Mike

By Hilary Cadigan

When did you first call yourself an artist?

This issue’s cover artist, Greg Mike, drew his earliest inspiration from the public art he saw on childhood trips to New York City. Today, Mike’s larger-than-life creations can be found all over Atlanta. As founding president and creative director of ABV, an experiential marketing agency, design studio and contemporary art gallery on Auburn Avenue, and producer of art installations and festivals around the world, Mike is a busy guy. Here, he takes a break to chat with Oz about art, life and the ATL.

I’ve called myself an artist since the age of 15 when I fell in love with graffiti and started actively painting on the streets. I was introduced to graffiti through skateboarding and hooked from the minute I caught my first tag. Everything has evolved from that moment.

It led me to studying graphic design and studio art later in school and put me in the shoes I’m in today, painting murals around the globe and working with brands that I respect.

What brought you to Atlanta and what made you stay?

While studying at Florida State University, I would travel to Atlanta on weekends as it was the closest/largest city. It had more culture and I needed it, so I’d venture out, get inspired, come back and create. I ended up falling in love with the city as it was such a melting pot of creativity and super unique. After I learned enough at school, I packed my bags and headed to Atlanta to live and work for myself full time, pursuing my creative goals. I’ve been here over 10 years. My art studio, gallery and home are all located within five minutes of each other on the Eastside. I love how easy it is for me to travel in and out of the city. I can be at the airport in 20 minutes and fly anywhere in the world.

How did ABV Agency/Gallery come about?

ABV Gallery

Whitefoord Bridge mural

I’ve always been an artist; it’s been in my blood since day one. As I grew older I continued to paint but also fell in love with various types of design and began focusing on a number of creative projects. Whether that’s conceptualizing a massive installation and bringing it to life, creating visuals for a musician’s tour or painting a mural in a boom lift, it’s always been an exciting channel of creativity to me. I created ABV (A Better View) seven years ago to fill a void I felt in the ATL after one of my trips to San Francisco. From design to fabrication, we create unique and engaging work that stands out amongst the competition. ABV’s gallery space features artwork from top contemporary artists and designers from around the world and is utilized for exhibitions as well as pop-up concepts and events.

ABV Art Pyramid

What have been some of your most interesting projects of late?

We’ve had a crazy summer producing installations at music festivals up and down the east coast from Baltimore to Miami for the agency. Last year we built a mobile 20-foot live art truck which featured a moving spray can shop and live art canvases on the side for Art Basel in Miami. The list goes on; we are always trying to outdo our last project.

I recently completed my largest mural to date in Atlanta: 220 by 30 feet for our mural festival we produce, OuterSpace Project. We have completed 32 murals in Atlanta the last two years for that project alone.

How do public art initiatives like OuterSpace Project and Living Walls foster community here in Atlanta?

It’s inspiring. It gets people out of their houses to areas they might not visit. It makes new artists move to the city. It changes the landscapes in a positive manner, in turn fostering the overall creative process as a whole. If Atlanta didn’t have its murals or support art the way it does, I would have moved years ago. It’s a really exciting time for the city and businesses growing here. I love seeing all the tech start-ups and the film industry supporting the arts, whether that’s murals in new offices or actors becoming collectors and buying work for their homes.

What are the challenges of bringing together so many divergent artists and mediums?

The only struggle I see is we need more walls donated; we are running out of big walls and we are rotating out art. Let’s hope some of the new development incorporates contemporary art in their 10 to 20 year plans.

In your eyes, what role does public art play in a society?

We inspire. We make a boring drive to work exciting. We give people things to look forward to. We get people out of their homes. We create conversation. We make people think and beautify boring, blank city walls. www.gregmike.com

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