Patterns & Paradigms | The Pattern Podcast
Patterns & Paradigms | The Pattern Podcast
Season 2 Episode 15: Filming in the Hudson Valley with Summer Crockett Moore & Tony Glazer
The film industry is booming here in the Hudson Valley. With close proximity to New York City - the second largest hub for the entertainment industry, as well as the availability of incredible crew, beautiful locations, supportive film commissioners, and the expanded film tax credits in New York State, the Hudson Valley is an amazing place for film production. The industry is bringing incredible opportunities, new jobs, and economic growth. And it's expanding. This week's episode features Summer Crockett Moore and Tony Glazer, Managing Partners at Choice Films and Umbra of Newburgh.
We are experiencing a paradigm shift, a fundamental change in the way we usually do things. We are intentionally choosing to see the silver lining opportunity arises. We can shine a light on the things that weren't working well on those things that weren't really working at all, we can regroup reevaluate and re-engineer it's time to explore new patterns and paradigms those that inspire us to rise above the chaos and explore how the conditions of today and take us to a better tomorrow patterns and paradigms the pattern podcast from Hudson Valley pattern for progress. You're listening to season two, episode 15, filming in the Hudson Valley with your host pattern, president and CEO, Jonathan Dropkin.
Speaker 2:Hi everyone, and welcome to patterns and paradigms. We hope that you had time to listen to our episode with Denise frangipani and Sullivan Renaissance, to see how inspiring a program dedicated to beautification and community renewal can be. Denise would be happy to talk to you about how to get a program like that going in your area. Just let us know and we'll connect you. Please remember to subscribe to our podcasts wherever you find your favorite. And take a moment to share an episode with a friend this week's bubble or trend the trend is clear due to the recent completion of the New York state budget and the completed and proposed federal stimulus bills. There is more than enough money to make our school districts in the Hudson Valley. Hope. This is indeed good news, but the bubble that I'm wishing to reference here is what are we going to do with some of that money? More of the same. There is so much to talk about in just trying to get kids back to school and a great deal of it is centered in going back to the way it was well, patterns and paradigms doesn't want to go back to the way it was. We want to imagine. And now we're financially in a position to do some of that imagination. What did the school districts of the twenties look like? So, yes, we were tired of learning virtually and it didn't work for everybody. So yes, we want to get back inside the classroom socialization good for mental health, good for learning from those kids, but we don't want to get rid of virtual learning entirely. We think it could actually be used to supplement how kids learn. There are those kids that can't get enough school, and this will be an opportunity for them to actually have classes that they can subscribe to, to supplement the programs and classes that they have in their school or at the other end. What about kids that are falling behind? Does it have to wait until next year or this coming summer? Possibly there's ways to help them immediately with topics and subjects that they weren't grasping in the classroom. Can we finally come to grips with the fact that high school for 50% of people in our region is the end of formal learning? Can we design a pathway to a job for the 50% that are looking for employment after high school? And this is the end of where they're going to be in terms of formal education, but they're not going to a community college. They're not going to a four year college, nothing wrong with that. We fully command and continue to urge people that wish to go on for higher levels of formal education to do so. But we've got to think about, are we going to get people to a decent paying job using the same programs we were using prior to the pandemic? If we are moving ahead, by understanding where the reality lies in terms of formal education. And we know this from looking at census data, so stay tuned, let's look for the imagination as we return to full-time K through 12 learning. And by the way, some of that imagination, we couldn't be happier that there's going to be universal. pre-K this is super, but that's for another episode. So I'm here with my partner, Joe Cheika and I want to continue this notion of, so if we have extra money and I know there'll be those immediately say, it's not extra, it's just filling the gap. There's extra money. What do we do? How can we be more imaginative? How do we build back better and better is the word that I want to focus on with Joe. So, Joe, I'm going to take a guess housing, any ideas for, if you had the money, what would you do
Speaker 3:Ideas after, after doing this for three decades, a few things come to mind, uh, you know, right, right now there's, there's a lot of people hurting because of the economy and what the pandemic has done. So immediately, if I had a, a, um, a case full of cash, I would make landlords whole, I would help tenants who have been in arrears. I think that's, that's both a positive movement for property owners and renters. Um, I think that creating a larger pool of what's called a choice housing voucher is important. It's a rent subsidy that allows people to live, where they want to live and gives them the economic mobility within the County to take that voucher, um, and get good quality housing. I think increasing the down payment and closing cost assistance for first-time home buyers is very important. As we know, home ownership is, uh, is a great way to build wealth. Um, and, and, you know, ultimately it will mitigate generational poverty, housing rehabilitation for those who are in their homes and have had issues, maintaining their homes, they need a new boiler, they need a new roof, you need electrical upgrades. There's a lot of people who own homes who are aging in place. They need assistance with things like ramps, things like handicapped accessibility, uh, in terms of bathrooms and kitchens, uh, things like that. Um, there's a lot of other costs that are related, um, to, to, um, to developers on the long range, uh, um, economic, uh, output, if you will, of their, of their developments in terms of expenses. One very easy way that a developer can serve lower income renters is to reduce their costs of operation. One of their biggest costs of operation, local taxes. So could you imagine if you, if, if there was a pool of dollars developers could dip into that would actually assist in paying those local taxes that way that the community stays whole, the developer, um, can build more housing and the rents can typically be lower water and sewer infrastructure in rural areas is very important because people don't all live in urban centers. And when you go to develop housing in a rural area, one of the biggest stumbling blocks is water and sewer. And my last idea would be to actually expand the habitat model. The habitat model builds skills. It builds neighborhoods and it absolutely builds wealth. Um, operating those programs, they all run on very, very thin margins. It's extraordinarily difficult to raise funds for it. So I would expand that model.
Speaker 2:Okay, Joe, when you say expand that model, and in terms of housing, you've often said to me that with regard to affordable and workforce housing, you use the phrase lasagna financing that's right. Is there, is there something that we could do with money that would make it easier to call together the financing necessary for this rather than I think what you've always meant is it takes so many different sources of funding to put, to make a project viable.
Speaker 3:It, it does, there's, you know, lasagna financing. So in any good lasagna there six or seven different layers. And, and, and the same thing goes when you're putting into a housing development together, it's not just equity and debt. It's all of the tax credit dollars. It's all of the home program dollars, the community development block, grant dollars, the federal home loan bank dollars. There's all of these, again, layers of lasagna. If there was a one-stop shop, it would reduce the accounting costs. It would reduce the legal costs. It would reduce the development timeline. And remember for developers, time is money. And the longer that process goes, the more expensive the housing becomes. Somebody has to make up for those costs. And if there's not a grant or another deep subsidy that covers those costs, then those costs are made up in the rents or the cost of the house in terms of home ownership.
Speaker 2:And then it's time to make you the housing czar for the Hudson Valley.
Speaker 3:Well, wouldn't that be a great day?
Speaker 2:All right. Thanks, Joe. You know, I think that your expertise in housing is really good in trying to start for us to look at this notion of building back better. We've always known there's a housing problem. We've always known there's been a shortage. We seem to have money. We've seen enthusiasm. We have a great opportunity to think about more housing, but the question is, what does it look like? So you use housing. I want to use infrastructure.
Speaker 3:I would say, what about infrastructure? JD? That's, that's a big topic.
Speaker 2:It, it is. And so one of the big projects that is up for consideration in our region right now is building a third lane on route 17. Now there are definitely sections of route 17 that need a third lane. And so do I think it should go under construction and we fix the portions that need this third lane. I do. However, can we be imagined it? So what am, I mean, here are a couple of ideas. So one in an age in which we're trying to think green. So can we put charging stations every second or third exit build it so that the exits have a place for cars to, um, immediately, uh, charge their batteries. Can we create in the third lane a way to go from, let's say exit one 30, right to Sullivan County express lane, straight through. Can we use things like the time that you're on the highway, you pay a higher fare. Look, we just did all the construction at Woodbury to make it toll us, but you're still paying a fee to come on. And there's the ability to toll you at that point. Well, if you entered between certain hours, when the traffic is high, we have a chance at that point to, um, be able to charge more. Maybe that helps to reduce some of the traffic, but now let's get even more imaginative. So Woodbury commons is one of the most, it's either the first or second largest tourism attraction in, in New York state. It, it varies between that and, um, Niagara falls. And it always depends on the expansions that are occurring at Woodbury commons. And this is all in orange County for our listeners. Can we find a spot near Woodbury comments where we could put additional parking cause Woodbury commons is crowded. So we got to look for another spot of which right near there, you could either do one of two things you could get into a van that takes you right into it. Very commons. If Woodbury commons continues to expand and needs more parking. So they added another deck parking lot, but that even that doesn't seem to be enough or, and this is where it starts to get imagined that the first phase of a monorail, a monorail that would go from this parking area to Lego land. And therefore you could go from Lego land to the parking area, get into a van, and then the van will enable you to go, um, to Woodbury commons, to go shopping. Don't need a car to do any of this. Then they'll probably the most important segment of route 17 that needs to be fixed. And we've got to figure out some better design for this, which is where I, 84 and route 17 merge and where route 17, let's off into exit one 20 is a disaster. That is where I see the most number of accidents. And I've been driving this for almost 15 years, you know, from Newburgh IID for route 17 and to Sullivan County. So can we figure out how to redo that whole interchange? Because people are merging from the two lanes of route 17, and then they get into trying to get off the exit. And then there are people trying to come on to 17 and speed up as fast as they can. It doesn't work. It never, it's just poorly designed. So yes, we have additional money, whether it's housing, whether it is infrastructure let's truly build back better. Absolutely. All right, Joe, thank you. Um, our guests today are summer Crockett Moore and Tony Glazer. Get ready to dispel all your myths about the film, television and theater industry, and meet two of the most committed individuals who are just fun to be with their production company is choice films. And they operate out of umber stages here in Newburgh, New York, but hopefully they are expanding and bringing with it more high paying jobs to the Hudson Valley, but more on that in this episode. Hi summer. Hi Tony. Hi guys. How you doing?
Speaker 4:Good. Thanks for having us. We are surviving. We are, um, we are still standing. Yeah, it's, it's a beautiful spring day. So things feel like, uh, you know, they're emerging. Um, it's been a very interesting year. I'll say, um, a lot of, uh, uh, perspective shifts, a lot of, a lot of growth, both personally and professionally. And so, um, we're coming out of it with a real strong, I think, I think a lot of good things come from, uh, forest.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I think it's a good way to put it Tony. All right, let let's, let's explain who you are. So I know you as both summer and Tony, but you're also choice films and you're at umber studio. So why don't we start by explaining who you are, what they are so that our listeners have a sense of the two people I'm talking with?
Speaker 4:Well, uh, I guess I'll start and then we'll just, you know, jump back and forth, but we, uh, we wear many hats in our life. I would say Tony and I have a production company, um, that actually turns 20 years old this year, it's called 40 year anniversary. Uh, and it's crazy. Um, we are a film television and theater production company. Uh, we started our roots STEM from, you know, theater in New York city, um, which we started back in, you know, 2001 pre nine 11, um, and then mostly have been doing film and television for the past decade. Um, we have partnered with the incredible brisk stages, which we are now managing partners of, um, and umber stages is a soundstage facility, a production facility in the state of New York. We currently have three stages and we are expanding to six stages, uh, as well as a bunch of offices, scenic shops, um, over 200,000 square feet of production infrastructure is under stages.
Speaker 5:So run a, uh, not-for-profit group called below the line bootcamp, which is a program, uh, designed for at-risk youth to get a ground entry-level positions in film and television production as production assistants. Uh, we also provide, uh, mentorship for them. All of that's free to them. Uh, we, uh, sustain ourselves from the kindness of our local businesses and also a grant, uh, from,
Speaker 6:Yeah, I forgot. And when I was thinking about the interview that you just got a grant for, wha wha what's that grant and what are you going to do with it?
Speaker 5:It's a WPI grant and it is, uh, what it's gonna do. It's gonna, it's gonna help, uh, pay for teachers. It's going to help pay the students. Cause when we bring kids in, I call them kids. Cause everybody that's younger than me. Sadly now gets the, uh, get the tag on the kids. So no disrespect, it's just my own issues with my own mortality and how it comes out. Uh, but, uh, but we, we pay for them to, to come. So not only is it free to them, but sometimes, uh, we know that people have to leave a job or they can't necessarily afford to, to be trained. And so we want to pay them for that. And we also want to feed them, uh, during that period. And then we want to put them right into a job that we have right now. Unfortunately, this is where, uh, our, our film production company and where our association with number stages all come together. Because now we, we sort of have a pipeline where we can, uh, put, uh, people who have an interest in film production onto a set. And, you know, COVID has along with all the other things that it has, uh, given, uh, the region has created, uh, some other much needed, uh, job positions. And so we've been hiring more people. There've been other departments now that are exclusively, uh, designed for COVID and Copeland pretend, uh, uh, prevention and management. And so the, the grant money goes a long way to allowing us to sustain, uh, the training program and to sort of in sort of enlarge the scope of it. So we can, we can get more perspective students, uh, and, um, people of a young age, uh, into the business.
Speaker 6:Yeah. Tony, if he keeps saying, yeah, you keep saying of a young age and I'm looking at you and I'm like thinking, Oh my, all right, I'm just going to get my Walker for a minute. Let's go back. Let's go backwards. What w what, how did both of you come, you know, w let's talk a little bit about each of your careers that brought you to the city of Newburgh, which is where I met you, but
Speaker 4:Yes. So I hail from a very small town called Paris, Tennessee. I moved to New York city on a theater scholarship when I was 17 and never left, um, met Tony in the city. Um, you know, I am a, an actor, a voiceover actor, and a producer and production manager. So we wear a lot of hats in the professional world, too. We're members of multiple unions. And so we can bounce around in the industry, uh, pretty, pretty easily. Um, I started working pretty steadily as an actress, uh, at about 21. And by 27, I knew that if I wanted more control over my career, and I didn't just want to play the soccer mom or the doctor or the lawyer or whatever, um, I was going to need to be more creatively in control. And so Tony and I met at a perfect time because I had formed a little theater company and he had formed a theater company and we put our heads together and forms to I films. So, um, so I moved from, you know, Tennessee to New York city lived there and we came to Newburgh, um, on a Google search back in, uh, 2016 for a very small little feature film that needed a soundstage, and we couldn't afford to do it in Manhattan. So we came to the Hudson Valley and found Umbra on a Google search at Tony. So I am from a, uh, a very small out of the way town called Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I don't know if you've heard about it, not much. Nothing's there, it doesn't really show up for you there for spring break. I was, I was there for all of them, have the emotional scars to prove it. And then that ultimately got me to come to come to come to New York. I was an actor originally. Uh, I studied, uh, at, uh, Boston university. And then I went on to study at the, uh, Esper studio with Maggie plant again, and then was an actor for one, no looking back. And then as, as it always happens, uh, other things took my interest. I began to broaden myself a little bit. I started writing playwriting screenwriting, uh, that led to directing that led to producing that led to meeting summer. And, and the two of us realizing that we, uh, have all of our various hats and interests that we have, we, we enjoy storytelling, uh, and we enjoy all the different facets of it. And not only do we enjoy just the act of telling a story, that's either summer's or mine or, or uniquely, or it's collective, but, but w we, we like telling stories that are relevant to the community and the environment that we're in. And so, you know, so stories and community became something very important to us. And I think that's what drove us to, uh, to always want to wherever we are connect to the environment that we in, that was the immediate foothold in the desire to, uh, when we first came here to, to start the below the line boot camp program, because we wanted to meet people in the community. And we wanted to let them know that film is for them, even if they're not in the film business that they have apartment, if they want it. And yeah, and it really feels like I like coming home, coming to the Hudson Valley. Um, you know, we felt immediately welcomed and, and embraced, you know, by the community. And so it, we were only here originally for, uh, we were going to be for 18 months on a project. And at the end of that time, we didn't want to leave. And we were very grateful that, uh, that it all worked out. We didn't have to. So,
Speaker 6:So, um, I don't want to let this go by, which is summer Crockett more, and you did say you were from Tennessee. And I remember the first time I met you. So I asked the question, how Crockett are you?
Speaker 4:I am very Crockett. I R John w which is David Crockett. Son is buried in the, in, uh, you know, the local plot in Paris, Tennessee. I am four generations. The great, great, great, great niece of David Crockett. Hi, now,
Speaker 6:All right. I just had to get that out of the way. So I came and met you because for me, I thought that in trying to think about how do we bring good jobs to the Hudson Valley that at least not very educated about this, other than it being a huge fan of the movies, but always knowing that at the end of that movie, there's this, these credits with all these different production names, gaffers, and best boys and all these other things that are there. And I remember coming first when I discovered you were in the city of Newburgh, and I said, wait a minute, I should go talk to these people and find out what is it they do, and can they make more of these jobs? So the bootcamp helps get you there, but what are these jobs? And are they good paying jobs? And,
Speaker 4:Oh, yeah. So, I mean, there's all different levels, right? All different tiers as we call them, you know, in the, in the industry for what the wages are and whether it's union or non-union the majority of work in the Hudson Valley right now is unionized, which is fantastic. We have major networks here, uh, independent productions, but they're all on certain tiers, uh, that offer not only great hourly wages, they offer incredible pension and health and 401k plans. Um, so, so that's, that's the standard. Um, and that's, you know, a feature film could employ, you know, several hundred people for several months, whereas a television series could employ several thousand people for over a year, and they're not just jobs, they're careers,
Speaker 5:Right? I mean, their careers with us summer was saying with pension and health and benefits and, and it's, uh, it's, it's varied. And it, it caters to the things that, um, people are already doing actually in different sectors. A lot of times, people in any community don't realize what, what they have sort of taken for granted in their own, in their own community actually has a place in the film, whether it's a seamstress for wardrobe, you know, obviously hospitality for hotels that goes without saying, but in the food service industry for catering, um, there's a lot of set medics. I have to say the, the, the set medic industry has gotten a little more complex now, and that's, that's a whole other category, but things that already exist in any given town are things that are used transportation.
Speaker 4:Yeah. They can plug right in, I mean, uh, transportation, right? The same kind of Teamsters that drive ups trucks, uh, also drive all the gear back and forth from our equipment houses. I mean, onset anything, uh, you know, w we tell the youngsters in the bootcamp, anything you envision that could be part of the film world generally is you have hair, makeup, wardrobe,
Speaker 5:Construction.
Speaker 4:Yeah. You know, really, um, everything from administrative accounting, all the way to electrical, you know, it's the, sky's really the limit. Um, and even if you're starting out, you know, and you're not in the union because you got, you can't just join the union, right. You have to have qualifying hours and a certain level of experience and safety understanding of, of what's done on set. But, you know, a lot of people ourselves included started out working on non-union productions, where you learn the ropes. Um, and, and they're very safe sets. Generally, they're run by, um, you know, professionals, um, and you can really, you know, get your hours, get your training there. And even those, even your, your basic PA job, which usually pays minimum wage or, or greater, um, your department heads can still be making a really livable wage. And, you know, and you, you just have to hope that, um, on the non-union productions, you have responsible producers and a responsible director. And that safety is always the most important thing, but there is room to learn and grow. And so we, we like to tell people it's never too late
Speaker 5:To switch into a career in film and television. There is so funny. It's so funny. People often try to sort of lump it all together and say, Hollywood, you know, Hollywood has come here, but it's not, we're not really a monolithic enterprise. You know, every, not every production is the same, they're run by different people in different companies and so on and so forth. So like summer was saying, you know, you hope you get with, uh, the right production company, but it's not like one production company does a really good job, a community. And now it's Hollywood's okay. And then a product, first of all, Hollywood, not the only part of the country making movies, but I mean, that's how it tends to get parceled out, you know, but, but it really is. Um, there's just different companies that do different things. And when you first start out, you have to really develop a high tolerance for the word. No, you have to hear, no, you have to hear not hiring, and you have to hear all those things. And, and one of the things that we've always aspired to do, and it's not just the boot camp program, it's just generally speaking as a company, whether it's through choice or whether it's through remember stages is trying to put as many people together as possible. Not for us brokering it for any particular game, but to just sort of minimize the amount of nos that can often come with any competitive fields.
Speaker 4:Perfect example, this happened last week, you know, Tony, you, you bring up a really great point. Uh, a woman who had worked for over 30 years in human resources contacted us, they saw the article about umber expanding, and she contacted us and said, you know, I don't know anything about film, but I always really wanted to work in that industry. Can I come and just intern for you for free, I'll send you my resume. And she sent her resume, which was incredible. And I said, listen, you don't, you don't want to enter in your management level. Um, let's think about what really is exciting for you. And what was really funny is after talking to her for 10 minutes, I realized not only did she have great administrative understanding and management skills, she was a real people person. And so, um, one of the networks that are here at our stages put a call out to us and said, Hey, you know, we're looking for somebody who can help manage our COVID compliance team that we're hiring for people. Um, it's a long shot. Do you have anybody? I was like, I had the perfect person. She went in for an interview. She got hired she's over the moon. And it was just about looking at the skill she had in a different way. You know, it was a perfect pivot
Speaker 5:On a, on a, on a similar fund at a gentleman called us who was a graduate from the Newburgh free Academy. And he was, um, calling to see if there was anything, anything at all in available. I said he wanted to be involved in, in film production. And because of COVID, we haven't yet restarted our bootcamp program yet. And so I said, well, we're still in the process of figuring out a few things, mostly technical things, as it relates to testing and, and, and all that. Uh, and they said, well, why don't you do this? Why don't you, before we we'll get, I said, we'll get you into the program and we'll plug you in. But in the meantime, why don't you send me your resume? Just so I, I can have an introduction to you. Uh, and he, he did. And I noticed that there was a nursing, uh, um, uh, experience we hadn't experienced at nursing. And he, that was a focus they wanted to get into an IME about, you know, what this is, this is, let me just go to the COVID team over at HBO, in white house, uh, the white house plumbers. And, and, and see if this was something that was interesting to them. And I plugged it in and he got the job right out of the gate and he interviewed, and he got it. And he, it, when
Speaker 4:He administered our COVID test check-in yesterday just checked me. And then, so, so when it's that simple, we live in, you know, and, and if we can do it, we do it because it's the easiest thing to do. Uh, and it, it, it helps out. And it also reaffirms this notion that, you know, you already have the skills that it takes to be in this field business. You just haven't found the sector yet. You know, you just don't know which one that is. And we're more than happy to help people, uh, to plug people in, you know, as, as are all the people who have come before us to do the same things, to make film a possibility in the region, we are certainly standing on the shoulders of giants as it relates to the work that's been done before here. And we continue to hope to, to endeavor, to do with people before us have done so that people after us can continue to keep it going.
Speaker 6:So this is a podcast that focuses on, um, how do we take COVID? How do we take the economic disruption and the social issues, and hopefully come out of this in a better place, you know? Um, it's my one hour of optimism each week. Right. Um, so what happened to you folks during, I assume you were shut down. I know we were filming a video there. We had to follow all the protocols and it was pretty stringent. And that's why I, I am very confident that the film industry is very, very good at adhering to the rules of that, that come out of the CDC. So tell me a little bit about what was happening during COVID and then you've got some pretty big plans.
Speaker 4:Yeah. So, you know, it's funny, we had this conversation, uh, you know, about two weeks ago, it was our two week, you know, our one year anniversary of having to shut down. We had just wrapped a movie, um, literally three days prior to the government shut down, um, and then finished. So everything was done. Um, and I'm not gonna lie the first month or two was really hard for me. I'm not good at not being, uh, in charge. It's hard to, it's hard to put a primal scream and words, but I'd seen, that's probably the best way to describe it. It was sort of a long collective primal scream. It must've been at least a week long. And then once we exhausted ourselves,
Speaker 6:Unlike, you know, when everyone else was listening to the governor, you were like going, wait a minute, you can't do that to me.
Speaker 4:Well, I just, I remember I packed up my little bag and I said to Tony, I'm like, do you think we should leave the plants? Do you think we'll be back next week? Like what? And he was like, babe, I think we're going home. I was, I was, I, you know what, for whatever reason, I think these things tend to be generational. I was fine with that. I remember at some point somebody had said, I started hearing phrasing like, um, quarantine fatigue. And I was like, what's that never heard of that? This is actually okay. I, I, I think it, you know, and, and to your point about finding an opportunity in what is otherwise a really tragic circumstance, which we can't really describe this past year as anything other than just a truly tragic a period where just a lot of people got sick. A lot of people tragically passed, and certainly the economy took a real beating. And I think if there was one thing that we tried to take from that was how do we prevent this going forward? How do we, how do we prepare ourselves even further? How do we take the things that we want already to do? How do we make those? How do we make those plans even sharper? And how do we take this and move this forward quicker? And so we, we, once we got over our collective freak out about what this all could mean financially, uh, we, we, we put on our adult pants and, um, tried to, to plan and we pivot and we planned pretty, pretty, pretty ferocious about what, how we were going to take everything forward, what our plans were for the stages, what our plans were for choice films, what our plans were for everything that we wanted to accomplish and how we can bring as many people in the community with us on that. And it was kind of really interesting timing because, you know, the first couple of months home, it was, um, a lot of making sure that our staff who was also furloughed was able to get unemployment and a lot, a lot of like nesting and caretaking and making sure everybody was okay, ourselves included and then became, um, the opportunity where we realized, you know, we were in construction already for, for the expansion of ombre stage. And it was the perfect time to say, well, let's make everything we do now. COVID friendly. So we upgraded the HPAC systems and, you know, thank goodness our partners, our, uh, our believers and visionaries. Cause they were right down that planning rabbit hole with us and said, let's make touchless doors, let's do this. Let's, let's alter what we can so that the minute it's safe to come back, where ahead of it, I'm not going to lie. There were a couple of drift moments when I found myself rereading bale Wolf. And that's always, that's always an existential moment. Nobody really wants to visit. I just, I just, I was gardening. You know, it, wasn't all forward thinking and full steam ahead. Every once in a while you find yourself going, what am I doing? Tony grew a beard. He had a really, I could show you photos. I tried a beard and a Mohawk at the same time. It was pretty funny. Two things that you don't think go together and I found out they did. Um,
Speaker 6:But then you now have some pictures,
Speaker 4:Big dreams. Yes.
Speaker 6:What do you want to talk about that? Cause I know it's not final. So what I want to explain about where you're going, because I am just, I couldn't be more excited.
Speaker 4:Yeah. So our, you know, are the expansion ties into what the main plan is essentially. I mean, the, the expansion ties into what we're seeing now as a real sort of, um, uh, uh, Renaissance in the Hudson Valley, as it relates to the film industry where people are really discovering from all parts of the country, how amazing it is to film here, how great the people are, how great the locations are, how friendly and how Willy everyone wants to be a part of this ambition or their dollars go here, or other dollars go here. How, how many industry are in crew? People are already here, living here, they just live here and then usually commute to the city. Cause that's where the city, where the jobs usually are, but how many of them are already here? And so our expansion is really tied into the fact that we want to be able to support the demand that's building. And we're, we, we are again, religion. We're we, we are just a few of many people that are, that are seeing that in trying to do that. So our plans are tied into that excitement. It's tied into that demand that we're getting from outside people wanting to come in and shoot their, their series or their films here. Right. Well, and what happened was, so stage one then began stage two. Um, we immediately, uh, or booked out through 2022 on those stages. So we had a stage which we're calling stage four, which was part of a larger infrastructure at the motorcycle PDM museum. It was already a qualified space, but we renovated it, expanded it. Um, it's now over 21,000 square feet. So it's a standalone beautiful, uh, semi acoustical stage. That's also booked through 2022. So the decision was we either turn people away because we have six or seven projects behind these projects, right. Continuing to book, or we expand. And we're so blessed to be partnered with Ted Doring, who, uh, is a visionary and his partner, gene, Laura, um, have really, they saw this coming way before we even were living here. Um, and they had the plans to expand. And so what's worked so well in Newburgh with all of the buildings that are interconnected to make the stages and the support spaces. We are, uh, replicating a new Windsor with a series of five buildings that will, that will have three additional stages. If the zoning is permitted and it's under review now with the new Windsor in town, we're hopefully replicating the success that we've had here over there. And again, we just have this desire to keep building on the excitement. I mean, we have a wait list. That's the thing more and more people can come here. It's not, will you book it? They will come. It's there waiting in the wings. We need room for them. Well said summer. Yeah, we want, we just want to continue that excitement. And we want more and more people to be able to come here and really enjoy how exciting it is to be shooting in this region. I think the more people that come, the more people will stay. I mean, we've already had repeat, uh, productions, uh, companies coming back here. And I think that's a great sign. I think that says, I think that speaks volumes for the region and the experiences that production companies have when they come to the region. And so our, our desire is to do our one part, our small part, which is admittedly say it's a small part, uh, for the bigger hole, which is to keep people here.
Speaker 6:Well, you may say small part, but in the context of the Hudson Valley, the, the facilities you have in the city of Newburgh, then what you're trying to replicate, um, with the support of the town of new Windsor, that's a pretty substantial commitment. And so why, where is it? Where's the demand coming? Why the Hudson Valley, I mean, I know you said you did a Google search
Speaker 4:Summer, but now
Speaker 6:There are not only it there's people filming. There's this people, there's people from the industry living here. I once took a map and put little pins where each actor that I knew of where they were living, quite impressive, how come they're finally discovering the Hudson Valley?
Speaker 4:I think it's three faults. It is proximity to New York city, which is this the second hub in the world for the entertainment industry in Los Angeles, in New York. Right. And then it like bleeds out from there. Um, we're very close. We're, uh, really easy to get to. Um, I think that's the first one. The second thing is the availability of local crew and incredible locations, right? The two go hand in hand, you don't have to come here for weeks and weeks and weeks to try to put your project together. You can show up, open your phone and be at work with a crew of people that are well-trained some of the best crew. I think that the country lives in the Hudson Valley and then third, and I wouldn't say this is most important, but it's the thing on Google that got me to Newburgh is the expanded tax credit. So the 10% bump in the tax credit for New York state Newburg is the first stop. You know, Westchester is still the 25% zone. Newburg is the first stop in the 35% zone in the state. And so that is dollars driving people here. I have to say, just on a side note, since somebody brought it up, I mean, I've said this before, um, there's a lot of people that have a lot of different opinions about the tax credit, but as far as I'm concerned at the jobs bill yep. The, the, this, this, this, this tax, this tax credit has been more responsible. And I know this firsthand and I can show my map has enabled me to hire more people in this area alone and it will continue to do so it's it is. I would say it's funny that someone mentioned three things. It's I think it's more than a third of the reason why people are looking at and coming from other places. I think in some instances, it's the sole reason they're coming out here and then the moment they get here they go, wait a minute. This is a great place to shoot. I think it was almost like that tax put it for some productions was a beacon. And they came out here looking for some, some, some fiscal relief. Uh, once they got here, they realized that it was no BS tax credit. It's serious. You have to hire people. It's not like you just show up and you get, you gotta check. Thank you very much. But then once they're here, everything, somewhere else was saying all the great crew people, all the great key talent here, all the great locations. I mean, you really got everything, but that credit is so urgently important to the ongoing health of the film industry. It's critical. Oh, there's a fourth thing. I wouldn't say that this is least important. I think this is almost as a cake cake. It's the film. It's the film commissioners that are here. So we have incredible film commissioners in the Hudson Valley. Um, you know, we work hand in hand every day with the orange County film office. Um, Amanda Dana, Nora Martinez, and with Ellen phyllo in the city of Newburgh. And it was Scott mainly in the town of Newburgh and with Lauren who is an, you know, further North of us, but we work with them nonstop to get permits and find, you know, I can't tell you how many times I've called Amanda or Ellen in the middle of the night. And been like, I need a house with a green porch and a yellow thing, and I need it tomorrow. And they have it. And they know the person and it's is done. It is, um, without the film commissioners, um, and the New York state film office, we can, I was going to say, you know, John and Jerry, I mean, in Gigi before them, they have their, the lifeline and the life blood of the thriving, what we call the film family hashtag they keep us all there. Like the grandparents that hold the, the annual Christmas dinner. If you're from the South, like the granny, granny, Crocket always hosts everything.
Speaker 5:It's not, it's not, I would say it's not just there. It's not just everyone that someone mentioned. It's not just that everybody is all in is that everybody is completely accessible. You can call them. They're not closed or any questions you have in your problem. You have it's, you know, we, New York is really fortunate in this way that everybody who is involved in this industry on the level that we're talking about with everybody that we mentioned understands the value and the critical, uh, input that film has for the region. And therefore everyone's working together. Everyone's saying, call this person, call that person. Right. And so they're accessible and they want to work because everyone knows what they're working for. It. Everybody knows what the domino effect you're right. Perfect. They all know, they all know the end game here. They all know what this ultimately leads to. So, so it's at the risk of overstating this too. And practically it's, it's, there's, there's, there's a lot of great reasons to filter. All right.
Speaker 6:So let, let's move to a slightly different direction because as you know, as a movie fan, I'm a little concerned about what's the future of the movie theater. I'm not concerned about the need for product and for, because it seems like every day, there's another way to stream something. And there's another series there's another movie made now by Netflix itself, as opposed to Paramont or something. What do you guys think? Where's the future of all this going?
Speaker 5:Um, you know, I'm old that maybe this is old fashioned, maybe this is a generational notion. I don't, I don't know, but I'm always, uh, I'm always, uh, uh, uh, ascribed to the notion that if, if, if a movie happens and there's only one person there to see it, did it happen? Did you watch it? And I love the communal aspect of cinema. I love going to a theater because it's not just the work that you're seeing. It's the collective response of everybody around you with you in that response, that their response is as much a part of the experience and the alchemy between what happens on screen and what happens in, uh, uh, in, in your theater. So that it's not just the work, it's what the work does to the community and the people around you. So for me, I am always going to hold out, hope that movie theaters won't die. That will, this will stay a part of it because it's a part of how we communicate with each other, how we experience the world together. Art is such, it's such a, it's such a big part of it. And it's, it's, it's better in company, right? It's better to have these things. Why not have these things as if it's a town forum, you come out and watch a movie. I think you're right. I also, I hope that it's going to be similar to what happened with records, right? You with like the old vinyl. Now they're kind of coming back because people are realizing that having everything in the phone, you know, it's like, I still want to hold a book. I still want to read it. I don't know because of the economy and how it is, how many movie theaters will survive. If they'll continue to do things like
Speaker 4:Alamo draft house, where you can go and see a movie and eat dinner and have an open bar, like if they're going to become more experiential. Um, I don't know. I can say that I've seen technology completely change an entire industry. When I think about voiceovers and what my career was like 10 years ago, versus what it is now. And technology has not made it better. It's made it easier, but it's not made it better. Um, and so I'm not concerned about the fact that we won't have jobs. I think we'll have even more jobs have a wider variety because of the demand for content, but how we consume the content. It's really, it's a, it's kind of a scary time. Um, because I am very much like Tony. I like, I'm a very social person. I like to experience art as a collective. Um, if we're watching everything on our phone or alone in our house, in our private home theaters, I feel like we're just going to be more and more removed from each other. And, and that doesn't seem good to me.
Speaker 6:Yeah. Well, and so I don't know whether this is the, the, um, the film that I want to use as some, maybe a sense of what's going to happen, but over Easter weekend, King Kong versus Godzilla. And it did quite well in the box office. Now, either that was pent up demand because people could go back to movie theaters. I don't know. I did see the movie. So I don't know if it was the movie, but you know, let's say those kinds of movies do have a very wide audience, but it did quite well in the movie theater. Now it's interesting because it's, it was also available on HBO max, right? So like, how do, how do you, how do you figure out that bounce? I know Tony, you said very interestingly that that collective experience. And I hadn't thought about it that way, that the idea used to go into a movie theater and everybody laughed or everyone's screamed or everyone, you know, cried or something. And that was part of the experience of going to the movies. And I have discounted that. And I think you're absolutely right. That that is part of it. But with this demand for more content, more product, more streaming, certainly you guys, and what you're trying to do, or you may be even, even if you get the next, you know, facility, new Windsor, you might be booked out to 20, 24.
Speaker 4:That's literally kind of what's happening. Knock on wood. If we look at what's in our calendar for holds easily great news for the Hudson Valley, we'll just have to go get more buildings tat hub. Your listing it'll happen. It'll happen though.
Speaker 6:The movie theater doesn't, uh,
Speaker 4:All of a sudden people don't go to it as much, you know, generations from now, the younger generation to go, we're gonna go, we're going to do, we're going to have it. It's like a party it's like mass movie viewing, and it'll be like a new theme. Right. And we'll just, I'll be just, just barely alive to go use suns.
Speaker 6:What about, you know, you've been involved in lots of projects throughout your career. What was your, you know, do you have one that was really special?
Speaker 4:I do. I mean, I have so many, I would say I have two that are really special because they were, they, they both dramatically changed our future. I would say, um, the first one is junction. It is close to my heart, always. It's the first feature film that Tony and I made together. Tony wrote and directed it, it, um, kind of put our company on the map in a way, you know, with the New York times review came out, it was like, Oh my God, we've made it. This is it. Um, and we traveled all over the country and saw it in movie theaters with all different types of people. It was magical. I play a meth addict and it say, you know, typecasting, kidding. But it was the first time I got to play somebody that wasn't super close to my type. And I remember people being like, I don't know if you can play that role. I was like, you watch me play it. That would be the one that I think is really close to my heart. I was going to say big dogs because it was the largest project we've ever done as well. Big dogs brought us to Umbra and B it was the biggest project we ever done. You know, it was a whole series and we worked with the creator and built it from the ground up. So it felt very, um,
Speaker 6:I love that. I love the theme of that. Maybe you could tell our listeners what that was about, maybe sure.
Speaker 4:Tony talk about that because he developed it with the creator. And then you can also talk about your favorite project of forward in here real quickly. Yeah, I know. So junction was, um, was a real, was a real great, fascinating project to work on. Not only because of the, the content and the books, it was based on the book series. And then it's not just talking about big, big dog, sorry, Joe. She was really, junction was really close to my heart because junction is, is sort of, uh, uh, uh, uh, it's not exactly autobiographical, but it was sort of, it was based on a lot of experiences that I had. I wouldn't say they were all mine, uh, but it, but it was based on a lot of personal things, I guess that's the point about it. And so it was a very personal, personal story for me. Uh, and, uh, and it was also the first feature that we did. And so that always holds your, it's always that first one, you know, your first time, you always remember your first time, and that was certainly it, uh, for, uh,
Speaker 5:For that. And I would say the same thing for, for big dogs, which was the television series that we worked on and what I was going to say when I had meant to say before I misspoke, was that, um, you know, it was such a fascinating project to work on, not just because of the, the, the, the, the, the sub the content of it when it was about, but that it would, it had such crazy parallels what was happening in our, in, in, in the world at the same time that we were working on it. And so it's a book series of sort of a, a parallel universe of New York city, where back in 2009, uh, instead of bailing out the banks, uh, the governments, uh, decided not to. And is that when that didn't happen, there was just this full economic, global collapse. And so New York had reverted back to this, uh, sort of, uh, seventies, eighties, era, urban blight, and everything was off, got it out. And all the municipalities were broke. And so it was sort of, uh, uh, uh, gives great pressure and, uh, uh, book series written by the writer, Adam Dunn. And it was just fascinating how much it was, like, what was going on in the world now. And he had written it years before, uh, uh, any of this had happened. And so I, it was just fascinating to work on. And then of course there was a, there was a pandemic in the book series, or, yeah. And so it's, it has a different name, which I won't say here, but it had a different name. Um, and, um, there's an episode one when, when our lead characters first meet, one of them is looking at this map and it has all these things on it. And the guy Manny Perez who play Santiago says to Michael Ray who plays more, what is that? And more like, does it show him it, wasn't a global outbreak tracking the spread of a virus across the country. And when you look at that now, you're like, yeah, wow. What, what that was sort of setting up a score in the next book, there was a full-blown pandemic and someone when we had gotten to, when we were rolling out, uh, and of course last year cut to last year when all this quarantine first started, it was like, Oh my gosh, there's just all these things coming together. So that, that was those two things. But if I can add one more thing to the mix, I think, and it's for the same reasons why junction was so important, as I wrote a play called substance of bliss, it's a two hander as published by Sam French. And it's, it's basically another something that I wrote that was just very personal. And I think when you say something personal, whether or not it's embraced or not embraced, or whether or not someone knows about it or doesn't know about it, those are the ones that I think mean the most to, you know, cause it, it comes from such a specific place. And so that one also meant quite a lot to me. So if I had to name, if I had to name them, those would be the ones.
Speaker 6:All right, then. So some are pocket more and Tony Glazer, thank you so much where we couldn't be happier that you're in the Hudson Valley, that you're attracting more people, that you're creating jobs in the Hudson Valley, um, product projects. Um, thanks for your time this afternoon. It was our pleasure. Thank you for having us and thank you for all that you do. That's important, you know, you're a very important piece of that domino effect, as we say, thank you for everything.
Speaker 1:Thank you for tuning in to patterns and paradigms the pattern podcast. For more information about this episode, visit our website pattern for progress.org forward slash podcast.