April 14, 2021 • 60 mins
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.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
We are experiencing a paradigm shift, a fundamental
change in the way we usually dothings.
We are intentionally choosing tosee the silver lining
opportunity arises.
We can shine a light on thethings that weren't working well
(00:25):
on those things that weren'treally working at all, we can
regroup reevaluate andre-engineer it's time to explore
new patterns and paradigms thosethat inspire us to rise above
the chaos and explore how theconditions of today and take us
(00:47):
to a better tomorrow patternsand paradigms the pattern
podcast from Hudson Valleypattern for progress.
You're listening to season two,episode 15, filming in the
Hudson Valley with your hostpattern, president and CEO,
Jonathan Dropkin.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Hi everyone, and welcome to patterns and
paradigms.
We hope that you had time tolisten to our episode with
Denise frangipani and SullivanRenaissance, to see how
inspiring a program dedicated tobeautification and community
renewal can be.
Denise would be happy to talk toyou about how to get a program
(01:28):
like that going in your area.
Just let us know and we'llconnect you.
Please remember to subscribe toour podcasts wherever you find
your favorite.
And take a moment to share anepisode with a friend this
week's bubble or trend the trendis clear due to the recent
(01:49):
completion of the New York statebudget and the completed and
proposed federal stimulus bills.
There is more than enough moneyto make our school districts in
the Hudson Valley.
Hope.
This is indeed good news, butthe bubble that I'm wishing to
reference here is what are wegoing to do with some of that
(02:12):
money?
More of the same.
There is so much to talk aboutin just trying to get kids back
to school and a great deal of itis centered in going back to the
way it was well, patterns andparadigms doesn't want to go
back to the way it was.
We want to imagine.
(02:33):
And now we're financially in aposition to do some of that
imagination.
What did the school districts ofthe twenties look like?
So, yes, we were tired oflearning virtually and it didn't
work for everybody.
So yes, we want to get backinside the classroom
(02:53):
socialization good for mentalhealth, good for learning from
those kids, but we don't want toget rid of virtual learning
entirely.
We think it could actually beused to supplement how kids
learn.
There are those kids that can'tget enough school, and this will
be an opportunity for them toactually have classes that they
(03:17):
can subscribe to, to supplementthe programs and classes that
they have in their school or atthe other end.
What about kids that are fallingbehind?
Does it have to wait until nextyear or this coming summer?
Possibly there's ways to helpthem immediately with topics and
(03:40):
subjects that they weren'tgrasping in the classroom.
Can we finally come to gripswith the fact that high school
for 50% of people in our regionis the end of formal learning?
Can we design a pathway to a jobfor the 50% that are looking for
employment after high school?
(04:02):
And this is the end of wherethey're going to be in terms of
formal education, but they'renot going to a community
college.
They're not going to a four yearcollege, nothing wrong with
that.
We fully command and continue tourge people that wish to go on
for higher levels of formaleducation to do so.
(04:22):
But we've got to think about,are we going to get people to a
decent paying job using the sameprograms we were using prior to
the pandemic?
If we are moving ahead, byunderstanding where the reality
lies in terms of formaleducation.
And we know this from looking atcensus data, so stay tuned,
(04:45):
let's look for the imaginationas we return to full-time K
through 12 learning.
And by the way, some of thatimagination, we couldn't be
happier that there's going to beuniversal.
pre-K this is super, but that'sfor another episode.
So I'm here with my partner, JoeCheika and I want to continue
this notion of, so if we haveextra money and I know there'll
(05:09):
be those immediately say, it'snot 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 andbetter is the word that I want
to focus on with Joe.
So, Joe, I'm going to take aguess housing, any ideas for, if
you had the money, what wouldyou do
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Ideas after, after doing this for three decades, a
few things come to mind, uh, youknow, right, right now there's,
there's a lot of people hurtingbecause 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 wouldhelp tenants who have been in
(05:55):
arrears.
I think that's, that's both apositive movement for property
owners and renters.
Um, I think that creating alarger pool of what's called a
choice housing voucher isimportant.
It's a rent subsidy that allowspeople to live, where they want
to live and gives them theeconomic mobility within the
(06:18):
County to take that voucher, um,and get good quality housing.
I think increasing the downpayment and closing cost
assistance for first-time homebuyers 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
(06:39):
generational poverty, housingrehabilitation for those who are
in their homes and have hadissues, maintaining their homes,
they need a new boiler, theyneed a new roof, you need
electrical upgrades.
There's a lot of people who ownhomes who are aging in place.
They need assistance with thingslike ramps, things like
(07:00):
handicapped accessibility, uh,in terms of bathrooms and
kitchens, uh, things like that.
Um, there's a lot of other coststhat are related, um, to, to,
um, to developers on the longrange, uh, um, economic, uh,
output, if you will, of their,of their developments in terms
(07:22):
of expenses.
One very easy way that adeveloper can serve lower income
renters is to reduce their costsof operation.
One of their biggest costs ofoperation, local taxes.
So could you imagine if you, if,if there was a pool of dollars
developers could dip into thatwould actually assist in paying
(07:46):
those local taxes that way thatthe community stays whole, the
developer, um, can build morehousing and the rents can
typically be lower water andsewer infrastructure in rural
areas is very important becausepeople don't all live in urban
centers.
And when you go to develophousing in a rural area, one of
(08:09):
the biggest stumbling blocks iswater and sewer.
And my last idea would be toactually expand the habitat
model.
The habitat model builds skills.
It builds neighborhoods and itabsolutely builds wealth.
Um, operating those programs,they all run on very, very thin
(08:31):
margins.
It's extraordinarily difficultto raise funds for it.
So I would expand that model.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Okay, Joe, when you say expand that model, and in
terms of housing, you've oftensaid to me that with regard to
affordable and workforcehousing, you use the phrase
lasagna financing that's right.
Is there, is there somethingthat we could do with money that
would make it easier to calltogether the financing necessary
(09:04):
for this rather than I thinkwhat you've always meant is it
takes so many different sourcesof funding to put, to make a
project viable.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
It, it does, there's, you know, lasagna financing.
So in any good lasagna there sixor seven different layers.
And, and, and the same thinggoes when you're putting into a
housing development together,it's not just equity and debt.
It's all of the tax creditdollars.
It's all of the home programdollars, the community
development block, grantdollars, the federal home loan
(09:37):
bank dollars.
There's all of these, again,layers of lasagna.
If there was a one-stop shop, itwould reduce the accounting
costs.
It would reduce the legal costs.
It would reduce the developmenttimeline.
And remember for developers,time is money.
And the longer that processgoes, the more expensive the
(09:58):
housing becomes.
Somebody has to make up forthose costs.
And if there's not a grant oranother deep subsidy that covers
those costs, then those costsare made up in the rents or the
cost of the house in terms ofhome ownership.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
And then it's time to make you the housing czar for
the Hudson Valley.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Well, wouldn't that be a great day?
Speaker 2 (10:22):
All right.
Thanks, Joe.
You know, I think that yourexpertise in housing is really
good in trying to start for usto look at this notion of
building back better.
We've always known there's ahousing problem.
We've always known there's beena shortage.
We seem to have money.
(10:42):
We've seen enthusiasm.
We have a great opportunity tothink about more housing, but
the question is, what does itlook like?
So you use housing.
I want to use infrastructure.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
I would say, what about infrastructure?
JD?
That's, that's a big topic.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
It, it is.
And so one of the big projectsthat is up for consideration in
our region right now is buildinga third lane on route 17.
Now there are definitelysections of route 17 that need a
third lane.
And so do I think it should gounder construction and we fix
(11:21):
the portions that need thisthird lane.
I do.
However, can we be imagined it?
So what am, I mean, here are acouple of ideas.
So one in an age in which we'retrying to think green.
So can we put charging stationsevery second or third exit build
(11:45):
it so that the exits have aplace for cars to, um,
immediately, uh, charge theirbatteries.
Can we create in the third lanea way to go from, let's say exit
one 30, right to Sullivan Countyexpress lane, straight through.
Can we use things like the timethat you're on the highway, you
(12:10):
pay a higher fare.
Look, we just did all theconstruction at Woodbury to make
it toll us, but you're stillpaying a fee to come on.
And there's the ability to tollyou at that point.
Well, if you entered betweencertain hours, when the traffic
is high, we have a chance atthat point to, um, be able to
(12:32):
charge more.
Maybe that helps to reduce someof the traffic, but now let's
get even more imaginative.
So Woodbury commons is one ofthe most, it's either the first
or second largest tourismattraction in, in New York
state.
It, it varies between that and,um, Niagara falls.
And it always depends on theexpansions that are occurring at
(12:55):
Woodbury commons.
And this is all in orange Countyfor our listeners.
Can we find a spot near Woodburycomments where we could put
additional parking causeWoodbury commons is crowded.
So we got to look for anotherspot of which right near there,
(13:15):
you could either do one of twothings you could get into a van
that takes you right into it.
Very commons.
If Woodbury commons continues toexpand and needs more parking.
So they added another deckparking lot, but that even that
doesn't seem to be enough or,and this is where it starts to
get imagined that the firstphase of a monorail, a monorail
(13:40):
that would go from this parkingarea to Lego land.
And therefore you could go fromLego land to the parking area,
get into a van, and then the vanwill enable you to go, um, to
Woodbury commons, to goshopping.
Don't need a car to do any ofthis.
Then they'll probably the mostimportant segment of route 17
(14:02):
that needs to be fixed.
And we've got to figure out somebetter design for this, which is
where I, 84 and route 17 mergeand where route 17, let's off
into exit one 20 is a disaster.
That is where I see the mostnumber of accidents.
(14:23):
And I've been driving this foralmost 15 years, you know, from
Newburgh IID for route 17 and toSullivan County.
So can we figure out how to redothat whole interchange?
Because people are merging fromthe two lanes of route 17, and
(14:43):
then they get into trying to getoff the exit.
And then there are people tryingto come on to 17 and speed up as
fast as they can.
It doesn't work.
It never, it's just poorlydesigned.
So yes, we have additionalmoney, whether it's housing,
whether it is infrastructurelet's truly build back better.
(15:07):
Absolutely.
All right, Joe, thank you.
Um, our guests today are summerCrockett Moore and Tony Glazer.
Get ready to dispel all yourmyths about the film, television
and theater industry, and meettwo of the most committed
individuals who are just fun tobe with their production company
(15:29):
is choice films.
And they operate out of umberstages here in Newburgh, New
York, but hopefully they areexpanding and bringing with it
more high paying jobs to theHudson Valley, but more on that
in this episode.
Hi summer.
Hi Tony.
(15:50):
Hi guys.
How you doing?
Speaker 4 (15:51):
Good.
Thanks for having us.
We are surviving.
We are, um, we are stillstanding.
Yeah, it's, it's a beautifulspring day.
So things feel like, uh, youknow, they're emerging.
Um, it's been a very interestingyear.
I'll say, um, a lot of, uh, uh,perspective shifts, a lot of, a
(16:12):
lot of growth, both personallyand professionally.
And so, um, we're coming out ofit with a real strong, I think,
I think a lot of good thingscome from, uh, forest.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Yeah.
I think it's a good way to putit Tony.
All right, let let's, let'sexplain who you are.
So I know you as both summer andTony, but you're also choice
films and you're at umber studio.
So why don't we start byexplaining who you are, what
(16:45):
they are so that our listenershave a sense of the two people
I'm talking with?
Speaker 4 (16:51):
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 aproduction company, um, that
actually turns 20 years old thisyear, it's called 40 year
anniversary.
Uh, and it's crazy.
Um, we are a film television andtheater production company.
(17:14):
Uh, we started our roots STEMfrom, you know, theater in New
York city, um, which we startedback in, you know, 2001 pre nine
11, um, and then mostly havebeen doing film and television
for the past decade.
Um, we have partnered with theincredible brisk stages, which
we are now managing partners of,um, and umber stages is a
(17:38):
soundstage facility, aproduction facility in the state
of New York.
We currently have three stagesand we are expanding to six
stages, uh, as well as a bunchof offices, scenic shops, um,
over 200,000 square feet ofproduction infrastructure is
under stages.
Speaker 5 (17:56):
So run a, uh, not-for-profit group called
below the line bootcamp, whichis a program, uh, designed for
at-risk youth to get a groundentry-level positions in film
and television production asproduction assistants.
Uh, we also provide, uh,mentorship for them.
All of that's free to them.
Uh, we, uh, sustain ourselvesfrom the kindness of our local
(18:20):
businesses and also a grant, uh,from,
Speaker 6 (18:25):
Yeah, I forgot.
And when I was thinking aboutthe interview that you just got
a grant for, wha wha what's thatgrant and what are you going to
do with it?
Speaker 5 (18:35):
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 thestudents.
Cause when we bring kids in, Icall them kids.
Cause everybody that's youngerthan me.
Sadly now gets the, uh, get thetag on the kids.
So no disrespect, it's just myown issues with my own mortality
(18:56):
and how it comes out.
Uh, but, uh, but we, we pay forthem to, to come.
So not only is it free to them,but sometimes, uh, we know that
people have to leave a job orthey can't necessarily afford
to, to be trained.
And so we want to pay them forthat.
And we also want to feed them,uh, during that period.
And then we want to put themright into a job that we have
right now.
Unfortunately, this is where,uh, our, our film production
(19:19):
company and where ourassociation with number stages
all come together.
Because now we, we sort of havea pipeline where we can, uh, put
, uh, people who have aninterest in film production onto
a set.
And, you know, COVID has alongwith all the other things that
it has, uh, given, uh, theregion has created, uh, some
(19:41):
other much needed, uh, jobpositions.
And so we've been hiring morepeople.
There've been other departmentsnow that are exclusively, uh,
designed for COVID and Copelandpretend, uh, uh, prevention and
management.
And so the, the grant money goesa long way to allowing us to
sustain, uh, the trainingprogram and to sort of in sort
(20:02):
of enlarge the scope of it.
So we can, we can get moreperspective students, uh, and,
um, people of a young age, uh,into the business.
Speaker 6 (20:13):
Yeah.
Tony, if he keeps saying, yeah,you keep saying of a young age
and I'm looking at you and I'mlike thinking, Oh my, all right,
I'm just going to get my Walkerfor a minute.
Let's go back.
Let's go backwards.
What w what, how did both of youcome, you know, w let's talk a
(20:37):
little bit about each of yourcareers that brought you to the
city of Newburgh, which is whereI met you, but
Speaker 4 (20:44):
Yes.
So I hail from a very small towncalled Paris, Tennessee.
I moved to New York city on atheater scholarship when I was
17 and never left, um, met Tonyin 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 theprofessional world, too.
(21:07):
We're members of multipleunions.
And so we can bounce around inthe industry, uh, pretty, pretty
easily.
Um, I started working prettysteadily as an actress, uh, at
about 21.
And by 27, I knew that if Iwanted more control over my
career, and I didn't just wantto play the soccer mom or the
(21:28):
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 aperfect time because I had
formed a little theater companyand he had formed a theater
company and we put our headstogether and forms to I films.
So, um, so I moved from, youknow, Tennessee to New York city
(21:50):
lived there and we came toNewburgh, um, on a Google search
back in, uh, 2016 for a verysmall little feature film that
needed a soundstage, and wecouldn't afford to do it in
Manhattan.
So we came to the Hudson Valleyand found Umbra on a Google
search at Tony.
(22:11):
So I am from a, uh, a very smallout of the way town called Fort
Lauderdale, Florida.
I don't know if you've heardabout it, not much.
Nothing's there, it doesn'treally show up for you there for
spring break.
I was, I was there for all ofthem, have the emotional scars
(22:34):
to prove it.
And then that ultimately got meto 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 atthe, uh, Esper studio with
Maggie plant again, and then wasan actor for one, no looking
back.
And then as, as it alwayshappens, uh, other things took
(22:56):
my interest.
I began to broaden myself alittle bit.
I started writing playwritingscreenwriting, uh, that led to
directing that led to producingthat led to meeting summer.
And, and the two of us realizingthat we, uh, have all of our
various hats and interests thatwe have, we, we enjoy
storytelling, uh, and we enjoyall the different facets of it.
(23:19):
And not only do we enjoy justthe act of telling a story,
that's either summer's or mineor, or uniquely, or it's
collective, but, but w we, welike telling stories that are
relevant to the community andthe environment that we're in.
And so, you know, so stories andcommunity became something very
important to us.
And I think that's what drove usto, uh, to always want to
(23:41):
wherever we are connect to theenvironment that we in, that was
the immediate foothold in thedesire to, uh, when we first
came here to, to start the belowthe line boot camp program,
because we wanted to meet peoplein the community.
And we wanted to let them knowthat film is for them, even if
they're not in the film businessthat they have apartment, if
(24:02):
they want it.
And yeah, and it really feelslike I like coming home, coming
to the Hudson Valley.
Um, you know, we feltimmediately welcomed and, and
embraced, you know, by thecommunity.
And so it, we were only hereoriginally for, uh, we were
going to be for 18 months on aproject.
(24:23):
And at the end of that time, wedidn't want to leave.
And we were very grateful that,uh, that it all worked out.
We didn't have to.
So,
Speaker 6 (24:30):
So, um, I don't want to let this go by, which is
summer Crockett more, and youdid say you were from Tennessee.
And I remember the first time Imet you.
So I asked the question, howCrockett are you?
Speaker 4 (24:45):
I am very Crockett.
I R John w which is DavidCrockett.
Son is buried in the, in, uh,you know, the local plot in
Paris, Tennessee.
I am four generations.
The great, great, great, greatniece of David Crockett.
Hi, now,
Speaker 6 (25:01):
All right.
I just had to get that out ofthe way.
So I came and met you becausefor me, I thought that in trying
to think about how do we bringgood jobs to the Hudson Valley
that at least not very educatedabout this, other than it being
a huge fan of the movies, butalways knowing that at the end
(25:25):
of that movie, there's this,these credits with all these
different production names,gaffers, and best boys and all
these other things that arethere.
And I remember coming first whenI discovered you were in the
city of Newburgh, and I said,wait a minute, I should go talk
to these people and find outwhat is it they do, and can they
(25:49):
make more of these jobs?
So the bootcamp helps get youthere, but what are these jobs?
And are they good paying jobs?
And,
Speaker 4 (25:58):
Oh, yeah.
So, I mean, there's alldifferent levels, right?
All different tiers as we callthem, you know, in the, in the
industry for what the wages areand whether it's union or
non-union the majority of workin the Hudson Valley right now
is unionized, which isfantastic.
We have major networks here, uh,independent productions, but
they're all on certain tiers,uh, that offer not only great
(26:22):
hourly wages, they offerincredible pension and health
and 401k plans.
Um, so, so that's, that's thestandard.
Um, and that's, you know, afeature film could employ, you
know, several hundred people forseveral months, whereas a
television series could employseveral thousand people for over
a year, and they're not justjobs, they're careers,
Speaker 5 (26:45):
Right?
I mean, their careers with ussummer was saying with pension
and health and benefits and, andit's, uh, it's, it's varied.
And it, it caters to the thingsthat, um, people are already
doing actually in differentsectors.
A lot of times, people in anycommunity don't realize what,
what they have sort of taken forgranted in their own, in their
(27:07):
own community actually has aplace in the film, whether it's
a seamstress for wardrobe, youknow, obviously hospitality for
hotels that goes without saying,but in the food service industry
for catering, um, there's a lotof set medics.
I have to say the, the, the setmedic industry has gotten a
little more complex now, andthat's, that's a whole other
(27:30):
category, but things thatalready exist in any given town
are things that are usedtransportation.
Speaker 4 (27:36):
Yeah.
They can plug right in, I mean,uh, transportation, right?
The same kind of Teamsters thatdrive ups trucks, uh, also drive
all the gear back and forth fromour equipment houses.
I mean, onset anything, uh, youknow, w we tell the youngsters
in the bootcamp, anything youenvision that could be part of
(27:58):
the film world generally is youhave hair, makeup, wardrobe,
Speaker 5 (28:05):
Construction.
Speaker 4 (28:05):
Yeah.
You know, really, um, everythingfrom administrative accounting,
all the way to electrical, youknow, it's the, sky's really the
limit.
Um, and even if you're startingout, you know, and you're not in
the union because you got, youcan't just join the union,
right.
You have to have qualifyinghours and a certain level of
experience and safetyunderstanding of, of what's done
(28:26):
on set.
But, you know, a lot of peopleourselves included started out
working on non-unionproductions, where you learn the
ropes.
Um, and, and they're very safesets.
Generally, they're run by, um,you know, professionals, um, and
you can really, you know, getyour hours, get your training
there.
And even those, even your, yourbasic PA job, which usually pays
(28:49):
minimum wage or, or greater, um,your department heads can still
be making a really livable wage.
And, you know, and you, you justhave to hope that, um, on the
non-union productions, you haveresponsible producers and a
responsible director.
And that safety is always themost important thing, but there
is room to learn and grow.
(29:10):
And so we, we like to tellpeople it's never too late
Speaker 5 (29:13):
To switch into a career in film and television.
There is so funny.
It's so funny.
People often try to sort of lumpit all together and say,
Hollywood, you know, Hollywoodhas come here, but it's not,
we're not really a monolithicenterprise.
You know, every, not everyproduction is the same, they're
run by different people indifferent companies and so on
and so forth.
So like summer was saying, youknow, you hope you get with, uh,
(29:35):
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 ofall, Hollywood, not the only
part of the country makingmovies, but I mean, that's how
it tends to get parceled out,you know, but, but it really is.
Um, there's just differentcompanies that do different
things.
(29:55):
And when you first start out,you have to really develop a
high tolerance for the word.
No, you have to hear, no, youhave to hear not hiring, and you
have to hear all those things.
And, and one of the things thatwe've always aspired to do, and
it's not just the boot campprogram, it's just generally
speaking as a company, whetherit's through choice or whether
it's through remember stages istrying to put as many people
(30:16):
together as possible.
Not for us brokering it for anyparticular game, but to just
sort of minimize the amount ofnos that can often come with any
competitive fields.
Speaker 4 (30:26):
Perfect example, this happened last week, you know,
Tony, you, you bring up a reallygreat point.
Uh, a woman who had worked forover 30 years in human resources
contacted us, they saw thearticle about umber expanding,
and she contacted us and said,you know, I don't know anything
about film, but I always reallywanted to work in that industry.
Can I come and just intern foryou for free, I'll send you my
(30:49):
resume.
And she sent her resume, whichwas incredible.
And I said, listen, you don't,you don't want to enter in your
management level.
Um, let's think about whatreally is exciting for you.
And what was really funny isafter talking to her for 10
minutes, I realized not only didshe have great administrative
understanding and managementskills, she was a real people
(31:10):
person.
And so, um, one of the networksthat 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 ourCOVID compliance team that we're
hiring for people.
Um, it's a long shot.
Do you have anybody?
I was like, I had the perfectperson.
She went in for an interview.
She got hired she's over themoon.
(31:30):
And it was just about looking atthe skill she had in a different
way.
You know, it was a perfect pivot
Speaker 5 (31:39):
On a, on a, on a similar fund at a gentleman
called us who was a graduatefrom the Newburgh free Academy.
And he was, um, calling to seeif there was anything, anything
at all in available.
I said he wanted to be involvedin, in film production.
And because of COVID, we haven'tyet restarted our bootcamp
program yet.
And so I said, well, we're stillin the process of figuring out a
(32:00):
few things, mostly technicalthings, as it relates to testing
and, and, and all that.
Uh, and they said, well, whydon't you do this?
Why don't you, before we we'llget, I said, we'll get you into
the program and we'll plug youin.
But in the meantime, why don'tyou send me your resume?
Just so I, I can have anintroduction to you.
Uh, and he, he did.
And I noticed that there was anursing, uh, um, uh, experience
(32:23):
we hadn't experienced atnursing.
And he, that was a focus theywanted 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 wassomething that was interesting
to them.
And I plugged it in and he gotthe job right out of the gate
and he interviewed, and he gotit.
And he, it, when
Speaker 4 (32:40):
He administered our COVID test check-in yesterday
just checked me.
And then, so, so when it's thatsimple, we live in, you know,
and, and if we can do it, we doit because it's the easiest
thing to do.
Uh, and it, it, it helps out.
And it also reaffirms thisnotion that, you know, you
already have the skills that ittakes to be in this field
(33:00):
business.
You just haven't found thesector yet.
You know, you just don't knowwhich one that is.
And we're more than happy tohelp people, uh, to plug people
in, you know, as, as are all thepeople who have come before us
to do the same things, to makefilm a possibility in the
region, we are certainlystanding on the shoulders of
giants as it relates to the workthat's been done before here.
(33:21):
And we continue to hope to, toendeavor, to do with people
before us have done so thatpeople after us can continue to
keep it going.
Speaker 6 (33:29):
So this is a podcast that focuses on, um, how do we
take COVID?
How do we take the economicdisruption and the social
issues, and hopefully come outof this in a better place, you
know?
Um, it's my one hour of optimismeach week.
Right.
Um, so what happened to youfolks during, I assume you were
(33:54):
shut down.
I know we were filming a videothere.
We had to follow all theprotocols and it was pretty
stringent.
And that's why I, I am veryconfident that the film industry
is very, very good at adheringto the rules of that, that come
out of the CDC.
So tell me a little bit aboutwhat was happening during COVID
(34:16):
and then you've got some prettybig plans.
Speaker 4 (34:19):
Yeah.
So, you know, it's funny, we hadthis conversation, uh, you know,
about two weeks ago, it was ourtwo week, you know, our one year
anniversary of having to shutdown.
We had just wrapped a movie, um,literally three days prior to
the government shut down, um,and then finished.
So everything was done.
(34:40):
Um, and I'm not gonna lie thefirst 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 aprimal scream and words, but I'd
seen, that's probably the bestway to describe it.
It was sort of a long collectiveprimal scream.
(35:03):
It must've been at least a weeklong.
And then once we exhaustedourselves,
Speaker 6 (35:09):
Unlike, you know, when everyone else was listening
to the governor, you were likegoing, wait a minute, you can't
do that to me.
Speaker 4 (35:17):
Well, I just, I remember I packed up my little
bag and I said to Tony, I'mlike, do you think we should
leave the plants?
Do you think we'll be back nextweek?
Like what?
And he was like, babe, I thinkwe're going home.
I was, I was, I, you know what,for whatever reason, I think
these things tend to begenerational.
I was fine with that.
(35:39):
I remember at some pointsomebody had said, I started
hearing phrasing like, um,quarantine fatigue.
And I was like, what's thatnever 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 isotherwise a really tragic
circumstance, which we can'treally describe this past year
(36:01):
as anything other than just atruly tragic a period where just
a lot of people got sick.
A lot of people tragicallypassed, and certainly the
economy took a real beating.
And I think if there was onething that we tried to take from
that was how do we prevent thisgoing forward?
How do we, how do we prepareourselves even further?
(36:22):
How do we take the things thatwe want already to do?
How do we make those?
How do we make those plans evensharper?
And how do we take this and movethis forward quicker?
And so we, we, once we got overour collective freak out about
what this all could meanfinancially, uh, we, we, we put
on our adult pants and, um,tried to, to plan and we pivot
(36:49):
and we planned pretty, pretty,pretty ferocious about what, how
we were going to take everythingforward, what our plans were for
the stages, what our plans werefor choice films, what our plans
were for everything that wewanted to accomplish and how we
can bring as many people in thecommunity with us on that.
And it was kind of reallyinteresting timing because, you
(37:11):
know, the first couple of monthshome, it was, um, a lot of
making sure that our staff whowas also furloughed was able to
get unemployment and a lot, alot of like nesting and
caretaking and making sureeverybody was okay, ourselves
included and then became, um,the opportunity where we
(37:32):
realized, you know, we were inconstruction already for, for
the expansion of ombre stage.
And it was the perfect time tosay, well, let's make everything
we do now.
COVID friendly.
So we upgraded the HPAC systemsand, you know, thank goodness
our partners, our, uh, ourbelievers and visionaries.
Cause they were right down thatplanning rabbit hole with us and
(37:55):
said, let's make touchlessdoors, let's do this.
Let's, let's alter what we canso that the minute it's safe to
come back, where ahead of it,I'm not going to lie.
There were a couple of driftmoments when I found myself
rereading bale Wolf.
And that's always, that's alwaysan existential moment.
Nobody really wants to visit.
I just, I just, I was gardening.
(38:18):
You know, it, wasn't all forwardthinking and full steam ahead.
Every once in a while you findyourself going, what am I doing?
Tony grew a beard.
He had a really, I could showyou photos.
I tried a beard and a Mohawk atthe same time.
It was pretty funny.
Two things that you don't thinkgo together and I found out they
did.
(38:39):
Um,
Speaker 6 (38:41):
But then you now have some pictures,
Speaker 4 (38:44):
Big dreams.
Yes.
Speaker 6 (38:48):
What do you want to talk about that?
Cause I know it's not final.
So what I want to explain aboutwhere you're going, because I am
just, I couldn't be moreexcited.
Speaker 4 (39:00):
Yeah.
So our, you know, are theexpansion ties into what the
main plan is essentially.
I mean, the, the expansion tiesinto what we're seeing now as a
real sort of, um, uh, uh,Renaissance in the Hudson
Valley, as it relates to thefilm industry where people are
(39:21):
really discovering from allparts of the country, how
amazing it is to film here, howgreat the people are, how great
the locations are, how friendlyand how Willy everyone wants to
be a part of this ambition ortheir dollars go here, or other
dollars go here.
How, how many industry are increw?
People are already here, livinghere, they just live here and
then usually commute to thecity.
(39:41):
Cause that's where the city,where the jobs usually are, but
how many of them are alreadyhere?
And so our expansion is reallytied into the fact that we want
to be able to support the demandthat's building.
And we're, we, we are again,religion.
We're we, we are just a few ofmany people that are, that are
seeing that in trying to dothat.
So our plans are tied into thatexcitement.
(40:01):
It's tied into that demand thatwe're getting from outside
people wanting to come in andshoot their, their series or
their films here.
Right.
Well, and what happened was, sostage one then began stage two.
Um, we immediately, uh, orbooked out through 2022 on those
(40:22):
stages.
So we had a stage which we'recalling stage four, which was
part of a larger infrastructureat the motorcycle PDM museum.
It was already a qualifiedspace, but we renovated it,
expanded it.
Um, it's now over 21,000 squarefeet.
So it's a standalone beautiful,uh, semi acoustical stage.
(40:43):
That's also booked through 2022.
So the decision was we eitherturn people away because we have
six or seven projects behindthese projects, right.
Continuing to book, or weexpand.
And we're so blessed to bepartnered with Ted Doring, who,
uh, is a visionary and hispartner, gene, Laura, um, have
(41:07):
really, they saw this coming waybefore we even were living here.
Um, and they had the plans toexpand.
And so what's worked so well inNewburgh with all of the
buildings that areinterconnected to make the
stages and the support spaces.
We are, uh, replicating a newWindsor with a series of five
(41:27):
buildings that will, that willhave three additional stages.
If the zoning is permitted andit's under review now with the
new Windsor in town, we'rehopefully replicating the
success that we've had here overthere.
And again, we just have thisdesire to keep building on the
excitement.
I mean, we have a wait list.
That's the thing more and morepeople can come here.
It's not, will you book it?
(41:48):
They will come.
It's there waiting in the wings.
We need room for them.
Well said summer.
Yeah, we want, we just want tocontinue that excitement.
And we want more and more peopleto be able to come here and
really enjoy how exciting it isto be shooting in this region.
I think the more people thatcome, the more people will stay.
I mean, we've already had repeat, uh, productions, uh, companies
(42:10):
coming back here.
And I think that's a great sign.
I think that says, I think thatspeaks volumes for the region
and the experiences thatproduction companies have when
they come to the region.
And so our, our desire is to doour one part, our small part,
which is admittedly say it's asmall part, uh, for the bigger
hole, which is to keep peoplehere.
Speaker 6 (42:32):
Well, you may say small part, but in the context
of the Hudson Valley, the, thefacilities you have in the city
of Newburgh, then what you'retrying to replicate, um, with
the support of the town of newWindsor, that's a pretty
substantial commitment.
(42:52):
And so why, where is it?
Where's the demand coming?
Why the Hudson Valley, I mean, Iknow you said you did a Google
search
Speaker 4 (43:00):
Summer, but now
Speaker 6 (43:02):
There are not only it there's people filming.
There's this people, there'speople from the industry living
here.
I once took a map and put littlepins where each actor that I
knew of where they were living,quite impressive, how come
they're finally discovering theHudson Valley?
Speaker 4 (43:22):
I think it's three faults.
It is proximity to New Yorkcity, which is this the second
hub in the world for theentertainment industry in Los
Angeles, in New York.
Right.
And then it like bleeds out fromthere.
Um, we're very close.
We're, uh, really easy to getto.
Um, I think that's the firstone.
(43:44):
The second thing is theavailability of local crew and
incredible locations, right?
The two go hand in hand, youdon't have to come here for
weeks and weeks and weeks to tryto put your project together.
You can show up, open your phoneand be at work with a crew of
people that are well-trainedsome of the best crew.
I think that the country livesin the Hudson Valley and then
(44:06):
third, and I wouldn't say thisis most important, but it's the
thing on Google that got me toNewburgh is the expanded tax
credit.
So the 10% bump in the taxcredit for New York state
Newburg is the first stop.
You know, Westchester is stillthe 25% zone.
Newburg is the first stop in the35% zone in the state.
(44:29):
And so that is dollars drivingpeople here.
I have to say, just on a sidenote, since somebody brought it
up, I mean, I've said thisbefore, um, there's a lot of
people that have a lot ofdifferent opinions about the tax
credit, but as far as I'mconcerned at the jobs bill yep.
The, the, this, this, this, thistax, this tax credit has been
more responsible.
(44:50):
And I know this firsthand and Ican show my map has enabled me
to hire more people in this areaalone and it will continue to do
so it's it is.
I would say it's funny thatsomeone mentioned three things.
It's I think it's more than athird of the reason why people
are looking at and coming fromother places.
(45:12):
I think in some instances, it'sthe sole reason they're coming
out here and then the momentthey get here they go, wait a
minute.
This is a great place to shoot.
I think it was almost like thattax put it for some productions
was a beacon.
And they came out here lookingfor some, some, some fiscal
relief.
Uh, once they got here, theyrealized that it was no BS tax
(45:36):
credit.
It's serious.
You have to hire people.
It's not like you just show upand you get, you gotta check.
Thank you very much.
But then once they're here,everything, somewhere else was
saying all the great crewpeople, all the great key talent
here, all the great locations.
I mean, you really goteverything, but that credit is
so urgently important to theongoing health of the film
(46:01):
industry.
It's critical.
Oh, there's a fourth thing.
I wouldn't say that this isleast important.
I think this is almost as a cakecake.
It's the film.
It's the film commissioners thatare here.
So we have incredible filmcommissioners in the Hudson
Valley.
(46:22):
Um, you know, we work hand inhand 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 thetown of Newburgh and with Lauren
who is an, you know, furtherNorth of us, but we work with
them nonstop to get permits andfind, you know, I can't tell you
(46:44):
how many times I've calledAmanda or Ellen in the middle of
the night.
And been like, I need a housewith a green porch and a yellow
thing, and I need it tomorrow.
And they have it.
And they know the person andit's is done.
It is, um, without the filmcommissioners, um, and the New
York state film office, we can,I was going to say, you know,
(47:06):
John and Jerry, I mean, in Gigibefore them, they have their,
the lifeline and the life bloodof the thriving, what we call
the film family hashtag theykeep us all there.
Like the grandparents that holdthe, the annual Christmas
dinner.
If you're from the South, likethe granny, granny, Crocket
(47:27):
always hosts everything.
Speaker 5 (47:30):
It's not, it's not, I would say it's not just there.
It's not just everyone thatsomeone mentioned.
It's not just that everybody isall in is that everybody is
completely accessible.
You can call them.
They're not closed or anyquestions you have in your
problem.
You have it's, you know, we, NewYork is really fortunate in this
(47:50):
way that everybody who isinvolved in this industry on the
level that we're talking aboutwith everybody that we mentioned
understands the value and thecritical, uh, input that film
has for the region.
And therefore everyone's workingtogether.
Everyone's saying, call thisperson, call that person.
Right.
And so they're accessible andthey want to work because
everyone knows what they'reworking for.
(48:12):
It.
Everybody knows what the dominoeffect you're right.
Perfect.
They all know, they all know theend game here.
They all know what thisultimately leads to.
So, so it's at the risk ofoverstating 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 (48:27):
So let, let's move to a slightly different direction
because as you know, as a moviefan, I'm a little concerned
about what's the future of themovie theater.
I'm not concerned about the needfor product and for, because it
seems like every day, there'sanother way to stream something.
And there's another seriesthere's another movie made now
(48:49):
by Netflix itself, as opposed toParamont or something.
What do you guys think?
Where's the future of all thisgoing?
Speaker 5 (48:58):
Um, you know, I'm old that maybe this is old
fashioned, maybe this is agenerational notion.
I don't, I don't know, but I'malways, uh, I'm always, uh, uh,
uh, ascribed to the notion thatif, if, if a movie happens and
there's only one person there tosee it, did it happen?
Did you watch it?
And I love the communal aspectof cinema.
(49:19):
I love going to a theaterbecause it's not just the work
that you're seeing.
It's the collective response ofeverybody around you with you in
that response, that theirresponse is as much a part of
the experience and the alchemybetween 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 aroundyou.
(49:39):
So for me, I am always going tohold out, hope that movie
theaters won't die.
That will, this will stay a partof 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'ssuch a big part of it.
And it's, it's, it's better incompany, right?
It's better to have these things.
Why not have these things as ifit's a town forum, you come out
(50:02):
and watch a movie.
I think you're right.
I also, I hope that it's goingto be similar to what happened
with records, right?
You with like the old vinyl.
Now they're kind of coming backbecause people are realizing
that having everything in thephone, you know, it's like, I
still want to hold a book.
I still want to read it.
I don't know because of theeconomy and how it is, how many
(50:24):
movie theaters will survive.
If they'll continue to do thingslike
Speaker 4 (50:28):
Alamo draft house, where you can go and see a movie
and eat dinner and have an openbar, like if they're going to
become more experiential.
Um, I don't know.
I can say that I've seentechnology completely change an
entire industry.
When I think about voiceoversand what my career was like 10
years ago, versus what it isnow.
(50:50):
And technology has not made itbetter.
It's made it easier, but it'snot made it better.
Um, and so I'm not concernedabout the fact that we won't
have jobs.
I think we'll have even morejobs have a wider variety
because of the demand forcontent, but how we consume the
content.
It's really, it's a, it's kindof a scary time.
(51:12):
Um, because I am very much likeTony.
I like, I'm a very socialperson.
I like to experience art as acollective.
Um, if we're watching everythingon our phone or alone in our
house, in our private hometheaters, I feel like we're just
going to be more and moreremoved from each other.
And, and that doesn't seem goodto me.
Speaker 6 (51:29):
Yeah.
Well, and so I don't knowwhether this is the, the, um,
the film that I want to use assome, maybe a sense of what's
going to happen, but over Easterweekend, King Kong versus
Godzilla.
And it did quite well in the boxoffice.
(51:50):
Now, either that was pent updemand 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 themovie, but you know, let's say
those kinds of movies do have avery wide audience, but it did
quite well in the movie theater.
Now it's interesting becauseit's, it was also available on
(52:15):
HBO max, right?
So like, how do, how do you, howdo you figure out that bounce?
I know Tony, you said veryinterestingly that that
collective experience.
And I hadn't thought about itthat way, that the idea used to
go into a movie theater andeverybody laughed or everyone's
screamed or everyone, you know,cried or something.
(52:37):
And that was part of theexperience of going to the
movies.
And I have discounted that.
And I think you're absolutelyright.
That that is part of it.
But with this demand for morecontent, more product, more
streaming, certainly you guys,and what you're trying to do, or
you may be even, even if you getthe next, you know, facility,
(53:00):
new Windsor, you might be bookedout to 20, 24.
Speaker 4 (53:05):
That's literally kind of what's happening.
Knock on wood.
If we look at what's in ourcalendar 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 (53:24):
The movie theater doesn't, uh,
Speaker 4 (53:26):
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 todo, we're going to have it.
It's like a party it's like massmovie 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
(53:51):
.
Speaker 6 (53:55):
What about, you know, you've been involved in lots of
projects throughout your career.
What was your, you know, do youhave one that was really
special?
Speaker 4 (54:03):
I do.
I mean, I have so many, I wouldsay I have two that are really
special because they were, they,they both dramatically changed
our future.
I would say, um, the first oneis junction.
It is close to my heart, always.
It's the first feature film thatTony and I made together.
Tony wrote and directed it, it,um, kind of put our company on
(54:25):
the map in a way, you know, withthe 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 thecountry and saw it in movie
theaters with all differenttypes of people.
It was magical.
I play a meth addict and it say,you know, typecasting, kidding.
But it was the first time I gotto play somebody that wasn't
(54:47):
super close to my type.
And I remember people beinglike, I don't know if you can
play that role.
I was like, you watch me play it.
That would be the one that Ithink is really close to my
heart.
I was going to say big dogsbecause it was the largest
project we've ever done as well.
Big dogs brought us to Umbra andB it was the biggest project we
(55:08):
ever done.
You know, it was a whole seriesand we worked with the creator
and built it from the ground up.
So it felt very, um,
Speaker 6 (55:16):
I love that.
I love the theme of that.
Maybe you could tell ourlisteners what that was about,
maybe sure.
Speaker 4 (55:23):
Tony talk about that because he developed it with the
creator.
And then you can also talk aboutyour 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, thecontent and the books, it was
(55:44):
based on the book series.
And then it's not just talkingabout big, big dog, sorry, Joe.
She was really, junction wasreally close to my heart because
junction is, is sort of, uh, uh,uh, uh, it's not exactly
autobiographical, but it wassort of, it was based on a lot
of experiences that I had.
I wouldn't say they were allmine, uh, but it, but it was
(56:07):
based on a lot of personalthings, 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 thefirst feature that we did.
And so that always holds your,it's always that first one, you
know, your first time, youalways remember your first time,
and that was certainly it, uh,for, uh,
Speaker 5 (56:24):
For that.
And I would say the same thingfor, for big dogs, which was the
television series that we workedon and what I was going to say
when I had meant to say before Imisspoke, was that, um, you
know, it was such a fascinatingproject to work on, not just
because of the, the, the, the,the, the sub the content of it
when it was about, but that itwould, it had such crazy
parallels what was happening inour, in, in, in the world at the
(56:46):
same time that we were workingon it.
And so it's a book series ofsort of a, a parallel universe
of New York city, where back in2009, uh, instead of bailing out
the banks, uh, the governments,uh, decided not to.
And is that when that didn'thappen, there was just this full
economic, global collapse.
And so New York had revertedback to this, uh, sort of, uh,
(57:09):
seventies, eighties, era, urbanblight, and everything was off,
got it out.
And all the municipalities werebroke.
And so it was sort of, uh, uh,uh, gives great pressure and,
uh, uh, book series written bythe writer, Adam Dunn.
And it was just fascinating howmuch it was, like, what was
(57:30):
going on in the world now.
And he had written it yearsbefore, uh, uh, any of this had
happened.
And so I, it was justfascinating 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 differentname, which I won't say here,
but it had a different name.
(57:52):
Um, and, um, there's an episodeone when, when our lead
characters first meet, one ofthem is looking at this map and
it has all these things on it.
And the guy Manny Perez who playSantiago says to Michael Ray who
plays more, what is that?
And more like, does it show himit, wasn't a global outbreak
tracking the spread of a virusacross the country.
(58:13):
And when you look at that now,you're like, yeah, wow.
What, what that was sort ofsetting up a score in the next
book, there was a full-blownpandemic and someone when we had
gotten to, when we were rollingout, uh, and of course last year
cut to last year when all thisquarantine first started, it was
like, Oh my gosh, there's justall these things coming
together.
So that, that was those twothings.
(58:33):
But if I can add one more thingto the mix, I think, and it's
for the same reasons whyjunction was so important, as I
wrote a play called substance ofbliss, it's a two hander as
published by Sam French.
And it's, it's basically anothersomething that I wrote that was
just very personal.
And I think when you saysomething personal, whether or
(58:54):
not it's embraced or notembraced, or whether or not
someone knows about it ordoesn't know about it, those are
the ones that I think mean themost to, you know, cause it, it
comes from such a specificplace.
And so that one also meant quitea lot to me.
So if I had to name, if I had toname them, those would be the
ones.
Speaker 6 (59:11):
All right, then.
So some are pocket more and TonyGlazer, thank you so much where
we couldn't be happier thatyou're in the Hudson Valley,
that you're attracting morepeople, that you're creating
jobs in the Hudson Valley, um,product projects.
Um, thanks for your time thisafternoon.
It was our pleasure.
(59:31):
Thank you for having us andthank 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 (59:42):
Thank you for tuning in to patterns and paradigms the
pattern podcast.
For more information about thisepisode, visit our website
pattern for progress.org forwardslash podcast.
We are experiencing a paradigm shift, a fundamental
change in the way we usually dothings.
We are intentionally choosing tosee the silver lining
opportunity arises.
We can shine a light on thethings that weren't working well
(00:25):
on those things that weren'treally working at all, we can
regroup reevaluate andre-engineer it's time to explore
new patterns and paradigms thosethat inspire us to rise above
the chaos and explore how theconditions of today and take us
(00:47):
to a better tomorrow patternsand paradigms the pattern
podcast from Hudson Valleypattern for progress.
You're listening to season two,episode 15, filming in the
Hudson Valley with your hostpattern, president and CEO,
Jonathan Dropkin.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Hi everyone, and welcome to patterns and
paradigms.
We hope that you had time tolisten to our episode with
Denise frangipani and SullivanRenaissance, to see how
inspiring a program dedicated tobeautification and community
renewal can be.
Denise would be happy to talk toyou about how to get a program
(01:28):
like that going in your area.
Just let us know and we'llconnect you.
Please remember to subscribe toour podcasts wherever you find
your favorite.
And take a moment to share anepisode with a friend this
week's bubble or trend the trendis clear due to the recent
(01:49):
completion of the New York statebudget and the completed and
proposed federal stimulus bills.
There is more than enough moneyto make our school districts in
the Hudson Valley.
Hope.
This is indeed good news, butthe bubble that I'm wishing to
reference here is what are wegoing to do with some of that
(02:12):
money?
More of the same.
There is so much to talk aboutin just trying to get kids back
to school and a great deal of itis centered in going back to the
way it was well, patterns andparadigms doesn't want to go
back to the way it was.
We want to imagine.
(02:33):
And now we're financially in aposition to do some of that
imagination.
What did the school districts ofthe twenties look like?
So, yes, we were tired oflearning virtually and it didn't
work for everybody.
So yes, we want to get backinside the classroom
(02:53):
socialization good for mentalhealth, good for learning from
those kids, but we don't want toget rid of virtual learning
entirely.
We think it could actually beused to supplement how kids
learn.
There are those kids that can'tget enough school, and this will
be an opportunity for them toactually have classes that they
(03:17):
can subscribe to, to supplementthe programs and classes that
they have in their school or atthe other end.
What about kids that are fallingbehind?
Does it have to wait until nextyear or this coming summer?
Possibly there's ways to helpthem immediately with topics and
(03:40):
subjects that they weren'tgrasping in the classroom.
Can we finally come to gripswith the fact that high school
for 50% of people in our regionis the end of formal learning?
Can we design a pathway to a jobfor the 50% that are looking for
employment after high school?
(04:02):
And this is the end of wherethey're going to be in terms of
formal education, but they'renot going to a community
college.
They're not going to a four yearcollege, nothing wrong with
that.
We fully command and continue tourge people that wish to go on
for higher levels of formaleducation to do so.
(04:22):
But we've got to think about,are we going to get people to a
decent paying job using the sameprograms we were using prior to
the pandemic?
If we are moving ahead, byunderstanding where the reality
lies in terms of formaleducation.
And we know this from looking atcensus data, so stay tuned,
(04:45):
let's look for the imaginationas we return to full-time K
through 12 learning.
And by the way, some of thatimagination, we couldn't be
happier that there's going to beuniversal.
pre-K this is super, but that'sfor another episode.
So I'm here with my partner, JoeCheika and I want to continue
this notion of, so if we haveextra money and I know there'll
(05:09):
be those immediately say, it'snot 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 andbetter is the word that I want
to focus on with Joe.
So, Joe, I'm going to take aguess housing, any ideas for, if
you had the money, what wouldyou do
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Ideas after, after doing this for three decades, a
few things come to mind, uh, youknow, right, right now there's,
there's a lot of people hurtingbecause 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 wouldhelp tenants who have been in
(05:55):
arrears.
I think that's, that's both apositive movement for property
owners and renters.
Um, I think that creating alarger pool of what's called a
choice housing voucher isimportant.
It's a rent subsidy that allowspeople to live, where they want
to live and gives them theeconomic mobility within the
(06:18):
County to take that voucher, um,and get good quality housing.
I think increasing the downpayment and closing cost
assistance for first-time homebuyers 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
(06:39):
generational poverty, housingrehabilitation for those who are
in their homes and have hadissues, maintaining their homes,
they need a new boiler, theyneed a new roof, you need
electrical upgrades.
There's a lot of people who ownhomes who are aging in place.
They need assistance with thingslike ramps, things like
(07:00):
handicapped accessibility, uh,in terms of bathrooms and
kitchens, uh, things like that.
Um, there's a lot of other coststhat are related, um, to, to,
um, to developers on the longrange, uh, um, economic, uh,
output, if you will, of their,of their developments in terms
(07:22):
of expenses.
One very easy way that adeveloper can serve lower income
renters is to reduce their costsof operation.
One of their biggest costs ofoperation, local taxes.
So could you imagine if you, if,if there was a pool of dollars
developers could dip into thatwould actually assist in paying
(07:46):
those local taxes that way thatthe community stays whole, the
developer, um, can build morehousing and the rents can
typically be lower water andsewer infrastructure in rural
areas is very important becausepeople don't all live in urban
centers.
And when you go to develophousing in a rural area, one of
(08:09):
the biggest stumbling blocks iswater and sewer.
And my last idea would be toactually expand the habitat
model.
The habitat model builds skills.
It builds neighborhoods and itabsolutely builds wealth.
Um, operating those programs,they all run on very, very thin
(08:31):
margins.
It's extraordinarily difficultto raise funds for it.
So I would expand that model.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Okay, Joe, when you say expand that model, and in
terms of housing, you've oftensaid to me that with regard to
affordable and workforcehousing, you use the phrase
lasagna financing that's right.
Is there, is there somethingthat we could do with money that
would make it easier to calltogether the financing necessary
(09:04):
for this rather than I thinkwhat you've always meant is it
takes so many different sourcesof funding to put, to make a
project viable.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
It, it does, there's, you know, lasagna financing.
So in any good lasagna there sixor seven different layers.
And, and, and the same thinggoes when you're putting into a
housing development together,it's not just equity and debt.
It's all of the tax creditdollars.
It's all of the home programdollars, the community
development block, grantdollars, the federal home loan
(09:37):
bank dollars.
There's all of these, again,layers of lasagna.
If there was a one-stop shop, itwould reduce the accounting
costs.
It would reduce the legal costs.
It would reduce the developmenttimeline.
And remember for developers,time is money.
And the longer that processgoes, the more expensive the
(09:58):
housing becomes.
Somebody has to make up forthose costs.
And if there's not a grant oranother deep subsidy that covers
those costs, then those costsare made up in the rents or the
cost of the house in terms ofhome ownership.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
And then it's time to make you the housing czar for
the Hudson Valley.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Well, wouldn't that be a great day?
Speaker 2 (10:22):
All right.
Thanks, Joe.
You know, I think that yourexpertise in housing is really
good in trying to start for usto look at this notion of
building back better.
We've always known there's ahousing problem.
We've always known there's beena shortage.
We seem to have money.
(10:42):
We've seen enthusiasm.
We have a great opportunity tothink about more housing, but
the question is, what does itlook like?
So you use housing.
I want to use infrastructure.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
I would say, what about infrastructure?
JD?
That's, that's a big topic.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
It, it is.
And so one of the big projectsthat is up for consideration in
our region right now is buildinga third lane on route 17.
Now there are definitelysections of route 17 that need a
third lane.
And so do I think it should gounder construction and we fix
(11:21):
the portions that need thisthird lane.
I do.
However, can we be imagined it?
So what am, I mean, here are acouple of ideas.
So one in an age in which we'retrying to think green.
So can we put charging stationsevery second or third exit build
(11:45):
it so that the exits have aplace for cars to, um,
immediately, uh, charge theirbatteries.
Can we create in the third lanea way to go from, let's say exit
one 30, right to Sullivan Countyexpress lane, straight through.
Can we use things like the timethat you're on the highway, you
(12:10):
pay a higher fare.
Look, we just did all theconstruction at Woodbury to make
it toll us, but you're stillpaying a fee to come on.
And there's the ability to tollyou at that point.
Well, if you entered betweencertain hours, when the traffic
is high, we have a chance atthat point to, um, be able to
(12:32):
charge more.
Maybe that helps to reduce someof the traffic, but now let's
get even more imaginative.
So Woodbury commons is one ofthe most, it's either the first
or second largest tourismattraction in, in New York
state.
It, it varies between that and,um, Niagara falls.
And it always depends on theexpansions that are occurring at
(12:55):
Woodbury commons.
And this is all in orange Countyfor our listeners.
Can we find a spot near Woodburycomments where we could put
additional parking causeWoodbury commons is crowded.
So we got to look for anotherspot of which right near there,
(13:15):
you could either do one of twothings you could get into a van
that takes you right into it.
Very commons.
If Woodbury commons continues toexpand and needs more parking.
So they added another deckparking lot, but that even that
doesn't seem to be enough or,and this is where it starts to
get imagined that the firstphase of a monorail, a monorail
(13:40):
that would go from this parkingarea to Lego land.
And therefore you could go fromLego land to the parking area,
get into a van, and then the vanwill enable you to go, um, to
Woodbury commons, to goshopping.
Don't need a car to do any ofthis.
Then they'll probably the mostimportant segment of route 17
(14:02):
that needs to be fixed.
And we've got to figure out somebetter design for this, which is
where I, 84 and route 17 mergeand where route 17, let's off
into exit one 20 is a disaster.
That is where I see the mostnumber of accidents.
(14:23):
And I've been driving this foralmost 15 years, you know, from
Newburgh IID for route 17 and toSullivan County.
So can we figure out how to redothat whole interchange?
Because people are merging fromthe two lanes of route 17, and
(14:43):
then they get into trying to getoff the exit.
And then there are people tryingto come on to 17 and speed up as
fast as they can.
It doesn't work.
It never, it's just poorlydesigned.
So yes, we have additionalmoney, whether it's housing,
whether it is infrastructurelet's truly build back better.
(15:07):
Absolutely.
All right, Joe, thank you.
Um, our guests today are summerCrockett Moore and Tony Glazer.
Get ready to dispel all yourmyths about the film, television
and theater industry, and meettwo of the most committed
individuals who are just fun tobe with their production company
(15:29):
is choice films.
And they operate out of umberstages here in Newburgh, New
York, but hopefully they areexpanding and bringing with it
more high paying jobs to theHudson Valley, but more on that
in this episode.
Hi summer.
Hi Tony.
(15:50):
Hi guys.
How you doing?
Speaker 4 (15:51):
Good.
Thanks for having us.
We are surviving.
We are, um, we are stillstanding.
Yeah, it's, it's a beautifulspring day.
So things feel like, uh, youknow, they're emerging.
Um, it's been a very interestingyear.
I'll say, um, a lot of, uh, uh,perspective shifts, a lot of, a
(16:12):
lot of growth, both personallyand professionally.
And so, um, we're coming out ofit with a real strong, I think,
I think a lot of good thingscome from, uh, forest.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Yeah.
I think it's a good way to putit Tony.
All right, let let's, let'sexplain who you are.
So I know you as both summer andTony, but you're also choice
films and you're at umber studio.
So why don't we start byexplaining who you are, what
(16:45):
they are so that our listenershave a sense of the two people
I'm talking with?
Speaker 4 (16:51):
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 aproduction company, um, that
actually turns 20 years old thisyear, it's called 40 year
anniversary.
Uh, and it's crazy.
Um, we are a film television andtheater production company.
(17:14):
Uh, we started our roots STEMfrom, you know, theater in New
York city, um, which we startedback in, you know, 2001 pre nine
11, um, and then mostly havebeen doing film and television
for the past decade.
Um, we have partnered with theincredible brisk stages, which
we are now managing partners of,um, and umber stages is a
(17:38):
soundstage facility, aproduction facility in the state
of New York.
We currently have three stagesand we are expanding to six
stages, uh, as well as a bunchof offices, scenic shops, um,
over 200,000 square feet ofproduction infrastructure is
under stages.
Speaker 5 (17:56):
So run a, uh, not-for-profit group called
below the line bootcamp, whichis a program, uh, designed for
at-risk youth to get a groundentry-level positions in film
and television production asproduction assistants.
Uh, we also provide, uh,mentorship for them.
All of that's free to them.
Uh, we, uh, sustain ourselvesfrom the kindness of our local
(18:20):
businesses and also a grant, uh,from,
Speaker 6 (18:25):
Yeah, I forgot.
And when I was thinking aboutthe interview that you just got
a grant for, wha wha what's thatgrant and what are you going to
do with it?
Speaker 5 (18:35):
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 thestudents.
Cause when we bring kids in, Icall them kids.
Cause everybody that's youngerthan me.
Sadly now gets the, uh, get thetag on the kids.
So no disrespect, it's just myown issues with my own mortality
(18:56):
and how it comes out.
Uh, but, uh, but we, we pay forthem to, to come.
So not only is it free to them,but sometimes, uh, we know that
people have to leave a job orthey can't necessarily afford
to, to be trained.
And so we want to pay them forthat.
And we also want to feed them,uh, during that period.
And then we want to put themright into a job that we have
right now.
Unfortunately, this is where,uh, our, our film production
(19:19):
company and where ourassociation with number stages
all come together.
Because now we, we sort of havea pipeline where we can, uh, put
, uh, people who have aninterest in film production onto
a set.
And, you know, COVID has alongwith all the other things that
it has, uh, given, uh, theregion has created, uh, some
(19:41):
other much needed, uh, jobpositions.
And so we've been hiring morepeople.
There've been other departmentsnow that are exclusively, uh,
designed for COVID and Copelandpretend, uh, uh, prevention and
management.
And so the, the grant money goesa long way to allowing us to
sustain, uh, the trainingprogram and to sort of in sort
(20:02):
of enlarge the scope of it.
So we can, we can get moreperspective students, uh, and,
um, people of a young age, uh,into the business.
Speaker 6 (20:13):
Yeah.
Tony, if he keeps saying, yeah,you keep saying of a young age
and I'm looking at you and I'mlike thinking, Oh my, all right,
I'm just going to get my Walkerfor a minute.
Let's go back.
Let's go backwards.
What w what, how did both of youcome, you know, w let's talk a
(20:37):
little bit about each of yourcareers that brought you to the
city of Newburgh, which is whereI met you, but
Speaker 4 (20:44):
Yes.
So I hail from a very small towncalled Paris, Tennessee.
I moved to New York city on atheater scholarship when I was
17 and never left, um, met Tonyin 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 theprofessional world, too.
(21:07):
We're members of multipleunions.
And so we can bounce around inthe industry, uh, pretty, pretty
easily.
Um, I started working prettysteadily as an actress, uh, at
about 21.
And by 27, I knew that if Iwanted more control over my
career, and I didn't just wantto play the soccer mom or the
(21:28):
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 aperfect time because I had
formed a little theater companyand he had formed a theater
company and we put our headstogether and forms to I films.
So, um, so I moved from, youknow, Tennessee to New York city
(21:50):
lived there and we came toNewburgh, um, on a Google search
back in, uh, 2016 for a verysmall little feature film that
needed a soundstage, and wecouldn't afford to do it in
Manhattan.
So we came to the Hudson Valleyand found Umbra on a Google
search at Tony.
(22:11):
So I am from a, uh, a very smallout of the way town called Fort
Lauderdale, Florida.
I don't know if you've heardabout it, not much.
Nothing's there, it doesn'treally show up for you there for
spring break.
I was, I was there for all ofthem, have the emotional scars
(22:34):
to prove it.
And then that ultimately got meto 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 atthe, uh, Esper studio with
Maggie plant again, and then wasan actor for one, no looking
back.
And then as, as it alwayshappens, uh, other things took
(22:56):
my interest.
I began to broaden myself alittle bit.
I started writing playwritingscreenwriting, uh, that led to
directing that led to producingthat led to meeting summer.
And, and the two of us realizingthat we, uh, have all of our
various hats and interests thatwe have, we, we enjoy
storytelling, uh, and we enjoyall the different facets of it.
(23:19):
And not only do we enjoy justthe act of telling a story,
that's either summer's or mineor, or uniquely, or it's
collective, but, but w we, welike telling stories that are
relevant to the community andthe environment that we're in.
And so, you know, so stories andcommunity became something very
important to us.
And I think that's what drove usto, uh, to always want to
(23:41):
wherever we are connect to theenvironment that we in, that was
the immediate foothold in thedesire to, uh, when we first
came here to, to start the belowthe line boot camp program,
because we wanted to meet peoplein the community.
And we wanted to let them knowthat film is for them, even if
they're not in the film businessthat they have apartment, if
(24:02):
they want it.
And yeah, and it really feelslike I like coming home, coming
to the Hudson Valley.
Um, you know, we feltimmediately welcomed and, and
embraced, you know, by thecommunity.
And so it, we were only hereoriginally for, uh, we were
going to be for 18 months on aproject.
(24:23):
And at the end of that time, wedidn't want to leave.
And we were very grateful that,uh, that it all worked out.
We didn't have to.
So,
Speaker 6 (24:30):
So, um, I don't want to let this go by, which is
summer Crockett more, and youdid say you were from Tennessee.
And I remember the first time Imet you.
So I asked the question, howCrockett are you?
Speaker 4 (24:45):
I am very Crockett.
I R John w which is DavidCrockett.
Son is buried in the, in, uh,you know, the local plot in
Paris, Tennessee.
I am four generations.
The great, great, great, greatniece of David Crockett.
Hi, now,
Speaker 6 (25:01):
All right.
I just had to get that out ofthe way.
So I came and met you becausefor me, I thought that in trying
to think about how do we bringgood jobs to the Hudson Valley
that at least not very educatedabout this, other than it being
a huge fan of the movies, butalways knowing that at the end
(25:25):
of that movie, there's this,these credits with all these
different production names,gaffers, and best boys and all
these other things that arethere.
And I remember coming first whenI discovered you were in the
city of Newburgh, and I said,wait a minute, I should go talk
to these people and find outwhat is it they do, and can they
(25:49):
make more of these jobs?
So the bootcamp helps get youthere, but what are these jobs?
And are they good paying jobs?
And,
Speaker 4 (25:58):
Oh, yeah.
So, I mean, there's alldifferent levels, right?
All different tiers as we callthem, you know, in the, in the
industry for what the wages areand whether it's union or
non-union the majority of workin the Hudson Valley right now
is unionized, which isfantastic.
We have major networks here, uh,independent productions, but
they're all on certain tiers,uh, that offer not only great
(26:22):
hourly wages, they offerincredible pension and health
and 401k plans.
Um, so, so that's, that's thestandard.
Um, and that's, you know, afeature film could employ, you
know, several hundred people forseveral months, whereas a
television series could employseveral thousand people for over
a year, and they're not justjobs, they're careers,
Speaker 5 (26:45):
Right?
I mean, their careers with ussummer was saying with pension
and health and benefits and, andit's, uh, it's, it's varied.
And it, it caters to the thingsthat, um, people are already
doing actually in differentsectors.
A lot of times, people in anycommunity don't realize what,
what they have sort of taken forgranted in their own, in their
(27:07):
own community actually has aplace in the film, whether it's
a seamstress for wardrobe, youknow, obviously hospitality for
hotels that goes without saying,but in the food service industry
for catering, um, there's a lotof set medics.
I have to say the, the, the setmedic industry has gotten a
little more complex now, andthat's, that's a whole other
(27:30):
category, but things thatalready exist in any given town
are things that are usedtransportation.
Speaker 4 (27:36):
Yeah.
They can plug right in, I mean,uh, transportation, right?
The same kind of Teamsters thatdrive ups trucks, uh, also drive
all the gear back and forth fromour equipment houses.
I mean, onset anything, uh, youknow, w we tell the youngsters
in the bootcamp, anything youenvision that could be part of
(27:58):
the film world generally is youhave hair, makeup, wardrobe,
Speaker 5 (28:05):
Construction.
Speaker 4 (28:05):
Yeah.
You know, really, um, everythingfrom administrative accounting,
all the way to electrical, youknow, it's the, sky's really the
limit.
Um, and even if you're startingout, you know, and you're not in
the union because you got, youcan't just join the union,
right.
You have to have qualifyinghours and a certain level of
experience and safetyunderstanding of, of what's done
(28:26):
on set.
But, you know, a lot of peopleourselves included started out
working on non-unionproductions, where you learn the
ropes.
Um, and, and they're very safesets.
Generally, they're run by, um,you know, professionals, um, and
you can really, you know, getyour hours, get your training
there.
And even those, even your, yourbasic PA job, which usually pays
(28:49):
minimum wage or, or greater, um,your department heads can still
be making a really livable wage.
And, you know, and you, you justhave to hope that, um, on the
non-union productions, you haveresponsible producers and a
responsible director.
And that safety is always themost important thing, but there
is room to learn and grow.
(29:10):
And so we, we like to tellpeople it's never too late
Speaker 5 (29:13):
To switch into a career in film and television.
There is so funny.
It's so funny.
People often try to sort of lumpit all together and say,
Hollywood, you know, Hollywoodhas come here, but it's not,
we're not really a monolithicenterprise.
You know, every, not everyproduction is the same, they're
run by different people indifferent companies and so on
and so forth.
So like summer was saying, youknow, you hope you get with, uh,
(29:35):
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 ofall, Hollywood, not the only
part of the country makingmovies, but I mean, that's how
it tends to get parceled out,you know, but, but it really is.
Um, there's just differentcompanies that do different
things.
(29:55):
And when you first start out,you have to really develop a
high tolerance for the word.
No, you have to hear, no, youhave to hear not hiring, and you
have to hear all those things.
And, and one of the things thatwe've always aspired to do, and
it's not just the boot campprogram, it's just generally
speaking as a company, whetherit's through choice or whether
it's through remember stages istrying to put as many people
(30:16):
together as possible.
Not for us brokering it for anyparticular game, but to just
sort of minimize the amount ofnos that can often come with any
competitive fields.
Speaker 4 (30:26):
Perfect example, this happened last week, you know,
Tony, you, you bring up a reallygreat point.
Uh, a woman who had worked forover 30 years in human resources
contacted us, they saw thearticle about umber expanding,
and she contacted us and said,you know, I don't know anything
about film, but I always reallywanted to work in that industry.
Can I come and just intern foryou for free, I'll send you my
(30:49):
resume.
And she sent her resume, whichwas incredible.
And I said, listen, you don't,you don't want to enter in your
management level.
Um, let's think about whatreally is exciting for you.
And what was really funny isafter talking to her for 10
minutes, I realized not only didshe have great administrative
understanding and managementskills, she was a real people
(31:10):
person.
And so, um, one of the networksthat 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 ourCOVID compliance team that we're
hiring for people.
Um, it's a long shot.
Do you have anybody?
I was like, I had the perfectperson.
She went in for an interview.
She got hired she's over themoon.
(31:30):
And it was just about looking atthe skill she had in a different
way.
You know, it was a perfect pivot
Speaker 5 (31:39):
On a, on a, on a similar fund at a gentleman
called us who was a graduatefrom the Newburgh free Academy.
And he was, um, calling to seeif there was anything, anything
at all in available.
I said he wanted to be involvedin, in film production.
And because of COVID, we haven'tyet restarted our bootcamp
program yet.
And so I said, well, we're stillin the process of figuring out a
(32:00):
few things, mostly technicalthings, as it relates to testing
and, and, and all that.
Uh, and they said, well, whydon't you do this?
Why don't you, before we we'llget, I said, we'll get you into
the program and we'll plug youin.
But in the meantime, why don'tyou send me your resume?
Just so I, I can have anintroduction to you.
Uh, and he, he did.
And I noticed that there was anursing, uh, um, uh, experience
(32:23):
we hadn't experienced atnursing.
And he, that was a focus theywanted 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 wassomething that was interesting
to them.
And I plugged it in and he gotthe job right out of the gate
and he interviewed, and he gotit.
And he, it, when
Speaker 4 (32:40):
He administered our COVID test check-in yesterday
just checked me.
And then, so, so when it's thatsimple, we live in, you know,
and, and if we can do it, we doit because it's the easiest
thing to do.
Uh, and it, it, it helps out.
And it also reaffirms thisnotion that, you know, you
already have the skills that ittakes to be in this field
(33:00):
business.
You just haven't found thesector yet.
You know, you just don't knowwhich one that is.
And we're more than happy tohelp people, uh, to plug people
in, you know, as, as are all thepeople who have come before us
to do the same things, to makefilm a possibility in the
region, we are certainlystanding on the shoulders of
giants as it relates to the workthat's been done before here.
(33:21):
And we continue to hope to, toendeavor, to do with people
before us have done so thatpeople after us can continue to
keep it going.
Speaker 6 (33:29):
So this is a podcast that focuses on, um, how do we
take COVID?
How do we take the economicdisruption and the social
issues, and hopefully come outof this in a better place, you
know?
Um, it's my one hour of optimismeach week.
Right.
Um, so what happened to youfolks during, I assume you were
(33:54):
shut down.
I know we were filming a videothere.
We had to follow all theprotocols and it was pretty
stringent.
And that's why I, I am veryconfident that the film industry
is very, very good at adheringto the rules of that, that come
out of the CDC.
So tell me a little bit aboutwhat was happening during COVID
(34:16):
and then you've got some prettybig plans.
Speaker 4 (34:19):
Yeah.
So, you know, it's funny, we hadthis conversation, uh, you know,
about two weeks ago, it was ourtwo week, you know, our one year
anniversary of having to shutdown.
We had just wrapped a movie, um,literally three days prior to
the government shut down, um,and then finished.
So everything was done.
(34:40):
Um, and I'm not gonna lie thefirst 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 aprimal scream and words, but I'd
seen, that's probably the bestway to describe it.
It was sort of a long collectiveprimal scream.
(35:03):
It must've been at least a weeklong.
And then once we exhaustedourselves,
Speaker 6 (35:09):
Unlike, you know, when everyone else was listening
to the governor, you were likegoing, wait a minute, you can't
do that to me.
Speaker 4 (35:17):
Well, I just, I remember I packed up my little
bag and I said to Tony, I'mlike, do you think we should
leave the plants?
Do you think we'll be back nextweek?
Like what?
And he was like, babe, I thinkwe're going home.
I was, I was, I, you know what,for whatever reason, I think
these things tend to begenerational.
I was fine with that.
(35:39):
I remember at some pointsomebody had said, I started
hearing phrasing like, um,quarantine fatigue.
And I was like, what's thatnever 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 isotherwise a really tragic
circumstance, which we can'treally describe this past year
(36:01):
as anything other than just atruly tragic a period where just
a lot of people got sick.
A lot of people tragicallypassed, and certainly the
economy took a real beating.
And I think if there was onething that we tried to take from
that was how do we prevent thisgoing forward?
How do we, how do we prepareourselves even further?
(36:22):
How do we take the things thatwe want already to do?
How do we make those?
How do we make those plans evensharper?
And how do we take this and movethis forward quicker?
And so we, we, once we got overour collective freak out about
what this all could meanfinancially, uh, we, we, we put
on our adult pants and, um,tried to, to plan and we pivot
(36:49):
and we planned pretty, pretty,pretty ferocious about what, how
we were going to take everythingforward, what our plans were for
the stages, what our plans werefor choice films, what our plans
were for everything that wewanted to accomplish and how we
can bring as many people in thecommunity with us on that.
And it was kind of reallyinteresting timing because, you
(37:11):
know, the first couple of monthshome, it was, um, a lot of
making sure that our staff whowas also furloughed was able to
get unemployment and a lot, alot of like nesting and
caretaking and making sureeverybody was okay, ourselves
included and then became, um,the opportunity where we
(37:32):
realized, you know, we were inconstruction already for, for
the expansion of ombre stage.
And it was the perfect time tosay, well, let's make everything
we do now.
COVID friendly.
So we upgraded the HPAC systemsand, you know, thank goodness
our partners, our, uh, ourbelievers and visionaries.
Cause they were right down thatplanning rabbit hole with us and
(37:55):
said, let's make touchlessdoors, let's do this.
Let's, let's alter what we canso that the minute it's safe to
come back, where ahead of it,I'm not going to lie.
There were a couple of driftmoments when I found myself
rereading bale Wolf.
And that's always, that's alwaysan existential moment.
Nobody really wants to visit.
I just, I just, I was gardening.
(38:18):
You know, it, wasn't all forwardthinking and full steam ahead.
Every once in a while you findyourself going, what am I doing?
Tony grew a beard.
He had a really, I could showyou photos.
I tried a beard and a Mohawk atthe same time.
It was pretty funny.
Two things that you don't thinkgo together and I found out they
did.
(38:39):
Um,
Speaker 6 (38:41):
But then you now have some pictures,
Speaker 4 (38:44):
Big dreams.
Yes.
Speaker 6 (38:48):
What do you want to talk about that?
Cause I know it's not final.
So what I want to explain aboutwhere you're going, because I am
just, I couldn't be moreexcited.
Speaker 4 (39:00):
Yeah.
So our, you know, are theexpansion ties into what the
main plan is essentially.
I mean, the, the expansion tiesinto what we're seeing now as a
real sort of, um, uh, uh,Renaissance in the Hudson
Valley, as it relates to thefilm industry where people are
(39:21):
really discovering from allparts of the country, how
amazing it is to film here, howgreat the people are, how great
the locations are, how friendlyand how Willy everyone wants to
be a part of this ambition ortheir dollars go here, or other
dollars go here.
How, how many industry are increw?
People are already here, livinghere, they just live here and
then usually commute to thecity.
(39:41):
Cause that's where the city,where the jobs usually are, but
how many of them are alreadyhere?
And so our expansion is reallytied into the fact that we want
to be able to support the demandthat's building.
And we're, we, we are again,religion.
We're we, we are just a few ofmany people that are, that are
seeing that in trying to dothat.
So our plans are tied into thatexcitement.
(40:01):
It's tied into that demand thatwe're getting from outside
people wanting to come in andshoot their, their series or
their films here.
Right.
Well, and what happened was, sostage one then began stage two.
Um, we immediately, uh, orbooked out through 2022 on those
(40:22):
stages.
So we had a stage which we'recalling stage four, which was
part of a larger infrastructureat the motorcycle PDM museum.
It was already a qualifiedspace, but we renovated it,
expanded it.
Um, it's now over 21,000 squarefeet.
So it's a standalone beautiful,uh, semi acoustical stage.
(40:43):
That's also booked through 2022.
So the decision was we eitherturn people away because we have
six or seven projects behindthese projects, right.
Continuing to book, or weexpand.
And we're so blessed to bepartnered with Ted Doring, who,
uh, is a visionary and hispartner, gene, Laura, um, have
(41:07):
really, they saw this coming waybefore we even were living here.
Um, and they had the plans toexpand.
And so what's worked so well inNewburgh with all of the
buildings that areinterconnected to make the
stages and the support spaces.
We are, uh, replicating a newWindsor with a series of five
(41:27):
buildings that will, that willhave three additional stages.
If the zoning is permitted andit's under review now with the
new Windsor in town, we'rehopefully replicating the
success that we've had here overthere.
And again, we just have thisdesire to keep building on the
excitement.
I mean, we have a wait list.
That's the thing more and morepeople can come here.
It's not, will you book it?
(41:48):
They will come.
It's there waiting in the wings.
We need room for them.
Well said summer.
Yeah, we want, we just want tocontinue that excitement.
And we want more and more peopleto be able to come here and
really enjoy how exciting it isto be shooting in this region.
I think the more people thatcome, the more people will stay.
I mean, we've already had repeat, uh, productions, uh, companies
(42:10):
coming back here.
And I think that's a great sign.
I think that says, I think thatspeaks volumes for the region
and the experiences thatproduction companies have when
they come to the region.
And so our, our desire is to doour one part, our small part,
which is admittedly say it's asmall part, uh, for the bigger
hole, which is to keep peoplehere.
Speaker 6 (42:32):
Well, you may say small part, but in the context
of the Hudson Valley, the, thefacilities you have in the city
of Newburgh, then what you'retrying to replicate, um, with
the support of the town of newWindsor, that's a pretty
substantial commitment.
(42:52):
And so why, where is it?
Where's the demand coming?
Why the Hudson Valley, I mean, Iknow you said you did a Google
search
Speaker 4 (43:00):
Summer, but now
Speaker 6 (43:02):
There are not only it there's people filming.
There's this people, there'speople from the industry living
here.
I once took a map and put littlepins where each actor that I
knew of where they were living,quite impressive, how come
they're finally discovering theHudson Valley?
Speaker 4 (43:22):
I think it's three faults.
It is proximity to New Yorkcity, which is this the second
hub in the world for theentertainment industry in Los
Angeles, in New York.
Right.
And then it like bleeds out fromthere.
Um, we're very close.
We're, uh, really easy to getto.
Um, I think that's the firstone.
(43:44):
The second thing is theavailability of local crew and
incredible locations, right?
The two go hand in hand, youdon't have to come here for
weeks and weeks and weeks to tryto put your project together.
You can show up, open your phoneand be at work with a crew of
people that are well-trainedsome of the best crew.
I think that the country livesin the Hudson Valley and then
(44:06):
third, and I wouldn't say thisis most important, but it's the
thing on Google that got me toNewburgh is the expanded tax
credit.
So the 10% bump in the taxcredit for New York state
Newburg is the first stop.
You know, Westchester is stillthe 25% zone.
Newburg is the first stop in the35% zone in the state.
(44:29):
And so that is dollars drivingpeople here.
I have to say, just on a sidenote, since somebody brought it
up, I mean, I've said thisbefore, um, there's a lot of
people that have a lot ofdifferent opinions about the tax
credit, but as far as I'mconcerned at the jobs bill yep.
The, the, this, this, this, thistax, this tax credit has been
more responsible.
(44:50):
And I know this firsthand and Ican show my map has enabled me
to hire more people in this areaalone and it will continue to do
so it's it is.
I would say it's funny thatsomeone mentioned three things.
It's I think it's more than athird of the reason why people
are looking at and coming fromother places.
(45:12):
I think in some instances, it'sthe sole reason they're coming
out here and then the momentthey get here they go, wait a
minute.
This is a great place to shoot.
I think it was almost like thattax put it for some productions
was a beacon.
And they came out here lookingfor some, some, some fiscal
relief.
Uh, once they got here, theyrealized that it was no BS tax
(45:36):
credit.
It's serious.
You have to hire people.
It's not like you just show upand you get, you gotta check.
Thank you very much.
But then once they're here,everything, somewhere else was
saying all the great crewpeople, all the great key talent
here, all the great locations.
I mean, you really goteverything, but that credit is
so urgently important to theongoing health of the film
(46:01):
industry.
It's critical.
Oh, there's a fourth thing.
I wouldn't say that this isleast important.
I think this is almost as a cakecake.
It's the film.
It's the film commissioners thatare here.
So we have incredible filmcommissioners in the Hudson
Valley.
(46:22):
Um, you know, we work hand inhand 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 thetown of Newburgh and with Lauren
who is an, you know, furtherNorth of us, but we work with
them nonstop to get permits andfind, you know, I can't tell you
(46:44):
how many times I've calledAmanda or Ellen in the middle of
the night.
And been like, I need a housewith a green porch and a yellow
thing, and I need it tomorrow.
And they have it.
And they know the person andit's is done.
It is, um, without the filmcommissioners, um, and the New
York state film office, we can,I was going to say, you know,
(47:06):
John and Jerry, I mean, in Gigibefore them, they have their,
the lifeline and the life bloodof the thriving, what we call
the film family hashtag theykeep us all there.
Like the grandparents that holdthe, the annual Christmas
dinner.
If you're from the South, likethe granny, granny, Crocket
(47:27):
always hosts everything.
Speaker 5 (47:30):
It's not, it's not, I would say it's not just there.
It's not just everyone thatsomeone mentioned.
It's not just that everybody isall in is that everybody is
completely accessible.
You can call them.
They're not closed or anyquestions you have in your
problem.
You have it's, you know, we, NewYork is really fortunate in this
(47:50):
way that everybody who isinvolved in this industry on the
level that we're talking aboutwith everybody that we mentioned
understands the value and thecritical, uh, input that film
has for the region.
And therefore everyone's workingtogether.
Everyone's saying, call thisperson, call that person.
Right.
And so they're accessible andthey want to work because
everyone knows what they'reworking for.
(48:12):
It.
Everybody knows what the dominoeffect you're right.
Perfect.
They all know, they all know theend game here.
They all know what thisultimately leads to.
So, so it's at the risk ofoverstating 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 (48:27):
So let, let's move to a slightly different direction
because as you know, as a moviefan, I'm a little concerned
about what's the future of themovie theater.
I'm not concerned about the needfor product and for, because it
seems like every day, there'sanother way to stream something.
And there's another seriesthere's another movie made now
(48:49):
by Netflix itself, as opposed toParamont or something.
What do you guys think?
Where's the future of all thisgoing?
Speaker 5 (48:58):
Um, you know, I'm old that maybe this is old
fashioned, maybe this is agenerational notion.
I don't, I don't know, but I'malways, uh, I'm always, uh, uh,
uh, ascribed to the notion thatif, if, if a movie happens and
there's only one person there tosee it, did it happen?
Did you watch it?
And I love the communal aspectof cinema.
(49:19):
I love going to a theaterbecause it's not just the work
that you're seeing.
It's the collective response ofeverybody around you with you in
that response, that theirresponse is as much a part of
the experience and the alchemybetween 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 aroundyou.
(49:39):
So for me, I am always going tohold out, hope that movie
theaters won't die.
That will, this will stay a partof 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'ssuch a big part of it.
And it's, it's, it's better incompany, right?
It's better to have these things.
Why not have these things as ifit's a town forum, you come out
(50:02):
and watch a movie.
I think you're right.
I also, I hope that it's goingto be similar to what happened
with records, right?
You with like the old vinyl.
Now they're kind of coming backbecause people are realizing
that having everything in thephone, you know, it's like, I
still want to hold a book.
I still want to read it.
I don't know because of theeconomy and how it is, how many
(50:24):
movie theaters will survive.
If they'll continue to do thingslike
Speaker 4 (50:28):
Alamo draft house, where you can go and see a movie
and eat dinner and have an openbar, like if they're going to
become more experiential.
Um, I don't know.
I can say that I've seentechnology completely change an
entire industry.
When I think about voiceoversand what my career was like 10
years ago, versus what it isnow.
(50:50):
And technology has not made itbetter.
It's made it easier, but it'snot made it better.
Um, and so I'm not concernedabout the fact that we won't
have jobs.
I think we'll have even morejobs have a wider variety
because of the demand forcontent, but how we consume the
content.
It's really, it's a, it's kindof a scary time.
(51:12):
Um, because I am very much likeTony.
I like, I'm a very socialperson.
I like to experience art as acollective.
Um, if we're watching everythingon our phone or alone in our
house, in our private hometheaters, I feel like we're just
going to be more and moreremoved from each other.
And, and that doesn't seem goodto me.
Speaker 6 (51:29):
Yeah.
Well, and so I don't knowwhether this is the, the, um,
the film that I want to use assome, maybe a sense of what's
going to happen, but over Easterweekend, King Kong versus
Godzilla.
And it did quite well in the boxoffice.
(51:50):
Now, either that was pent updemand 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 themovie, but you know, let's say
those kinds of movies do have avery wide audience, but it did
quite well in the movie theater.
Now it's interesting becauseit's, it was also available on
(52:15):
HBO max, right?
So like, how do, how do you, howdo you figure out that bounce?
I know Tony, you said veryinterestingly that that
collective experience.
And I hadn't thought about itthat way, that the idea used to
go into a movie theater andeverybody laughed or everyone's
screamed or everyone, you know,cried or something.
(52:37):
And that was part of theexperience of going to the
movies.
And I have discounted that.
And I think you're absolutelyright.
That that is part of it.
But with this demand for morecontent, more product, more
streaming, certainly you guys,and what you're trying to do, or
you may be even, even if you getthe next, you know, facility,
(53:00):
new Windsor, you might be bookedout to 20, 24.
Speaker 4 (53:05):
That's literally kind of what's happening.
Knock on wood.
If we look at what's in ourcalendar 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 (53:24):
The movie theater doesn't, uh,
Speaker 4 (53:26):
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 todo, we're going to have it.
It's like a party it's like massmovie 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
(53:51):
.
Speaker 6 (53:55):
What about, you know, you've been involved in lots of
projects throughout your career.
What was your, you know, do youhave one that was really
special?
Speaker 4 (54:03):
I do.
I mean, I have so many, I wouldsay I have two that are really
special because they were, they,they both dramatically changed
our future.
I would say, um, the first oneis junction.
It is close to my heart, always.
It's the first feature film thatTony and I made together.
Tony wrote and directed it, it,um, kind of put our company on
(54:25):
the map in a way, you know, withthe 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 thecountry and saw it in movie
theaters with all differenttypes of people.
It was magical.
I play a meth addict and it say,you know, typecasting, kidding.
But it was the first time I gotto play somebody that wasn't
(54:47):
super close to my type.
And I remember people beinglike, I don't know if you can
play that role.
I was like, you watch me play it.
That would be the one that Ithink is really close to my
heart.
I was going to say big dogsbecause it was the largest
project we've ever done as well.
Big dogs brought us to Umbra andB it was the biggest project we
(55:08):
ever done.
You know, it was a whole seriesand we worked with the creator
and built it from the ground up.
So it felt very, um,
Speaker 6 (55:16):
I love that.
I love the theme of that.
Maybe you could tell ourlisteners what that was about,
maybe sure.
Speaker 4 (55:23):
Tony talk about that because he developed it with the
creator.
And then you can also talk aboutyour 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, thecontent and the books, it was
(55:44):
based on the book series.
And then it's not just talkingabout big, big dog, sorry, Joe.
She was really, junction wasreally close to my heart because
junction is, is sort of, uh, uh,uh, uh, it's not exactly
autobiographical, but it wassort of, it was based on a lot
of experiences that I had.
I wouldn't say they were allmine, uh, but it, but it was
(56:07):
based on a lot of personalthings, 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 thefirst feature that we did.
And so that always holds your,it's always that first one, you
know, your first time, youalways remember your first time,
and that was certainly it, uh,for, uh,
Speaker 5 (56:24):
For that.
And I would say the same thingfor, for big dogs, which was the
television series that we workedon and what I was going to say
when I had meant to say before Imisspoke, was that, um, you
know, it was such a fascinatingproject to work on, not just
because of the, the, the, the,the, the sub the content of it
when it was about, but that itwould, it had such crazy
parallels what was happening inour, in, in, in the world at the
(56:46):
same time that we were workingon it.
And so it's a book series ofsort of a, a parallel universe
of New York city, where back in2009, uh, instead of bailing out
the banks, uh, the governments,uh, decided not to.
And is that when that didn'thappen, there was just this full
economic, global collapse.
And so New York had revertedback to this, uh, sort of, uh,
(57:09):
seventies, eighties, era, urbanblight, and everything was off,
got it out.
And all the municipalities werebroke.
And so it was sort of, uh, uh,uh, gives great pressure and,
uh, uh, book series written bythe writer, Adam Dunn.
And it was just fascinating howmuch it was, like, what was
(57:30):
going on in the world now.
And he had written it yearsbefore, uh, uh, any of this had
happened.
And so I, it was justfascinating 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 differentname, which I won't say here,
but it had a different name.
(57:52):
Um, and, um, there's an episodeone when, when our lead
characters first meet, one ofthem is looking at this map and
it has all these things on it.
And the guy Manny Perez who playSantiago says to Michael Ray who
plays more, what is that?
And more like, does it show himit, wasn't a global outbreak
tracking the spread of a virusacross the country.
(58:13):
And when you look at that now,you're like, yeah, wow.
What, what that was sort ofsetting up a score in the next
book, there was a full-blownpandemic and someone when we had
gotten to, when we were rollingout, uh, and of course last year
cut to last year when all thisquarantine first started, it was
like, Oh my gosh, there's justall these things coming
together.
So that, that was those twothings.
(58:33):
But if I can add one more thingto the mix, I think, and it's
for the same reasons whyjunction was so important, as I
wrote a play called substance ofbliss, it's a two hander as
published by Sam French.
And it's, it's basically anothersomething that I wrote that was
just very personal.
And I think when you saysomething personal, whether or
(58:54):
not it's embraced or notembraced, or whether or not
someone knows about it ordoesn't know about it, those are
the ones that I think mean themost to, you know, cause it, it
comes from such a specificplace.
And so that one also meant quitea lot to me.
So if I had to name, if I had toname them, those would be the
ones.
Speaker 6 (59:11):
All right, then.
So some are pocket more and TonyGlazer, thank you so much where
we couldn't be happier thatyou're in the Hudson Valley,
that you're attracting morepeople, that you're creating
jobs in the Hudson Valley, um,product projects.
Um, thanks for your time thisafternoon.
It was our pleasure.
(59:31):
Thank you for having us andthank 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 (59:42):
Thank you for tuning in to patterns and paradigms the
pattern podcast.
For more information about thisepisode, visit our website
pattern for progress.org forwardslash podcast.
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