Suzy Kellett, managing director of the Washington State Film Office (WSFO), has been part of the film commission community for almost 25 years. Her first post was deputy director at the Illinois Film Office, where in 1982 she was promoted to director. In ’96, she moved to the WSFO.
In a conversation with SHOOT, Kellett discusses the state of filming in Washington and issues affecting the film commission community in the U.S.
SHOOT: How have you seen film commissions overall, and then specifically Washington’s office, change over the years?
Kellett: Illinois was a bigger business, it was located in Chicago, it had a lot of business, it was fast. We were doing multiple productions at the same time, it was very location driven. And the industry executives we worked with were creatives who had a passion for this industry, loved the story, loved the locations; it was really fun. It was starting to get competitive, got more competitive and we sort of liked the thrill of the game. I had eight staff and we were busy a lot of the time. The woman who had preceded me had started the Illinois Film Office so I was able to build off what she had started and then we really took off. Periodically we’d get kind of nudged by whatever was going on in the industry but for the most part it was wonderful and exciting and fast paced.
And then I came to Washington and this was the beginning of the Canadian move and it’s actually been sort of a slide ever since. With the beginning of globalization, the Canadians started to have an impact with the exchange rate and their incentives. We are three hours south of Vancouver, which makes us a bit of a poster child for them. Washington felt the impact of Canada almost faster than anybody, although I had tasted it in Chicago because Chicago looks like Toronto. So we had had a couple of years where Toronto’s impact was beginning to be felt in Chicago; we were doing a lot of sharing and competing with production. But then it started, once I came to Washington, this sort of steady growth of the Canadian film industry.
SHOOT: How have you adapted to the increasingly competitive marketplace?
Kellett: Lots of places are interchangeable, it’s very competitive on the world stage to keep production coming in so that’s meant that we’ve had to recreate ourselves–sort of a hybrid of our former selves. I think those film offices that sit and wait to do business as they always have are going to have trouble. You have to expand and diversify and figure out other ways of doing business or generating new kinds of business in your area.
SHOOT: Explain what you mean by hybrid.
Kellett: Well originally in Chicago, we just sat and responded, we did a lot of heavy marketing to the industry but we were very busy and it was responding to lots of big studio productions and television. Television in America started to slip tremendously in the mid-90s to where Vancouver had the majority of the movie-of-the-week business so that piece, that segment of the industry, started to disappear and then features started going into Canada and elsewhere.
So now we are very focused on indigenous production, the lower-budget independent, we do a much greater focus on commercials, we’re moving into video games. Washington is a magnificent place for the video game industry and because we’ve got two of the big publishers in Nintendo and Microsoft we’ve got a lot of game developers. And we do a lot of motion picture scoring here, so we really are sort of an interesting hybrid of music, postproduction, video games and then the traditional forms of production.
SHOOT: I saw on your Web site that there are a number of incentives. Do any of them speak directly to spot filming?
Kellett: We have some sales tax exemptions, which are available right now [for commercials]–What we did for commercials in the past year is we put out a roads CD with 96 images of Washington State roads. That was specifically geared to car commercial shooters and it’s been very well received. We’ve hand delivered it to 34 companies in Los Angeles, we have mailed it out. We have taken it out nationally and internationally, and made sure that car commercial producers know what Washington has and that we really want this business. But it too is going over [elsewhere], we are seeing the commercial business drop away too. They are following the money as much as anybody else.
SHOOT: Besides runaway production, are there other key issues facing film commissions generally and then Washington State in particular?
Kellett: Well what’s facing people nationally is that we have to continue to justify our existence. And when we are losing business and not bringing in the dollars we used to bring, then states that are facing lots of economic challenges and looking for places to cut will look at film commissions and we’ve lost some around the country. We have to justify our existence like everybody else and when people take production elsewhere, it makes us harder to be here. My fear has always been that when the industry disappears, you also lose the infrastructure. And if at some point in time, the industry should turn around and production should come flooding back to the United States, there are going to be places where filmmakers may have trouble putting up crews and getting the support they need because they left–the industry couldn’t survive, companies went out of business. For those states that have lost their film offices, if you film there you are going to have to go back to making movies the way you did in the late ’60s and early ’70s, which is figuring it out yourself because there is no point of contact. I will say film commissions have proven their worthiness. Rarely does a big picture, and even medium-sized picture, go out on location without contacting a film commission.
What some of us face is that because many of us are located in state government, lower budget independent filmmakers are reluctant to talk to us because they feel that we will regulate them or will turn them into labor or will control them in some way and won’t let them exert their artistic freedom. So we constantly are working to make our office a safe place for all filmmakers to come and work but it’s an ongoing issue and many film commissions face it.
SHOOT: So how do you try to reach out to those people [indie filmmakers]?
Kellett: We’re very aggressive about this. We work and co-sponsor various workshops, we speak with a lot of the not-for-profit, film-related organizations. We put out a newsletter. I send out lots of information that is passed on to me in the film office. I have a huge distribution list of local filmmakers and I am constantly sending things to them about all kinds of topics. It’s about relationship building and having them learn to trust us and spreading the word that it’s okay to work with us–really, it’s a good deal.
SHOOT: Do you tend to attract a certain type of commercial production?
Kellett: Yes, we do a lot of catalog shoots, a lot of outdoors stuff, cars, skiing. When you think of Washington, you think of people on ferries, people in nature, outdoor kayaking, climbing, that kind of thing.
SHOOT: What would you say the state of spot filming is in Washington right now?
Kellett: I would say that the state of spot filming in a lot of places is dropping. It’s cyclical. We are doing a lot of still photography work, a lot of catalog work. We are doing car work, but we’re seeing a little bit less of it because they’re able to go to Canada and elsewhere in the world. That’s because some places are so cheap. It is cheaper to go overseas to shoot than it is to shoot in the United States, which is sad.
SHOOT: It seems to be an ongoing problem.
Kellett: It’s never going to end. I think this is an industry that is going the way of the garment industry, the steel industry, the timber industry, it’s just happening to us. And I really do think the heyday of America’s control on the motion picture industry is never really going to come back. I think it’s always going to be this way. There’s always going to be somebody faster cheaper, whatever. It’s why this incentive game that is now being played everywhere in the United States, once you enter that game you can’t ever win it because someone will always up the ante. So my feeling is bloom where you are planted, make yourself the best possible place you can, as inexpensive and efficient as possible, and then go after the business that you can realistically go after and not waste your time on things that are like banging your head against a wall. And that’s kind of where we are.
SHOOT: And diversify?
Kellett: Exactly.
SHOOT: What are the hottest locations for commercials right now?
Kellett: People love to have roads along water, they love mountain passes, winding roads. The wheat fields here are always popular, they’re a brilliant emerald green in the spring and then they turn this luscious, endless gold in the late summer. So we do a lot of wheat fields, we do a lot of mountain passes, mountain roads, we’ll do water. The rain forest over on the Olympic Peninsula has been popular. And because we have so much forest, you’ll see a lot of car commercials with people up in forests.
SHOOT: Earlier you were talking about the different commissions throughout the country being threatened by state budget cuts and I read that Washington State also faced that in 2003?
Kellett: We faced it twice actually. We faced it in 2002 and 2003, of being completely cut. It didn’t happen because the industry stepped up and went after the legislature and at one point, they [the legislature] said, “God, can you call these people off?” And I said, “No, I can’t until you’ve decided you are going to keep the film office, we have to keep going.”
They [industry members] were amazing, they were down there. They were lobbying. I mean what happens is that most of us in this business need to–take us for instance–put a Washington face on what is perceived as a very Los Angeles industry. And when we are talking to legislatures, they often think, offices that support the film industry, it’s kind of like corporate welfare because all they know is the kind of money major stars and directors are pulling down and the kind of money that movies are making. And they’re saying, “Why are we supporting this industry, they’re doing just fine.” So you need to remind the legislature and councils or whoever are the funding sources that this isn’t what it’s about. This is about Washington workers, crew members, actors, support services staying alive by servicing these industries.
SHOOT: So how is the state film office faring now after those threats?
Kellett: We’re fine. There are only three of us here [on staff]. We’ve got a very small budget, but we run a very lean, efficient, fabulous operation actually. We are on the speed dials of some production houses because they just know that they are always going to get a very fast response. And they just love to talk to us when they are in the bid process, which is a great compliment. I want to be on everybody’s speed dial.
SHOOT: It doesn’t sound like there are any new incentives on the horizon.
Kellett: We’re working on it. The industry is exploring now getting an incentive put together but we have a state that’s complicated constitutionally. I mean there’s no way to get an incentive that every state in the United States can have because every constitution is different and every state has restrictions on what it can do. So the industry is in the process of exploring what may be possible here, yes, and they would love to introduce something this session.
SHOOT: But you said earlier that it’s dangerous to go down the road of incentives, right? That you’ll never win that game?
Kellett: Well, you know what, but it’s the game, it’s the way it is being played today and to not do it is a guarantee the industry won’t come. So you’ve got to do something, you can’t do nothing, but always know that you’re going to be back for more because somebody else will always do something greater.
SHOOT: Can you discuss specifics regarding any possible upcoming incentives?
Kellett: We’re trying to work on a sales tax, on a tax credit, but we don’t have a state income tax so we’re going to have to be creative at how we establish this….The industry is working with the department of revenue and some different agencies to figure out what may be viable. You really have to see what your state can and cannot accommodate. I mean if you look at New Mexico, they have oil and gas reserves that they’re using to support the industry. Most states are not generating money off oil and gas reserves. Louisiana is selling tax credits; they’ve been successful.
SHOOT: So how do you envision the office down the road? How do you see its future developing?
Kellett: Will we get the feature business back? I don’t know. I’d love to have steady commercial work. I would like to have the Northwest be a center for independent production because it is very creative here, lots of writers. You know the personality of Washington State, kind of the frontier, maverick, independent spirit really aligns with the spirit of the independent film producer. And the industry here really appreciates it, the vendors have accommodated all levels of budget, they’ve been amazing. We’ve actually put together an indie-producers deal, which we just introduced at Sundance for productions a half-a-million to three [million dollars] and the vendors are offering all kinds of breaks to companies that meet certain criteria to work here. So it’s things like that. I think we are going to become more immersed in the game industry. I’d love to see that grow. I’d love to become more involved in music. The city of Seattle is very interested in music. And it may just be that we’re going to have to change a little bit how we’ve thought. It isn’t going to be movies and television all the time, it’s going to be other things, and it should be because times and industries change.
