Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Jason
Speaker 1: Kelly on Bloomberg Radio. Let's head down to the A
Speaker 1: t L. Check in with our pal, Frank Patterson, President
Speaker 1: and CEO of Trilith Studios. He's been on this program before.
Speaker 1: You might know it by its former named Pinewood Atlanta Studios.
Speaker 1: He joins us on the phone from the A t L.
Speaker 1: And Frank, Man, you have been busy throughout all of this.
Speaker 1: We were just hearing this morning as we were reading
Speaker 1: in on this about this big plan that you've got
Speaker 1: going on, uh, studio City of the East. For sure,
Speaker 1: we knew that this was a big business uh down
Speaker 1: there in my hometown of my home state. But you've
Speaker 1: you've got some big plans. Tell us about it. Yeah, Jackson,
Speaker 1: thanks for having me on again. It's good to talk
Speaker 1: to himsel again. Yeah. Well, you know, this something we've
Speaker 1: been working on for couple of years. We set out
Speaker 1: to create a place built by four members of the
Speaker 1: film and creative industries, a point that has everything we
Speaker 1: need to kind of you know. The dream is to
Speaker 1: make anything we can magin and so it's also a
Speaker 1: place where we want to live, you know, have our families,
Speaker 1: race kids, and so yeah, I agree with it's kind
Speaker 1: of a studio city, a contemporary studio city at the
Speaker 1: southeast and building upon, of course the success that we've had, uh,
Speaker 1: the film production space, but expanding it to include, um,
Speaker 1: you know, story and technology and all the makers for
Speaker 1: a place for them to live and work and raise
Speaker 1: your families. This is like the Left Wreck Mattel model.
Speaker 1: And I bring this up a lot because I lived
Speaker 1: you know, Left Wreck City back in that was it
Speaker 1: fifties or's like after the returning World War two vets
Speaker 1: they you know, it's a place to live, to work,
Speaker 1: to all those things. And then Left Wrack over here
Speaker 1: in actually Jersey City where I live, created a waterfront
Speaker 1: community the whole same idea. You could live there, you
Speaker 1: could work there, you get shop there. Um, is that
Speaker 1: what you're going for? Tell me a little bit. This
Speaker 1: is a grand vision. Yeah. I mean, by the way,
Speaker 1: my wife, we love that area. We uh yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: if you think about it, it's really a cluster, right,
Speaker 1: It's an industry cluster. You know. Doctor doctor Microporter from
Speaker 1: Harvard's Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness has done a lot
Speaker 1: of research in this space and has pointed out how
Speaker 1: these clusters form, and really Atlanta was a great place
Speaker 1: to think about how to cluster around this industry. We
Speaker 1: had a head start with a great tax incent of
Speaker 1: a history of big innovation, and so with our history
Speaker 1: and the self business, and with the history of Pinewood
Speaker 1: uh and these excellent stage facilities, it was really, uh
Speaker 1: we think a smart play to cluster these businesses. We
Speaker 1: have forty uh something business I guess it's close to
Speaker 1: sixty now already clusters down here at the studios and
Speaker 1: in the town. And we feel like as we focus
Speaker 1: our efforts on content and technology companies to grow, we'll
Speaker 1: be at a hundred pretty quickly. But more importantly, it's
Speaker 1: a place where you know, creators and technologists and innovators
Speaker 1: can feel at home to create. And that's really the goal.
Speaker 1: And so Frank talk about the content piece of this,
Speaker 1: because I feel like when we've talked to you in
Speaker 1: the past, um at least I've framed at least, or
Speaker 1: I've thought of you at least as a place where
Speaker 1: content creators show up they make their movies. You know,
Speaker 1: you have amazing facilities, But as I understand it and
Speaker 1: keep me honest here. You guys are now in the
Speaker 1: business of really investing in intellectual property. You you've been
Speaker 1: making some acquisitions. That that's a shift, right, Yeah, And
Speaker 1: thus the new name and new brand, right, So we
Speaker 1: probably would Atlanta goes the core business with facilities, right,
Speaker 1: and that's our piller, uh, number one pillar business. And
Speaker 1: what we did is we decided that given all the
Speaker 1: teams is going on in the industry and the dramatic
Speaker 1: shifts that are happening in the way consumers are consuming
Speaker 1: content and now the demands for content, that we needed
Speaker 1: to add a couple of more pillars of business. And
Speaker 1: one was to focus on investing in content companies and
Speaker 1: to focus on the technology that is necessary to help
Speaker 1: scale the production of that content. And with those news
Speaker 1: free pillars, that's how we came up with Triller, which
Speaker 1: is three arms of business, but also happens to be
Speaker 1: the structure that you see very commonly in stonehenge. Uh.
Speaker 1: We like learning our British history with us. But with
Speaker 1: these three new uh, which is three pillars in business, men,
Speaker 1: that sort of makes us sort of uh, you know,
Speaker 1: a kind of an old fashioned studio with the addition
Speaker 1: of technology Hey, what about the timing, Frank, because I
Speaker 1: just think it's interesting Jason and I, as you know, Uh,
Speaker 1: we've talked with you before. We love talking about kind
Speaker 1: of just real estate usage right now in particular. And
Speaker 1: I was talking with a bunch of executives, global executives
Speaker 1: when in London, went over in Asia and China, you know,
Speaker 1: and they said, you know, depending on which part of
Speaker 1: the market you're in, you're either doing well or you're not,
Speaker 1: or there's opportunities or there or not. So I'm just
Speaker 1: curious about the timing for you guys to do all
Speaker 1: of this. Well, You've been on a couple of points. One,
Speaker 1: I think we've spoken about this in the past before.
Speaker 1: You know, pre COVID, we happen to be in a
Speaker 1: situation where, given all these changes in the way we're
Speaker 1: consuming content, Um Wall Street was already pouring more money
Speaker 1: into the pipeline for for to the filmmaking pipeline. Then
Speaker 1: we had the capacity to produce in this industry. We
Speaker 1: were already falling behind. And then COVID hits and everybody
Speaker 1: decides to go and you know, stuck inside and watch
Speaker 1: all this content on all these platforms, you know, and
Speaker 1: as the joke that the current joke goes. You know,
Speaker 1: I've seen Netflix, so what's next? And it's just so
Speaker 1: much content that is now needed, Uh, that there's a
Speaker 1: shortage of facilities, there's a shortage of talent capable of
Speaker 1: producing content at that kind of scale, and it's a
Speaker 1: shortage of the technology that can enable us to do this.
Speaker 1: So we think the timing is perfect. And separate to
Speaker 1: your other point that I think you made, which is
Speaker 1: a good point as a real estates plan. Uh, several
Speaker 1: big pert venture firms, you know, you and I both
Speaker 1: know big names that have found this kind of real
Speaker 1: estate to be a new class of real estate that
Speaker 1: they want to invest in. And so what I mean of,
Speaker 1: you know, studio facilities in the movie business, and so
Speaker 1: you're seeing a lot of big firms get involved in
Speaker 1: this space, and we think it's a smartness. Can I
Speaker 1: just say I hadn't heard that line. I've seen Netflix,
Speaker 1: What's next? So I'm adding it to Jason and I
Speaker 1: through this whole seven months have been just I've been
Speaker 1: keeping track of just fun things that people say. So
Speaker 1: I'm adding it to this is my t shirt list,
Speaker 1: Like all of these lines could be a T shirt
Speaker 1: and then thank you for sharing that one with that's
Speaker 1: in the city of Atlanta and its environs, there is
Speaker 1: something unique, and I say it's because it's my hometown.
Speaker 1: My parents live there, I have many many family members there.
Speaker 1: The way that the city has grown both economically and geographically.
Speaker 1: I think what you're doing is something of a microcosm
Speaker 1: of that, and I do I would love for you
Speaker 1: to sort of explain that and sort of how it
Speaker 1: fits into the broader Georgia and Atlanta economy and how
Speaker 1: it reflects it. If that makes sense. Yeah, that's great,
Speaker 1: and you're right. I do think what we're building is
Speaker 1: a microbub cluster of the larger to that is Atlanta.
Speaker 1: I mean, these kinds of things tend to form if
Speaker 1: you sort of back out a little bit. Atlanta as
Speaker 1: a result, like like other cities around the world that
Speaker 1: have been successful at this, it's it's the result of
Speaker 1: you know, a sort of business friendly policy environment, of
Speaker 1: smart tax policy, of of strong research universities and of
Speaker 1: course produced talent. And of course we have the benefit
Speaker 1: of having this kind of global hub of an airport,
Speaker 1: the most traveled airport in the world, with all these
Speaker 1: direct flights to important destinations all over the world, and
Speaker 1: I think that combination has has been very helpful for
Speaker 1: Atlanta in the spaces that I think it's most famous for,
Speaker 1: which is you know, fintech and and sort of all
Speaker 1: that Georgia tech research, those kinds of research outcomes, and
Speaker 1: then more recently famous because of the filmer industry. But
Speaker 1: I'll tell you, the film industry has been a part
Speaker 1: of Georgia for a long time. When President Carson was
Speaker 1: Governor Carter of of Atlanta, I'm sure you know, Jason.
Speaker 1: You know, we had the first state film office in
Speaker 1: the States, and Governor Carter was making a real play
Speaker 1: for the film and she's back in the seventies, and
Speaker 1: so we had a cool independent thing that grew into
Speaker 1: of course Ted Turner watching what became the media giant
Speaker 1: Turner and then followed, you know, Tyler Perry deciding to
Speaker 1: plan a state and say, no, I'm not going to
Speaker 1: live and work in the Hollywood. I'm gonna build my
Speaker 1: own studio here and so, uh, you know. Mentioning before
Speaker 1: about Dr Porter's research and clusters at the Wonder was
Speaker 1: identified as an entertainment media cluster back in the mid nineties,
Speaker 1: you know, globally recognized entertainment media cluster. And so the
Speaker 1: recent tax incentive and the move towards these bigger budget
Speaker 1: projects that came around post two thousand eight, I was
Speaker 1: really now made it a globally recognized center for creativity.
Speaker 1: You know, it's interesting for what think I want to
Speaker 1: ask you because years ago I remember doing a piece
Speaker 1: specifically about tax incentives for the for Bloomberg Television, about
Speaker 1: tax incentives for like the film and to because as
Speaker 1: you know, you've seen the stories about where people are like,
Speaker 1: why do we give them a break? It really doesn't
Speaker 1: do anything for the economy. What would you say to that,
Speaker 1: especially considering what you guys are doing there in Atlanta. Well,
Speaker 1: it's it's all in the devilish details of design. Because
Speaker 1: you know, I was I'm only three years in this
Speaker 1: market place and my studio I left, which we have
Speaker 1: built in San Francisco to build digital humans. Atlanta wasn't
Speaker 1: on my radar, and I met the folks at Palmwood,
Speaker 1: became excited about it, and the first thing I did
Speaker 1: was to look up the tax policy. Because I've been
Speaker 1: a part and have served other governors in other states
Speaker 1: who's had tax incentives, but they just weren't well written UH,
Speaker 1: and they weren't really meant that you could tell they
Speaker 1: were sort of temporary or not very thoughtful in their approach,
Speaker 1: and it resulted in sort of temporary tax um incentives.
Speaker 1: But whoever did this and I quite figured out who
Speaker 1: the parties were that all came together to to make
Speaker 1: this work. It is the best written tax policy for
Speaker 1: taxing centers in the United States, and by the way,
Speaker 1: it's the second most attractive tax incentive in the United States.
Speaker 1: And importantly, it was really focused on building the economy
Speaker 1: in Georgia and you know, injecting directly UH jobs and
Speaker 1: high paying jobs to Georgians and in a way that
Speaker 1: you know, we were credited with partially being one of
Speaker 1: the key um UH industries bringing UH the Georgia economy
Speaker 1: out of trouble in two thousand and eight, and we
Speaker 1: are seen as an important player now as we try
Speaker 1: to get back out of trouble as a result of covered.
Speaker 1: So it depends on what you know. Not all tax
Speaker 1: incentives are created equally. For one in Georgia is very
Speaker 1: smart and it's been quite powerful for the state of Georgia.
Speaker 1: A great answer to that. Yeah, so, Frank, only about
Speaker 1: a minute left, but just give us one minute on
Speaker 1: sort of state of production and where you are as
Speaker 1: as we worry continually about this second wave. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: I think the last time you and I spoke, we
Speaker 1: were working real hard and figuring out how to get
Speaker 1: everybody back to work safely. Uh, And we put a
Speaker 1: lot into that, and we've had a big fortune of
Speaker 1: coming up with some systems that, uh, the industry is
Speaker 1: excited about. We've gotten. Um, we're probably back up to
Speaker 1: about fifty of where we were, and I think in
Speaker 1: the next six weeks will be close to a uh.
Speaker 1: And so we've got I've got hundred people badging on
Speaker 1: a lot today and UM, you know, we're it's it's
Speaker 1: we're slower. Uh, we're having to be a lot more careful.
Speaker 1: There are a lot more new systems to consider. The
Speaker 1: exciting weid news is we're putting people back to work
Speaker 1: so we can make movies that people are looking forward
Speaker 1: to see. Well, we certainly are looking forward to see him.
Speaker 1: And I can't wait to come visit and see everything
Speaker 1: that you're up to. Patterson. Thank you so much, President
Speaker 1: CEO of Trilith Studios joining us on the phone from
Speaker 1: the A t L. So much going on Lanta is awesome.