(gentle upbeat music) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) - Welcome to "Almanac North."

I'm Maarja Hewitt.

On tonight's episode, we are looking at the region's growing filmmaking scene.

We're speaking with experts and joined by professionals in the industry to learn how Minnesota makes its movies.

That's coming up on "Almanac North."

But First, tree stand accidents are a leading cause of hunting-related injuries, with 3 to 500 fatalities annually in the U.S., according to the International Hunter Education Association.

As archery and crossbow deer hunting season begins this fall in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan, prioritizing safety is essential.

You're much more likely to get injured from a fall than a gunshot wound, warns Michael Clark, medical director with Aspirus MedEvac.

It's a concern that we should definitely take precautions to avoid.

Falls from tree stands can lead to severe injuries, including fractures and potentially life-threatening conditions.

Falls from heights over 10 feet, which is common with most tree stands, tend to result in more severe injuries.

To ensure a safe hunting experience, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources provides the following tree stand safety and emergency preparedness tips.

Stay connected, wear safety harnesses, inspect gear, use haul lines, and know your location.

They also recommend having an emergency preparedness safety plan, where you should prepare for communication, bring a first aid kit, assess your situation, and stay in place.

By following these safety guidelines and expert recommendations, hunters can significantly reduce the risk of injury and ensure a safe hunting season.

For more tips and resources, visit Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resources website.

Our main focus this evening is on filmmaking in our region.

Our first guest tonight is Mandy Turpin, actress, as well as a producer for Iron North Productions, which is a newly established production company located in Duluth.

Mandy, thank you for joining us.

- Thank you for having me.

- So, share a little bit about your career and how you ended up in Duluth, Minnesota and focusing here for filmmaking.

- Wow.

Well, during the pandemic, a company reached out to me, MarVista Fox reached out and said, "You know, we have a movie, has a hockey element to it."

And I had been to Duluth for the Catalyst Film Festival.

I brought a project here.

And I fell in love with it, and I asked them if they would mind us shooting in Duluth, Minnesota.

And they said, "No, this sounds great."

And we brought "Merry Kiss Cam" here, and that kind of started the ball rolling.

And that roll, you know... Then, we did another one within six months, and then we did another one.

We just recently did "Rescuing Christmas," which aired on Hallmark in July.

And kind of we're just, we're just going.

- [Maarja] Yeah.

- We're gonna keep going.

- And now you've started this filmmaking production company.

What made you decide to kind of put some roots in Northern Minnesota and really invest in the filmmaking in the region?

- Well, we were, you know, it was, I don't wanna say it was easy when we got here because, you know, it was the first time that they had had a feature film here for a while.

But we were just met with such enthusiasm and everybody was so helpful.

Riki McManus and Shari Marshik at Upper Midwest Film Office, UMFO, were just amazing.

And we just decided that, you know, once we were finished with "Merry Kiss Cam" and it was so successful that we were going to continue, and it seemed like more and more people were coming out and supporting us, and it was just, it felt really wonderful to be in a, you know, in a community that was embracing it so much.

- Have you noticed any unique challenges to filmmaking in the region that you're learning to, having to learn about and tackle?

- Yes.

The weather.

The weather's one.

But, you know, I think you have obstacles in any area that you're going to shoot in.

There's always something that's unique about that area.

But, I think, shooting in the north, our biggest obstacle right now is the infrastructure, you know, crew.

And that's what UMFO is doing such a wonderful job is creating workshops and, you know, and building that infrastructure and building a crew base, which is really, really important.

And, you know, actors and producers, and, you know, caterers and everything.

I mean, it's just, I really kind of try to explain it to people like we are a manufacturing company, where we are manufacturing entertainment, and it is a community-based, you know, business.

We can involve a lot of other trades that nobody really thinks about that we can, you know, have that economic impact.

- Yeah, we'll be chatting with in a little bit here.

- Oh, great.

- But, you know, like take one of your films, like "Rescuing Christmas," which was on Hallmark, like how many people are involved with a production like that?

And what's like the spectrum of work that they do?

- Oh, wow.

On "Rescuing Christmas," we had bigger crew than the other, the previous two.

We were in about a 149 crew, and most of them, I would say 85% of the crew were from Minnesota.

We brought a lot of people up from the cities.

We also were able to cast the entire movie from talent in Minnesota.

I think the only person in our movie was Sam, who was from Wisconsin, which is right next door.

And Rachel Lee Cook was, you know, from Minneapolis at the beginning.

But the interesting thing about something like "Rescuing Christmas" is, you know, locations.

We used family homes, we were able to use local caterers, you know, we used local businesses, grip and electric, camera.

You know, we had a lot of support from a lot of the businesses in the cities.

We were able to, like I said, the catering.

You know, we're building kind of the, and I keep using this word, infrastructure, but it does, when we bring people who are seasoned veterans from Los Angeles and we were able to, you know, partner them with people who are very eager to learn the business here, it just, it speeds the process up.

We've had a lot of support from Rachel and Mickey at Apex.

Alex Giuliani's been great.

Bill Watson, Tom Stander, Bill Olson.

We have a bun... We have a kind of that support group of people who are just really wanting us to succeed, which is great.

And that makes it easy to bring 149 people here for three weeks to make a movie, so.

- Are there any upcoming projects that you can share a little few tidbits with us about, or- - Oh, yeah.

No.

2025 is gonna be very exciting.

We have a project that I'm working with another producer, Ann-Marie Gilliam, called "The Seventh," which is a wonderful project.

We have another project that I'm working on called "Bob's Holiday Office Party."

Donald Petrie, who directed "Grumpy Old Men," I'm bringing him back to Minnesota to direct this.

- [Maarja] Wow.

You know, there is, oh gosh, I mean, we have a project that we're hoping to lure here that has Lily Gladstone attached.

There's "The Victorian."

We have several.

And then I'm also working with my partner, Karl Gajdusek, on Iron North Productions to bring, hopefully, a limited series or TV show here.

- It seems like a lot of exciting things on the horizon.

- It's exciting.

No, we are, you know, I think Duluth's ready for it.

They, you know, we're, like I said, we're trying to look for stages now.

We have a lot of support.

And, you know, we're excited to partner also with St. Louis County.

They've been wonderful.

The IRRRB.

There's a lot of opportunity up there to expand the shooting all the way up, you know, to the north.

Beautiful locations, wonderful people.

Everybody's been supportive up there also.

- So, for folks, you know, who are maybe watching and interested in the filmmaking industry, how would they get involved with a project like that?

Go to UMFO or- - 100%.

Riki and Shari at UMFO have a lot of that information.

Like I said, they're doing workshops to help, you know, build that infrastructure.

You know, I'm gonna tell you this teeny, tiny, little story that is close and dear to my heart.

There was a young girl, Nicole Pierre, who "Merry Kiss Cam" wanted to be in the grip and electric department, which is, historically, very male-dominated.

And by the time we were finished "Rescuing Christmas," she could do anything in the grip and electric department.

She was wonderful.

She's local.

In fact, I've used her on everything that I've shot here and going to continue.

And that's kind of what we're hoping to do with a lot of, you know, a lot of the workshops that Riki and Shari are heading.

And the more productions we bring here, the more, you know, we can get the community involved.

But we are always looking for crew, and I think UMFO is the place to go.

- Wonderful.

- Yeah.

- Well, we'll hear from them soon.

- Well, wonderful.

- Thank you, Mandy.

- Thank you.

- Well, next local filmmaker, Keith Hopkins, was scheduled to join us tonight to share his experiences from making several films in our region.

While he is unable to join us, he did send a clip from his most recent film, "Man has a Mania," which he created over the past year with help from Minnesota filmmaking programs.

We would like to share it with you tonight as a representation of the creativity, ingenuity going into the work happening in our region.

Let's take a look.

(rocket whooshing) (telescope zooming) (rocket whooshing continues) (rocket bursting) (wind whooshing) (telescope zooming) (computer beeping) (computer beeping) (computer beeping) (computer beeping continues) (valve hissing) (computer beeping) (valve hissing) (computer beeping) (valve hissing) (computer beeping) (computer beeping continues) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (bird squeaking) (telescope zooming) (computer beeping) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (telescope zooming) (telescope zooming) (computer beeping) (wind whooshing) (wind whooshing continues) (computer beeping) (wind whooshing) (static blaring) (static blaring continues) (thunder roaring) (wind whooshing) (thunder roaring) Now, our next guest, Shari Marshik, is the executive director for the Upper Midwest Film Office.

Shari, thank you for joining us.

- Happy to be here.

Thanks for having me.

- Happy to have you.

And let's start with a, for those who don't know what UMFO is and what you do, give a little background on that.

- Sure.

So, we're the Upper Midwest Film Office.

We're an economic development nonprofit, and our goal is to advance the creative economy here in the Northland through film, TV, and commercial production.

- So, what are some of the services that you provide as a nonprofit?

- So, our main service that we provide is connecting productions to the Northland.

So, what we want to do is to, we basically sell the north as a place, as a location to have projects come.

And we do that through a number of different things, but one of the biggest thing is that we're administer incentives that are here and helping producers find and make their budget go further.

And then we do all kinds of other things.

Our friends at the IRRRB call us the front door for film in Northern Minnesota.

So, we connect with crew and services.

We help to build infrastructure and find people who are interested in working in the industry.

We do a lot of workforce development.

We offer workshops and we connect with crew, services, permitting, those kinds of things.

And then we help to build the creative economy and the infrastructure that's happening all over northern Minnesota, but especially here in Duluth and on the Iron Range.

And through things like sponsoring film festivals, helping that creative community connect, and to create more.

- So, you mentioned workforce, and I remember a few years ago when I learned more about filmmaking in detail.

You know, it's so much more than actors and directors and producers.

There's a lot of trades that can be involved in filmmaking and other types of work.

- [Shari] Yeah.

- So, maybe you could kind of share a little bit more- - Yeah.

- About what those types of jobs are.

- Yeah, they're, it's very, very much trade-related.

That's exactly right.

The industry refers to it as above the line and below the line, and that really just means it's a line on a budget, I guess, is where that comes from, but below the line means behind the camera.

And the majority of the wages that are paid and the majority of the workforce that you find on any kind of a film set is actually skilled trade workers.

And they spend a lifetime honing their skills.

And so, absolutely, everything from people who are electricians and lighting experts to camera, to people who build and design the sets, to people who are decorating the sets and seeing what they look like, to drivers, teamsters, people who drive big trucks and can actually park them and do all those things.

And then even as much as some of the things like that we don't necessarily always think about, but crafty, which is all the snacks that everybody likes on set.

You know, that's a very skilled job of being able to do it cost-effectively.

And they're the favorite people on any set.

- [Maarja] Yeah.

- So, yeah.

- Provide the snacks.

- Yeah, absolutely.

Very much trades-focused.

- And so, when we're talking about like an economic impact of this industry coming to the region, what impact is that?

- So, we started, our office formed, it's been around in different formats for a long time, but this office formed Riki McManus and I formed it in 2020.

And since then, we've attracted and certified over $10 million in spending.

That's local spending between Duluth and the Iron Range.

And that's money that if not for this program wouldn't be here.

And that is with also having had a strike in the middle of that that really shut down everything.

So, it's a definite economic boon for places like the City of Chisholm, where Robert Enriquez, who shot his very first, one of the very first films that we had, shot it in Chisholm.

And he likes donuts.

And there's no place to buy donuts, or there wasn't at the time.

And so after he was done, he loved Chisholm so much, he and a guy from Chisholm bought the bakery, opened it up again, and now we have a bakery in Chisholm.

- [Maarja] Oh.

- So, it's a ripple effect also that we wanna think about things happening.

So, yeah, there's a significant immediate, fast injection of cash into the community, but we also know that it also ripples through the economy in ways like that.

There was a study that was done by the University of Minnesota, and they said for every dollar of incentive money, that spent $6.90 ripples through the local economy.

That's here, up here in St. Louis County and on the Iron Range.

And so it's a very effective way of attracting outside investment here and having that money ripple through.

- Yeah.

And I, you know, as an outsider, it seems like the film industry in Minnesota has changed a lot over, you know, since 2020.

- Yeah, yeah.

- And I know there's tax incentives and how those have changed.

What is that current status right now for bringing a project to Minnesota?

- Right now, it's a great time to bring a project to Minnesota, and we are situated in a really, really good spot.

There's been a lot of work by a lot of people that have worked with our legislators to help them understand that this is an opportunity that no money goes out before the money is already spent here.

And once people start to understand that and see the injection, they supported these incentives in a way that is meaningful.

And the reason why we're getting the projects.

If we didn't have incentives, 40 other states have incentives, there's no reason to come to Minnesota if we don't have those incentives.

And so it's been a very good thing.

And as I said before, we actually do see the results almost sevenfold when that comes in.

So, that's the reason why we are starting to see so many projects come is because we have the incentives here and it makes financial sense.

This is a business.

We want people to come, inject their money here, and help our businesses to grow here, so.

- For those who are interested in a career in filmmaking, whether it be through the trades, or, from, through the creative lens, how do they get involved in the region?

- That's a really good question.

And what we want people to know is that it is a low barrier of entry to get into working on a set.

So, you can start, and many, most people start as a production assistant.

We happen to offer workshops, and you can find that information on our Facebook site.

But what we do is try to help you step onto the, be set up for success.

When you step onto the set, you understand what a call sheet is, you understand what the things that are gonna be required of you.

And then there's a lot of learning while you're on the job.

So, that's what somebody who has no idea what's happening in the industry, but they really wanted, we encourage you to take one of our workshops.

We have scholarships available.

We do not want that to be a barrier.

We want people, we need people to work.

It's one of the number one things we have to do.

And so they can certainly do that.

Creatively, there are a lot of resources around.

We have an amazing partner in Zeitgeist and the Minnesota Media Arts program.

There's a bunch of stuff that's happening in Ely.

So, there are some ways that people can get involved.

And we can direct you, if you are like, "Hey, I wanna do this," or, "I wanna learn more about that," we can easily direct people.

- Wonderful.

- A lot of opportunity.

- Yeah.

- Shari, thank you so much for joining us.

- Thanks for having me.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) - Before we go, I wanna remind you that our fall fundraiser is in its last few days, offering an opportunity for you to directly support the meaningful work we do here at PBS North.

As we celebrate 60 years of service to our community, we reflect on the impact we've made together, bringing important stories to light, - But we can't do it alone.

Your support is not just appreciated, it's essential in ensuring that we continue this legacy for years to come.

Join us by calling 218-788-2844, or by going online to pbsnorth.org to make your contribution.

And when you do, you can select one of the special gifts we have available.

Our way of saying thanks.

- [Narrator] Support PBS North with a sustaining contribution of just $8 per month, or a one-time gift of $96, and we'll thank you with your choice of "A Popular History of Minnesota" or "Wisconsin: The Story of The Badger State."

These captivating books include useful travel guides to historic destinations, making them perfect for anyone interested in exploring the rich heritage of our region.

Or, when you make a sustaining contribution of $15 a month, or your annual gift of $180, we'll thank you with a one year digital subscription to "The New York Times."

Enjoy unlimited anytime, anywhere online access to all "New York Times" content, including breaking news, politics, food, travel, and so much more.

Raise a toast to six decades of storytelling with our 60th anniversary Commemorative Yeti tumbler.

With a $25 monthly sustaining contribution, or a one-time gift of $300, you'll get this durable tumbler that keeps your drinks at the perfect temperature while showcasing your support for your public television station.

Your gift to PBS North makes local productions like "Almanac North" possible.

Call us now at 218-788-2844, or give online at pbsnorth.org.

Thank you for your support.

- When you give, you can select one of these great thank you gifts, but best of all, you can take pride in knowing that you make trustworthy journalism available for everyone across the Northland.

Because you value the importance of a local perspective, take a moment now to make a difference.

- Your donation ensures that we can continue delivering balanced reporting and thoughtful analysis on news, politics, and community events right here in Northern Minnesota.

It also helps "Almanac North" keep sharing a local perspective on the topics that matter most to our region and its residents.

- When you make an investment in PBS North, you make public media possible for the thousands of people that watch in neighborhoods throughout the Northland every week.

Please take a moment to give right now by calling 218-788-2844, or by visiting their website at pbsnorth.org.

Thank you for your generous support.

- And thank you, Tom.

One last thing before we go, let's take a look at what you might be up to this weekend.

Saturday at 9:00 AM at the Ashland Enrichment Center in Ashland, Wisconsin, the Alzheimer's Association, Wisconsin Chapter, is hosting a Walk to End Alzheimer's.

Pre-registration is encouraged, though you can register day of.

Registration starts at 9:00 AM, the opening ceremony is at 9:40, and the walk walk begins at 10:00 AM.

The event is free and donations are encouraged.

If you raise $100 or more, you will get a 2024 Walk to End Alzheimer's T-shirt.

The Alzheimer's Association's Walk to End Alzheimer's is the world's largest fundraiser to fight the disease, with events in more than 600 communities each year.

Also, Saturday from 8:00 AM to 11:00 AM is the Lumberjack Mile & 5K at the Grand Rapids Public Utilities in Grand Rapids.

The annual walk and run provides the community and visitors a family-friendly event to benefit the United Way programs in Itasca County.

Registration begins at 8:00 AM, the race starts at 9:00 AM, and awards and finishes and best dressed is at 10:30.

And Saturday at 1:00 PM is the Fifth Annual Wright/Gagne Charity Golf Scramble at the Grandview Golf Course.

The event is to raise money for junior curling in the Twin Ports.

The scramble will be at nine holes with the shotgun start.

Registration is at 1:00 PM and start time is 2:00 PM.

The entry fee is $60 per player, and includes the round a card and awards dinner afterwards.

Well, that's it for this week's show.

Make sure you go out and enjoy your weekend.

For everyone here at "Almanac North," I'm Maarja Hewitt.

Thank you for joining us.

Good night.

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