Announcer 1: The views and opinions expressed in to the point are those of the host of the program and its guests.

They do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of WGTE public media.

Doni: Film Toledo is a growing force in Northwest Ohio's creative economy.

As the region's only film commission, it's working to attract productions, support local filmmakers, and build a sustainable film industry right here in our community.

From local scouting to workforce development, their efforts are helping put Toledo on the map for film and media.

Joining us today is the vice president and co-founder of Film Toledo, Charles Wetzel Jr, to discuss the organization's mission, recent projects and what's next for film in the Glass City.

I'm Doni Miller, and welcome to the Point.

Connect with us on our social media pages and you know that you can email me at doni_miller@wgte.org.

And for this episode and other additional extras, go to wgte.org.

To that point.

What a fun show we have today.

I think that so many people think of Toledo as being uninteresting and like nothing really going on here.

You would be so wrong.

We have with us today the co-founder and vice president of Film Toledo, Charles Wetzel Jr.

Welcome.

Welcome, welcome.

I'm so excited to have you here today.

Why don't we tell people a little bit about what film Toledo actually is?

Charles: Okay.

Well, Film Toledo is the regional film commission in northwest Ohio.

So we we cover Toledo and the surrounding, like, northwest area.

We focus on bringing in film productions to help boost our local economy.

You know, we've a lot of film.

Film has a lot of spending whenever they go places.

So when they come here, we promote them to use like our local resources, security, hotel rooms, things like that.

So we focus a lot on bringing in those films for that, that boost.

But then we also focus on growing the local film scene as well.

Doni: So there is a local film scene that currently.

What tell me a little bit about that.

Charles: So back in 2018, when we started, Michael DeSanto and I were just a couple filmmakers where we're making films and having fun with that, and we're like, man, I wish we had more people to make these films with.

And over time, we started noticing there were other people in Toledo making films, but nobody knew each other.

And so our first order of business business was to unite the film scene, get people together and get them working together because everybody actually had their own strengths to like.

This team was good at sound, this team was good at picture.

These guys were pretty good actors.

And so we started having mixers and people started getting together and they started meeting and they started working together.

And now we have a pretty solid films in here.

It's it's still growing.

It's still pretty small.

But we're we're beginning to get the resources of having like a very strong film scene.

Doni: And are there projects what what kind of local projects are happening.

Charles: So there's there's a lot of local indie film, right now.

It's a lot of commercial.

We have been getting some, some productions that want to come in.

I'm not allowed to talk about them because I signed an NDA, but we have had a lot of production studios interested in coming here, and I really don't blame them because if when you look at Toledo, if you really think about what we have here, we have a river that runs straight through our city waterfront.

If you drive 20 minutes in any direction in Toledo, you're in a whole different area.

You could be in a farm.

You could be in like a low income area.

You could be in an industrial area.

You could be anywhere within just 20 minutes.

And travel time in film can be a huge deal.

Doni: Yeah.

It's, I think that people think that that Toledo is not a place for award winning work, let alone it not not the place for, for film work, let alone award winning work.

And I want to take this one second to sort of brag about where I work.

Charles: Yeah.

Doni: We won a public media award for our documentary on the old West End, and that's going to be shown at your film festival.

Charles: Yeah.

Doni: This weekend.

Charles: that was that was one of the things that we really wanted to do after the pandemic was to bring back the Maumee Film Festival.

So we're really glad to have you guys this film in it.

Doni: Yeah, we're really, really happy and really proud.

We've got a great team here and really proud to show our work at that, at that, at that festival.

So what what do you do to bring creatives together?

I mean, it must have been a pretty hard reach to find people out there who are interested in developing film here in Toledo, because, again, people don't think about Toledo is the place to develop film.

Charles: Yeah.

Well, a lot of our growth and honestly a lot of our just general existence is due to the community.

You know, we've we've been backed by the community and just about everything we've done, we wouldn't have made it this far without community support, partnering with local businesses, things to that nature.

You know, we, right now.

We're we're working on obtaining some some funding.

But in the meantime, since since we've been searching for grants and different kinds of funding, we've been relying solely on donations.

And we've been just kind of paying out of pocket for most things.

And so the community is actually what's been helping get us through all of this.

We've managed to we've really managed to budget what we, what we work on and, and what we have.

You know, one of the things that we're trying to do is to get more like one of the reasons why we need more funding is because we want to have more events.

We want to put on more festivals.

We want to bring in more experts to actually teach these different film roles that people would need in order to do these jobs when they come in.

There are people who do those roles already, but we want to train more and more so that when they come here, they can hire local and then that creates jobs.

Doni: Yeah, I was thinking, as you were speaking about the challenges of being a creative, which is the term that's been applied to to folks in your industry and to the arts in general.

How how do you without a solid source of funding, support those folks who have this dream?

Charles: So one of the things that we do is will actually help with locations.

We have mixers and we do have, we do classes and workshops.

So bringing in those experts to help teach and help bring people up.

Some people come in and they literally just teach about the business of film, which actually is a lot more where Film Toledo leans, we lean a lot more towards the business side of film versus the creative side of film, because we're we're like the middleman between the productions in the city, and we kind of, you know, branch people off on where they need to go.

Like typically when a production would reach out to us, they would have certain needs.

And then they would they they're usually familiar with working with commissions, especially in Ohio, you know, Columbus, Dayton, Cincinnati, Cleveland.

They all have film commissions and so when they come here, they contact us, and then we kind of send them where they need to go.

We'll send them locations.

We'll send them lists of like businesses if they're looking for a coffee shop or something like that.

And then any permits, like if they need to do permits through the city, like we actually talked to the city and we work through those, Doni: you know, a lot of the things that you've mentioned, like the river and, and buildings and that sort of thing make for great B-roll or background.

Charles: Absolutely.

Doni: Shots great.

But what is it that would make someone choose to actually film here in this city?

Charles: So there's two major incentives to wanting to shoot here in Toledo.

Number one is the film tax credit, because if they spend at least $300,000 on their film, they actually get a rebate back.

And it's called the The Ohio Motion Picture Tax Credit.

It's currently sitting at $75 million.

And so that is that's the amount that can be given out as a rebate.

There is actually legislation right now in the state Senate to up that to $100 million.

The higher that tax credit goes, the more incentive film has to come here, because that's more money out of that pie to kind of spread out.

And that was another reason why we thought the Film Commission would be a great idea, because Cleveland and Cincinnati and Columbus, all of these commissions have been getting a piece of that pie, and Toledo has just been getting nothing.

And so we thought, why not?

Why shouldn't Toledo get a piece of this pie, too?

We have a lot to offer here.

Doni: How do you how do you convince producers and directors to come here?

How do you reach out to them?

Do you call them and say, hey, I've got this great location in Toledo.

Charles: Well, a lot of times they'll reach out to us.

Another another thing that we do is we work with the other film commissions in Ohio because it's not really a competition, like we all work together.

And so if a production goes to Cleveland and they say, hey, we we need this, and they and they can support that, which most of the time in Cleveland cam they've had their film scene going for about 20 plus years.

But there are times when they ca And so they'll send it over to us.

Can you guys do something with this.

And vice versa.

You know if Productive productions will usually reach out to us.

But we do try to be proactive and and reach out to the productions as well.

But if we're not aware of a production, it's hard for us to reach out to them.

And so that's, that's kind of how that works in, in that area.

Doni: There is, film produced here called Eenie Meanie.

Can you share with our viewers a little bit about that film, the role that film Toledo had in making that happen?

Charles: Yeah.

So, we did some location scouting for that.

Originally, Eenie Meenie was looking for a casino.

They wanted a casino that they could block off streets and had a lot of area.

We know that Columbus and Cleveland have casinos, but they're, like, right in the heart of town.

They can't block off those streets.

They can't do crazy car chases and stunts like that.

But our casino here is very standalone.

It's very kind of sequestered to itself.

It is.

And so they were able to drive around and do all of those crazy wild things.

And so that was one of the major incentives to come here.

It was because we had something that the other cities couldn't offer.

Eenie meenie actually shot in Cleveland, Sandusky and Toledo.

They were here for about eight days.

I was on set for all but one of those days.

I worked as a stand in with Carl and I got to do, like, some background extra work for a while.

And I was also Doni: do you want to make an announcement now that your acting career, now that you.

Charles: Oh, no.

I've.

That's anyone who looks at my page will know that.

But I sort of threw it out because I was I was also from Toledo's rep on set.

And so as I was on set, if the production needed anything specific, they would ask me, like, you know, places to go to eat, places to hang out during leisure time.

You know, and so I was kind of directing the crew and, the production and even the cast on where to go.

When Samara Weaving was here, she was she was talking about tattoos, and I had mentioned Brass Monkey in Toledo.

Toledo.

And she actually went there and got a tattoo.

Doni: No kidding.

Charles: Yeah.

And it's funny because it's like it's a silly story, but that's still economic development.

She spent money here in Toledo to get a tattoo.

Doni: Thats right what a fun job you have?

Charles: Yeah.

It's very interesting.

Doni: Really pretty cool.

Stay with us.

Okay?

We're going to come back in just a second.

Please.

Go nowhere.

Doni: Connect with us on our social media pages.

And as you know, you may email me at Doni Underscore Miller at wgte.org.

And for this episode and others, please don't hesitate to go to wgte.org.

To the point we have such a wonderful opportunity.

And it's so much fun today to talk about film actually being developed with movies actually being developed right here in Toledo.

And Charles Wetzel Jr.

is here from Film Toledo to, walk us through what that process is like here and how accessible it's actually come to this community.

I mean, we've got people who are working on films, going to local establishments, using those establishments.

But you've had some challenges, I'm sure.

Just getting it moving.

Charles: Yeah, we've definitely had seen some struggles in the past.

You know, we started in 2018, and when we started out, we were really trying to find our groove.

You know, we were trying to form our board and it was it was a lot of administrative stuff.

We were trying to work on.

And just as we kind of started catching our stride, the pandemic hit.

Doni: Oh, yeah.

Charles: And all film just came to a halt.

And there wasn't really much that we could do with film wasn't happening.

So what we did was we spent we spent all that time to prep, to build and to try to come out of the pandemic stronger than ever.

And so we did that.

And then the writers and the sag strikes kind of set us back again.

Film had had stopped again.

Luckily that didn't last too long.

But then once it ended, well, then things really kind of took off for us.

You know, we were formally recognized by the city.

There's a press conference.

I got to introduce the mayor.

Like, it was a beautiful day.

And we had we had so many members of the film community and from just the community in general, show up to support us.

You know, people that have been with us all along have really, really been supportive of us.

Doni: You know, that raises a what I think is an important point.

How do you work with city officials and how do you work with residents to make this a place where people want to come and produce their films?

Charles: Yeah.

So with in terms of the city, we meet a lot with City Council.

Katie Moline was actually one of the one of the city council members.

Well, previous council members who actually helped get us started.

We have Nick Komives our board as well.

He's really been he's really been helping us a lot in terms of working through our relationship with the city, which we're still trying to we're still trying to kind of find where we're going to sit with that.

But in the meantime, you know, we are an independent organization.

Typically, a commission doesn't operate underneath the umbrella of the city.

We work with the city.

Doni: And you're an independent organization apart from the city?

Charles: Yeah, we're actually a 501 C3.

So like a nonprofit.

Okay.

Doni: Things that, the city can do, though, to help you.

What?

What sorts of things are they able to do and what sorts of things, again, are people like me who are fascinated by this sort of thing?

And what can we do to help?

Charles: Well, I know one thing.

The city is trying to do is they're working on a permit system to kind of streamline those.

Yea So that way when because film is fast, right?

Like, film and TV can be very fast.

So when a film comes in, you know, they they may have a couple days or a couple of weeks where they're like, we need this like immediately.

So we really have to streamline the permits because we can't take weeks or months to to do that.

Another another way the city could help us with would be by giving us some funding.

If we were to get funding, that would really help us with our events.

And we really want to bring back the Glass City Film Festival like Toledo.

Doni: That would be amazing.

You are having a film festival though in Maumee.

Charles: We are you.

We brought back the Maumee Film Festival.

It kind of died to the pandemic, but there is a lot of demand for it.

People loved the Maumee Film Festival.

You know, it's it's one of the biggest film festivals in the Toledo area.

And so that was one of our goals was to bring that back.

Doni: And did I happen to mention that we have an award winning film being shown in that film festival.

Charles: you guys do have Doni: Yeah.

For the second time, I just wanted to make sure you heard me the first time.

Charles: No, that congratulations, as this is a major achievement and very happy for you guys.

Doni: And when is the film festival the Maumee film festioval.

Charles: That's actually this weekend.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

It's a three day event.

If you go on to the Maumee Theaters website, there's a lot of information on there about it.

Sarah Idan at the Miami Theater.

She's the manager there.

She has been doing an amazing job with that theater.

She's been working very closely with us to put on events and to have these film screenings.

You know, there's there's actually a lot of indie film that's been kind of showing lately.

You know, there's the lifeguards, the ride to nowhere.

I think there was a movie called bird that was out recently.

So there's been there's been quite a few that have come out just in the past year, and we've been seeing a rise in the local film scene.

I've seen a lot of college students getting involved.

You know, we work with Bgsu and UT, we have a couple of professors on our board as well.

So we have a really strong connection with these universities.

I've, I've helped judge, like the Black Swamp Film Festival in Bowling Green.

We've talked to students.

I've actually been on sets where I've seen college students working on the set.

So they're already working and they're not even out of college yet.

Doni: That's amazing.

And that's it.

That sends a really good message to folks that they don't have to go to L.A.

or New York or even Chicago to to pursue an interest in film, because we can do that right here.

Charles: Yeah.

And I think with with the new technologies that we have, like personally, my, my own view is I see film becoming less centralized.

You know, I think that I could see other cities opening up their own commissions because LA in New York and Georgia have been represented for so long in film.

Doni: georgia?

Charles: yeah, Georgia's is where walking dead.

They have a great tax credit in Georgia, which is why they've been seeing a lot of business lately.

Doni: Wow.

Anything that sticks out in your head, like some amazing story, some amazing encounter that you've had in this work.

Charles: Honestly, Eenie Meenie was pretty amazing like that.

That was the largest film that's ever taken place in Toledo.

You know, there was.

I think they spent at least $40 million in that film.

You know, and since we've started, like, we brought in over $14 million in economic spending, and that's just, you know, the few projects that have, like, the few big projects that have come in here, you know, because they spend a lot of money when they're here.

But Eenie Meenie in itself was was quite a ride.

Like being in the casino 12 hours a day for like, eight days.

You know, seeing Doni: and actually being apart of the team.

Yeah just being a part of the team.

Charles: Yeah.

Like working with the crew and, like the the cast.

It was.

It was amazing.

You know, and seeing the base camp set up in the parking lot, you know, they they brought in a huge food truck.

It was more like a food bus.

And they're they're making food for the entire cast and crew.

Wow.

And, like, they had tents set up, like, the whole parking lot was like a base camp, and it was fantastic.

Doni: So I we have to talk about the paper.

Absolutely.

Gotta talk about the paper.

It's it's everywhere.

It's getting great reviews.

And the focus is right here.

Did they work with you guys at all.

Charles: They did actually.

We, we didn't have like a strong hand in like producing the film, but they did reach out to us about, cultural information.

They wanted to know more about Toledo.

Like, you know, what do people in Toledo where what are some popular things in Toledo?

What are important to people in Toledo?

And so obviously, we had to mention, you know, jup mode with their with their here for good program.

You know, a lot of businesses take advantage of that.

And I think half my wardrobe, half my shirts are probably jup mode shirts.

Doni: Oh yeah.

Charles: We also talked about, you know, the Mud Hens.

We talked about the walleye and also that it's walleye and that the walleyes.

You know, so it was, it was a lot of like cultural things like that.

Doni: Do you think there's any opportunity to get them to actually come and shoot here.

I understand that they're shooting in LA.

Charles: They are shooting.

They're shooting it in LA.

Doni: And and you you mentioned, when in our prep that they've been approved for a second season.

Charles: They have been approved for a second.

Doni: So you have an opportunity to work your magic and get of here.

Charles: We're going to try our best.

I would I would love to see them shoot more stuff here for the paper.

You know, unfortunately we don't have direct control over that, but we can we can still talk.

Production.

Doni: A little influence never hurts.

Charles: Well, you know, as a show gets more, more popular, you never know what they're going to do.

Doni: Absolutely.

Charles: If they've been approved for a second season, how long did the Office run for this year?

How long did Parks and Rec run for?

Doni: You're right.

Charles: There's there's plenty of opportunities to have them come back to Toledo.

And we're really, really hoping that they do because I honestly, I already like the show.

I still have to finish the season.

I've, I've seen, like, the first five episodes, but I've been really busy.

Doni: It's really cool.

It's so great.

And I'm so glad you've been really busy.

So you mentioned this just a little bit earlier, but, I'd like to sort of revisit just so that people understand this is more than just for this city.

This is more than just an opportunity for people to pursue their dreams.

There is a strong economic impact on on the city when you bring in, as you might expect.

Yeah.

When you bring in, the developers of a film.

Charles: Yeah.

Well, in terms of like, economic development, you know, I, I had mentioned how we have the tax credit and, you know, when a film comes in, if they spend, it has to be at least $300,000 to qualify for the tax credit.

But these films are spending millions of dollars.

And, you know, even if they are getting a rebate out of that, the amount that they're spending in our state, in our city, still outweighs that rebate by a lot.

And so it's definitely worth having.

And, you know, a lot of city a lot of the commissioners have seen success through this.

And we're still kind of like getting started out.

You know, we're still building.

We we helped build this foundation for filmmakers.

We've been connecting with every local business, every community member, everybody that we can talk to.

You know, we we try to partner, we try to see what we can do for them.

Because one of the things I would love to see is local businesses on the big screen, you know, get these people's businesses out there and, you know, not replacing their name with something else, but giving them the actually actual opportunities to have, you know, a local coffee shop or a local bar or a local restaurant, you know, featured on the big screen.

That's an opportunity they may not have seen otherwise.

Doni: Wouldn't that be amazing?

What's next for you guys?

We've had just a couple minutes left, but I want to make sure that people know how to connect with you if they want to connect with you for donations or other kinds of support, and kind of get a sense of what your next focus is for the for the city.

Charles: So, some of our focus is right now our very event based.

We're we're trying to continue building the film scene by to do that.

One of the things that we're doing is we are bringing in something named Kenny Chaplin.

He runs first assistant director workshops, and we're going to be bringing him in in November from the 21st to the 23rd.

And he's going to be leading an intensive, an intensive three day course about how to be an assistant director and film.

And, you know, he and he's worked on a lot of very large projects.

And we we actually got to go to Columbus and work with him and see this workshop in action and kind of assist him with it.

Not that he really needed it, but it was nice to to be there and to work with him.

He was a great guy.

He was very friendly and we thou you know what, maybe he'd be interested in coming to Toledo too.

And he was all about it.

Doni: So if I want to get in touch with you, or someone else wants to get in touch with you about becoming a part of your process, how do they do that?

Charles: So you can go to film toledo dot com.

We do have a contact us page.

You can also email info at Filmtoledo.com.

That email actually go directly to me and a few other staff members.

You know, we're we are always looking for volunteers and interns for some of these events that we put on, like the Maumee Film Festival.

We have a bunch of volunteers signing up for that.

Doni: Okay.

And all they have to do is go to those places and you'll help them with the rest.

Charles: That's right.

Doni: Thank you so much.

Charles: Thank you for having me.

Doni: What fun you are what a great job you have.

And thank you all for joining us and we will see you next time.

On to the point.

Announcer 1: The views and opinions expressed in to the point are those of the host of the program and its guests.

They do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of WGTE public media.

Announcer 2: To the point is supported in part by viewers like you.

Thank you.