This weekend, one of the largest gatherings of independent television producers in the country will be in little Duluth, Minnesota for the Catalyst Content Festival.
The Catalyst Stories Institute is a series of labs, seminars, workshops, and networking events that prepare content creators for potential meetings and partnerships. It is an industry marketplace for showcasing independently produced programming according to their website.
Melodie Bahan is the Executive Director of Minnesota Film and TV. She says this is a big step forward for Minnesota following the passage of an important tax credit by the legislature this past year.
“About 500 people from the industry out in L.A., New York around the world and from Minnesota are going to be gathering and I'm so looking forward to seeing all these folks in person,” Bahan told WCCO’s Susie Jones on the Morning News.
Bahan says this is one of the most important creative gatherings in the world of TV and streaming.
“It really is the largest independent television festival in the world,” Bahan told Jones. “It's for episodic programming that is produced independently.
So its executives, and creatives, and creators from all of the major streaming services will be there and it really does focus on that episodic content. It's really about getting together and sharing ideas, generating leads, building relationships.”
Ultimately, by hosting the festival in Minnesota, the state is hoping to get some of the production on these episodic television shows shot here in Minnesota. Bahan says this is a lead generator for her group.
“A lot of these industry folks are coming here who have never been to Minnesota before,” Bahan said. “They'll come here for the Catalyst Festival and then Catalyst kind of hands them off to our office and the Upper Midwest film office to try and convince them to do their productions here.”
That's getting a little bit easier now that we have the tax credit for these projects in Minnesota according to Bahan.
“When you see that Georgia peach in the credits of a movie or TV show, what that means is that it was filmed in Georgia because of a tax credit,” Bahan explains. “Production incentives like tax credits and rebates are really one of the driving forces of where shows and movies are produced and Minnesota has really just not been competitive for decades now because the rebate program we had was really underfunded. The legislature just passed this session a tax credit incentive. While it's a small program, it is finally putting us in the conversation. So I expect in 2022 that we're going to have the kinds of projects that we haven't had in a while.”
When this is all said and done, the goal would be to be able to announce some projects that are going to be shot here and that some of Minnesota’s labor and industry people would be doing work behind the scenes. It also could provide opportunities for extras to participate in the shots.
“What it means ultimately is new spending all over the state and jobs for Minnesotans,” says a hopeful Bahan.
