Trilith Studios President on Launch of ATL Complex

going on, uh, studio City of the East. For sure, we knew that this was a big business uh down there in my hometown of my home state. But you've you've got some big plans. Tell us about it. Yeah, Jackson, thanks for having me on again. It's good to talk to himsel again. Yeah. Well, you know, this something we've been working on for couple of years. We set out to create a place built by four members of the film and creative industries, a point that has everything we

need to kind of you know. The dream is to make anything we can magin and so it's also a place where we want to live, you know, have our families, race kids, and so yeah, I agree with it's kind of a studio city, a contemporary studio city at the southeast and building upon, of course the success that we've had, uh, the film production space, but expanding it to include, um, you know, story and technology and all the makers for a place for them to live and work and raise

your families. This is like the Left Wreck Mattel model. And I bring this up a lot because I lived you know, Left Wreck City back in that was it fifties or's like after the returning World War two vets they you know, it's a place to live, to work, to all those things. And then Left Wrack over here in actually Jersey City where I live, created a waterfront community the whole same idea. You could live there, you could work there, you get shop there. Um, is that

what you're going for? Tell me a little bit. This is a grand vision. Yeah. I mean, by the way, my wife, we love that area. We uh yeah, I mean, if you think about it, it's really a cluster, right, It's an industry cluster. You know. Doctor doctor Microporter from Harvard's Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness has done a lot of research in this space and has pointed out how these clusters form, and really Atlanta was a great place

to think about how to cluster around this industry. We had a head start with a great tax incent of a history of big innovation, and so with our history and the self business, and with the history of Pinewood uh and these excellent stage facilities, it was really, uh we think a smart play to cluster these businesses. We have forty uh something business I guess it's close to sixty now already clusters down here at the studios and

in the town. And we feel like as we focus our efforts on content and technology companies to grow, we'll be at a hundred pretty quickly. But more importantly, it's a place where you know, creators and technologists and innovators can feel at home to create. And that's really the goal. And so Frank talk about the content piece of this, because I feel like when we've talked to you in the past, um at least I've framed at least, or I've thought of you at least as a place where

content creators show up they make their movies. You know, you have amazing facilities, But as I understand it and keep me honest here. You guys are now in the business of really investing in intellectual property. You you've been making some acquisitions. That that's a shift, right, Yeah, And thus the new name and new brand, right, So we probably would Atlanta goes the core business with facilities, right,

and that's our piller, uh, number one pillar business. And what we did is we decided that given all the teams is going on in the industry and the dramatic shifts that are happening in the way consumers are consuming content and now the demands for content, that we needed to add a couple of more pillars of business. And one was to focus on investing in content companies and to focus on the technology that is necessary to help

scale the production of that content. And with those news free pillars, that's how we came up with Triller, which is three arms of business, but also happens to be the structure that you see very commonly in stonehenge. Uh.

We like learning our British history with us. But with these three new uh, which is three pillars in business, men, that sort of makes us sort of uh, you know, a kind of an old fashioned studio with the addition of technology Hey, what about the timing, Frank, because I just think it's interesting Jason and I, as you know, Uh, we've talked with you before. We love talking about kind

of just real estate usage right now in particular. And I was talking with a bunch of executives, global executives when in London, went over in Asia and China, you know, and they said, you know, depending on which part of the market you're in, you're either doing well or you're not, or there's opportunities or there or not. So I'm just curious about the timing for you guys to do all of this. Well, You've been on a couple of points. One, I think we've spoken about this in the past before.

You know, pre COVID, we happen to be in a situation where, given all these changes in the way we're consuming content, Um Wall Street was already pouring more money into the pipeline for for to the filmmaking pipeline. Then we had the capacity to produce in this industry. We were already falling behind. And then COVID hits and everybody decides to go and you know, stuck inside and watch all this content on all these platforms, you know, and as the joke that the current joke goes. You know,

I've seen Netflix, so what's next? And it's just so much content that is now needed, Uh, that there's a shortage of facilities, there's a shortage of talent capable of producing content at that kind of scale, and it's a shortage of the technology that can enable us to do this. So we think the timing is perfect. And separate to your other point that I think you made, which is

a good point as a real estates plan. Uh, several big pert venture firms, you know, you and I both know big names that have found this kind of real estate to be a new class of real estate that they want to invest in. And so what I mean of, you know, studio facilities in the movie business, and so you're seeing a lot of big firms get involved in this space, and we think it's a smartness. Can I just say I hadn't heard that line. I've seen Netflix,

What's next? So I'm adding it to Jason and I through this whole seven months have been just I've been keeping track of just fun things that people say. So I'm adding it to this is my t shirt list, Like all of these lines could be a T shirt and then thank you for sharing that one with that's in the city of Atlanta and its environs, there is something unique, and I say it's because it's my hometown. My parents live there, I have many many family members there.

The way that the city has grown both economically and geographically. I think what you're doing is something of a microcosm of that, and I do I would love for you to sort of explain that and sort of how it fits into the broader Georgia and Atlanta economy and how it reflects it. If that makes sense. Yeah, that's great, and you're right. I do think what we're building is a microbub cluster of the larger to that is Atlanta. I mean, these kinds of things tend to form if

you sort of back out a little bit. Atlanta as a result, like like other cities around the world that have been successful at this, it's it's the result of you know, a sort of business friendly policy environment, of smart tax policy, of of strong research universities and of

course produced talent. And of course we have the benefit of having this kind of global hub of an airport, the most traveled airport in the world, with all these direct flights to important destinations all over the world, and I think that combination has has been very helpful for Atlanta in the spaces that I think it's most famous for, which is you know, fintech and and sort of all that Georgia tech research, those kinds of research outcomes, and

then more recently famous because of the filmer industry. But I'll tell you, the film industry has been a part of Georgia for a long time. When President Carson was Governor Carter of of Atlanta, I'm sure you know, Jason.

You know, we had the first state film office in the States, and Governor Carter was making a real play for the film and she's back in the seventies, and so we had a cool independent thing that grew into of course Ted Turner watching what became the media giant Turner and then followed, you know, Tyler Perry deciding to plan a state and say, no, I'm not going to live and work in the Hollywood. I'm gonna build my

own studio here and so, uh, you know. Mentioning before about Dr Porter's research and clusters at the Wonder was identified as an entertainment media cluster back in the mid nineties, you know, globally recognized entertainment media cluster. And so the recent tax incentive and the move towards these bigger budget projects that came around post two thousand eight, I was really now made it a globally recognized center for creativity.

You know, it's interesting for what think I want to ask you because years ago I remember doing a piece specifically about tax incentives for the for Bloomberg Television, about tax incentives for like the film and to because as you know, you've seen the stories about where people are like, why do we give them a break? It really doesn't do anything for the economy. What would you say to that, especially considering what you guys are doing there in Atlanta. Well,

it's it's all in the devilish details of design. Because you know, I was I'm only three years in this market place and my studio I left, which we have built in San Francisco to build digital humans. Atlanta wasn't on my radar, and I met the folks at Palmwood, became excited about it, and the first thing I did

was to look up the tax policy. Because I've been a part and have served other governors in other states who's had tax incentives, but they just weren't well written UH, and they weren't really meant that you could tell they were sort of temporary or not very thoughtful in their approach, and it resulted in sort of temporary tax um incentives. But whoever did this and I quite figured out who the parties were that all came together to to make

this work. It is the best written tax policy for taxing centers in the United States, and by the way, it's the second most attractive tax incentive in the United States.

And importantly, it was really focused on building the economy in Georgia and you know, injecting directly UH jobs and high paying jobs to Georgians and in a way that you know, we were credited with partially being one of the key um UH industries bringing UH the Georgia economy out of trouble in two thousand and eight, and we are seen as an important player now as we try to get back out of trouble as a result of covered. So it depends on what you know. Not all tax

incentives are created equally. For one in Georgia is very smart and it's been quite powerful for the state of Georgia. A great answer to that. Yeah, so, Frank, only about a minute left, but just give us one minute on sort of state of production and where you are as as we worry continually about this second wave. Yeah, well, I think the last time you and I spoke, we were working real hard and figuring out how to get

everybody back to work safely. Uh, And we put a lot into that, and we've had a big fortune of coming up with some systems that, uh, the industry is excited about. We've gotten. Um, we're probably back up to about fifty of where we were, and I think in the next six weeks will be close to a uh. And so we've got I've got hundred people badging on a lot today and UM, you know, we're it's it's we're slower. Uh, we're having to be a lot more careful.

There are a lot more new systems to consider. The exciting weid news is we're putting people back to work so we can make movies that people are looking forward to see. Well, we certainly are looking forward to see him. And I can't wait to come visit and see everything that you're up to. Patterson. Thank you so much, President CEO of Trilith Studios joining us on the phone from the A t L. So much going on Lanta is awesome.