Eric Hays: Rebuilding Hawai‘i’s Film Industry from the Ground Up

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 10:00: Eric Hayes, NCIS Hawaii, NCIS Hawaii, Captain Phillips
2. 10:00 – 20:00: Aloha Harvest, Humble Hearts, Louisiana
3. 20:00 – 30:00: Louisiana, Head Hunters
4. 30:00 – 40:00: Louisiana, NCIS Hawaii, NCIS Hawaii
5. 40:00 – 50:00: Louisiana, Head Hunters, Jamie Coo, NCIS Hawaii
6. 50:00 – 1:00:00: Louisiana, Head Hunters
7. 1:00:00 – 1:10:00: Duke Kanamoku, Louisiana
8. 1:10:00 – 1:12:09: Eric Hayes

Notable quotes from "Eric Hays: Rebuilding Hawai‘i’s Film Industry from the Ground Up"

• Assistant director, producer, and unit production manager, known for work on his hit series like NCIS Hawaii and major films like Captain Phillips. We'll break down exactly…

  about NCIS Hawaii · at 0:12

• Really? Yeah. And I actually went to St. Mary's College with Jim Jo. really great camera operator here on the island. Oh my gosh. And sorry to hear that. Yeah, it's it's okay. I've known him a while. Did he always have that.

  about St. Mary's College · at 1:50

• People, and personally, that's what I've totally felt from you. you coming from Louisiana and being our UPM pretty much our leader going into with the show and from the get-go, I really saw you in a different light as to other UPMs. I love.

  about Louisiana · at 10:08

• In giving our catering food to whoever needs it. Right. And I came to you because I found Aloha Harvest who kind of managed that liability.

  about Aloha Harvest · at 18:33

• Last day that we were out on the west side I literally had nothing else driving home and I got a call about head hunters and it was that Kevin Cosner movie surf movie that…

  about Head Hunters · at 25:07

• We had electricians, bringing people up and within. Same thing in the art department. Jamie Coo had never been an art director before and she did an amazing job. Yeah. And so you promote within and you're everybody is.

  about Jamie Coo · at 42:52

• Duke Kanamoku won the gold medal in swimming. That's a great thing.

  about Duke Kanamoku · at 1:00:12

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Eric Hayes — Person · 3 mentions · first at 0:10
  Scenes to discover how Hawaii's film and TV industry really works. Today I'm joined by Eric Hayes, a seasoned assistant director, producer, and unit production manager, known…
• Jamie Coo — Person · 1 mention · first at 42:56
• Duke Kanamoku — Person · 1 mention · first at 1:00:12

Books & papers

• Captain Phillips — Book · 1 mention · first at 0:20
  Production manager, known for work on his hit series like NCIS Hawaii and major films like Captain Phillips. We'll break down exactly what these roles involve, share some…
• Raising Lahaina — Book · 1 mention

Companies & orgs

• NCIS Hawaii — Company · 4 mentions · first at 0:18
• Aloha Harvest — Company · 2 mentions · first at 18:39
• St. Mary's College — Company · 1 mention · first at 1:53
• Humble Hearts — Company · 1 mention · first at 18:14
  Personally, brought you in closer. And that story is I run a nonprofit on the side called Humble Hearts and you know for years on Hoy50 we would try to kind of get our excess…
• Apple Inc. — Company · 1 mention

Products & tech

• NCIS Hawaii — Product · 4 mentions · first at 0:18
  Assistant director, producer, and unit production manager, known for work on his hit series like NCIS Hawaii and major films like Captain Phillips. We'll break down exactly…
• Head Hunters — Product · 3 mentions · first at 25:12

Places & events

• Louisiana — Place · 15 mentions · first at 10:12
• Lahaina — Place · 2 mentions

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 Aloha and welcome to The Big Picture the podcast where we go behind the scenes to discover how Hawaii's film and TV industry really works. Today I'm joined by Eric Hayes, a seasoned assistant director, producer, and unit production manager, known for work on his hit series like NCIS Hawaii and major films like Captain Phillips. We'll break down exactly what these roles involve, share some behind-the-scenes stories, and hear Eric's insight on navigating the realities of production life. Let's dive in. Here's my conversation with Eric Hayes.

0:44 Thank you for coming on our show, The Big Picture Podcast. You know, we created this platform. Uh, I'm going to introduce you real quick, Eric Hayes. I have here on my uh information sheet although you work for CBS, your middle name is Fox. Oh, yes. Eric Fox Hayes. Um, you I'm going to just so the viewers know who you are, give your credentials real quick. I don't want to embarrass you, but you've been, you know, all the way from a PA to assistant director UPM, producer, director. I worked on a few episodes that you've directed. Um many, many projects. Um, the last project we worked on was NCIS for three solid years. Had a lot of potential to go longer than that. Yes. It's very sad when that went away. So, having said that, you've been in Hawaii for about four years. Yes. Yeah. And um how did you get started in in this world of film? Well, it's uh interesting because I was supposed to be playing baseball.

1:50 Really? Yeah. And um I actually went to St. Mary's College with Jim Jo. Uh really great camera operator here on the island. Oh my gosh. And uh sorry to hear that. Yeah, it's it's okay. I've known him a while. Did he always have that hair or Oh, he's always been beautiful. Probably was a ponytail back then. It was. And as a matter of fact, when we're finished, I'll show you some pictures. But uh so I ended up uh there was a movie called Angels in the Outfield that was shooting in the Bay Area. Love that movie. Yes. So I was asked to join it as a production assistant and help choreograph the baseball stuff and organize like 300 baseball players. And um one day I was uh as a PA in charge of passing out the checks and everything and accidentally saw the first AD's paycheck and I was like he makes a pretty good living. I can wear shirt you know, shorts and a t-shirt the rest of my life and make films. I'm in. And

2:49 uh so I started out on that and then I jumped on to movie called Copycat and another one called Jade. But my kind of real break was on Tin Cup and that's when I met uh the great Ron Shelton wonderful amazing writer director and that's when I met Kevin Kevin Cosner and uh have known those guys for over 30 plus years and they took me under their wings and you know uh showed me a lot about the film business and uh on both sides in front of the camera and on the back side of the camera and um I got into the director's guild when I was 26.

3:23 I, was, one, of the, younger, people, to, ever get into the director's guild and was an AD for 20 plus years and got the break on NCIS New Orleans to uh direct a bunch of second units and become a producer production manager on it. And uh unfortunately when that show um went down, fortunately enough, I was asked to come out of here with Randy and Chris and Jan and Matt and uh start NCIS Hawaii, which we all to this day still think it should be shooting. Wow. And um so that's how I kind of ended up in the film industry. Everyone is is has their own ways. Some people go to film school.

4:03 Exactly. Some people end up writing some people, you know. So you never did set, out, going,, you, know what,, I, want, to be a director one day or No, as a matter of fact, I started a TV station at St. Mary's and so I went into sports reporting. Oh, there we go. And um one evening uh the shortstop on our baseball team took a bad hop, broke his nose, and they were like, "Eric, come in and play shortstop." Literally the next batter the next pitch hit a line drive up the middle. I reached down, came back, hit me in the mouth. I lost all these teeth here. severed this lip and I was like well, someone doesn't want me to uh play baseball or be in the on that side of the camera. Exactly. So, I ended up uh becoming a production assistant and you know, made my way up. For um someone who doesn't really know, we have a lot of um people who watch this who might not know the steps it takes to become a director.

4:57 There's there's a couple of different ways, but the way you went, how does that work? You start off as a PA and you work so many days or Yeah. So, I I started off as a PA and then I uh I did a movie uh I did a TV show Nash Bridges. Oh. And um basically as a production assistant in San Francisco, they were giving me second units and I was rolling cars and the DGA kind of found out about it and was like, "He's not in the director's guild, so you're going to have to grandfather in or we're going to find you $10,000 for every episode that I had been on." And Don Johnson looked over at me and said, "Welcome to DGA."

5:37 That's a dream right there. Because if not, you usually as a P have to do what? 400 days? 600 days. 600 days. I think it even might be 700 days. Now with 100 days as a working in the commercial world. And then what does that do that qualifies you to apply to be a second second or second ad? And what you do is you take your book and you put it in you you either send it to New York or LA. They take a look at it, they ended up you know, they'll throw out 25, 30 days because there's no payub or, you know something's wrong in the paperwork and uh then they vote on you and once you get in um you can't work in the three major hubs. So, you can't really work in uh LA, Chicago, or New York. Okay? So you've got to consider again, this is 20ome years ago, but I think it's still in effect that you've got to pick someplace outside that zone. Mhm. And that's where you got to do, I believe 250 days. Oh, wow. And then you become

6:37 uh third area and uh you can at that point after you get done with the third area, you can start working in LA Chicago, and New York. I give it up for the PAS, man. I don't know how they do it. Um they they go through a lot and they they're very committed to get to that point. So, you can see it when they eventually do make it as a second AD first ad. There's a lot of pride involved, but yet there's a lot of experience. You know, you only can be in those positions if you have a full full experience of how a set is ran, right?

7:11 Well, yeah. And it's it's one of those things that when I was growing up as a PA, I wanted to become an AD. Mhm. Nowadays, the PAs are still kind of figuring out what they want to do because you can jump into the camera you can jump into, you know, post or you they come in and they start to find their groove and all that. when I was with me, it was like we're going in the director's guild and that's the route we're going right probably as a UPM then hopefully producing, you know, and everything else is gravy on top. Um, but I think nowadays when you become a set PA, you're kind of, you know, feeling it out and where you fit and what works for you. Yeah. Which is great. That's a great place. I was going to say that's a great place to just learn learn about if you don't know what if you want to know about the industry but you don't know anything about it. I think starting off as a PA is a great place you can ask all

8:03 the questions that you want directly to to the people working there. Um, what inspired you at at a certain point to to say, "Oh, this is what I want to do. I want to be a director or UPM or was there anybody involved in that saying hey, you'd be uh you'd be a great UPM one day?" It's it's funny because uh not really not really. It was more of I fit into the world of the film industry. We're all circus people. Yes. We're a little crooked. Absolutely. You know, a little sideways. And uh I fit right. That's my people. That's my people. And right, you know, it as soon as you you're in it, you you go, "This is my people right here." Yeah. And and you either have the it factor or you don't.

8:46 Yeah. And so I I once I got really involved in film making and saw, you know, we're taking a script and it's becoming someone's vision. Next thing you know, we're putting it on the screen and people are going to see it. And I kind of fell in love with that and the process of it. And once I got into the director's guild and I became a first ad, you know, I first aded a hundred million dollar movie when I was 28 years old. Wow. And so I was given a lot of trust when I was young. Um I think it comes from being the the youngest of seven. So I had to grow up quick. Yeah.

9:21 And I had to be able to listen. and treat people correctly. And I think that goes a long way in the film industry. Yes. And I didn't necessarily know that I wanted to be a producer or director. Personally, I've been a producer. I've been a director. I've been a PA. I have a great time doing every single one of them. Yeah. So, you know, it's one of those things. It's like there for me, I never had a tear of, oh, this is where I want to be. Yes. Or this is what I have to do. I just want to go out and make good projects with great people. Yeah.

9:58 And laugh all day and make sure everybody, goes, home, at, the, end, of the night. Yep. And you know what? You're 100% correct about, you know, you got to know how to respect people, treat people, and personally, that's what I've totally felt from you. um you you coming from Louisiana and being our our UPM you know, pretty much our leader um going into with the show and from the get-go, I I really saw you in a different light as to other UPMs. I love all my UPMs, but um you know that you guys It's okay, Chip. Um you guys are you know you guys are dealing with the business side of things a lot. you know, it's crunching numbers.

10:41 It's making sure we're hitting our marks in the budget. You know, it's making the tough decisions. What got what got to be cut? What can we afford? And as we all know, uh when it comes to managing budgets, everyone won't be happy all the time. No, but but it's also again I I started as a PA and I took my and I so I've seen all facets and all sides of what goes into making a TV show or a film. I understand what the grip department is. I understand why you're asking for a precall. Yes, we got a techno crane. They wanted it for the first shot. You know, it's there's so many moving parts in our industry and I feel very lucky and blessed that I know a lot of them. Yeah. But I'm still learning. Yes. You got to learn something new every day. But I also take it that UPMs a lot of UPMs I I used to call them Dr. No. But um you can't you don't have to be that UPM where it's no or this isn't going to work or that blah

11:43 blah blah. I like to hear the question. I like to hear the ask and then formulate with that person or with that department or with the other producers what's the best way to decide what we're going to do with, you know, 20 an extra $25,000. Here's a perfect example. Ron Shelton. Mhm. Wonderful, amazing director. And we were on a film called Dark Blue. And it was like, "Do you want a fireplace for the scene where you're in the hotel and there's, you know dancing and everything because we need a fire marshall and we have to, but it's going to cost $2,000 to have that fireplace, or do you want an extra 20 people in your end of the movie scene where Kurt Russell gives his 10-minute speech?" And we all sat there and Ron's like, I want 20 more people over here.

12:33 So, it's it's a communication thing. Not everything is No, you got to be able to listen and and people don't come to you just because they want to come to you. They're coming to you for a reason. Absolutely. You know, and you got to respect them because the crew is hired. I I consider myself 100% a crew person. Yes. We're all here to make the best product that we can and make a vision go up on screen and be very proud of it. Y So if you're coming to me, we've hired you or you know a DP or whatever to make the best product. So if they come to me they're coming to me for a reason. Yeah.

13:12 It's my job to listen. But and but we will talk about it. Yeah. And we'll come up with the smart decision. Yeah. And I honestly I don't think that's a normal thing., At least, in, my, short, career,, you know, it feels like, and this is just from a grip standpoint, UPMs are a lot of times unapproachable, you know, and again, you guys have a lot on your mind. You guys are running around doing things. I know, but see seeing a UPM usually they're not going to talk to your average grip most of the time. You know, they they they have a lot on their mind. you uh I always get the sense of you you're always asking us how how we doing, how's it looking, um how's how's the Red Sox doing, you know, um but you have time for conversations, you love communicating, you you always check the temperature of the crew, you know whether it's, you know, making extra you know, craft service runs, making sure the crew is taken care of, um

14:08 building new things at Diamond Head Studio, you know, that comes out of Europe, but you know, the state is not building those things like it's guys like you who want to invest in Hawaii's film industry, make things better so that our infrastructure can live on and we can keep going creating good stuff. Well, it's interesting because I I do I'm the youngest of seven. Yeah. And um their par their mom passed away. So my mom married their dad and I was born into half brothers and sisters and we care about each other. We love about it you know. But I also came up in the sports world and it's a family, you know, and it's you got to help out each other. And there was a day when we were doing the stunt, we were doing the flip on Larry's episode of the uh the the uh money truck or whatever it is out in uh Macaha. And I'm out there passing out water because no one could drink enough water. They couldn't break away. And

15:06 they're like, "What are you doing?" I was like, "This is this is I I love the crew." Yeah, I love the people. I was also a first AD. I miss the camaraderie of the set. Yeah. Yeah. You know, the the poking of the fun and, you know, the doing whatever. I do miss that. And I think I'm probably around the set a lot more than other UPMs. Um I tend to do a lot of the paperwork on the set because I I enjoy being there. Yeah. You know um if there's going to be a big stunt, I like having my my eyes there, you know. Um, but it's it's one of those things where I I take pride in knowing as many people's names as I can. I'm not the best at it and I'm not going to know 100%. I'm the worst at it. And and it's it's hard to do. Yeah. It's a lot of people every day. It's a lot of people.

15:56 And I like what you said about, you know, you growing up kind of in a sports family or sports um structure. I and this is just me personally and I am a sports guy. It it's so relatable. I feel like a lot of people who played sports transition into film making u very easily because it's such a team sport where you're in the heat of it. One moment you might be, you know, yelling at each other or, you know, getting into it to work out a shot and then after that you're hugging, you're you're after a 16 hour day, you're saying what a great job everybody did and you get over it and then the next day you go at it again, you know, and um I really love that aspect of film making is like ultimate team sport. Yeah. And it's it's funny because I think like at the beginning of every day, you got the safety meeting and you got to laugh. You got to do something fun there. Yeah, you got to make the day, you know, and it's

16:50 like you thank people, you know, for coming in to work. Thankful, you know again, we're thankful. I'm thankful to be on this island and coming out here to to make a TV show. I feel very blessed. I feel very fortunate that we're here. It's an amazing place to to actually film and the crews and all that. Um, but it's one of those things where, like I said, you got 125 people on the set and then you got another 75 80 off production. So you got 200 plus people that you're managing, but I if you can't have a good time. Yeah. And enjoy what you're doing. And hopefully we will never do 16 hour days again. Um but it it comes a lot of it is sports related.

17:34 You got to be able to intertwine. You know, it's football. The offense, you know, comes over, congratulates the defense on the turnover, you know whatever. But it's it's such a big group and it's a method to the madness. Yep. Yeah. And um you know, I know you're grateful for being here in Hawaii. I've I've seen your gratitude firsthand. And I just want to share this story because um it it's a story that really hit home for me and really touched my heart and really kind of like, you know, for me personally, brought you brought you in closer. And that story is um I run a nonprofit on the side called Humble Hearts and you know for years on Hoy50 um we would try to kind of get our excess catering food passed on just around the community whoever needs it and um it was very hard because it is corporate. Yeah. You know it's corporate channels and there is liability involved in giving our catering food to whoever

18:36 needs it. Right. And I came to you because I I found Aloha Harvest who kind of managed that liability. And again, a grip like me to be able to just come up to you and say, "Hey, you know what?, This, would, be, a, great, thing that if we could give all our leftover food every day, that's a lot of leftover food to people in the community." And you said, "Absolutely." And you took that request and you ran it up the chain of, you know, corporate. And you came back and he said, "Yep, let's do it. Let's make it happen." and you went ahead, and, you, you you, built, a refrigerator where our caterers could take our leftover food, put it in there.

19:11 We set up pickups from Aloha Harvest and that's making a direct impact on Hawaii. You know, that's that's really in action showing gratitude. You know, I appreciate that. And not to mention containers of clothes. was like I'm talking containers of clothes and goods from the NCIS family unit coordinating it all to go to the Lahina um fire um victims, you know, and a lot of people don't see that and I I did want to say it here and and that's one of the big thing a lot of people talk about it but you were about it and and you really gave back to the community. So, thank you man. Well, I appreciate that and it's it comes from I honestly do it's care about everybody on the crew care about and we started it at Second Harvest in New Orleans. The same thing someone came to me and was like and it's and it always drove me nuts. I I always tell the cater I'd rather have you run out of food than have you know another

20:11 half of you know the back of the food in the truck that you could feed another half of a drives me nuts. Yeah. Drives me nuts. So when you came to me and talked to me, it was like the second thing same thing in New Orleans. We had Second Harvest and so we I went to CBS and it was kind of nice because I had already established it with CVS. We did the same thing. We put all the food into a cooler, put the lock on it. Everybody had that lock and they would come and take a food that you could probably feed another 70 people. Absolutely. 100%. And then because I saw it getting wasted and they just take it and they put it in the dumpster and it's just like you don't know how many people Yeah. that you could feed with that. And when you came to me I was like thank you. Yeah. And and the big thing about that too, which like was a huge it it could set precedents, right? Like we could set up the system that every production can use

21:05 from here on out and no real corporate people can say, "Oh, we can't do that anymore." Because it's like, "No, we we've done it before and this is how we we've done it." So, I really do appreciate um that. And so, you I'm going to I want to touch one thing on the thing for Lahina. So, we've been coming out here for a long time. my family and myself prior to prior to NCIS. Yes. And between Maui and Oahu and uh one of the first pictures that is framed in our house is uh a picture of my daughters. And I don't think we have it up on the walls anymore, but and it was with an 80-year-old beautiful Hawaiian grandmother that made the that's where they got their first puka shell necklace. Right. Okay. and they had their ice cream and she was playing with them and they stuck the ice cream on the nose and it so her nose is all white from the vanilla ice cream and it's the picture that was so genuine about her love for the

22:08 children and her love for her town and she lived above the ice cream place and I I don't know if she was still alive when La Hina hit and all that stuff but when it happened I I just had to, you know, I had too many people. Auntie Blanch was I was called by one of our guys in um in Victor's group and said "Hey, we know that you have access to containers." And I was like, "Whatever I can do." And so I started out doing some stuff and CBS and the crew and everybody jumped in and we would go to Costco and we'd go over there, you know, after the the store closed and Randy and other people and we would all walk around and it it was like $7,000 here, $10,000 there, and CBS was so supportive and I think we ended up taking some 20 plus containers and John Reed was Yeah.

23:06 some and Mike Anderson, you know, we got a couple of containers to, you know, to his park. That's amazing. And it was just it was something very special for me. But again, tragedy unites. Yeah. And it's an amazing thing because so many people jumped in and we were out at uh Cabolet, you know, and we were just container after container after container and people didn't care where they were going. So, we eventually got but it was just I just want to touch on it because it was very very personal to me what happened over there and um you know thank you to everybody in this community. Thank you everybody that's given back to it. I hope Lahina becomes what it was before and I think they're moving in the right direction and uh raising Lahina is a documentary that some local guys that have done over there. Hopefully everyone's going to start hearing about it. I'm helping them produce it. It's done. Now we're gonna

24:06 try and get it released. It It'll make you cry. And it's footage from inside the fires to dealing with the water and how it was all redirected you know, 3540 years ago and they didn't have the water there. So it hit LA, you know, with the whole thing with the fires and no water. But their documentary and Phil and the group of guys that put this together, I can't wait to be able for them to be able to show it. And our goal is to, you know be able to take it and show it here on Aahu and over in Maui because it's it's incredible. You got to share that with us. We definitely all want to check that out. And and that kind of segus into um you still producing things um here locally. So after NCIS um you you wanted to stay for a little while or Yeah. There or was there other projects on the horizon that you kind of was like hey no I I didn't have anything. So the last day that we were out uh on the west

25:09 side I literally had nothing else driving home and I got a call about head hunters and it was that Kevin Cosner movie surf movie that takes place and then they end up on the island and so that heard about that. Yeah. So, that became my pet project. And unfortunately, I'm not going to get into the politics of the island yet with the taxes and and things like that. We'll talk about that later. Um, so I was planning on staying another year no matter what, right? Because I have a daughter that was going to be a senior at Midpack. Okay. And we didn't want to take her out of Midpack and move back to New Orleans. There's a couple of reasons behind it. One, I love it here. My family loves it here. Right on. and two making films here with this worldass crew, world class, you know, class cast.

25:57 And there's something to be said about 82 degree weather year round for the most part, not going to lie. Yeah. So um, am I staying? It It's interesting because I just got that as question asked about an hour ago because I started putting things on Facebook Marketplace, right, to sell. I saw that. And so, some people called me and they're like, "You're leaving." And I was like, "So, uh, no, I am staying." My family is actually going to move back to New Orleans, uh, in June. My daughter who will be a sophomore next year, will continue her schooling there. My older daughter, who's graduating midpack, has gotten into Boston College. Congrats.

26:35 Thank you. Great city. Great. Yeah. Red Sox. Oh gosh. But uh so my wife and I decided that it's better for her to be in New Orleans because she's closer to Maddie. And so I am actually staying out here. And I've got couple projects that are brewing. Um some things that I've pitched. Uh and I'm going to stay out here and hopefully help real rebuild the film industry. You know, it's it's only a flight to go home every three weeks. And you know, they'll come out for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and all that kind of stuff, but I I I thoroughly 100% love it here. Yeah. And I'm staying here for the long haul. And that's why I I really wanted to have you on is like you give that unique perspective of someone trying to produce shows here. What are the challenges of of bringing a show here? Because, you know, we we are always fighting, you know, as as workers to, you know, get the best wage, get the

27:35 best work conditions, have the proper training funded. But the reality of the situation is if there's no jobs here, if there's no work here, if no one's bringing in these shows, all that is for nothing kind of, you know what I mean? Um, so it's it's great to have a perspective from, you know, maybe someone who has gone through this before, um, elsewhere, what the challenges were there, because you come from Louisiana and and they've had their issues of going through kind of what we're going through right now, right?

28:08 Yeah. So, I mean, we had to go pitch to Steve Scaliz, you know, he used to be a House Majority Whip and, you know Governor Jindel. Uh, they're doing it down there with uh, Governor Landry right now. Um, they are in a actually pretty good situation and Jason Wagensback and Todd Lewis and Frank Monte Leon and the whole film industry down there marched, you know, several years ago, but they have a unique way down there because the the legislators and politicians, they they actually communicate and they talk and they get you know, get and I'm not saying that doesn't happen here. It it is happening here. Um, and again once we get past that topic, but it's it's hard because the film industry is fickle and the money chases the credit. Yeah. So you're saying the industry nationwide is fickle 100%. A and it's it's not just you can't say Hawaii's in the situation it is right now because of their tax

29:12 credits and other things. It's nationwide, right? There's four or five productions shooting in Atlanta. Three in New in uh in uh New Mexico. And usually Atlanta has how many going at one time? Any 10 to 15 if not more. Yeah. You know, um and uh Louisiana's got one little lowbudget show that just wrapped. Dang. And so basically everybody needs to be up in arms about its runaway production. Okay. And not to blame writers or or actors, they decided to strike. Uh you know, and we all stood beside them. Um and we're very happy that that it went down that way. I don't think anyone could have predicted that when the strike for SAG when they didn't come back and everything started to go overseas and studios and producers see, okay, 40% tax credit. I can take a movie $10 million to Australia and I really make it for five and I'm getting tax rebates back on top of that and it's so it's not just a

30:19 Hawaii problem right now. It's a it's a national problem. Yeah. You know, and and let's see what Trump does. He's put tariffs on everything else. You know hopefully he's talked about it about if a show gets shot overseas, you know they put tariffs on it for it to come back. And I think that would drive production back to the United States. Yeah, we definitely need some federal backing here kind of moving forward in the international competitiveness of of the industry. 100%. Um so in Louisiana like what do you feel like um did you overcome that situation um for the tax credit at that point and kind of what did you see as kind of the key things that got you guys through that? Well, we were always pretty lucky in regards to the tax credit. We were at 181 million and it was a rollover. Um, there was a cap of 25 million per uh show per project. But if a project's getting 25 million, it's going to be there over in

31:20 a year. So, they were taking money from 24 or I'm just the year before. Yes. And then that the year that they wrapped. So, they were getting the benefits of both. And then Jindel came in and he cut it to I forgot the number 150 or something like that. Uh when we were in our prime and we had 15 16 shows. Wow. Shooting there. One it was hard to get permits. But two it was those we never hit 85 million in even giving out tax credits. M so when everybody here this is a perspective when everyone here says oh our cap needs to be above 50 not necessarily if it gets to 50 60 this is again my personal opinion absolutely if it gets to 60 and it stays as a rollover yeah we only used 24 million last year Mhm. in the cap. So in theory there's another 25 million rolling over next year. So in theory your cap is 75 million where you get a little bit sticky situation is with like Chief of War. They're going to cap out at you

32:24 know the 17 million per production. So they're going to cap out no matter what. NCIS Hawaii capped out. I'm sure the heyday with 50 and the others they all capped out. I think if you take that cap and you move it to 25, you know, you're going to see some other bigger shows. But the the the it's one of those things in Louisiana, everyone goes, "Oh, they dropped." And when Jindle dropped the tax, that's when everyone flew over to Georgia really cuz they didn't have a cap. They were, you know, there wasn't a per production cap. It was technically $25 25% tax credit, but you got an extra 5% if you put the film logo, the the Georgia Peach on Yeah. on your poster or on your web page and then they give another uptick of 5% if you shoot in certain parts of town and then another 5% if you used 80% or more of the crew.

33:19 So it's like closer to 40 for mo most of them. Correct. Yeah. And so that's why they were so good and that's why they benefited uh you know so quickly and our governor is very supportive here. John's very supportive of the film industry. Yeah, I've seen that. But the governor in literally in Georgia stood up when Jindel dropped it and was like, "Bring one, bring all shows." Okay. Bring them here. And next thing you know, for five straight years they were 500 million plus that they were putting into the economy. Dang. It's a lot of money. It's a lot of money. Yeah. And but I will say I don't think the island could hold you. We, have, two, movies, and, two, TV, shows going here. Me too. Everybody's employed. You're everyone's happy. Yeah.

34:06 And all that kind of stuff. That's not a lot of greed because we're on an island. There's only so many places you can shoot. Exactly. And a buddy of mine's shooting over in the Gold Coast in Australia. He they two and a half weeks ago they couldn't shoot on a Friday because there was no permits left and there was no one there was nowhere to shoot. That'll be the day. Wouldn't that be nice? We had that for one year in Louisiana. Yeah. where literally it was like by noon you had to be out of this parking lot and by 2 p.m. you had to be off the street because another show was coming in. So, was it you personally um with like a group of people? Was it the unions? Were you guys meeting up with um the legislators? Um what were you guys kind of doing exactly that kind of got you through the process of getting what you guys needed to continue on? So there's a there's a group called Film Louisiana. Jason Wagenspat who runs a

34:58 studio down there called The Ranch. This is independent from your film commission. This is 100% independent. It's a, you know, it's a nonprofit. They raise money. Um, and they're not the voice of Louisiana, but if you were, I mean, you're on Facebook and social media. If you go on mine, you would he he's out there every other day saying this is what we got coming up or this is what we're doing. But I think one six to seven people in that group and they talk once a month and they are not the official voice of Louisiana, but they're the voice that people will listen to right? And they are the ones that have the direct line, you know, to the governor or to the senator. And I literally texted him today. I mean, I I'll read it to you later what he told me. He I said, "Is are you got have any concern about the Louisiana tax credit?"

35:50 And he's like, "Absolutely not. This is who we met with last week who so they are a year round process of meeting with people which I think it would benefit immensely here on the island islands because then you're not just working up to where your back's up against the wall and, then, all, of a, sudden, you've, got, a rally and not a protest rally a rally to say we're out of work we need the film industry to come back. Mhm. We started that way and we had a rally 6 years ago and then we had one two years ago. It works, but there's constant communication throughout the year. So and then we get to the point of bills and things like that. There's no big surprises. Yeah. Yeah. And I I say that a lot. It's like no no one can be no one particular group can be blamed for the situation that we're in today. And again, it's just for the simple lack of participation on guys like me, just members of of unions who've been living

36:52 great this whole time and now we're in a crisis and guys like me want to figure out everything right away and how we can where's the solutions at, you know, and what I'm hearing is like th this thing is a year-round thing. We need to work together as an industry, right? And um but going back to your point of that that group that kind of came together they're probably industry experts and they're all they're all in the industry. Three of them run studios there. Sorry to interrupt. No, three of them run studios there and there's like two or three producers um and a casting person. So, it's a group of people and and um is there like any kind of locations person in that group that that kind of says like, "Hey if you want to come shoot here, these are the best places. These are the most functional." So, you guys are are just staying within your state, shopping around for um shows that, you know, are

37:46 being made or or are you guys going out to LA? You guys going out to New York and maybe trying to find clients to come to Louis? So, it's a nonprofit and they've raised quite a bit of money and I want to say October of last year something like that. Uh, a group of them, they put uh they flew out because they've got the nonprofit they've so they all their tickets were paid for their hotels were paid for, and they went to LA for I believe five days and met with almost every single studio head uh producers and all that. And then uh they threw a pretty big rooftop party with a band and food and made everybody come to it. And there was probably 125 130 people up on this rooftop and they hired a drone and they went out there and pitched the state of Louisiana of what we have here. This is what you'll get if you come. And it was like mind-blowing. and people, you know, I they've got definitely some things

38:50 brewing. It was right when everything was starting to go overseas, but it's it's a unique thing, you know, because they went they went to the studios and said, "This is what we bring." And if the state of Hawaii, you know, had it Vala will go to LA, Georgia will go to LA and go to some of those our film commissioner office here. Yeah. But oh I was going to ask, so there are people doing that for the state of Hawaii, like aggressively going out there and saying "Hey, come to Hawaii. We have all these resources. We can do it." In my personal opinion, they're short-handed. So, I can't say that the word aggressively is the right word. They're going through and doing what the means they have to work with. Mhm. Um but if the state of Hawaii wants to be aggressive and not lose out to New Zealand for chief of war, which is 140 130 20 million dollar it's a big project. And it's about what the state of Hawaii. Absolutely. And

39:50 it's shooting New Zealand. And you de you just need to be able to sell Hawaii. We went 13 years without having to sell Hawaii. We had CBS, you had movies coming in, you had Jurassic Park, you had everyone was coming here. No one knew about New Zealand at that point. No. Okay. I mean, Koolo Ranch, let's be honest, they make a lot of money off the tourism that shows what movies have shot. I I really want to see just that number. Like if we could call Doug or somebody down there at QuilloA and say "Hey, can you just give us the number on just the film tour you do and what are those numbers?" Cuz that got to be a huge impact. It's It is, but it's it's one of those things that we've got to reinvent the wheel. Yeah. Here. And we have to reinvent the fact that we've we have to sell Hawaii now. It's we no longer have the luxury of, you know, the state of Louisiana, just like here, lost CBS. They were down there for 12 years

40:48 and then bam, they packed up, they headed out and it was like, where'd they go? Right. Why are they not here? Yeah. You know, and the same thing happened here. And I think it kind of caught us all offguard because we had the gravy train for so long. Yeah. And then all of a sudden, the carpet goes from underneath you and you're like, "Okay they're gone. Who's coming next?" And it was crickets. That was heartbreaking. And I did want to mention that. But I was I was thinking I think the biggest heartbreaking thing about NCIS coming to an end was we never really got to say goodbye. Mhm. Like we we ended up getting you know cut after our season wrapped and um I actually just came back from New Zealand and uh we got the news you know and it was it was shocking but you know we didn't really get to say goodbye you know you know in Hawaii 5 we like midseason we're like we're going to finish this season this is going to be

41:39 the last one. So everybody kind of said their, goodbyes., That, was a, 10-year, run, too, you know, and you want to talk about family and those bonds, you know that that's a huge one. And we were just gaining that momentum on NCIS, you know and and we had a lot of people really gaining momentum on um the experienced guys being uh being able to step up in certain positions, you know, whether it's in the camera department, grip department, electric department, all these guys, local guys are progressing through shows like these, you know, and that's really the only opportunity you really get to progress like that.

42:15 Movies, they're here for, you know, a month or two. They come with a set gang. You do that project and you're done, you know? So, it's really these long-term shows I feel like we really need to kind of help build that infrastructure. And it's also training the young. Yeah. From the old. It's like we didn't go outside the box to hire anybody. That was great about here with the camera department. I mean, we had a second AC operating. Yeah. You know, it was like, okay, sure. Put her on the ca, you know, put her on the camera. It was great. Uh you got to fill in for less on tech scouts. Um you we had electricians, you know, bringing people up and within. Same thing in the art department. You know, Jamie Coo had never been an art director before and she did an amazing job. Yeah. And so you promote within and you're everybody is is feeling like, okay, I'm not just going to be stuck in my same job for the next

43:11 10 years. I'm going to be at some point promoted or they're going to do things. and we had something special and I totally agree um that we didn't have the proper ending and you know you can sit there and point fingers you know how it went down and why it went down and to this day people say oh it's a financial thing and the show was too expensive I'm not going to sit here and get into what show expensive was but I've never heard of a top 10 show ratings wise ever being shut down yeah yeah there There was a lot of things going on in the industry.

43:47 Wasn't Paramount selling or something at that in the middle of the their murder. So, I don't know. You know, everybody's always looking for answers for those type of things. But yeah, the the the critical thing where we're at right now is all that progression, all that experience just dying, right? And this bill that we're, you know, currently like in the heat of right now, right? It's as literally today 7:32. Yeah. Um in your opinion what what about this bill you like? What don't you like about it? Where what result would you want to see if if um if any? Okay, my first disclaimer I'm going to say is I'm not an attorney and I can't read those bills worth anything. I have chat GPT. It's really been helping me out. Okay, because then you can teach me. I just look at what I think needs to be in a bill. Yeah. And what is important to the infrastructure and bringing the film industry back. And I

44:45 also think I I bring a different perspective having come from the mainland and coming over here and thoroughly loving it over here and want to see the industry, you know succeed. And people, let's be honest, we we want to make movies. We want but more importantly, we want to put people back to work. Yeah. You know, we want to see people not have to give up their trade and not have to give up their houses or not have to take PE kids out of certain schools and put them in other schools. We want a sustainable film industry here that everyone can prosper from and everyone can take a Thursday afternoon off when, you know, little Sammmyy's in the the play or there's the track meet to go to or the, you know, whatever.

45:31 That's what we want here. and it it can be done. Um, and personally in the bills, I have said from the beginning that there's got to be three in front of the tax credit for us to be 100% being able to go up against Georgia Louisiana, and all. And I brought that up earlier. We need a 30% What? We We're at 22 right now. 22 right now. This bill is calling for how much of a raise? 5%. There there was in the bill uh a 5% uptick for keeping the crew at 80% or more locally. It went away. I heard it came back in today. Oh. But again, I it's hard to tell and and I I can't I don't want to use the word what's the truth. Yeah. But things change so quickly inside the Capitol building with they go from one room to the other to the other. It's like Sundance. You know you get an offer over here in this house and then over here in that house it's a different offer and then it's it's it's changing. Me personally

46:37 the most the priority is a better tax credit. Okay. A number. Okay. So, if we really do get a 5% uplift Yeah. because and we get to 27%. There's not a three in front of it, but it's better than 22%. At least you can now make a case for people in LA or other parts of the mainland to come here instead of going to New Zealand. It's a five, and a, half, hour, flight, versus, a 12-h hour flight. Yeah. You know, and I'm starting to hear from a lot of actors that they're they don't want to travel that far. They don't want to work on the other side of the hemisphere, you know, where it's a different day. But so five and a half hours here, you know.

47:17 Yeah. We're still in the game. We're still in the game at 27%. Yeah. Because a lot of people don't understand too is these productions, they're actually increasing their budget 15 20% just to make it Hawaii, right? Would you say that? Not that much. Not that much. No. But you know what I'm saying, right? It's already a expensive place to to shoot. So that's why it's important that this tax credit, you know, every little percent helps because we're already fighting the logistics battle basically right? And and the reason, one of the reasons, I'm not going to say the only reason, but the main reason head hunters went away is out of the blue, they came up with this 4.71 tax against gross payroll. It was it was put into play in 2014.

48:05 Okay. And it was set into law in 2014. Yes. Okay. And so they've been you guys been paying that? No. No. No. That's the problem. No one's no one ever enforced it. Oh, and then there was litigation with Entertainment Partners. And then all, of a, sudden,, Dotax,, not, even, Dotax, I found out about it from Entertainment Partners putting out a press release with cast and crew saying, "Oh, by the way, you're going to see a 4.71 you know, tax increase against loanouts and uh all against all payroll." And I was like we never had that at NCIS Hawaii. So my little movie it was we had to come up with a million dollars upfront. Mhm.

48:52 Just to pay that $4.71 against t against against payroll. Okay. There's other people on the island say, "Well, you just build it into your budget and whatever." Well, when we were building our budget we didn't know about it. So we asked for an exemption because I had already hired Jess Cole and Alex and other people Sherm Shelton to do schedules and so we were already paying people. So I asked for an exemption from that 4.71 because they didn't make it official here from DOTAX until I want to say the 11th of October. Okay. And that's when the official word came out. September 14th or 10th or something is when EP put it out. So I went and said, "Well, hey I've used the grandfather clause term right? I started my production." And they go, "Well, it's already been it's always been a law." And I got in a little bit of a discussion with um Dotax about, well, it's never been enforced right? It was never enforced on NCIS.

50:00 Did they go back and enforce it all those years? No, but they did against the crew here on the island. And you can ask crew members out of the blue two years ago for their rentals. Yep. For their personal rentals. Local people with personal rentals. Correct. How to go back and pay back taxes. Correct. Wow. So, you should I'm not going to give names. I'll tell you off camera who you should talk about that because that's insane. Mhm. They didn't go after the studios you where it's hundreds of million dollars that they left on the table right? They went after the local crew.

50:37 Dang. And it's completely wrong. And then I was told, "No, you're not you're going to get your extension." And that's when everything started to roll the wrong direction with And you even had like Kevin Cosner is what I heard. He he really wanted to bring this project here so bad he was willing to put his own money in. No, he was it was never that there was, you know, everybody says, you know, and things like that. Um it was more about we had the money and well, no, I'm going to backtrack. We had the 4.71 issue, so we had to come up with a million dollars up front. Okay.

51:17 But the other problem with the the state here is the tax credit once you get done shooting. Yeah. It's not being paid in a timely fashion. Okay. Louisiana's 12 months to 18 months somewhere in there. Uh most places are the exact same way. You know, it could even be six months. Okay. NCIS, CBS did within supposedly the last month when the governor got involved got their first check from season one. That's from season one. One. So when I went to to go to get financing for the movie Yeah. They're like, "Well we'll give you it for 18 months, but how are you going to pay for it after the 18 months and when you don't get the $4 million tax credit, right? How are you going to be paying us back or who's going to be paying that 2.5% finance fee?" So, in the financing world there's a distrust of the reimbursement issues because of some state process for the process of getting that re Yeah. for that for that initial that that film we

52:25 were saying we'll have the money back within 18 months. So you build that into your budget or your production. But when all of a sudden the bank's hearing well, we made a couple of phone calls and CBS haven't seen anything for a while or this company hasn't seen it or this company hasn't seen it for a long time. They go, "Well, we we still want to loan you the money, but who's going to pay for it after the 18 months of what you financed or what you budgeted?" And let's say you don't get it back for 36 months or 40 months. So, that was the real downfall of Head Hunters. That's that's sad. And and that's a that's a movie we we really could we'd be rapping today. I know. Yeah. Yeah. Are there any other projects that you've seen kind of come in come and go or maybe pass us up um within, you know, this past six months to a year? Yeah, I I would say um the 911 uh spin-off, they would really want to come here and um there's people

53:33 in on the island that have difference of opinion than me, but that's perfectly fine. Yeah. But uh they they left because of the tax credit, you know, and the the cap and um that's the the bottom line, you know. We can say that they left for creative reasons. Yeah. Sure. Creatively, they couldn't come up with the money. Yeah. So, it's uh but that's not that's not to blame anyone and we're not sitting here paint point. This is I again the sports analogy. This is the playing field. Yeah. Just keep it honest. Yep. You know, and let us play on the same playing field and don't move the goalpost. And um but it it's hard to when they can go to the 91 spin-off and they ended up in Nashville and Tennessee's got a great Oh, really?

54:27 Yeah. a really good tax credit. But do you want to be in Hawaii or do you want to be in Nashville? Right. Well the bottom line is do does do people want to see a show in Hawaii or anywhere else? You know, so when was the last time there wasn't something shooting here where there was not a show about Hawaii on television? Was at some point when I was growing up and my dad was on food stamps. Yeah. Yeah, I think it was like after Water World, there was a huge drought for like, you know, years. Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah. But, you know, me personally, you know, I've been working almost 20 years and I've been super blessed since I, you know, it's been lost and then Hawaii 50, NCIS, Magnum you know, so I have been one of the fortunate ones that haven't seen these days. Kind of like watching the Patriots Dynasty. Mhm.

55:22 Okay. But now it's a reich now it's a rebuild. God, are they actually in Massachusetts? Okay. Um, yes. But I 100% I hear and again I this isn't the RIP session of this is a this is a well this is a national problem. Yes. You know but the fact that there's nothing in Hawaii shooting right now. Yeah. people here if you're on the mainland, oh, so and so Bill Smith is shooting over in Charleston or up in Wilmington or whatever, so you slide over in that state or you you slide off the state here, you're in the middle of the water.

56:03 Yeah. You know, you're not going to be called to go work at something on the mainland when you've got Best Boys picking up the phone and calling people you know, that are in Savannah and saying Atlanta, hey, send three guys up. Yeah, exactly. You can't do that here because they can get in the car. So that's why you need a sustainable film industry here where you literally are going from show to show. And the only reason why I asked your perspective, I think a lot of people don't know how many shows are kind of coming through and passing us up, right? We we only really kind of hear about shows that are in the works, but there are a lot of shows that kind of come in, have interests, and for whatever reason continue on their way. Is there a level of people there are they're encountering personally? Is there anything that feels unwelcoming besides our tax credit? Is there anything about our structure is

57:00 unwelcoming that we can improve on? Yeah, I think um again I go back to Louisiana, but right now we don't have a film commissioner in Louisiana. The mayor fired her five months ago, Carol. So you need a point person. You need a.3 people that when a producer can call up and say, "What falls under the tax credits?" Do the airplane tickets coming in fall under the tax credits? Like in Australia, all flights going in fall under the tax credit. All flights going out don't. That makes sense, right? That makes sense. That makes sense. Um, but you need to appoint people here and Valia and Donnie and George, they can only do so much. Okay? You need some support right? And you need to hire the right people in that spot to support them, you know, but you need to be able to tell them how much is left in the kitty in the tax in in the credit or have a PowerPoint presentation of all the locations on the island. You need a list

58:00 of 10 hotels and what rates you can get at those hotels. You need the one sheet from Enterprise saying what all the cars are going to cost. Uh you need to have a realtor that you can go to and when you bringing in, we don't want to bring in a lot of people, but let's be honest there's going to be some above the lines that are going to come in or even, you know, some below the lines. But you want to be able to have a realtor say, "Go look in this place for a furnished house or you want an unfernished apartment." Sure. You know, that helps and and goes a long way. Um but it's there isn't that that person that organization yet. Yes.

58:42 And there there will be there's talk about it. There's things like that. Uh but you got to have somebody that can answer the phones, right? And and what I If someone calls up and they leave a message, call them back, you know, um, and you need to be calling the studios every month. Yeah. Hey, what do you got? What's going on? Oh, so and so, they talked about a possible, you know, show coming here. They cast it, you know, and and keep not the pressure, but hey we're still here. Yeah. And and again it's a national issue though right now.

59:19 It's not just a Hawaii state issue. Yeah. But it doesn't help. We're the most expensive place to shoot in the continental United States or in the United States. It's 22% tax credit which is really, let's be honest, 17 because the cost of living over here is and food and all that kind of stuff. Um so it's there's things that are go against people coming here, but you know why they come here? because it's Hawaii. Yep. And it's a special place and we don't want New Zealand to become that special place, right? Like for me, the biggest thing that's ever happened, and I go back to sports in modern Olympics, let's see if you know this answer. What's the greatest thing that ever happened?

1:00:12 Duke Kanamoku won the gold medal in swimming. That's a great thing. Do you believe in miracles? I personally No. The the hockey hockey team beating the the Russians. Right. Right. You know where they shot that movie? Uh where? Canada. Wow. And that's it. Tears me apart as an American that I can tell you where I was standing, where I was sitting, where I was crying as a 10-year-old. And the passion that we need to see on the island. And this is goes back to Chief of War. Yeah. It's the It's the history. Yeah. It's you're telling the story. I think people feel the exact same way about that situation about Chief of War being shot anywhere else besides here. You know, they flew people from the islands to New Zealand.

1:01:05 Mhm. Well, if you shot it here, you wouldn't have to do that. Exactly. But I also understand what Apple's what they're up against and everything else. you know, you got shareholders, you know, they're going to be like, "Well hold on. You just gave away $20 million because you wanted to go shoot in Hawaii, right?" Well, that's a creative thing and that's what, you know, the producers can fight. But you you got to give us a chance to keep that show here and not just that show, all shows here if you're competitive with your tax credit. So, um, you know, we talked about we need to kind of build better point people. a team of Better Point people or something like I I I do want to say Georgia and Donnie Sandy and you know Valia they they do the best they can with what they've got but basically we're stronger together reinforcing that giving them better resources so that we can do that and you laid you laid it out

1:02:04 and and that all makes complete sense why we uh nobody is doing that already is kind of like you know scratching my head. But um is that what you believe they're trying to build into this new bill of kind of creating um another com is it like another film commission? A state film commission? It's a film authority is what it's being called. It replaces the current film commission. I that's my understanding. Okay. Um cuz I'm confused on that as well. That's another bill alongside 732 that um you know it's it's almost tagged along with it because there's that um investment fund in 732 as well, right? Did that go away? The film investment fund. No, it's still there I believe. So, and again I don't want to answer because it changed by the hour, right? You know, you go into one office and they talk, oh, we want to add that back in. They go over okay, we're going to pull that out. it.

1:03:04 So, it's changing to the minute. I can't tell you what's in the bill, right? As of right now. I I can only tell you what I've heard in regards to that. It's It's some type of film authority. Could be nine people. It could be 11. Please don't make it an even number. Um we'll never get anything voted on. Exactly. Uh that they have talked about going from 50 million to 60 million. That I heard may be being pushed off the side. uh the 4.71 uh tax is we're being considered a manufacturer now. So it goes back to a much less tax. Um and then I think the biggest the streaming there it has to do with the streaming and all that stuff. But I'm going to say again coming from a studio, and I'm not going to say a mainland, coming from any studio Japan Los Angeles wherever you're coming in from, that means nothing to me. I I I want to know that I'm taking 10 million to Hawaii and I'm getting 12 million out of it. Yeah.

1:04:09 That's all that matters. Yeah. When you when it comes to bringing productions here, Yeah. That's what that's what producers are looking for. And they and they and they genuinely don't want to. And I also think there needs to be a little bit of without saying it rudely or whatever there needs to be a dialogue about what is above the line, what is a below line. Okay. Above the line is director writer, producer, cast. Okay. Okay. Below the line is DP, stunt coordinator costume designer, all that kind of stuff. And I heard rumblings several times DPS crawling up into above the line. No, but yeah. Well, then I heard well, the someone literally said, well no, they're part of the above the line.

1:04:54 I was like, no, they're not. Right right, right. No, they're not. They're part of the crew. It's the below line. So, we should get that language straight when it comes to if you're going to argue it. Yes. Absolutely. I think the biggest scary thing that I don't know we didn't mention is within that bill now there has popped up a sunset date on the tax incentives completely meaning that if this bill gets passed with the little things that will make us competitive it will pass but it will also pass this sunset date meaning we're moving to zero incentives well they I think it drops down 10% for every year every year for until 12:30. Yeah. Or something like that. Okay, here's what I'm going to say. We we've had that in Louisiana at least four times. Son never said, right?

1:05:47 So, and again, back to the football analogy. I don't know who's going to be in the Super Bowl in 2030. Yeah. I need to worry about what who's going to be there in 2026. Right. So, you personally think if we can get this passed with these little bit of improvements and yes, there's that sunset date on there we're still in kind of a better position. Yeah. I mean, who's besides cancelling a top 10 TV show? What legislator or politician is going to, kill, an, industry, if, all, of a, sudden we get two movies and two TV shows and we got $400 million of revenue that's going in the state and maybe somebody says we want to build a studio or we want to build a studio or you get Dan Lynn and Netflix to come in and take over Diamond Head, right? And you start going in the direct right direction. Who in their right minds going to go and turn the light off in 2030 and make it all go poof? It's gone. We don't even

1:06:44 know that the legislators and the politicians that are in there right now are going to be there. When we get to 2027, it could be all film friendly. Yes. You know, but and again, I'm not going to say film friendly. Politicians are in a very and legislators are in a very hard spot. Yeah. We as film makers. Yes. And film community, we're going to go out and advocate for oursel. Absolutely. And uh same thing with tourism, same thing with military. Same thing with Dole and Pineapple. And everybody else is going to go, we need a piece of the pie. Yes. There's only so many pieces that you can pass out. And you know, with federal funding disappearing in some of the things, uh then it's even more stressful. Yeah.

1:07:30 But, you know, education they need a bigger piece of the pie. Yeah. So, it we have to recognize that we're juggling one ball. They're juggling 20 and they're doing the best they can. And again, what there's 1.4 million people in all seven island. You know, at the same time, if we're looking at a way to diversify our economy, what are some of the leading industries in the state? We got to be up there, right? We're third. We're third. You can take people can manipulate numbers. According to, you know, Disney Forest Gump's never made any money. So um, you can, but it's definitely military. It's definitely tourism. We're third. Uh, there's got to be import export, and the port somewhere in there.

1:08:23 Yeah. You know, uh, the pineapple world and with Dole used to be huge. You know it's falling off now. What I'm saying is it's an industry worth a thriving industry investing in. 100%. It makes sense. Yeah. But do we need the whole pie? No, we just need a little wedge of the pie in terms of the tax incentive. And the other thing is the credit. The credit isn't a money maker. Okay, that's not here as a fiscal money maker. You're here to bring in the people that will take that credit. And so you're getting let's say, you're getting 52 cents back on every credit or every dollar of the tax credit, right? That's actually not bad because if you bring in an industry that's going to spend 250 million Yeah.

1:09:14 or 350 million or 700 million or 700 million. Yeah. Then that credit is doing its job, right? Unfortunately, that seems like all they're looking at. Well it's the return on investment. But they also get pressured, you know, what is your return on your investment? And I read an article today that uh where you were out of pocket like $67 million last year or 2023 in the overall scheme of things. $67 million goes a long way. Yeah. Now, I'm going to take a cheap shot right here. Don't build the rail system. I I don't know. I think we can all agree on that. I haven't seen anybody riding it. 242 people a day. Every day on on on our drive out to Moana while we're shooting, we're looking at the rail going, "Oh, yep. Nobody's in there again." Yeah. Um so I hear you. Well thank you. Um you know, I could sit and talk with you. You give incredible insight again from a different perspective and we need to hear

1:10:12 everyone's perspective in this to come up with some solutions, some resources but also just sharing your story on um coming here to the island, giving back you know, showing your gratitude through actions, you know, and um really caring about our film industry and our film culture here. I appreciate you coming take the time to sit down and and speak to me. Thank you for having me. And I'm just going to leave it with one thing is we all need to get in the same boat and on the same mission for the same goal. We can't be splintered. We can't be fractured. And if we only are at 22% then we live with it. But we all need to get productions to come back here. We can bring we can build 10 studios. We can have 150 people in I can. We can have everything else which is all good but if we don't have produ you know productions and we don't have anything shooting here last I checked is zero part of zero is zero so let's all work

1:11:15 together on a positive note let's all get in the same boat let's all row at the same time and bring the film industry back here as a family as a group and uh watch it thrive again I 100% agree with you Matt and I'm with you on that and uh we just keep continuing to come to the table, have a conversation with each other and work through it 100%. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us. I appreciate you everybody. Eric Hayes, um I see you around., Yeah,, see, you, around., All right, buddy.

Questions about this episode

What is discussed in "Eric Hays: Rebuilding Hawai‘i’s Film Industry from the Ground Up"?

In order: 0:00 Eric Hayes, NCIS Hawaii, NCIS Hawaii, Captain Phillips; 10:00 Aloha Harvest, Humble Hearts, Louisiana; 20:00 Louisiana, Head Hunters; 30:00 Louisiana, NCIS Hawaii, NCIS Hawaii; 40:00 Louisiana, Head Hunters, Jamie Coo, NCIS Hawaii; 50:00 Louisiana, Head Hunters; 1:00:00 Duke Kanamoku, Louisiana; 1:10:00 Eric Hayes.

What is mentioned in this The Big Picture episode?

14 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Louisiana, NCIS Hawaii, NCIS Hawaii, Eric Hayes, Head Hunters, Aloha Harvest. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Eric Hays: Rebuilding Hawai‘i’s Film Industry from the Ground Up"?

The episode runs 1 h 12 min; the transcript is about 12,794 words in 83 timestamped sections.

More from The Big Picture

• All analyzed episodes
• Books mentioned on The Big Picture
• People mentioned on The Big Picture
• Topics mentioned on The Big Picture