Brandy McDonnellThe Oklahoman
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His face artfully smudged with dirt and soot, Adam Hampton coolly stepped into a raging fire.
As the Oklahoma actor and his co-star Ryan Francis rehearsed a tense confrontation at the edge of a conflagration, the forest, and not the flames, suddenly began to race across the high-definition LED screens surrounding them.
"I'm trying to find a place for this ... big dialogue scene between these two guys. I think if I move my fire, that looks cool. But I need to move my origin over," said writer-director Ryan Bellgardt as he consulted with his filmmaking team from behind a bank of computer monitors inside Boiling Point Media's LED Virtual Production Studio in Oklahoma City.
"I'm not exactly sure where that is in the world, but I'll do what I can. ... It's like, 'Can you move the fire over closer to the sun?' 'What do I look like? God?'"
Of course, godlike control over the filmmaking environment is one of the reasons Bellgardt, creative director of and a partner in OKC's Boiling Point Media, has been working for the past several years to bring to his home state the type of high-tech filmmaking that has revolutionized productions ranging from streaming series like "The Mandalorian" to superhero movies like "The Batman."
"That's kind of fun, isn't it, to think I can control the world like that?" the Edmond native told The Oklahoman during a springtime visit to the set of "Jurassic Games: Extinction," the sequel to his 2018 homegrown cult-favorite film "The Jurassic Games."
Bellgardt's second movie centered on a lethal virtual game where contestants face off against prehistoric predators in a high-stakes battle for survival is one of the first fully virtual feature films made in Oklahoma: The sequel was filmed entirely inside Boiling Point's virtual production studio using live virtual camera trackers, in-camera special effects and large LED walls that form what's known as a "volume."
"Technology changes on a whim, and it's literally daily for me that I'm having a conversation about something new. I just adjust that foresight to the film industry ... and we will always adjust accordingly," said Boiling Point owner and operator Emily Taylor, who is executive producer on "Jurassic Games: Extinction."
After blockbuster successes, where does Oklahoma's film industry go?
The blockbuster triumph of another Oklahoma-made sequel, the stormy long-awaited follow-up "Twisters," along with the Oscar-nominated prestige of "Killers of the Flower Moon" and the surprise box-office success of the presidential biopic "Reagan" — with the latter featuring special effects work done at Boiling Point — has stirred up a whirlwind of interest in the Sooner State's burgeoning film and television industry.
But where does it go from here?
"So, $247 billion will be spent globally on content in 2024 — billion, with a B. ... And I will tell you, this industry is looking at us," said Lt. Gov. Matt Pinnell during a recent panel on Oklahoma's entertainment industry.
"Last legislative session, we didn't get the kind of momentum that we wanted when it came to the (state film) rebate. They're going to be looking this legislative session at ... 'Hey, is Oklahoma really in on this, or are they just nibbling around the edges on the $247 billion that has to be filmed somewhere?' I think that's a big question mark — and it's a message that you need to be delivering to your legislators."
Exploring the "Cultural Impact of Oklahoma's Entertainment Industry," the September panel at Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center featured Pinnell, who has been an outspoken advocate of the state's film industry; Jeanette Stanton, director of the Oklahoma Film + Music Office; Shelley Zumwalt, recently retired executive director of the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department; and Mautra Staley Jones, president of Oklahoma City Community College, which is home to the top-rated Gray Frederickson Department of Digital Cinema, named for the late Oscar-winning producer who helped found the hands-on filmmaking program.
Rachel Cannon, former CEO of OKC's Prairie Surf Studios and one of Frederickson's proteges, moderated the panel, which drew about 60 attendees involved in the state's entertainment industry.
"Our biggest export has been our culture. We think it's oil and gas, but it has been our culture for all of time. It goes back to Will Rogers. Who do you think started Hollywood? That big, handsome cowboy," Cannon said.
"We have films that are crushing the box office that were filmed in Oklahoma ... and what I'll say about Oklahoma is, we double down, we invest in ourselves, and we don't look at anybody else to make things happen for us. We come together as a community, and we make things happen."
Boosting the state's film incentive is a focus for the upcoming legislative session
As the Oklahoma Legislature readies to convene in February for its 2025 session, industry advocates are encouraging state senators and representatives to boost the state film incentive beyond its current $30 million annual cap.
"We have the largest rainy day fund in state history. Kudos again to the Legislature and the governor for that, so we can have a conversation about investing more," Pinnell said. "I think last legislative session, maybe even the legislative session before that, was maybe a little too soon, from the last time that we raised to the current $30 million (cap). I think the timing could be right."
The Filmed in Oklahoma Act of 2021, which established the current state incentive program, built on the previous Oklahoma film rebate that topped out at $8 million a year. Capped at $30 million annually, the Filmed in Oklahoma Act of 2021 offers a base incentive of 20% on qualified expenditures for film and TV productions. Productions can add to their rebate percentage by filming on Oklahoma soundstages, using Oklahoma companies for music and post-production and following other criteria for "uplifts."
But at least 37 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, plus several other countries, offer film incentives, too.
"Texas and Arizona have just thrown down $200 million a piece on either side of us to compete with Georgia, New Jersey, New Mexico," Cannon said.
"Vegas has got some spicy activity going on right now, with Warner Bros. and Sony fighting over who's going to build a massive billion-dollar studio to support over $800 million in annual production. And we're sitting at $30 million right now, bringing in over $100 million in direct spend, which is extraordinary from where we've been. ... But how are we going to stay competitive?"
Although the state House of Representatives easily passed it in March 2023, House Bill 1362, which would have boosted the incentive's annual cap from $30 million to $80 million, was never heard by the state Senate in the 2023 or 2024 sessions.
Last year, the Oklahoma Film + Music Office revealed that the state's movie and television industry saw nearly $300 million in qualified expenditures from productions using the state’s incentive program in fiscal years 2021 and 2022. In that time frame, the Filmed in Oklahoma Act of 2021 also created nearly 12,000 local career opportunities, with close to $120 million in wages paid to Oklahomans.
"We're turning away $80 (million) to $100 million of business away every year. ... If I went to a legislator and I said, 'We turned away $100 million worth of automotive businesses,' or '$100 million worth of aerospace growth,' they would stop and they would want to know more," Pinnell said.
"I think we've focused too much on the show part, not enough on the business part. This is show business. This is business. ... We're turning away a whole lot more than we're able to get into the state of Oklahoma that then helps the three-legged stool of infrastructure, education and putting people to work — and then creating a whole lot of new payroll taxes for the state."
Building soundstages remains a focus for the Oklahoma film industry
Discussing the future of Oklahoma's film industry, Pinnell said, naturally leads to a conversation about the need for more filmmaking infrastructure in the Sooner State.
"Every soundstage in America is full. Albuquerque signed a half-a-billion-dollar contract about a decade ago with Netflix, just so Netflix could just own all of their soundstages in Albuquerque," he said, plus the streaming giant recently announced plans to expand its New Mexico filmmaking hub.
"What has happened in Oklahoma the last five to 10 years is very impressive, but we've got to do more. We have to continue to invest."
Along with Boiling Point, OKC is home to One Set Studio, a new virtual production studio where OKCThunder Films used the immersive 40-foot-wide curved LED wall as a backdrop for filming segments of its latest documentary, "BISMACK," about longtime NBA center Bismack Biyombo.
After serving as the production hub for the smash first season of Sylvester Stallone's mobster series "Tulsa King" and the thrilling blockbuster sequel "Twisters," Prairie Surf Studios is losing its home in the former Cox Convention Center as Oklahoma City moves forward with plans to build a new $900 million arena to host OKC Thunder games, concerts and other events and ultimately replace the Paycom Center.
"We've been really blessed to have had not one major hit but two come through and put Oklahoma on the map," Prairie Surf CEO Matt Payne told The Oklahoman in a recent interview.
"This is the greatest opportunity to capitalize on the momentum of Oklahoma film that we've ever had, so we plan to do so."
Although she is no longer with the company she co-founded, Cannon said during the recent OKC film panel that Prairie Surf's success proved to the community, state and movie studios that Oklahoma could be a viable host for large-scale productions.
"Building soundstages is really expensive. It's a lot of money for the private sector to invest in building that infrastructure, knowing that you have a capped incentive. It sat empty half a year because we didn't have enough money to bring in (projects)," she said.
"Asking the private sector to step up and make that investment, I'm all for that. ... But how do we help look at that from a private-public partnership, where we can help incentivize those businesses, so we can help absorb some of that risk?"
Outside OKC, Pinnell pointed to the Cherokee Nation's ongoing investments in the movie business. In September, the largest tribe in the United States hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the latest expansion of its Cherokee Film Studios in Owasso, particularly the completion of a new 10,000-square-foot building to house a second soundstage on the tribe's growing film campus.
Situated on more than four acres within the 7,000-square-mile Cherokee Nation Reservation — which spans all or parts of 14 northeastern Oklahoma counties — the Cherokee Film Studios campus in Owasso also includes its original 27,000-square-foot building, a converted indoor soccer facility that houses the tribe's state-of-the-art xR, or extended reality, virtual production LED volume studio.
Cherokee Film recently has announced a series of partnerships with Amazon, including filming on the fact-based historical drama "Sarah's Oil," Amazon MGM Studios' first production to be based in Oklahoma, in the Cherokee Nation; the online retail and streaming giant's pledge to provide full scholarships to the inaugural class of the newly launched Cherokee Film Institute; and an ongoing initiative in which the Cherokee Nation will dub and subtitle select titles within Prime Video’s library of original content into the Cherokee language, starting with Season 1 of the hit prequel series “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power."
"I think Cherokee Film is doing a wonderful job in the different ways you'd measure it as a player in the industry. It's getting a solid reputation. It's focusing on attracting investment to the region, which is good for the state of Oklahoma. It's investing in building up the workforce," Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. told The Oklahoman.
"It's doing internal content that I think is enriching the lives of Cherokees, including this dubbing project. So, I'm very excited about, already, the return on investment in Cherokee Film, and we just continue on the course that we've set. I think there'll be more conversations in the future about more great projects."
Film industry leaders advocate for Oklahoma stories, businesses and creatives
At the recent OKC panel, Pinnell and other local entertainment industry leaders touted upcoming Oklahoma projects ranging from Tulsa-based, Emmy-nominated "Reservation Dogs" mastermind Sterlin Harjo's new FX series originally titled "The Sensitive Kind" to a possible spin-off to the popular Bible-based drama series "The Chosen."
"There's going to be some future announcements on TV series that can be very powerful for the state ... that we can't talk too much about," Pinnell said.
"There's plenty of Oklahoma stories that can still be told, and we're constantly being reached out to by studios to talk to us about those Oklahoma stories."
Stanton, the state film office director, emphasized the need to support homegrown businesses and creatives working in Oklahoma, including Harjo and Hampton, who is not only an actor reprising his starring role in "The Jurassic Games" sequel but also a writer whose horror script "The Waif" recently won Kinolime's inaugural screenplay competition and will be made into a feature.
As for "Jurassic Games: Extinction," Jackrabbit Media, an independent production and global sales company, announced it had acquired worldwide sales rights to the sequel ahead of November's American Film Market in Las Vegas.
"Ryan Bellgardt has done a remarkable job with this sequel, creating a fresh, thrilling, and visually striking sci-fi experience that we believe will captivate fans worldwide," said Jackrabbit Media CEO Jack Campbell in a statement. "The CGI work in this film is truly impressive and sets a new standard for independent genre films."
Despite her misgivings about the state rebate program, including the $30 million annual cap and the lack of transparency about how applicant projects are scored, Taylor, Boiling Point's owner and operator, said she is optimistic about the future of filmmaking in Oklahoma.
"We have lost clients because of the rebate. That is a fact. We have faced many challenges ourselves trying to get approved for the rebate. That is a fact. We are trying to become self-reliant where we can sustain ourselves without the rebate dictating our ebbs and flows. ... But at the end of the day, we need films coming to Oklahoma. We need films hiring us so that we can be profitable," she said.
"And the world of technology is going to continue to evolve. ... The state of Oklahoma is amazing. Everyone in Oklahoma is so forward-thinking and has this get-her-done attitude, like 'True Grit.' ... But what we need to be doing is thinking 10 years ahead. What could be the future in film?"
