Intro (00:00)
Welcome. You're listening to Diversify Nevada, a podcast produced by the Governor's Office of Economic Development. Diversify Nevada features insightful discussions and expert analysis on the driving forces behind our state's business, workforce, and community development. I'm Tom Burns, executive director of the Governor's Office of Economic Development.
Speaker 3 (00:21)
We're your host Carli Smith.
Speaker 2 (00:22)
and Evan Haddad. Today's guest is Kim Spurgeon, the director of Film Nevada, a division of our agency that until recently was known as the Nevada Film Office. Kim promotes the growth of the film industry in the state and advises senior leadership on industry related policy. She also manages the state's film tax incentive program and monitors the trends of these programs, both domestically and internationally. In 2023,
Kim was recognized by Governor Lombardo for her exceptional work in state service. Before joining GOED in 2014, Kim worked as a production manager on commercials, feature films, and television shows, including Behind the Candelabra, Now You See Me, and Paul Blart Mall Cop 2. During this time, she advanced her industry knowledge and built strong relationships with the crew members and vendors she now serves in a role at Film Nevada.
She earned a bachelor's degree in communications with a concentration in film from Elon University. Kim Spurgeon, welcome to the show.
Speaker 1 (01:24)
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:26)
First, before I ask anything though, Elon University, is that what I think it is? Or is this something else? I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1 (01:33)
It had the name before a certain Elon Musk came into the picture. It's been a university since I think 1889 in North Carolina. It's a small liberal arts college and gave me a great education. It's actually, Elon is the Hebrew word for oak and it's on a beautiful campus full of oak trees.
Speaker 2 (01:52)
Wow, I had no idea. So tell us a bit about your background in the film industry and in your journey to your current role here at Film Nevada.
Speaker 3 (01:53)
Cool little tidbit.
Speaker 1 (02:02)
Yeah, so transitioning from, you know, when I graduated from Elon University, my parents had moved out to Las Vegas while I attended university ⁓ because they always wanted to retire out West. So my original plan was to move in with them while looking for a job in LA because I wanted to be in the industry. That was my goal.
And then when I moved in with my parents here in Las Vegas, I realized that LA has a ton of people. I don't know any of them. I don't like crowds and traffic. Las Vegas is a much cheaper place to live and it has a film industry. So I went to the Nevada production directory, which is put out by the film office. And I sent my cover letter and resume to each of the production companies listed.
I got three interviews, one job offer, and I worked for a small production company here in Las Vegas for about five years, learning the ropes, ⁓ really advancing my knowledge and skill set. But then I was laid off during the Great Recession. But during the time that I was at the production company, I had made the connections with the local crew that I needed to transition right into freelance work or being a gig worker. And that's when
I worked on the productions you mentioned in my bio and whenever a production would come to town, I could be hired on that. I usually worked in the production office, you know, doing paperwork type stuff, making sure vendors are paid, that kind of thing. And then in 2014, when the job for managing the tax incentive program came up, I thought, you know, I'd be great at that. And the government aspect of...
this role meant that I could have better work-life balance than what traditional production usually offers. And I thought this is great. I can have more work-life balance and still be in that industry that I've always wanted to be in.
Speaker 3 (03:59)
Great answer. So let's go into what does Film Nevada do, kind of the day to day of what your job looks like and let the listeners know kind of what Film Nevada is here for.
Speaker 1 (04:11)
Yeah. So to use a common industry term, we are the state's film commission and it's our job to market the state as a film friendly location. We want productions, feature films, ⁓ TV shows, commercials, music videos. We want them to film here and spend their money here and hire locals. We market the state in that way. And we also serve as, as a connector to the local resources here. So when a production wants to film in Nevada,
They'll come to us and say, who are your local crew members? Where can I rent this equipment? What locations can I film at? And we help them with that. We act as a liaison in that way. And it's a free service that we offer for the clients who want to film here.
Speaker 2 (04:56)
Well that's cool. So I know you guys recently rebranded. You've had a couple of names over the years, right? Like you were originally a film commission and then you were... Oh, from pictures. Wow, that's old school.
Speaker 1 (05:07)
Division of Motion Pictures.
In 1982, that's how we started.
Speaker 2 (05:14)
So you have this new name, Phil Nevada, and along with that was a of a rebrand and a new website which looks great. What was the impetus for that and why do think it's important? ⁓
Speaker 3 (05:27)
As a comm source, I'm interested in this too because we're always evolving, we're always trying to keep up with the times and I think your guys' new look really tells a story and it makes you fall in line with GOED, which people may not know that you guys are a part of. So let's hear about it.
Speaker 1 (05:41)
Yeah, so the impetus was actually from our website, our old website. It was a dot com. It was falling apart. It hadn't received enough love over the years and we needed to give it a fresh look, improve the functionality of it. And everything really stemmed from that. And as we were looking at redoing the website, we thought, okay, let's take this opportunity to move from a dot com to a dot gov. We felt that that change gave us
a little more authority that wasn't there before, acknowledging that yes, we are a state government agency. And our new URL of film.nv.gov really reflects that. And the new name, it's like you said, it evolves with the times. There are a lot of fellow film commissions out there that have the film and then the region in their name. And it's also
kind of a directive, know, film Nevada, film in Nevada. We're encouraging you to come here and kind of having it as a directive that way. So it all came together at a really good time to make all of those changes at once and really align ourselves moving forward.
Speaker 3 (06:57)
Yeah, if you guys haven't checked out their website, definitely highly recommend it. It looks great.
Speaker 2 (07:02)
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (07:03)
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (07:04)
So a lot of people might not connect economic development with the film industry. What is the connection?
Speaker 1 (07:11)
So there, I read an article one time from a farmer in Utah where his farm had been rented by a production for filming. And he said, the film industry takes pictures and leaves money. And that's what production does is when a feature film or a TV show comes into a region, it's like a direct infusion of cash into the local economy because they will make purchases and rentals from local vendors such as cars or a lot of food. There's so much food that happens on a film set to feed that hungry crew. ⁓ Or purchases like for costumes or props or set design. There are so many purchases that have to happen in order to make a film or a TV show or commercial.
Speaker 3 (07:50)
Food brings everyone together.
Speaker 1 (08:06)
And that's, like I said, just a direct infusion of cash into the local economy, but also it's the jobs. It creates jobs for the gig workers, like what I used to do, where when there are more productions filming in a region, that's more jobs created, that's more stability for that freelance crew base, who is typically union crew. The union crew have great rates that they earn while working production.
It can be a really great occupation or career path for people. And it's open to really all walks of life. There are certain career paths where you need a specialty type of education or certain training or certifications. And that's not the case with production. We can take anyone ⁓ from underrepresented groups, formerly incarcerated, which there aren't a lot of options for those folks.
But they can work in this industry as long as they have the heart to put into it. Really, all you need is a can-do attitude and you can be a part of this industry and make a great living doing it.
Speaker 2 (09:15)
Wow, so I know we have some programs to help facilitate that economic development and those are the film tax credits. Break that down for us. What does a film tax credit do and why is that such an important tool in our toolkit to promote economic development?
Speaker 1 (09:31)
So our transferable tax credit for film and other productions is a tax credit that productions can earn based on their qualified spend. So for every dollar a production spends on a local Nevada business or a local Nevada crew member, they can earn 15 cents in a tax credit back on that spend.
That's our base rate is 15%. We do have some bonuses available, another 5 % if you hire ⁓ a certain number of Nevada local residents and another 5 % if you film in certain rural areas. Most of our filming takes place here in Las Vegas, but we do incentivize the whole state and there are a lot of hidden gems out there. But this tax credit is a way to entice those productions to film here instead of other states. Like I said,
These productions spend a lot of money and hire a lot of people when they come here, and we want that money to be spent here. And that tax credit is a tool to get them to choose Nevada over other states, because here in the U.S., there are, I think, around 39 different states with some kind of tax incentive program, whether it's a grant or rebate or transferable tax credit like ours. And we're all kind of competing with each other for that same work.
as well as internationally. There are around 120 programs internationally, and we're all competing for those productions because we see the value in the money that they contribute to our local economy when they come here. So that's why it's important to have a tax credit, because we lose a lot of productions that would have otherwise liked to film here, but they choose to, for instance, go to New Mexico. That's one of our closest competitors.
They'll fake New Mexico for Nevada because New Mexico offers a very competitive tax incentive.
Speaker 3 (11:28)
Good to know. So Kim, what other resources does Field Nevada offer and what are things that people may not know about your division and what you do?
Speaker 1 (11:36)
We offer a lot of resources and like I said earlier, we offer them for free. So one of the things that our office concentrates on are filming locations and where are the film friendly ones, the ones who want you to come film there. And a filming location can be any number of things. It can be a dark seedy alley or an upscale restaurant or ⁓ really just anything that you think of, anything you see on screen is some kind of film location.
And we work with the location owners to maintain a database on our website where productions can just scroll through the different categories we have on there. If they're looking for a school or a hospital or a restaurant or a barbershop, we have those options on our website that they can look through and request the ⁓ contact information of the owners to negotiate location fees and things like that. locations ⁓ and knowing our local resources.
That includes what vendors we have here that rent the specialty equipment that these productions need, as well as the crew members that work in the different positions. There are so many different departments and people that are required to make a production run. And we have that contact information of all those local crew members that are available to be hired also in a directory on our website.
We don't issue permits ourselves. ⁓ Film permits here in Nevada are issued at a local jurisdictional level, so cities and counties, depending on where you are. And it's our job to maintain relationships with those permit issuers and also understand their rules and regulations so when productions can't get a hold of them, for instance, if the city is closed on Fridays, they'll get a hold of us and we're able to answer questions on their behalf, even though they're the ones issuing the permits. And we just help people navigate all the different processes that they'll need to when they come to film here.
Speaker 3 (13:37)
That's a big job. ⁓ I don't think people realize how much work goes into connecting people and making sure that they feel good about what they're doing and where they're going. So we appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (13:47)
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (13:48)
So you were talking about some of Nevada's competitors, New Mexico, obviously Utah, all of our surrounding states. So when you're talking to different film production companies and you're selling Nevada, what do you tell them? Like, why is Nevada such a unique place? Because it definitely is for us living here. How do you transmit that excitement for the landscape and just all the great things that we've got going on here when you're making your pitch talking to these film companies and trying to bring them here.
Speaker 1 (14:19)
So I think here in Nevada, even if you're not in hospitality, that spirit of hospitality runs through almost everything we do. And we bring that here at Film Nevada as well. We tell productions that we are as hands-on as you want us to be. And we get a lot of feedback saying, I've never gotten this kind of service from a state film office or...
you know, you're really so helpful with navigating this process. Sometimes we call a film office and they don't even answer the phone. But we really pride ourselves on making sure that we're getting the productions what they need in order to film here successfully. Because it's our goal to have those productions have a great experience here. So they'll want to come back and keep spending money and keep maintaining those relationships of hiring certain crew members and
and really showing them what good production can look like. On top of, you know, if you've ever been to Nevada, it's a beautiful state. is. Agreed. We have a lot of different landscapes. We've of course got the desert and the neon down south. We've got beaut- like if you've been to Lake Tahoe, if you haven't been to Lake Tahoe, have to go. It is one of the most beautiful lakes I have ever seen. And I'm not exaggerating. It's a gorgeous region.
And people kind of forget that, yeah, like Tahoe is part of Nevada or Nevada does have snow capped mountains or the different kind of terrains that, you know, people sometimes overlook or forget about.
Speaker 3 (15:59)
Yeah, we have a little bit of everything I feel like here. So what are some of the most common pitfalls or issues that you see when people come to Nevada to film? And what are the solutions? What do we have in our toolbox to kind of help them out?
Speaker 1 (16:15)
So, you know, we are the victim of our own branding a little bit here in Las Vegas where people think whatever happens here stays here and kind of anything goes, which is not the case. You still need a film permit. You still need to follow our local ⁓ rules and regulations when filming to ensure everyone is safe, to make sure the public is safe. The rules are there for a reason. And one of the common pitfalls is not allowing enough time to account for.
Or plan for all of those different rules and regulations. For instance, film permits are turned around fairly quickly here, but they can take around 10 days. So you need to make sure you're getting your film permit application into the local jurisdictions in a timely manner so they can turn those around, make sure they're processed. When a film permit is processed, it goes through Public Works and the local police department to make sure that everyone is aware of what's going to happen because you don't know if
Maybe there's a scene with prop guns and a member of the public witnesses this and thinks it's a real shooting. The police need to be aware that this filming is taking place to account for that possibility.
Speaker 2 (17:26)
Does that happen a lot? I'm just curious, like is that something you run into? People are like, I've seen a guy with a gun, like, but it's a movie.
Speaker 3 (17:33)
Or doing a fire or something.
Speaker 1 (17:35)
It has happened. I wouldn't say it's terribly common. Most productions that fall into the not doing things the right way tend to be independents or perhaps student films who don't have the experience to know better. But when professionals are involved, they'll know the process and it really is a simple process to follow. And there's no reason not to.
The permit fees here, Clark County is $45, City of Las Vegas is free. Most jurisdictions here in Nevada as a whole are not expensive compared to a place like LA. So there's really not a reason not to do it the right way.
Speaker 3 (18:14)
It's kind of, well, you can attribute that to when you call the gas company and you're redoing your landscaping and you're like, ⁓ I'll skip that part. And then all of sudden you hit a gas line and you're in than you think. ⁓ Okay. So give us an example of a production that came to Nevada, got your help and ended up being a total success.
Speaker 1 (18:24)
way more.
There are so many different productions that I could choose from to answer this question. Of course, Anora, who that won the Oscar this year, is one that I could highlight. They filmed in Las Vegas for three days. But one that I would really like to call attention to that qualified for the tax incentive program and was recently nominated for a record 23 Emmys. It's a show called The Studio that airs on Apple TV Plus with Seth Rogen.
It's about a studio head in Hollywood ⁓ and they come out to Las Vegas for their last two episodes of the season. So those two episodes qualified for our tax incentive program. helped that production navigate the program, ⁓ find local crew and vendors and resources. In fact, there was a UNLV grad. I'm not sure how long ago he graduated.
but he moved out to LA to work in the industry and he came back as a production supervisor on that production, which was really exciting to have him back. ⁓ But that production, it was great to have them here. They, again, spent a lot of money filming something that if you watch the show, it's iconically Las Vegas. And that kind of exposure can help drive tourism that's connected to economic development as well.
And it was really a great production to showcase just how we can do production here, how we can fill those crew positions, local resources, highlight the area, and do it in a way that is recognized on a national level, garnering 23 Emmy nominations.
Speaker 2 (20:19)
Fantastic, yeah, sounds good. What genre is it? Comedy.
Speaker 1 (20:23)
comedy.
This, would say it's anxiety comedy. Okay. Does that make sense?
Speaker 2 (20:30)
Yeah, that sounds good. So last question we ask everybody and we've got a lot of different answers doing these interviews and it's really something to see. So why do you care about economic development and why is this something that you've hitched your wagon to for your career and your life probably, right?
Speaker 1 (20:48)
Yeah. So economic development is something that I've really learned during my role here working for the government. didn't give it a lot of thought before I joined the film Nevada 10 years ago, but since then I've learned just how crucial it is to a thriving society. And there's a saying that a rising tide lifts all ships. And to me, economic development is what makes the tide rise.
For the community. It brings in the businesses that create good job opportunities for its people who then can go out and afford to buy things and live in houses and be able to go on vacation and things like that. It's what drives the economy. And with a bad economy, you don't have a thriving society. And that's why it's so crucial that there is attention given to economic development and thought given to what does our local economy need in order to thrive and how can we find those missing pieces.
Speaker 3 (21:57)
Great answer.
Speaker 2 (21:58)
Fantastic.
Well, Kim, thank you so much for your time. This was a pleasure talking to you.
Speaker 3 (22:02)
Yeah, we can't wait to have you on next time too.
Speaker 1 (22:05)
Alright, thank you guys!
Speaker 3 (22:07)
And that's all for this episode of Diversify Nevada. This podcast was created by the Governor's Office of Economic Development with the help of our sound editor, Michelle Rubble-Eddy. If you'd like to learn more about our agency, can visit our website at goed.nv.gov. And if you'd like to share feedback about the show or suggest a topic you'd like us to cover, send us an email to GOED@goed.nv.gov. Thanks for joining us and we'll be back soon.