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Thursday, 05 January 2012 09:51

Written by Carl Kurlander

            Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Entertainment Capital of the World?

So, recently, the Washington Post listed the very hip Portland as "Out" and "Pittsburgh" as "In." And I’m told that Mayan Elders are predicting that in 2012, there will be a great convergence, and that because of Pittsburgh’s three rivers (and secret fourth year) Pittsburgh may become “Peaceburgh” and usher in a whole new way of being for the human race.  Well, I'm not sure it's such a good thing for Pittsburgh to be "in" (please Pittsburgh, don't go Hollywood on us) and I'm no Mayan expert, but as 2012 begins, I feel like this may be a good time to comment on the flows of several streams of the entertainment industry which have been converging in Pittsburgh in a way which is beginning to feel very powerful for this region.

In 2003, many of Hollywood's top players gathered at the Fred Rogers Studios at WQED to form the Steeltown Entertainment Project, a non-profit whose mission is to build an entertainment industry in Southwestern Pennsylvania.   Back then, Steeltown's Founding Executive Director Ellen Weiss Kander, predicted that “entertainment could be Pittsburgh’s new steel”, and indeed, based on what is happening here in film, television, and digital media, that dream is becoming closer to a reality.

                                          Ellen Weiss Kander, Rob Marshall, Maxine Lapiduss

FILM. A few years ago, it would be hard to believe that a common complaint among Pittsburghers would be the traffic problems caused by major movies shooting in town.   It can’t get much bigger than Dark Knight Rising, Tom Cruise, and the new much heralded Charlie Kaufman movie (the Academy Award winning screenwriter of Being John Malkovich) filming in Pittsburgh.   But balancing out those traffic snarls are the hundreds of millions of dollars that these films have brought into the region’s economy—not only in hiring crews, but in spending in hotels, restaurants and related businesses like dry cleaning, rent-a-cars, and other related businesses.   As New Castle native and Lionsgate producer John Dellaverson stated when he was back in March for the Steeltown Film Factory, “Pittsburgh has become Lionsgate’s number one choice for location.”  And since John met with Governor Rendell and legislators in April 2007 urging the change of new film tax credits, Lionsgate has put their money where there mouth is shooting “Warrior,” “Abduction”, “The Next Three Days”, and “One For the Money” here, with plans to film even more in the region.

Of course, Pittsburgh has experienced this surge in film production before and in order to make it truly sustainable, one of the things which is being talked about in this New Year is a regional entertainment fund which would give the Pittsburgh region more of a partnership with these Hollywood productions, and give added incentive for films to shoot in the region on a continual basis (and hire local crews) beyond the already effective film tax credits.

Another great asset to Pittsburgh's growing film industry is 31^st Street Studios where the new Batman and One Shot have been filming.  Belle Vernon native Chris Breakwell has turned this former steel mill into one of the finest studios between New York and Chicago.   31^st Street Studio is looking towards the future and partnering with many leaders in the region and the industry involving aspects of production and post-production which could lead to jobs coming and staying in Pittsburgh. In fact, several weeks ago, I met James Pastorius, a Pittsburgh native whose company Savage Visual Effects has done work for “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”, “Social Network”, “X-Men”, and “Twilight” who is looking to open a Pittsburgh office in addition to his one in Redondo Beach, CA.    And the truth is, as both “300” producer Bernie Goldmann and “Avatar” Special Effects producer and Pittsburgh native Heide Waldbaum have mentioned in panels as part of the Film Factory, both of those movies were produced in warehouses which could have just as easily has been in Pittsburgh—and soon, they might well be.

Tom and Suri at Schenley Park

TELEVISION. Pittsburgh should be very proud that Fred Rogers’ legacy will continue in the New Year as the Fred Rogers Company is producing Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, a new animated series based on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood which will air on PBS nationally this Fall.  This program starring Daniel the Striped-Tiger will be produced by Blues’ Clues creator Angela Santomero and will allow a new generation to discover a program focusing on the emotional life and development of children which what Fred was all about.

And later this month, as a recent Post-Gazette article detailed "Filming Here: The Next Oprah?", the director of television’s number one comedy, Two and a Half Men, and Squirrel Hill native, Jamie Widdoes, is scheduled to direct a TV pilot in Fred Rogers’ Studio for the Pittsburgh Innovative Media Incubator, a new co-venture between WQED and the Steeltown Entertainment Project.   Jamie was back in Pittsburgh last February for the Film Factory and discovered through his producing partner Peter Isacksen, Anea Bogue, an expert on women and girls issues, and thought she would be the great host of a talk show.  More Pittsburgh Innovative Media Incubator projects are also in development with Guardian creator David Hollander and Emmy Award winning MTV Made producer Bob Kusbit.

  Peter Isacksen, Jamie Widdoes, Shelli Wright, Anea Bogue, Carl Kurlander, Deb Acklin

And Pittsburgh is even a force on the reality front,  Dance Moms is a hit TV show based on Pittsburgh’s Abby Lee Miller studios and the History Channel just aired a pilot of Inventionland, a show based on George Davison’s Willy-Wonka-esque inventor’s shop here.

Dance Moms and Daughters

And I should also mention the hit webseries, Pittsburgh Dad, which has just crossed over 1 million views and was filmed on an Iphone by Mercury Men director Chris Preksta and actor Curt Wootton.  

MUSIC. “Blue Slide Park”, Mac Miller’s new album inspired by his growing up in Point Breeze, debuts number one on the Billboard 200, the first independently distributed album to do so since 1995.  Mac and Wiz Khalifa are both signed to Rostrum Records, a label started by visionary Benji Grinberg who moved back to Pittsburgh after working at Arista Records.   Now kids are around the world are wearing “Taylor Gang or Die” gear, having no idea that Taylor Allderdice is the high school where Mac, Wiz, and Benji all graduated from.   It is still kind of surreal to know that people in Paris are singing “Frick Park Market”, and it is somehow even cooler that this on fire 19 year old Point Breeze rapper has taken his mother and his grandmother on tour with him.

And then of course, there is young phenom Jackie Evancho, who has become an international sensation with her operatic voice.   You may have seen her on PBS which also is featuring a huge “Pop, Rock, and Soul” PBS concert put together by Pittsburgh’s own T.J. Lubinsky who has produced the famous Doo Wop specials there.   Pittsburgh has always had an amazing and under-touted musical history, from Stephen Foster, the World’s first professional songwriter to Rusted Root who played the New Year’s show downtown and whose “Send Me On My Way” has become ubiquitious in films, TV shows, and commercials.   With Bruce Springsteen jamming here with Joe Grushecky, it seems like the Pittsburgh music scene is on its way.

MASTERS OF THE DIGITAL AGE

Of course, these days, entertainment is not just film, TV, and music, but things related to entertainment technology—and Pittsburgh has many stars in that area too.

Pittsburgh is home to CMU’s Entertainment Technology Center, co-founded by the late Randy Pausch and its current Executive Producer Don Marinelli which offers a graduate degree in entertainment technology and which over the past decade has produced a disproportionate amount of gaming and animation which too often goes out to L.A. and Silicon Valley after graduation.

But thanks to CMU ETC professor Jesse Schell who is also the CEO of Schell Games all that is changing.   Schell Games has gone from 5 to over 75 employees as its company designs games and rides for Disney and other major entertainment industry players, including working on internet and gaming aspects of the new "Daniel's Neighborhood" show.  

And CMU’s Project Olympus has helped nurture some of their brilliant talent such as Marek Michalowksi who designd KeepOn the Robot for research on autism, but KeepOn is now a star toy for Toys R Us this holiday season.    And Jesse Schell and CMU spin-off Bosa Nova have designed “Mechatars” which CNN Money named as “One of 7 Toys You Have To Have” in 2011.    Speaking of Robots, there is also Marilyn Monrobot, a robot who does stand-up comedy, which is the brainchild of CMU graduate student Heather Knight and was recently featured on CNN.

                                     Heather Knight and stand-up Marilyn Monroebot 

And then there is the growing world of animation, graphic novels, and puppeteers, many of whom have gathered around the Toonseum, one of three museums of cartoon art in the country which now resides downtown, and where I have met everyone from Kris Boban, a brilliant L.A. animator who worked on shows like “Yo Gabba Gabba” in L.A. and has moved back to work with Animal, the production house behind the talking Taco Bell dog and many other things; Jim Martin, who directed shows like “Sesame Street” and “Bear In the Big Blue House” and lives in Pittsburgh; and even Doug Bradley, the actor who played “Pinhead” in the Hellraiser films who I met at the Toonseum Halloween party and who has now moved to Pittsburgh because of his significant other.     And I should also mention here Tom Savini’s world-famous make-up and special effects school in Monessen.

KIDS & CREATIVITY -- The Next Generation is Digital

We all know that there is a new generation growing up who are digital natives, meaningful they have grown up in a world connected by the internet and literally a trillion devices talking to each other.   We who have grown up as “digital immigrants” who must ask our 10 year olds how to use our Iphones must realize that, like it or not, this next generation will grow up in a digital age just as last century was part of the great industrial age.    Realizing that Fred Rogers used the technology of his day, television, to help better the lives of children everywhere, Grable Foundation president Gregg Behr started what has now become a “Kids & Creativity” movement of educators, technologists, media producers, and parents who have taken on the challenge of using this new technology to better the lives of children in Western Pennsylvania.   Now 400 strong, and aligned with the Sprout Fund’s Spark Grants, this group has already come up with many prototype which soon may be transformative in the lives of our children here.   See the “Kids & Creativity” video below:

CRITICAL MASS

Several years ago,  when Google CEO Eric Schmidt was visiting Pittsburgh and talking with Pittsburgh Technology Council CEO Audrey Russo (where he declared Pittsburgh the best technology council in the country), I was able to ask him why if we had all this great technology, we did not have a  Sand Hill Road here—the famed street which connects to the Stanford campus that has invested in companies like Google and Yahoo which all came out of Stanford graduate student projects (and which are in some ways entertainment companies.)   Eric replied that we don’t have the investors here yet because we don’t have “critical mass.”  It’s coming, he said.  But it is just not here yet.   But it does feel like that critical mass may be happening now in Pittsburgh’s world of entertainment.

In 2003, Steeltown Entertainment Project’s founding executive director Ellen Weiss Kander helped produce a short film “Pittsburgh: Hollywood’s Best Kept Secret” where folks like “Chicago” director Rob Marshall, “300” producer Bernie Goldmann, and “Two and a Half Men” director Jamie Widdoes talked about the potential of this city to become a real player in the entertainment industry.    Well, as evidenced by all the above the secret is out.   (See http://www.steeltown.org/growingpittsburgh.php for “Pittsburgh: Hollywood’s Best Kept Secret.”)

Entertainment is one of this country’s largest exports.   And has more influence on our culture than almost anything you name.    As all this continues to build here in regards to our emerging entertainment sector, one has to wonder if perhaps the Mayan’s are right=-- and that this year, there truly will be a great convergence in Pittsburgh—that like our rivers--- will flow out to the world.

Perhaps the town which has a history of innovation-- where the first Nickelodeon movie theater, the first commercial radio station, and the first public television station and which spawned entertainment legends like the Warner Brothers, Gene Kelly, and George Romero-- is on its way to becoming the new Entertainment Capitol of the World.

Hollywood Out?  Pittsburgh In?  It's a bit scary to even type it.  And careful, Pittsburgh, we don't want you to go too Hollywood.

A few websites to all this are linked below: 

www.31ststreetstudios.com

http://www.dec.edu/pages/makeupeffects.html

www.etc.cmu.edu

www.fredrogers.org

http://www.youtube.com/user/pittsburghdad/featured

www.pghfilm.org

http://www.pghtech.org/networks/creative-technology/default.aspx

www.rostrumrecords.com

www.schellgames.com

http://www.sproutfund.org/spark/

www.steeltown.org

www.toonseum.org

www.wqed.org

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/arts-post/post/portlandia-your-15-minutes-are-up-long-live-pittsburgh/2012/01/03/gIQAMUlSYP_blog.html

http://www.2012pittsburgh.com/about.htm

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11362/1199581-67-0.stm?cmpid=news.xm

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