Jeff Kurz:
There's a steady appetite for content, and I think that right now, Wisconsin is really primed to help create that steady stream of content for cable networks, for streamers. But there are also movies that get made here that are viable successes. If you look at a movie like Hundreds of Beavers, that was a movie that was made here in Wisconsin. It was hugely successful for its, not only for its makers, but also its financiers. It has grossed more than 10 times its $150,000 budget at the box office. Those producers still are based in Wisconsin. Their next project has a higher budget, and their financiers are telling them that they need to go to a state that offers production incentives to make their next movie. So not only is Wisconsin really good at educating crew members and filmmakers, but Wisconsin is also great about giving filmmakers their start in a successful career. But we're not able — without the production incentives — we're not able to sustain that education and success because people ultimately need to go to another state to continue their careers because those states are more production friendly and offer production incentives. ... I think that the biggest misconception is that there's no production infrastructure here in Wisconsin, and there truly is — as I said, we are educating people. We're graduating a lot of people from our film programs in the state. And also there's this misconception that this is an arts, this is like an art creation program, and really this is an economic growth opportunity for the state. It is about creating, retaining jobs. It is about boosting local economies, and it is about branding and promoting local tourism.