Hello Members of the MPAU,

I wanted to give you an update on what all of us at the MPAU are working on at the moment.  We will need your involvement to help the momentum on these various fronts, so I encourage you to please read below and click on the various links provided.

2022 LEGISLATIVE SESSION
The 2022 legislative session has begun, and we now have Utah State Bill 49 (SB0049), “State Film Production Incentives Amendments” being pushed through this session.  
If you would like to read or track the progress of the bill, click HERE

ECONOMIC IMPACT STUDY
We have received the official financial study report and you can read the full report HERE 
The financial talking points can be found here HERE

VIRTUAL FILM DAY ON THE HILL - FEB 3
Due to concerns surrounding the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, our annual Film Day on the Hill will be online this year.  We will be hosting a Zoom meeting to answer as many questions as we can, and provide a current update as to where we’re at with the lobbying efforts.
Please register to attend this virtual Film Day via this link HERE 
This Zoom call will begin promptly at 12:00pm MST on Thursday, February 3rd.
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EMAIL WRITING CAMPAIGN
The email writing campaign has started, and you should be receiving emails from Susan Edwards (one of the MPAU’s lobbyists) a few times per week. 

It is critical that we all contact our local senators & representatives to ask them to support State Bill 49. 
If you have not received an email from Susan yet, please let her know at sb.edwards.44@gmail.com . There are a large number of people on the list this year and some of your emails may have gone to junk mail. 

Here is a video that is being shared to the legislative body on how the film tax rebate works and why it's good for Utah.  Click here for Video 

There are a number of other things happening. The MPAU is putting together a Utah Film Caucus, and key meetings are happening between industry professionals and leadership.  We will have more of an update for you all regarding those meetings at our Virtual Film Day on February 3rd.
Thank you, and as always, feel free to reach out any time,

Jeff Johnson
MPAU President
president@mpau.org

Dear MPAU Membership

The MPAU board would like to wish you all Happy Holidays!  We hope you all have a safe and relaxing Holiday Season.

We have some good news on the Lobbying front. We have a bill through an Interim committee that passed unanimously. This bill will help increase the funding for the Utah film rebate program and we have a chance to really help bring in a lot more film and television work to Utah.  

Now the hard work really begins. We need to show our legislators that this is good for Utah. This is where we need everyone's help  to convince our legislators that we want this to pass. We need your stories, and all of your friends, vendors and co-worker’s stories.  We need to show our legislators that there are  a lot of us and we want to continue to work in Utah in the film and television industry. 

Please fill out this short survey, and send this survey to all your co-workers, vendors etc. We especially need stories from people who live and work in Utah’s rural areas.  We need to have stories from every person who has an interest in seeing Utah’s film and television infrastructure grow, and we mean everyone! Whether you are an above the line producer/director, talent, crew member, vendor, background or you are just a fan of films being shot in Utah, tell us why this matters to you. 

We will take this information and stories that we get from the survey and we will reach out to you when the time is right to contact your own legislators. We will also use the stories to help convince our legislators that Utah’s citizens want to continue to see film and television productions being produced in Utah. 
**CLICK HERE TO FILL OUT THE SURVEY**
(if you prefer you can shoot a small video with your phone and upload it telling us that you live and work in Utah and how film and television production effects you and your family)

Also please keep February 3rd, 2022 open, that will be Film Advocacy Day on the Hill and we need to show a big presence at the Capitol building 

Please share this with everyone you know who is affected by the film and television productions that are shot in Utah. 

Thanks, and again, Happy Holidays!

Jeff Johnson
MPAU President

FALL EVENT RECAP
​It was so great to see so many of you at our fall event! Sorry for those long check-in lines but we were overjoyed with your response. We have an uphill climb and lots of work to do, but if we stick together anything is possible. For those that still need to get your MPAU membership please go to www.MPAU.org and make it official - you are Utah’s film industry!  
A huge thank you to Vega Media Studios for hosting our event; if you haven’t worked with them they are legit professionals and super kind people. We wouldn’t be able to do this without our Partners - Utah Film Studios, Moonrock, and the Utah Film Commission - and their continued support.  Also, a special thank you to study donors Paramount Pictures, Park City Chamber, Greater Zion, 3486 Inc. - David Wulf, Utah Valley, Visit Ogden, and Jeffrey Johnson CPA. 
We had the privilege of hearing from our lobbyist Charlie Evans, and Virginia Pearce, the Utah Film Commissioner, about the importance of communicating with our legislators in the upcoming session.   We will be in touch with further instructions on how to contact your legislator and specific messaging so we can stay consistent.
We introduced a very important impact study in partnership with the Utah Film Commission that will finally give us the numbers to back up what we already know, that film is good business for Utah. Most importantly we announced that you’re going to get a chance to tell your story of how film impacts you and your family.

FILM STUDY/LEGISLATIVE EDUCATION
PRESENTATION
Tomorrow on October 20th, we will be presenting preliminary numbers for the Oslberg film impact study to an interim board of legislators. All sessions are available for public access here.  We will update membership throughout this process and on the numbers once  the study is completed.   We’d again like to thank our donors and partners for making this study possible. This will help us show our Representatives what we already know - that film is good business for Utah!
SURVEY
The survey is coming out in the next few days. It’s the next step in the educational process.  We need your personal stories!  The legislators need to hear from the crew that work in the wide spectrum of jobs that this infrastructure provides. It’s imperative everyone responds. We need strong numbers to have a loud voice!
WHITEBOARD VIDEO
A Whiteboard Video that explains the Tax Rebate Program is well underway.  The script is finished and has been passed along to the animator to be ready in time for the session.  We will send it out to members to post and send to friends before Thanksgiving. ​

FILM ADVOCACY DAY ON THE HILL
FEB 3, 2022
​Keep this day open to come up and support the film day at Capitol Hill. We win by showing our numbers. 
(*This is dependent on COVID-19 protocols at the Capitol Building during this time)

​Please feel free to email me or the board, we want to hear from you.  If you took any photographs during the fall event, we would love to see those as well!  And thank you for keeping an eye out for opportunities for us to share how film positively impacts Utah. 

Thank you for being part of our crew,
Jeff Johnson
President of the MPAU
president@mpau.org

To the Motion Picture Association of Utah Members and Friends-
I'm Jeff Johnson, a 20 year industry veteran and a casting director in Utah. I have been on the MPAU board since it's inception and I am so excited to serve as your next president. Carolyn Leone devoted years of hard work as your president and I plan to continue the work she started, and add to it. My main goal for the MPAU is to expand our ongoing Motion Picture Incentive Fund so that Utah can be competitive in the national marketplace. I want to help grow the state's film and television infrastructure and keep the industry strong in Utah. I've been doing this long enough to know it's not an easy task. We have many hurdles with our legislators and there's a long road ahead of us. We have to put in the work, and I am ready to do just that. 

Here are the updates that the board and I have been working on so far in 2021. 

1. FILM STUDY
Our legislators need economic numbers to know what they are getting out of the Motion Picture Incentive Program. In conjunction with the Utah Film Commission we have hired Olsberg SPI, UK based research firm, to do a robust financial study that will tell a broader story of film's impact in Utah. 
Olsberg is a very well-regarded firm that has written studies for New Zealand, Georgia, Netflix, the UK, and others on the impact of film incentive programs. This is a labor intensive and expensive study and we need everyone on board to execute this properly. You can easily help by making sure your MPAU membership is up to date. If you're in a position to make an additional donation specifically for this study please contact me directly. This is something we have needed for a long time and we're eager to see the results toward the end of September. 
To find out more about Olberg SPI click here
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2. LEGISLATIVE EDUATION
We all know some of our legislators believe the incentive program is a subsidy for "Big Hollywood." They also don't understand the size of our industry and film community. This needs to change! The Data Study will help prove the numbers of the tax incentive program and how it helps Utahans, but we need to show how organized and how big we really are. 
During the last legislative session we had membership write letters directly to their legislators. It worked! We were able to change a legislator's vote from NO to YES and got Cache County on our side. 
Over the next couple of weeks the board and I will be doing a big membership drive and sending out an on line petition to collect data on zip codes, personal stories, and contact info so during the session we can connect you directly with your legislators. 

3. FALL EVENT
As an organization we need to get together to stay connected. We've missed having events to meet in person to discuss plans and just hang out! We are currently looking for a covid­-friendly event space to have a forum and meet & greet the end of September. If you have any location ideas reach out to VP Brooke Redmon at kimberlybrooke@gmail.com. We hope to see you all there!

I want open and easy to communication with members and friends so again, please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or ideas on how we can successfully lobby. I really do appreciate your membership in this organization. Our voice is louder when we're unified.

Sincerely,
Jeff Johnson
President of the MPAU
president@mpau.org