CARES Act funds boost state film business
For Jason Oser, Halloween 2020 was no treat.
The Oklahoma City resident was laid off at the end of October from his job in the oil and gas industry, about seven months into the COVID-19 pandemic.
But the turnaround has been sweet, as he was able to take advantage of free training courses at the new Oklahoma Film & Television Academy that were funded through the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
“I just figured I’d dive head-first on it and started in early December, finished the 17th of December ... and then I was hired on my first movie Jan. 14,” Oser said. “I’m on my fourth film. ... It’s been very great, steady work for me.”
That’s what Communities Foundation of Oklahoma Executive Director Teresa Rose Crook likes to hear. The nonprofit teamed with Oklahoma state, city, county and other government entities to form Community CARES Partners, a public-private resource center to assist Oklahomans during the pandemic.
“It’s one thing to keep somebody from being evicted, it’s another thing to give them an opportunity to change their position so that they’re not as economically vulnerable as they were before the pandemic,” Rose Crook
said.
“One of the really unique and exciting components of the partnership with the television and film industry is they have such high need that ... they have people that are starting to work before they even finish their courses.”
In 2020, $1.6 million was spent on retraining, skill development and workforce development in the film and music industries for 239 OKC residents who qualified for assistance under the CARES Act, according to the Oklahoma Film + Music Office.
Several local movie and music businesses also worked with Community CARES Partners, including Searchlight Music Group, Green Pastures Studio, Castle Row Studios, Nathan Gardocki Production, Onyx Lane, Film Education Institute of Oklahoma, Boiling Point Media and GC Recordings.
“OKC worked to channel its CARES Act resources towards job retraining efforts that included the opportunity for our residents to prepare for employment in the film, television and music industries. These efforts, along with the opening of multiple new film production facilities, gives OKC the chance to emerge from the pandemic with new advantages in this space,” OKC Mayor David Holt said in a statement.
Here are the stories of some CARES Act recipients in the state’s film industry:
Jason Oser
After studying broadcast journalism in college, Oser, 33, documented weddings, worked with local director Kyle Roberts on a few projects and even made a short film with friends that they took to festivals. When the oil and
gas contract work he’d been doing for about five years was lost to the pandemic, he decided to revisit that past interest by signing up for the Oklahoma Film & TV Academy.
“They taught us how a film set actually works,” he said. “They happened to have a specialized class the third week that I could hop on. So I took the opportunity.”
Oser’s first film crew job was as a van driver on “For the Love of Money,” followed by a chance to work in the electrical department on the fourth “God’s Not Dead” movie. He was back to transportation on “Bob and Amy,” and recently started as the key set production assistant on “Deadly Debutantes.”
“It’s gonna be pretty cool to see a credit with my name on it,” he said.
Sunny and Manish Summan
Sunny Summan, 27, was desperate for a career change when he started scouring the internet about 4 a.m.
“I was a crime scene supervisor before I started this movie gig, and I remember on Dec. 1, I’d had a particularly long day, very, very stressful. And I was like, ‘Man, I don’t know if this kind of career path is for me,’” he said.
He applied for the Oklahoma Film & TV Academy at 5 a.m., and when he got a response a few hours later, he shared the good news with his older brother, Manish Summan, 31, who was looking to leave his call-center job. They both attended the academy in December.
Manish spent one day on “American Underdog: The Kurt Warner Story” as a lockdown PA, keeping cars and people out of the film’s downtown El Reno location, and then he got a chance to join the transportation department on “Bob and Amy” for three weeks.
The OKC resident recently relocated temporarily to Bartlesville, where he’s working in the production office of “Gray Horse,” also known as “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Manish is assisting the background casting director, recruiting performers, especially Native Americans, to be extras in Martin Scorsese’s anticipated adaptation of David Grann’s true-crime book about a series of 1920s murders among Osage Nation citizens after oil was discovered on tribal land.
He said he expects to be working in Osage country until September on Scorsese’s reportedly $200 million project, one of the biggest films ever to be made in Oklahoma. He also anticipates his brother, Sunny, joining him in Bartlesville.
“I kept thinking ‘Wow, that sounds like almost too good to be true’,” Sunny said. “From Dec. 1, from that decision of changing my career, in exactly two months I was working on a major picture.”
Sunny spent more than a month working as a production assistant attached to the bubble of former professional football players providing the onfield action for the Kurt Warner biopic.
As a bonus, the gig included joining the “team” for a Super Bowl party hosted by the movie’s star, Zachary Levi (”Shazam!”), who plays Warner.
“This is the best decision I’ve made in my life so far.”
Maggie McClure
Best known as a Norman singer, songwriter and musician, Maggie McClure also is president and co-founder of Searchlight Music Group, which helps Oklahoma film and TV productions connect with the state’s music indus
try.
Through the Oklahoma Film Rebate Program, prequalified productions can get a 35% rebate on certain labor, goods and services, but those that spend at least $20,000 on Oklahoma music can get a 37% rebate.
“Our goal was to work with Oklahoma productions and help find them the best music for their projects and also represent Oklahoma talent and showcase Oklahoma musicians and music,” said McClure, whose company has been working on the Matt Damon film “Stillwater,” which Focus Features is releasing in theaters July 30.
McClure’s company applied for CARES Act funding to create a series of videos to teach people about making money through the Oklahoma entertainment industry.
“We interviewed elite professionals in the music and film industry — not just in Oklahoma, but everywhere — and did these interviews and put them up on Facebook and YouTube. We made them available for everyone,” she said.
“It was a crazy ride, because we didn’t get approved until mid-December. And all the videos had to be completed by the end of the year. And so over Christmas and New Year’s, I was filming and doing interviews. ... And with that CARES Act money, we were able to hire the people to make the videos.”
McClure’s duo The Imaginaries with her husband, Shane Henry, had their song “Walking on a Wire” featured in the recently released Oklahoma-made thriller “Infamous,” starring Bella Thorne.
“Having your songs in film and TV or advertising is a huge opportunity for musicians these days, especially since touring isn’t happening like it usually is,” she said. “Not only is it a great income generator, but it’s obviously also a huge exposure opportunity as well. And in this case, that exposure is paid, which is always a plus.”