Kentucky film & TV professionals weigh pros, cons, and opportunities

CORBIN, Ky. ( FOX 56 ) — A movie and TV industry exists in Kentucky, but professionals and lawmakers alike will say there’s room for improvement.

At a meeting on Wednesday, several faces of Kentucky’s film industry met for the first time in a discussion led by Senate President Robert Stivers.

Moving forward, the question is now how these professionals can come together to make the industry more accessible to the talents and resources right in Kentucky’s backyard.

“It’s what I’ve said many times. We need to figure out what to do to keep our people here. But we also need to figure out what to do to attract people here,” Sen. Robert Stivers (R-Manchester) said.

Stivers thinks the entertainment industry could be one opportunity to achieve both. At a local restaurant in Corbin, a lengthy discussion was held with Kentucky studio heads, independent producers, education leaders, and other industry professionals to discuss the good and bad of Kentucky’s influence on the big screen and how it can grow.

“One of my favorite sayings is that a rising tide floats all boats. So I think as the entertainment industry, as a whole, grows in Kentucky it attracts other art forms,” Misdee Wrigley, owner of Lexington-based Wrigley Media Group said.

Wrigley said the recently opened LEX Studios is employing 93 people and has film projects lined up through the end of the year.

“That is the strength in attracting productions to Kentucky, that we can have semi-permanent positions that these crew members can move from one production to the next production to the next production,” she said.

So to attract more productions, Kentucky leaders may take another look at the cap created in 2021 on tax incentives, consider forming a film commission to promote the industry, and work to bolster film & tv programs at Kentucky colleges so the workforce is prepared to meet all the needs of a major motion picture. Even the ones people may not consider.

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“Such as carpenters and electricians. There’s professionals, accountants and attorneys. There are service industry, catering and obviously then the creative and the technical,” Merry-Kay Poe of Unbridled Films said.

Stivers said the goal is to create a dynamic with entertainment that is similar to or even better than the industry boom recently experienced in states like Georgia, a process that would take a long time but make a major economic impact.

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