Ryan Millsap, Chairman & CEO of Atlanta-based Blackhall Studios, is one of today’s top entertainment executives! With a vision for Blackhall that’s ambitious, energizing and boundless, Millsap is blazing a trail through the heart of the South – and setting his sights on the future of entertainment. Listen and learn as Ryan Millsap journeys through the myriad industries, people and landscapes that traverse the complex and dynamic world of film production.
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Ryan: Welcome. We've got Mark Stiemke here today on the podcast, which is exciting. He's running a company that focuses on how to help production companies find the right kind of locations in real estate. So, Mark, welcome. Hi.
Mark: Thanks, Ryan. Thanks for having me.
Ryan: Tell us a little bit about how you got started in this business and how you realized that the entertainment guys needed help in the space.
Mark: Well, it's interesting because I really kind of started doing events back in the 90s. And then from that, I segued into working in the hospitality industry. And then, back in the late 90s to early 2000s, I was also with my setup: a special events company. I was doing huge parties with thousands of people that were here in Atlanta. We’d take over a hotel for a big New Year's or a holiday party, whatever it may be. And I was doing National Accounts management at the same time as doing some business development for the hotels. And so, at that time, a lot of the films that were coming in were bringing in crews from California or elsewhere.
Ryan: And this was all in Georgia.
Mark: Correct.
Ryan: Which hotels were you involved with?
Mark: The Sheraton Atlanta Hotel, the Georgian Terrace Hotel and the Glenn Hotel.
Ryan: The Georgian Terrace became such a central place for, for production.
Mark: Yes. It really has. I used to book with a company in California called Road Rebel, where I would book, you know, 50, 60 rooms a night, where they would stay for weeks. It’d be a discounted business, but then they stay and they eat in the hotel. They drink at the bar. So, there's a lot of additional revenue that comes from that: parking, you know. Movies -- all that kind of stuff that they do. Some of the people that did Stroke of Genius -- they were there. That was one of the first feature films that I was associated with here in Georgia. That was around 2000, when that was shot.
Ryan: And they were just at the hotel?
Mark: They were at the hotel, staying at the hotel.
Ryan: But also shooting?
Mark: They decided to shoot there. Yes.
Ryan: And so was that one of your first experiences with seeing a shoot on location?
Mark: No, I'd seen shoots before, but, for maybe that size -- because I had also developed a really good relationship with these people at that point in time; with the director and the producer, mostly the producer. They were doing some shooting up at Chateau Elan, because it was the story of Bobby Jones.
Ryan: Bobby Jones, the golfer.
Mark: The golfer, yes. And, so from there, I started working with my family. They had a security company in Atlanta. They did camera systems, access control, fire alarms, burglar alarms -- for 45 years here.
Ryan: What's the name of that company?
Mark: It was BEMS. And, growing up in the industry, my dad's business did a lot of stuff working within the city of Atlanta. A lot of government buildings. But we also had a lot of restaurants, bars, hotels; that sort of thing -- and a lot of residential and commercial work. So, with those levels of relationships, and also being a native, I had the opportunity to be able to get into a lot of locations. And when I was developing these relationships in the hospitality industry, a lot of those people were calling on me, because they were saying, “Can you help me get in somewhere?” You know, “I’m looking for this.”
Ryan: Because they'd say, “I need a particular kind of restaurant.”
Mark: Correct. And I'd say, “yeah.”
Ryan: Tell me a story. Like, tell me a story about what a producer might say to you. and then the way you were able to solve it.
Mark: A lot of times, it’d be more like a location manager -- because a producer will come in, and they'll say what they're looking for, and then I'll work more with the location manager to be able to make sure we can do whatever needs to be done. So, depending on what they're looking for, they might describe to me -- for instance, yesterday I got a call, and one of the things that they were asking me was, “Well, Mark, I need to have a high-rise. We're going to turn it into a hotel, though -- but I need a penthouse condo.” And they said, “But it can have brick in it, or it can have...” They said it's going to be in New Orleans, so it can be kind of strange sometimes.
I was just sharing a little while ago as well that there was a request one time that I had -- in the last year, I've had bamboo forests, and just forests, because they wanted to make it look like they're shooting over in Vietnam or Cambodia or something along those lines. And just coincidentally, on Monday, I had met a guy that had told me up in Jasper, Georgia, that he had a property like that. So I stopped by on Monday. And when I went out there and saw the property, I'm like, “You got to be kidding me.” Because it had the creeks that came through, totally built out. You could shoot there, and you would never in a million years know that they're shooting in Atlanta.
That's one of the most creative things when it comes down to doing the location work. Most of the times -- almost pretty much every time, except for ‘What Men Want,’ the film with Taraji Henson. I don't know if you saw that film or not, but I did some high-rise work with her, with their company for the film down here, at the Proscenium Building -- and then also did some large mansions. But that's the only film that they actually did that was really set and shot in Atlanta. Most everything else, it’s somewhere else.
I did this in one house, for ‘An Actor Prepares,’ with Jeremy Irons in it. We did one house -- when they came over to look at the house, all they wanted was a really nice, fancy library, like something up in New York. I had a house like that. They came over and looked at the at the library, and they were like, “Actually, this isn't exactly what we're looking for.” And I said, “But this house has multiple looks to it. And they were like, “No, I don't know.” Sometimes they'll come in quickly and then they're back out. And so I said, “Just let me show you a couple of these rooms.” I ended up showing them, and they walked around like, “Oh my gosh, we can do, like, five scenes here in this house.” It totally changed from where they thought maybe they'd use that one room, to using multiple rooms. And so they did. It was shot. They said it was in London, California and New York.
Ryan: But it was all filmed here in Georgia?
Mark: All filmed in Georgia. Yeah.
Ryan: Okay. So, you're working in hospitality. Your family has a lot of relationships from all the years of doing security. So, you know, all these people that own all this different real estate have all these different venues. You start working with the producers. When do you make the jump and say, “I'm just going to take this risk and start a new company, where all I do is aggregate all of these real estate locations and help the location manager solve their problems?”
Mark: Well, that's kind of an interesting transition, because I’d left my dad’s company to go back to work at Glenn Hotel, doing business development. And at the same point in time, I was importing furniture that I'd been working on for seven years, from Indonesia and Bali.
Ryan: Teak stuff?
Mark: Yeah, some very, very beautiful stuff, and rattan as well. Very high-end. But in 2008, when we brought that in...
Ryan: That timing did not work for any business.
Mark: It was the worst. We’d ended up in a situation where, now we've got containers full of all this beautiful furniture, and I'm going to trade shows up in High Point, North Carolina, to see what we can create. We had the Indonesian platform that was built up there -- or pavilion, excuse me. And when I came back, my mother -- this is just some really strange, kind of serendipitous sort of scenario -- but I came back, and my mother was doing an event for the Women's Auxiliary for the Salvation Army. She goes, “I'm doing this over at this house, this beautiful house over off of Valley Road. And I think the lady is an Indonesian princess.” And I was like, “Really?” And I said, “Mom, you're just now telling me about this?” She said, “I think her husband builds furniture as well, as a hobby. I'm like, “What?” And, right at that time, the phone rings. It’s the lady, and she started talking to her. My mom was telling her what I was doing. She goes, “Oh, you have to have him come tomorrow,” because it was a women's breakfast. So I felt a little awkward going to it, you know.
Ryan: Ah, of course.
Mark: I actually put it off. I wasn't going to go, and I had just taken my vacation to go to High Point for the week. I needed to go back to the hotel. So I went into the hotel that morning. I thought, “I need to go see what this opportunity is.” And I went over there and started talking to them. They took my information and asked me to come back several times. And she asked me, “What would you think about doing events?” Because I've done a lot of event business. And this house -- I mean, it's a beautiful house on Valley Road, on ten acres. It was built in the 1920s, during the depression -- 1928 to 1930 -- by the third president of Coca-Cola. It’s a Candler house. It's beautiful.
Ryan: Do you know who the architect was?
Mark: I can't remember who the architect is. Not off the top of my head.
Ryan: I only asked because I have an old farmhouse that was built in 1926, by a famous Atlanta architect. That era, there were just a handful of guys that were doing all that stuff in Buckhead. And a guy named Neil Reed is who did that farmhouse.
Mark: Okay. It’s the same architect that did... there were 3 or 4 houses. One of them just got bulldozed. It was in Sandy Springs -- Glenridge Hall. I don't know if you’ve ever heard of it.
Ryan: Yeah. Glenridge Hall. I know what you’re talking about.
Mark: They tore that one down. But that was one of the sister houses. Callanwolde was also built by the same architect -- but his name is slipping my head right now.
Ryan: Okay. So then, what comes next?
Mark: She kept calling me to come back. And I'm getting a lot of these calls for the movie industry. Of course, that's when the tax credits began. More and more filming was coming in, and people were staying here, and I'm getting more calls. Then she asked me, “Well, what do you think about having this house do events?” And I said, “This house? That's a movie house.” Right after I told her that, she goes “Movies?” And I go, “Yeah.” The first film -- which was maybe three weeks later, or a month; something like that -- I did ‘What to Expect When You’re Expecting.’ And so when she got to meet Cameron Diaz and some of the other people, they were like, “Wow.” But we had a lot of pushback in those neighborhoods at the time, because the neighbors didn't want the activity in the neighborhood.
Ryan: Wait, are you telling me that the neighbors in Buckhead are sensitive?
Mark: Haha, yes.
Ryan: I live up there. They're a little sensitive.
Mark: Yes. And so, eventually, what kind of became interesting about it was that, once people would go to their different galas and so forth, they would sit there and talk about, “I just had a movie in my house.” They could say that they’d had Cameron Diaz or Denzel Washington or Robert DeNiro or, well, any one of the great names. They're like, “I want to do that.”
Ryan: Then it became fun, sexy country club currency.
Mark: Yeah, exactly.
Ryan: Well, that's the way to their hearts.
Mark: Right. For example, one of the ladies -- I've done a lot of stuff with her now. But the movie I was just mentioning, ‘An Actor Prepares’ with Jeremy Irons -- it was a lower-budget, more of an indie film, that he was starring in. And I told her, “They don't really have the money,” because she has a 25,000 square-foot house. I said, “They don't really have the money to rent the house, like what you're used to getting.” And she goes, “Who’s in it?” and I said, “Jeremy.” “Oh, he's my heartthrob from when I was young.” So of course it was like, “Alright, game on.”
Ryan: As long as I get to meet Jeremy.
Mark: Exactly. So then I just continued adding more and more properties and doing more and more relationships. And it ended up that we had to kind of kill the import business. I’ve still got a whole storage facility full of great stuff, if you ever need anything.
Ryan: I'd like to see it. I love that kind of stuff.
Mark: Yeah. So then, I just continued to put work into it, mostly doing locations with some of my business partners that I've been working with. Chris LeDoux, with Crafty Apes.
Ryan: Sure. I know Chris. He’s a great guy.
Mark: And then Asante White. He did a lot of work with Tyler Perry.
Ryan: I know Asante as well.
Mark: Yeah. So, both of those guys are my business partners with what we do when I have the executive producer hat on. And we have 17 different projects we're working on right now. We've all spent so much time developing.
Ryan: Amazing. So, this is a production company that's based in Georgia, that's developing content in Georgia. That was only born because there is a tax credit that sort of created an infrastructure.
Mark: Exactly. And that company is called Three Cab. And then I have a company called Iconic. Chris has Crafty Apes. All these companies -- and then, when we do a particular film, we'll actually put everything into one company for that film.
Ryan: That makes sense.
Mark: And so, each one of those would be different.
Ryan: How far along is that development pipeline?
Mark: We've been working on it for eight years. Now, the hardest thing is to get money. Funding.
Ryan: I mean, really, the main thing that's missing in the ecosystem in Georgia is capital.
Mark: That's correct.
Ryan: But it’s the next big thing. I’ve spent some time thinking about it and trying to imagine how to solve it. The difficulty has been that I've had to spend all my time on the infrastructure side.
Mark: Right.
Ryan: And raising money for the infrastructure side, and putting together our expansion -- our expansion international. But as soon as we're done with all that, then we're going to circle back and start raising local Georgia capital to be able to fund production companies like what you're doing.
Mark: Yeah, it's similar with Miles Neiman, with the Georgia Hollywood Review here. He just showed me the Georgia Film Fund initiative, which I'm sure you're probably familiar with.
Ryan: He’s a great guy.
Mark: Yeah, he's a business partner in a whole other project that we're moving into right now that I think he's already talked to you about, which is very interesting. We are with two other financial business partners that have been in the banking industry for 25 years. We're putting together an entertainment credit card.
Ryan: Yeah. He's talked to me about that, and talked to my accounting team about that.
Mark: Yeah, we're pretty excited about getting that launched. We've been working with BB&T and SunTrust merged together. So now it's Truist, and that's who we're partnering with to be able to make this happen.
Ryan: That's a good partner. Powerful partner.
Mark: Yeah, it's exciting. We're pretty excited about that. So, I kind of keep a lot of irons in the fire.
Ryan: It sounds like it.
Mark: And last year, I spent almost the entire year over in the South of France and Monaco, trying to generate revenue from there.
Ryan: That sounds like a really good excuse to be in the South of France -- rather than a business opportunity, but I'm going to go with it. I love when those two things come together.
Mark: Yeah. That was fun. But we met some guys that were up from London. They’re doing a lot of film stuff up there, as you know -- and then over in Bulgaria, which, a lot of stuff is going on in Bulgaria.
Ryan: There are there's a lot of Eastern European filming.
Mark: Yes. Actually, I'm working on an Eastern European film here. I have a meeting on Friday for that with one of our investors. We hopefully are going to get that tied down really soon.
Ryan: LeDoux is on that, right?
Mark: Yes.
Ryan: Yeah. I think he told me.
Mark: He'll be the director.
Ryan: That's amazing. Good for him. Is that going to be his first directorial?
Ryan: He did a television series over in Bulgaria. And he did some directing here with ‘Tyson's Run,’ which is a film that was done a few years ago that we all participated in. But the way that we see how a lot of this stuff works is that they all actually tie together. So we're trying to create this kind of ecosystem, where it's a one stop shop, basically -- so we can do a film from start to finish. To go over, for example -- somebody that I also believe you know. One of the properties that was over in the south of France, in Grasse -- a chateau that's there. It's a beautiful chateau. ‘The Riviera’ was shot there; that was a television series. They did a couple years of shooting there. And the girl that lives in the house and owns the house -- one of the ladies that works for her is married to Michael Moore, who is one of the presidents of Universal.
Ryan: Oh, I know Michael well.
Mark: I stayed at his place over at Christmastime. And he mentioned you guys in Blackhall, and he was telling me about working together in London.
Ryan: He’s a great guy.
Mark: Yeah, he's super cool. And so, that's where it was kind of interesting, with some of the things that I met with the people over in Europe, and then going from Europe into here. It’s like putting things together that you never really knew were there -- but then finding the dots. It's kind of like getting a master plan of a puzzle, but you never look at the box, and you have to put all the pieces in, and figure out how it works.
Ryan: And then suddenly it all starts coming together.
Mark: Right.
Ryan: I think that's fantastic. What are some of the things you're most passionate about right now? It sounds like the development side, the production side, is really exciting. Real estate, you've kept right on the locations business side -- because that's an evergreen business. It's just going to keep rolling and rolling.
Mark: That's right.
Ryan: But tell me about what you're passionate about, and what you imagine the next five years looking like in Georgia film -- and Georgia film for you.
Mark: Well, we're hoping in the next five years that we'll have this entertainment credit card launched. How we're structuring it is, we're going to mostly focus on doing studios at first, to incentivize people to want to use that card. Also, one of the parts on that is to help indie filmmakers. Part of that use of that credit card will go back to create the value for people that don't have the funding to be able to get films, because I know firsthand how difficult it is. It's really hard.
Ryan: It's hard to get money when you're an indie film.
Mark: Yes.
Ryan: Especially like, no distribution. You know, you're just like, “Hey, I'm going to make this film, and I'm going to hopefully find a place to sell it.”
Mark: Exactly. But in that distribution part, we've been able to kind of tackle that and get that down. But everyone's going to be different. And actually starting to make the films -- I mean, we're going to hopefully be launching a couple in the next few months, if everything works out.
Ryan: What do those look like? What kind of distribution do you do -- distribution ahead of time? Are they true independents? Tell me a little bit about this.
Mark: Some of the distribution -- like, ‘Tyson's Run’ was distributed by Universal. And then we've had relationships that are on hold, with Sony and Lionsgate. And so, depending on what the relationships are with the different projects, it’s going to depend on who distributes; where the distribution arm will come from -- and if they want to bite off and take that. That's where it also gets complicated. When I'm having a conversation with somebody to do funding that doesn't know anything about the movie industry, they start to think that they're going to make a movie, but they're not really making a movie. They're investing in a film. And then I have to create the understanding about how money works and how they can be in it -- as far as entitlement, you know, for credits; screen credits, that sort of thing -- and how they get their money back at some point. It's something that they're not familiar with. They can't really wrap their mind around it.
Ryan: Well, it's not easy to wrap your mind around. I mean, if you're accustomed to investing in real estate, where you walk to a particular corner of a city and you say, “Hey, we're going to build a building here. Do you want to be a part of it?” And you throw money into that, and then you build that building, and then there it is. And then it either has tenants or it doesn't, and you either make money or you don't. But at least you can see the thing. And you know what the success might or might not look like.
Mark: Exactly.
Ryan: It's hard in film, for people that haven't invested in television and film, to understand the distribution pipeline. So you say, “all right, we're going to build this, and then we have to distribute it.” So, we either have to sell it. We have to kind of rent it. We have to partner with somebody. As you can start to explain that to people, and then show successes, there's money. There's money in Georgia that is flexible. There's money in Georgia that’s funding gaming. There's money in in Georgia that's funding e-commerce. There's money in Georgia that’s funding all sorts of technology. So, there's money in Georgia that will fund film and television once we can show them actually how you make money in it.
Mark: Exactly. And that's the thing. Once they can understand it -- and they do see that value in that currency coming back in their pockets -- then that's going to be an opportunity for them to say, “I'll invest into the next one.” Right? And then, one of the other things that's been interesting that I've noticed is that we do all kinds of films. I mean, of the 17 we have, two of them are television series. Then the other 15 -- we have more that are coming in right now. We do anything from happy-go-lucky, to comedies, to horror movies, to action movies, to sports movies. They're all in there. And one of the things that we have noticed that sometimes, when we go to an investor, they specifically only want to be involved in this particular genre. Like, they only want to do faith-based, and then they find out you do horror.
Ryan: That's a difficult combination for that particular capital provider.
Mark: Yes, it is. But ultimately, that again goes back. You were talking about gaming. Some of the stuff that, for one of the action movies, we're looking at trying to get done is making a game after the movie. I was just talking with Andrew outside
Ryan: He’s talking about Andrew Greenberg, who is on this podcast on another episode. Andrew is one of the experts in gaming in the state of Georgia.
Mark: Yeah, it’s cool. Again, that's synergizing. Getting people to work together, and coming up with ideas.
Ryan: Are you guys using gaming? I mean, one of the things Andrew talked about is using gaming engines for making movies. Are you guys doing any of that kind of work, or are you just talking about making movies, and then using that movie as a basis to make a game?
Mark: More so that.
Ryan: The second.
Mark: However, your first one -- that's when it comes down to the creatives of Crafty Apes and Chris LeDoux. He's done some of the biggest films out there -- the VFX. So I feel very fortunate now that he's a business partner.
Ryan: Talented guy.
Mark: So, he came out to Europe with me and hung out in Monaco while we were trying to go to these different events. And he's like, “Man.” And he goes on: “We've been in some really interesting situations, meeting different people from all walks of life. And I kept telling him, “We should have been filming this the whole time, you know?”
Ryan: Well, it's true. It sounds like your life over the last six years has been a reality show.
Mark: Pretty much.
Ryan: I mean, I see everything as entertainment.
Mark: I know. Some of the crazy things that have happened to us, and places we've ended up -- it's like, “How did we end up getting here?”
Ryan: Tell me one story like that.
Mark: Well, one story: there's a film that we're looking at doing. Don Garlits -- Big Daddy. He’s a dragster. He won more races doing drag racing than anybody else.
Ryan: What was his name?
Mark: Don Garlits. They call him Big Daddy.
Ryan: Got it; Big Daddy. Is this funny cars, or is this...
Mark: He's done a little bit of all of them. There's a big museum down in Ocala that he has.
Ryan: So, he's a Georgian.
Mark: I think he's really originally from Alabama.
Ryan: Okay. But he's a Southerner.
Mark: Yeah, he's a Southerner. And so, he had a bunch of scripts. We were down there, and Chris was with me, and Asante was with me; it was the three of us. There's a gentleman that used to own close to 5000 acres in South Georgia. And he had a story that he was trying to tell me about his life. It's a crazy story. But he goes, “I want to introduce you to this guy named Don Garlits.” Now, we're going down and staying in these kind of... I mean, first he's saying, “Come on down and stay with me.” And we didn't know what we were getting involved in. It just wasn't what really we initially expected.
Ryan: There were a couple moments where you thought you were being entered into ‘Deliverance?’
Mark: Yeah, maybe so. But it was a really interesting experience, because of the guy. His name was Lister.
Ryan: His first name, or his last?
Mark: His first name.
Ryan: I love this.
Mark: I know. And so, he's saying, “Why don't you come down here?” And, you know, he's a good old Southerner.
Ryan: Thick.
Mark: Oh, yeah. And he's been very successful in business there too. He says, “Come on down here. I'll take you to some of the places.” And we have to go to his little town, and we're going to cemeteries, and going into some little, tiny restaurant that he needs to go into to say hello to somebody real quick. I mean, it's constantly this. He goes, “Oh, we need to stop by this house.” And he's talking real Southern, like this. He goes, “We need to go stop by this house over here. I need to go say hello to this lady. I haven't seen her in a while. So we need to get back over there and say hello, okay?”
Ryan: I want him on this podcast.
Mark: Oh, yeah? You should. He is a complete character.
Ryan: We'll drive to him.
Mark: Oh, we're planning to drive to him soon, because that would make it even more interesting to record. Because you don't know who's going to show up, you know?
Ryan: That’s amazing. It should be a walk-around podcast.
Ryan: Yeah, exactly. But we’ve had experiences like that -- and when we were over in Europe, that's the complete opposite. Now we're in Monaco, where everything's like, total glamor. Yachts and helicopters and Ferraris and Lamborghinis; everything, all over the place. And casinos. All these beautiful, sexy people dressed up to the hilt; and fashion.
Ryan: The gamut is wide. The stories that can be told are limitless.
Mark: Exactly. And so, it’s fun. Keeps life interesting.
Ryan: I think we're going to have an incredible growth phase in Georgia film and television over the next five years; ten years. Because we're just at the beginning of entering into this era, where all of this Georgia content is going to start to emerge, and Georgia capital is going to start to emerge. It’s going to completely transform the ecosystem.
Mark: Yeah, I agree.
Ryan: But Mark, I appreciate you being here today. This has been a really fun time.
Mark: Yeah, it has. I've enjoyed talking with you.
Ryan: Do you have any social media or anything, for people to know how to get in touch with you?
Mark: I don't do as much social media. You can go to my website.
Ryan: Give us the website.
Mark: It’s www.thebuckheadmansion.com. And my information is on there. So you can get in touch with me, or shoot me an email. I do some social media, but not as much as, maybe, somebody else out there. I probably should, but... you know.
Ryan: Who knows what we should or shouldn't do? I appreciate you being here. This has been wonderful -- and have a great day today.
Mark: Yeah. Thanks so much; you too.
Ryan: Thank you.
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Thanks for listening to the Blackhall Studios podcast with Ryan Millsap. We want to hear from you! Find us on SoundCloud, iTunes or Spotify, and follow us on Instagram at @Ryan.Millsap.
