479 NEWS
Respect for Marriage Act to be Signed Into Law
Yesterday the House of Representatives approved legislation that provides federal protections for same-sex and interracial marriages, sending the The Respect for Marriage Act to be signed into law by President Biden. This legislation saw bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate (where it was first passed), marking a shift in Americans’ attitudes toward gay marriage and ensuring that same-sex marriages will not be affected by future interpretations by the Supreme Court.
The International’s Pride Committee released a statement yesterday, saying “This bipartisan legislation ensures that loving couples, no matter their race or gender makeup, will continue to have the right to marry.” – Click here to read the full article about the passage of the Respect for Marriage Act on IATSE’s website.
Georgia Film Industry Advocate Speaker David Ralston Passes
Today we are saddened to report the passing of Speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives, David Ralston, long an advocate of the Georgia film industry.
For more than 12 years Speaker Ralston has been a stalwart supporter of Georgia’s film industry and the jobs that it has provided our members. He helped shape, strengthen, and protect Georgia’s film tax incentive.
“I am excited by the success of this industry. As long as I sit in that office, there will be no bigger fan of that tax credit and this industry than I am.”
House Speaker David Ralston, Atlanta Journal Constitution, 15 March 2017
Please join us in offering our most sincere condolences to his family and loved ones.
Georgia AFL-CIO Candidate List for 2022 Mid-Terms
IATSE Local 479’s Labor Delegate to the AFL-CIO, Paige Jarvis, reports that the Georgia AFL-CIO has released a list of pro-worker candidates they are endorsing for the 2022 Mid-term elections. Additionally, the Georgia AFL-CIO is offering opportunities to volunteer for canvassing and working virtual phone banks. Please see the attached PDFs for more information.
Download: Georgia AFL-CIO Labor 2022 Endorsed Candidates (PDF)
Download: Georgia AFL-CIO Volunteer Opportunities (PDF)
Make a Plan to Vote!
Use the IATSE Voter Toolkit to find all the information you need to cast your ballot on (or before) Election Day. The toolkit includes links to find important election dates and deadlines, check your voter registration status, register to vote, learn absentee ballot/vote-by-mail rules, track your ballot, find your polling place, and more. Voters who make a plan and determine when and how they’re going to vote, have a significantly higher likelihood of doing so. Make a plan to vote and ensure your voice is heard!
Georgia Productions Set New Record in 2022 Fiscal Year
The Georgia Film, Music & Digital Entertainment Office, a division of the Georgia Department of Economic Development, reported that productions spent $4.4 billion in Georgia during fiscal year 2022. The press release is provided below.
ATLANTA – August 1, 2022 – Governor Brian P. Kemp today announced a chart-topping year for the film and television industry as productions spent $4.4 billion in Georgia during fiscal year 2022 – a new industry record. The Georgia Film Office, a strategic office within the Georgia Department of Economic Development (GDEcD), reported that the State of Georgia hosted 412 productions, represented by 32 feature films, 36 independent films, 269 television and episodic productions, 42 commercials, and 33 music videos between July 1, 2021 and June 30, 2022.
Teamsters and IATSE Reaffirm ‘Mutual Aid and Assistance Pact’
WASHINGTON — The International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees have reaffirmed the ‘Mutual Aid and Assistance Pact,’ an agreement established for both unions to work together to achieve shared goals and initiatives.
The pact outlines how the unions will address organizing efforts, deal with jurisdictional issues and fight in conjunction to meet the goals of economic justice for their respective memberships.
The Teamsters and IATSE last affirmed this pact in 2010. Since then, the two unions have worked alongside one another to navigate the dynamic nature of the motion picture industry, the safety protocols for the COVID-19 pandemic and solidarity in contract campaigns. In Hollywood, both unions participate in the Motion Picture Industry Pension and Health Plans. (more…)
2022 Atlanta IATSE Charity Golf Tournament Raises More Than $24,000
Following a 2-year pandemic hiatus, the annual IATSE Charity Golf Tournament returned to the greens this past Saturday, April 30th, at the Flat Creek Country Club in Peachtree City. 27 teams from around Atlanta’s production community faced off over the course of 5 hours under warm April skies, raising more than $24,000 for the charity Meals on Wheels Atlanta.
Click here to view photos from the 2022 Tournament
2022 Sponsors & Hosts
The 2022 tournament was hosted by IATSE Local 479 and co-hosted by IATSE Local 798, and organized by members of the Local 479 Golf Committee and supported by Local 479’s Women’s Committee. Local businesses and organizations stepped forward to sponsor holes (full list below).
The Cause
This year’s tournament marked 10 years of charitable support by members of IATSE for organizations making a difference around Georgia.
This year’s charity was Meals on Wheels Atlanta, a dedicated corps of volunteers delivering consistent meals to our senior neighbors. The meals they serve are nutritious and delicious, prepared by experienced chefs under the direction of a dietician. MOWA also provides a robust home repairs program, pet food supplies, and an emergency food pantry. They are on a mission to end senior hunger in Atlanta.
The 10th Annual IATSE Charity Golf Tournament raised $24,594 toward this noble cause.
Joshua Rumohr, Chief of Organizational Strategy for Meals on Wheels Atlanta, accepted the donation on behalf of the organization, thanking teams and sponsors at the opening acknowledgements before tee-off:
“Thank you so much. We can’t do what we do at Meals on Wheels Atlanta without the support from community organizations. What we do is an extremely important mission and we know that the need grows more and more every day. We are blessed to be the beneficiary of gifts like this.”
– Joshua Rumohr, Chief of Organizational Strategy for Meals on Wheels Atlanta
The Course
Flat Creek Country Club in Peachtree City is a 27-hole championship golf course featuring three diverse nines: Homestead, Old Mill, and Graveyard.
Scramble Rules
To accommodate 27 teams in a reasonable period of play time this tournament is run as a “scramble”, with each team taking a score at the end of each hole based on the single best shots from each position on that hole. Each of the 27 teams was assigned a starting hole from among the 27 available holes on the course, playing to complete an 18-hole round of golf.
Winners
First Place
Team Moose Lighting walked away with the best team score, each player in the foursome winning:
- A bottle of Bushwood Front 9 Ultra-Premium Kentucky Bourbon
- Bose speakers donated by Oz Magazine
- $25 Visa Gift Card
- $15 banjo coffee card
Putting Contest
Frankie Madero of Team Get Real #2 took this prize, winning:
- Won a barbecue grill
- certificate for a round of golf for 4 at a Canongate club
Longest Drive
Joe LaGanke of Team Moose won for the longest drive on hole 3 of the Homestead, while Conner Dickerson of Team Minion Madness won for the longest drive on hole 6 of Old Mill. Each player won:
- A bottle of Bushwood Front 9 Ultra-Premium Kentucky Bourbon
- Personal Bose Bluetooth speaker
Closest Pin
Brian “Budge” Johnson of Team New Mafia won for closest to the pin on hole 3 of Old Mill with 8 feet 2 inches, while John Metcalfe of the IATSE 600 team won for his accuracy on hole 5 of Graveyard with 7 feet 7 inches. Each player won:
- A bottle of Bushwood Front 9 Ultra-Premium Kentucky Bourbon
- Personal Bose Bluetooth speaker
- 2 premium cigars
Hole in One
This year’s prize was $10,000 – there were no winners.
Drawings
Drawings were held for a variety of prizes.
Officers in Attendance
This year we were honored to host representatives from the International, including:
- International President, Matthew D. Loeb
- 4th Int’l Vice President / Dept. Director, Motion Picture & TV Production, Michael F. Miller
- 9th Int’l Vice President, Phil LoCicero (President IATSE Local 478)
- Assistant Department Director, Motion Picture & Television Production, Dan Mahoney
- 12th International Vice President, C. Faye Harper
IATSE Local 479 (Host of Tournament)
- President, Ray Brown
- Business Agent, Mike Akins
- Director of Membership, Kevin Amick
- Labor Delegate, Myra Foy (Women’s Committee Chair)
- Sergeant at Arms, Kathy Tonkin-Vazquez (Golf Committee Chair, Women’s Committee Co-Chair)
IATSE Local 798 (Co-Host of Tournament)
- President, Angela Johnson
- Field Representative, Samantha Reese
IATSE Local 52
- Field Representative, Mandie Demeskey
2022 SPONSORS
Please join us in thanking our sponsors:
Full Hole
Channel Ocho
Cinelease (as well as a half-hole sponsor)
Cofer Brothers
Cryoblast
Herc Entertainment
IATSE (the International)
IATSE Local 600
Independent Studio Services (ISS)
Lightscape Lighting Control
Moose Lighting
Print Lab
Reel Supplies
Trilith Studios
Venture Roofing
Half Hole
Sweet Jones BBQ Sauce
Haddad’s Inc.
Cinelease
TEAM LISTINGS
Several alternates were introduced on the day of the tournament, so if you see an error please reach out to the IATSE Local 479 Golf Committee.
C-Bombers
- Steven Basso
- Art Schultz
- Jerry Parker
- John Bowman
- David Ghegan (alternate)
Cofer Brothers
- Larry Parks
- Steve Swinger
- Keith Torrence
- Reggie Austin
- Will Holcomb (alternate)
Company Time
- Ryan Ketchum
- Jordan Tyson
- Robert McWates
- Michael Patterson
CryoBlast
- Brian Mohney
- Jeff Horricks
- Hayden Hill
- Devin Hill
Derbend Management Assets
- Brian Chustz
- Brian Cooper
- Jeff Mayday
- Tom Lacy
Fore Guys
- Dean Grimes
- Clark Grimes
- Sam Situmorang
- Scott Dale
Get Reel #1
- Stephen Gindorf
- Tracy Stockwell
- Steve Faser
- Brynner Goen
Get Reel #2
- Bongo
- Ryan Campo
- Frankie Madero
- Brandon Remteria
Grip House
- Gary Holmes
- Mike Tyson
- Will Frazier
- Kris Gordon
IATSE International
- Matthew D. Loeb
- Mandie Demeskey
- Michael Miller
- Dan Mahoney
- Phil LoCicero
MBS #1
- David Irwin
- Jeff Murrell
- Larry Sher
- Mitch Ursetta
MBS #2
- Justin Memovich
- Matt Penner
- Derek Page
- David Galindo
Minion Madness
- W. Jones
- Craig Dickerson
- Gregg Curtis
- Conner Dickerson
Newnan Mafia
- Chris Cotone
- Ron Hynson
- Brian “Budge” Johnson
- Scott Gaston
Nubes
- Danny Holcomb
- Eric Wolff
- Janet Street
- Bruce Street
Power Lab
- Ryan Naylor
- Tyler Childs
- Chris Spears
- Andrew Fernandez
Propular Persons
- John Sanders
- Todd Bridges
- Kamilla Bridges
- Jason Parisher
Team Local 600
- Jonathan Irizarry
- Brian Rosso
- John Metcalfe
- Ian Forsyth
Team Local 798
- Tim Reese
- Luke Waki
- Samantha Reese
- Angela Johnson
Team Moose
- Mitch McDannald
- Joe LaGanke
- Nick Gaston
- Jared Parsons
Team Venture
- Jason Thompson
- Danny Coulter
- Chris English
- Ohio Chris
The Fore Casters
- Kevin Cheatham
- Craig Cheatham
- Brian Richedi
- Ryan Lizardi
The Little Rascals
- Kelly Tillery
- Mickey O’Neill (Alex)
- William Hayes
- Rick Gardner
Trash Talkers
- Steve Ficke
- Tom Zell
- Joel Mitchell
- Jeff McMahon
Trilith
- JoAnn Perritano
- Curtis Myer
- John Samson
- Jim Scaiffe
Turn Down for Putts
- Jesse Olivares
- Christian
- Travis Bobbitt
- David Brown
ZZZZ Top
- Jude Levasseur
- Nic Vallecillo
- Drew Orcutt
- Dennis Sikes
Film Industry References Removed from HB 1437
THANK YOU.
The current threat to Georgia’s film tax credit is over.
Your activism, in coordination with our industry partners and the support of our friends in the Georgia Legislature, helped eliminate recent unwanted amendments to HB 1437.
Yesterday (Wednesday), the bill was sent back to the Senate Rules Committee.
Later in the day I met directly with the Governor, key Senate leadership, and our industry colleagues to reaffirm the widespread support for the State’s motion picture industry.
Today (Thursday) all references to the film industry tax credit were stripped from HB 1437, and the bill was passed out of the committee. It is expected to be placed on the Senate calendar for tomorrow (Friday).
At this time IATSE Local 479 has no further concerns with HB 1437.
We encourage you to reach out to your legislators and thank them for their continuing support of Georgia’s motion picture industry.
You can identify your legislators by visiting https://openstates.org/find_your_legislator/.
In Solidarity,
Michael Akins
Local 479 Business Agent
HB 1437: Your Activism is Working
Your activism is working with HB 1437. More progress will be made. Read more to see the next steps we need to take.
Thank you for your emails and phone calls to members of the Georgia Senate last night and this morning. Your activism is working; namely, HB 1437 with the offensive film tax credit language was removed from today’s vote calendar and sent back to the General Calendar, so the bill can be cleaned up by removing the tax credit cap and the transferability language.
HB 1437 has to go through some legislative steps and we have another chance to impact on that process, so please look at the attached link to the list of Senators with email addresses and phone numbers and send them another message to first thank them for recommitting HB 1437 and then to ask for the removal of PART III, Section 3-1 in the current bill which contains the negative film tax credit language (caps and transferability).
You have a chance to repeat today’s success with another display of how important it is for the Legislature not to disturb current film tax credit law which has proven to be so helpful to job creation in our industry.
Please click the link below to access the contact list for the Senators.
Click here to download list of Senators
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Urgent: Georgia’s Film Industry in Danger
On Monday, the Georgia Senate Finance Committee unexpectedly proposed a measure that would amend HB1437, capping the film tax credit at $900 million annually, and eliminating the ability to transfer credits out of state.
The consequences of these two amendments to our tax credit would be devastating.
This amended bill is set to go before the Senate floor TODAY.
We believe that it is important to reach out to the Republican majority senators and ask them to please vote to “re-commit HB 1437 to the Rules Committee” when it comes to the floor today.
We have compiled a list of those Senators and are asking you to reach out and request that they send HB 1437 back to committee.
Please click the link below to access the contact list for the Senators.
Click here to download list of Senators
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58th CAS Awards Nominations Include Local 479
IATSE Local 479 is pleased to announce that two of our members, Michael Filosa and Christopher Giles have been nominated for the 58th CAS Awards For Outstanding Achievement In Sound Mixing For 2021.
Mike was nominated for his work on Cobra Kai, Season 3, Episode 10 (Netflix). Read about Mike’s work on Cobra Kai on prosoundweb.com
Chris was nominated for his work on WandaVision Episode 8, “Previously On’ (Disney+). Read about Chris’ work on WandaVision on btlnews.com
Congratulations also go out to Local 479 members Alana Knutson and Jason Lewis for their work on the Disney+ series Hawkeye, Episode 3, “Echoes”, under Sound Mixer Pud Cusack, CAS (Local 695).
The 58th Annual CAS Awards will take place on Saturday, March 19, 2022, at the InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown Hotel in the Wilshire Grand Ballroom.
Are you a 479 member who has been nominated for an industry award? Please contact [email protected] with the details so we can share your news with our membership.