Keeping the Cameras Rolling
With the severe downsizing of the state film office, Georja Skinner, herself a filmmaker, is in charge of efforts to keep new TV and movie projects coming to the Islands
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and never left. She has a home in Napili, where she and her cats spend leisurely weekends when she’s not in Honolulu.
Skinner worked at Maui Marriott as entertainment director, then opened Maui’s first public relations firm in 1983. Skinner Communications was later acquired by international PR powerhouse WPP Group’s Hill and Knowlton. She was appointed Maui’s first film commissioner in 1994.
In 1999, Skinner launched Hawaii’s first film school program in association with USC School of Cinema-Television. Two years later, she created Hawaii Filmmakers Initiative, which presented an annual five-week summer school for aspiring filmmakers and animators. The program trained more than 100 students, many of whom - like Lahainaluna grad Tiffany Taira, who is now at Pixar - went on to careers in film, television and the digital arts.
Working with Academy Award and Emmy Award-winning writer/producers, such as Aaron Sorkin, Michael Tolkin and the team of Andy Schneider and Diane Frolov, Skinner has helped develop several series and feature film projects.
Her work with the music industry, including Hoku Award-winning artists Hapa, Henry Kapono, Kealii Reichel, and Grammy Award winners Kenny Loggins and George Kahumoku Jr., have resulted in a number of collaborative projects.
A published author, Skinner chronicled her father’s struggle and triumph over polio in the book The Christmas House: How One Man’s Dream Changed the Way We Celebrate Christmas. The 2003 publication has been optioned by the Wolper Organization/Warner Bros to develop as a holiday movie for television.
“My dad is my inspiration,” Skinner says. “He had a lot of hardship in his early life, but he never gave up on anything and always saw the positive in all situations.”
That inherent attitude and outlook no doubt serve her well in dealing with the egos and demanding nature of those in show biz and, for that matter, in the political arena of government as well.
“It comes from my early training as a sound technician,” she tells us. “I can listen to many channels of communications all at once and still make things happen on cue.”
Hawaii Stardom
That’s fortunate because there are many things happening in the creative industries frontier, not the least of which are major film projects shooting in the Islands and aggressive initiatives to align creative industries with Hawaii’s educational institutions.
This hasn’t been without its challenges as state agencies, including CID, have gone through downsizing and budget cuts. Skinner’s staff was once 13 persons, now it’s seven. Skinner has doubled up her duties to manage the Hawaii Film Office with the departure of its director Donne Dawson.
As anyone in the business knows, the phones at film and location permitting offices never stop ringing. Hawaii is an attractive and sought-after film locale, evidenced by the success of TV series like Hawaii Five-O and Lost.
DBEDT estimates film and TV production will bring in $181 million in 2010. That’s not counting Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, which will likely bring in another $85 million.
Other current projects include Soul Surfer, the story of Bethany Hamilton; Descendants featuring George Clooney; CBS’ pilot of Hawaii Five-O; and Universal Pictures’ Battleship directed by Peter Berg.
Skinner cites other division efforts such as the establishment of the Hawaii Grammy category to promote recorded music; support of the Music and Entertainment Learning Experience (MELE) at Honolulu Community College; creation of the film industry tax credit program (Act 88); establishment of the Creative Academies, a fusion curriculum of arts, science and technology in partnership with University of Hawaii Kapiolani Community College, Department of Education, and industry; and development of the Hawaii Film and Digital Media Incubator at Hawaii Film Studios.
“Aligning creative industries with our schools will build the work force we need to march into the creative century,” Skinner contends. “Technology is moving so fast and impacting our lives in so many ways that we must fuse it purposefully with innovation, or there will be no commercial products on which to build an industry.”
Like any production, there are major players and those in secondary roles or bit parts, all working to create a profitable venture. The main thing, Skinner says, is that we are all headed in the same direction.
“It’s all about relevance,” she asserts. “That’s what it takes to be a star.”
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