DULUTH – The group behind the Emmy Awards is partnering with Duluth's Catalyst Story Institute to mentor television and web series creators around the globe.
The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences planned to announce the new venture on Friday during the Catalyst Content Festival in Duluth, where hundreds of independent content producers have gathered to showcase their work and network with industry leaders to move their projects forward.
"It's easier than ever for a storyteller to get into our craft," said Adam Sharp, CEO of the academy, which oversees the daytime, news and documentary Emmys and has chapters around the country. "The key to distribution still remains relationship building, and knowing how to talk about your story and bring those stories to life."
The program will start with just a handful of mentors and mentees in each region, but it will likely grow as more industry veterans start seeing the value in a "rising tide lifts all boats" effort, said Tim Egan, chair of strategic planning for the academy.
"We've seen a decentralization in the television industry, which is why Minnesota is in the game," he said. "Now production work needs to be able to happen anywhere, and there has to be a ready crew. And you can't have a ready crew if there's no one mentoring folks to get into the industry.
"For the academy, the idea here is to be able to take the mind-set of Catalyst going from a singular festival that occurs once a year to an organization that is engaging the industry in a variety of efforts," Egan added.
Gretl Claggett, whose series "Stormchaser" is part of this year's festival, said mentorship is hard to find in the industry but vital as audiences keep craving more and more content.
"This is like a monster to be fed," she said. "And creating anything in film and especially television, it's about the collaboration."
The mentorship announcement comes on the third day of this year's Catalyst festival, which highlights episodic and short-form productions from independent creators. This year's fest has more international entries after Catalyst partnered with the U.S. Department of State — and a delegation from the Korea Foundation is in town for the festival and regional tours as well.
"The Korea Foundation is meeting with local politicians and content creators to further relationships and opportunities to work with local content creators and build bridges between the Korean content community and area production opportunities," St. Louis County spokeswoman Dana Kazel said in a news release. "The visit is timely because South Korean entertainment is more popular than ever. Just this week, Netflix's number one show is a South Korean series called 'Squid Game.' "
The county's incentive program, which has approved $615,000 in production rebates for four different projects this year, is also part of the draw for the foundation, Kazel said.
Brooks Johnson • 218-491-6496
