Where Atlanta’s filmmaking ecosystem ‘sold itself short’; one entertainment pro plans to make up the difference

Entertainment industry veteran Paul Jenkins, owner of the new Ten-6 Studios, has a vision for Atlanta’s filmmaking scene moving forward.

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In 2011, British storyteller-turned-Atlanta-resident Paul Jenkins spotted untapped creative potential. Why, he wondered, wasn’t the local creative filmmaking ecosystem seizing the excellent opportunity right under its nose?

That opportunity was intellectual property (IP) — locally conceived and crafted.

“I was on a panel at Georgia State University sitting in an auditorium with a lot of people that are relatively influential — three from Los Angeles and three from the Atlanta area,” Jenkins recalls.

The discussion topic: whether or not Georgia could become a place that generates IP and makes films actually conceived here.

From his early days creating and developing comics to his later work on mega-successful cross-media franchises like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (a great example of transmedia spanning comic books, cartoon TV series, feature films and video games), Wolverine: Origins, Hellblazer, Spider-Man and six platinum-selling video games, Jenkins saw it crystal clear.

“I’m an immigrant to this country and to this state, [and] I was the only person on the panel that said, ‘Of course you can do it in Georgia.’ I’ve [nearly] done my entire career outside of Los Angeles, aside from two time periods,” the veteran says.

“So we were having all these young people educated [in Georgia], and then they’d go to Los Angeles and stand in line behind 3,000 other people just like them, hoping to get a job in the entertainment business, when we could have done it here in Georgia.”

From the panel discussion where Jenkins shared his insights — looking both from the outside in and back out again as an Atlanta resident — he was then approached by Gov. Nathan Deal and asked to chair an advisory committee on the topic of IP creation in Georgia.

Later, Jenkins says he shared the same beliefs in Georgia IP from his post on an advisory committee at Trilith Studios in Fayetteville, Georgia.

As Jenkins says, his advisement was to bet on IP — and invest in it locally.

“Instead of putting money into buildings … put it into intellectual property,” he reiterates, drawing on his cross-media experience and perspective. If others had listened, Jenkins says, Atlanta and Georgia would be strong generators of cross-media projects today.

Instead of being the “I told you so” guy, Jenkins says he decided to become the IP-generating and producing business he believes Atlanta needs, opening Ten-6 Studios this year — an independent production and IP holding company that will launch and propel narratives bred from local IP, such as production of Jenkins’ own extensive catalog of original stories and characters.

“Luckily, I met Baker and Rosa [Waite],” Jenkins says of his new business venture. “They’re brother and sister, with Baker really adept at understanding the financing of a film and the management side of money — and especially in raising money, which is always the biggest obstacle.”

Rosa, on the other hand, “is very much an operations type of producer who also works in raising money,” Jenkins describes.

Baker serves as Ten-6 Studios’ chief financial officer, while Rosa is chief business officer. The siblings are also co-founders of local RBL Entertainment, a film development, finance and production company.

As a writer and cross-media producer, Jenkins notes, “I can do all these things, right? But I don’t raise money, so it’s a perfect fit.”

Industry veteran Carrie Anne Hunt serves as the company’s chief talent officer, having worked with Jenkins at local Meta Studios, his first venture, founded in 2014, which focused on helping launch local narrative-driven IP and build storytelling franchises across multiple formats.

“Our group [Ten-6 Studios] decided to put the two companies together, because now we have the fundraising and organization and creative producing side of it,” Jenkins says.

He adds, “That’s what we’re working on right now. We’re going to that team that can bring in money and distribution.”

He says Ten-6 Studios will benefit from his longtime network of associates and good friends in Los Angeles who can bring its clients all the way through the creative process, from securing directors and actors to packaging a finished film.

Jenkins also has deep personal experience to inform his team’s efforts, including work with Marvel, DC, Disney, Nickelodeon, Sony, 2K Games, a major video game publisher and A.D. Vision, a leading domestic multimedia entertainment distribution company.

A project currently underway at Ten-6 Studios is Burn, a horror film whose supernatural plotline Jenkins is largely keeping under wraps.

As for the potential for Georgia-generated and produced IP to make a successful leap across different media platforms, Jenkins says belief and confidence in the emotional storytelling abilities of different media are critically important.

As Jenkins puts it, “I firmly believe that confidence is exactly equal to accomplishment.”

As an example of what can happen — a confidence-builder for any storyteller — Jenkins says to look at the journey of the video game Assassin’s Creed, a media franchise where the ultra-successful games spawned a feature film in 2016, directed by Justin Kurzel and starring Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard and Jeremy Irons.

Essentially, creating a successful cross-media franchise takes a storyteller well-versed in the differences in various forms of media and the confidence to execute.

“The difference between a game and a film is that if you see a trailer for a film, it says, ‘Brad Pitt is this character,’” Jenkins says as an example. “But if you see the game, it’s you who are the character, and it’s a completely different dynamic. And you have to understand that as a writer and designer.”

Showcasing the power of cross-media, Jenkins says that games can jump across generations like lightning.

“I think games are the most underestimated storytelling method in the mainstream awareness,” he states. “Think about it. Many people would think a game is really for children, and no, that’s not even close. That’s also true of comics. Comic books are not necessarily for children.”

Just like film, they can be for all ages.

What’s next for Jenkins and his team as they make the jump from his long-held vision to reality as an independent cross-media production company?

In 2027, the goal is that Ten-6 Studios will become known as a one-stop shop in one place.

“[When] we get the packaging done … we’ll go into production [potentially] in April on our first film,” Jenkins says.

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Carol Badaracco Padgett is an Atlanta-based freelance writer who focuses on film and television, the automotive industry, architectural design and collaborative storytelling projects.