A vertically integrated Southern media, production, and technology platform — production, capital, and compliance under one roof, where the work, the jobs, and the returns stay home.
Streaming budgets are migrating south. Georgia and Mississippi sit at the intersection of incentive depth, crew availability, and physical infrastructure — and a generational gap exists in audit-ready capital execution.
Georgia is the #3 US production market by spend, with a decade of crew depth.
Mississippi offers the country's fastest cash-rebate liquidity for independents.
The federal IRC §181 window remains the most underutilized tool in indie finance.
Each company originates work the next one needs — and most independents lose money in the gaps between these three functions.
Two purpose-built studio campuses in two of the South's most cinematic small towns — each turn-key, each in a competitive state-incentive jurisdiction.
Thomasville, Georgia
A turn-key studio using historic downtown Thomasville as its backlot — a movie-in-a-box experience with a furnished 7,000 sq ft production office, partner lodging at the 13-bedroom Paxton House, and producer-level support from prep through wrap.
Productions tap Georgia's incentive — the deepest crew base in the South — away from the hustle of Atlanta.
Natchez, Mississippi
The platform's Mississippi campus in Natchez — sound stages, locations, greenscreen, production offices, and post, including Mississippi's largest movie studio. Built by filmmaker Tate Taylor and producer John Norris, it sits inside the country's fastest cash-rebate jurisdiction.
Recent productions include Rumble Through the Dark, HBO Max's Red Bird Lane, and ABC's Women of the Movement.
Thomasville Pictures hands a production a fully resourced home base — every detail of life on location handled by a team that has made many films in town.
A team that has navigated Georgia's incentives across many films guides every step.
Furnished 7,000 sq ft downtown office, plus location options ready on arrival.
1,000+ community members successfully cast across our productions.
Digitally inventoried props, set dressing, and a growing period-costume collection.
A curated supply package that meets all of a production's on-set needs.
Travel coordination plus a VIP concierge menu of activities for arriving cast.
A vetted list of local crew, individuals, and vendors who've made films possible here.
Wrap parties and a weekly Sunday-night supper for cast and crew at the Paxton House.
Four product lines built around how independent films actually finance themselves — agile, non-predatory, and sized to the film.
Senior production debt sized to a film's collateral package.
Short-duration capital against signed receivables and tax credits.
Advance against expected state-credit realization.
§181 equity structures pairing investors with qualified film & TV.
Polaris exists because the spread between projected and realized incentives is where most independent films lose money.
The gap between projected and realized state tax incentives is where independent films lose money. Our platform closes it — the best incentive isn't the highest percentage, it's the one that converts into real cash.
Production fees, facility rental, ancillary services.
Interest income, origination fees, tax-credit spreads, §181 carry.
SaaS-style fees, monitoring fees, advisory retainers.
Platform economics: each entity feeds the next. Production sources deals; finance funds them; compliance protects yield.
Star-driven, platform-topping, and award-winning — a combined body of features financed, produced, and supported across the group.
Two decades of independent film production, finance, and entertainment law converging into one platform.
A Nashville-born financier and producer with nearly two decades across the film value chain — and the driving force behind Thomasville Pictures, Winston Holdings, and Polaris Creative Risk.
He has been an executive producer on 80+ independent features, including "The Pale Blue Eye" (Netflix), "The Trial of the Chicago 7" (6 Oscar nominations), "Flight Risk," and "Bandit."
He is a Limited Partner with Mantis VC (The Chainsmokers) and Blitzscaling Ventures (Reid Hoffman, Chris Yeh), bringing a technology-investor lens to the platform's finance and §181 strategy.
A fourth-generation Thomasville native, Allen Cheney is the heart of the platform's connection to community — turning local relationships, historic properties, and Southern hospitality into genuine production advantages on the ground in Georgia.
Cheney is also a published author. His 2019 memoir "Crescendo," co-written with New York Times bestselling author Julie Cantrell and published by HarperCollins, tells the true story of his grandfather, Grammy-nominated singer Fred Allen.
He splits his time between Thomasville and Los Angeles, keeping a foot in both worlds the platform is built to bridge.
A Fordham Law-trained entertainment lawyer leading tax-equity investment financing, production legal, and platform structuring. She brings decades of independent-film transactional experience spanning §181 investment vehicles, multi-state incentive structures, and distribution agreements.
Recently named one of Hollywood's top troubleshooters by The Hollywood Reporter, her engagements span pictures including "The Trial of the Chicago 7," "The Pale Blue Eye," and "Flight Risk" — and she led the legal crisis management and settlement structure on "Rust."
A graduate of the USC Gould School of Law (LLM, Entertainment Law), Natasha Stassen is the operational backbone of platform execution across production, finance, and compliance workflows.
She was previously Manager of Business & Legal Affairs at Annapurna Pictures, with credits including "The Black Phone," "Vengeance," and "Flight Risk." She grew up in Belgium, where both of her parents work in the entertainment industry.
A Mississippi native born in Jackson, Tate Taylor is the writer-director behind "The Help" (2011), which grossed over $200 million worldwide, the James Brown biopic "Get on Up" (2014), "The Girl on the Train" (2016), and the horror hit "Ma" (2019).
Over the last decade he has turned Natchez into a working film hub — establishing the Crooked Letter Picture Company studio and, with partners, opening what is now Mississippi's largest movie studio. He was named a 2025 Mississippi Governor's Arts Award recipient.
"Our crews and actors keep falling in love with Natchez," Taylor has said. "It's obvious why."
John Norris is a film producer and executive producer, and a partner with Tate Taylor in developing Natchez as a major film-production destination through the Crooked Letter Picture Company.
Together they restored the historic Wyolah estate in Church Hill, established the original Crooked Letter studio in a former distribution warehouse, and helped open Mississippi's largest movie studio — drawing productions and crews to the region for more than a decade.
Target $75M · Min close $40M · Hard cap $100M
~$40M preferred equity + $25–35M asset / facility debt.
A separate $100–150M production-finance vehicle
to fund the slate alongside the platform.