Georgia Is Movie, TV Star While Hollywood Is Out

ATLANTA, GA — If you've settled into a movie theater seat this holiday season, there's a good chance the big screen in front of you was showing scenes filmed in the Peach State. Two of the three top-grossing movies in theaters over Christmas weekend — "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle" and "Pitch Perfect 3" — and three of the top 10, were filmed in Georgia. Top upcoming titles like "Black Panther" and "Den of Thieves," and recent smashes like "Baby Driver" and "Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2" also called Georgia home during filming.

If you talked TV with anyone in 2017, "Stranger Things," "The Walking Dead," "Halt and Catch Fire" and "Ozark" probably came up. All were filmed in Georgia, as, of course, was Emmy Award-winner Donald Glover's "Atlanta."

Those recent successes help tell a tale that's several years old in film-industry circles but still a surprise to many across the nation. When it comes to television and film production, the United States has a new capital and it isn't in Los Angeles or New York City.

Welcome, movie lovers, to "Y'allywood."

Atlanta's burgeoning film community meant steady work and a chance to grow in a field without having to move to the West Coast, set dresser and prop master Sam Carter said. "I've been given opportunities I may have never gotten in L.A. and have had the freedom to make my own films as well," said Carter.

According to industry analysts Film L.A., Georgia was the production center for more feature films released in 2016 (17) than any other market in the United States. The state single-handledly produced more 2016 features than the United Kingdom (16) and Canada (13).

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The affect on Georgia has been fairly immense. State officials say that, during the 2017 fiscal year, television and film had a $9.5 billion economic impact in the state.

During that time, 320 feature films and television productions worked in Georgia, representing $2.7 billion in direct spending in the state, according to the Georgia Film, Music and Digital Entertainment Office.

"Georgia’s film industry supports thousands of jobs, boosts small business growth and expands offerings for tourists,” Gov. Nathan Deal, who has made expanding the film industry in the state a priority, said in a written statement. "These productions mean new economic opportunities and real investments in local communities."

How It Happened

Georgia has been home to Hollywood hits in the past, mostly Southern-themed fare like "Forrest Gump," "Driving Miss Daisy" and "Cannonball Run."

It has always had natural, and man-made, charms that appeal to movie-makers. Its geography being what it is, Georgia can offer urban landscapes, small-town charm, mountains, beaches and wilderness all within a few hours of each other.

But you can't say "show business" without "business." And Georgia's rise to becoming a film capital started with dollars and cents.

In 2005, Georgia's legislature passed what would become known as the Georgia Entertainment Industry Investment Act. Under the bill, which went into effect in 2008, Georgia offered one of the nation's most aggressive tax-incentive programs to production companies working in the state.

As a result, TV and film studios were able to shave off significant sums from their overhead doing business in Georgia, as opposed to other states. Productions of $500,000 or more that take full advantage by including promotion for the state — usually in the form of the Georgia, USA peach logo – can save 30 percent on their taxes.

In the wake of the new law, Georgia's entertainment-industry infrastructure began to grow as studios, sound stages, post-production facilities and the like began springing up to support the companies arriving to take advantage of the tax break.

And with steady work available, movie-industry professionals who would once have had to head west to find jobs were able to continue, or begin, calling Georgia home.

One of those people is Carter, a self-described "art department goon" from Atlanta who has worked as a set dresser, fabricator, prop maker and prop master on films like "The Fate of the Furious," "Black Panther" and the "Hunger Games" sequels.

"When my wife and I got married about nine years ago, we were saving up and planning to move out to L.A. so I could pursue a career in the film industry," he said. "As we prepared to uproot our lives and start over in a new city, I started hearing about shows and movies that were shooting here more and more frequently. We decided to stay and give it a shot here and it ended up being a great decision."

The Future

With Georgia firmly established as a go-to spot for TV and film, the question becomes, how long can it last? Nearby states like Alabama and Louisiana have adopted their own tax-incentive plans to try to siphon off some of the action and others are sure to follow.

Peach State officials are bullish, nevertheless.

"We expect 2018 to be another very successful year for our entertainment industry, as the existing tax incentives for film and television continue and the new incentives for the music industry take effect in 2018," said Shelbia Jackson, director of the DeKalb Entertainment Commission in Decatur, a suburb of Atlanta.

Georgia isn't standing pat, either.

The new incentives Jackson mentioned were part of a package signed into law by Deal in April. They extend tax credits to certain post-production companies and increase them another 5 percent for companies that choose to work in some of Georgia's less economically flush counties.

The new legislation also extends tax benefits to some smaller companies.

Carter, the art department worker, thinks the industry's future prospects in Georgia are "positive, but certainly not written in stone."

He's wary of socially conservative "religious liberty" type legislation out of the legislature that could lead to industry boycotts or slowdowns in the state and says he'd like to see the state continue to develop as a home for people who create movies and TV shows, not just the crews that bring them to life.

"I think that in order to see the film industry in Georgia become a permanent institution, we need to be cultivating more projects that originate here," he said. "Georgia needs its own development agencies, production companies, writer's rooms. We need above the line talent based here and working to make content here."

Photo courtesy DeKalb Entertainment Commission