ATLWood

Last month my friend and I went to see the premiere of Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice in the movie theater. At one point he said that he felt like he had seen some of the scenery before I turned to him and told him that he has, almost every day. The scene looked familiar because the skyline backdrop was of Atlanta. On the big screen, one can easily see views of 191 Peachtree tower, 1 Atlantic Center, and the big SunTrust Plaza building. This experience is one that will come to fruition much more in the coming years. For a long time Hollywood was the harborage for most of the top grossing movies not only in the country but in the world. In fact, according to Todd Cunningham who writes for thewrap.com, California produced 68 percent of the top 25 movies at the worldwide box office in 1997. In 2013, it was down to eight percent. The film industry has increasing grown over the past two decades, even despite the global recession, and more high budget movies are being shot than ever. These film bring a lot of money to wherever they are produced in the form of jobs to locals and simply spending money in the state. With the exodus of the film industry from Hollywood, Many states and countries are rushing to get in on the action. Georgia is one of the quickest to jump on the opportunity and also one of the most successful in doing so. Georgia has become increasingly attractive to the film industry since 2007 when they introduced the first tax credits to production agencies. Since then, the economy of Georgia has grown immensely. The existence of the film industry in Georgia influences our government policies and our daily lives much more than the average citizen realizes. As productions continue to migrate to Georgia, the built environment will change in a big way.

10 years ago, the Hollywood film industry was thriving and everyone was happy. Since then there has been some major changes. Film productions have become more cost sensitive and have looked for shelter in other places. Cost of production was originally what led the industry there. “One hundred years ago, filmmakers tired of paying Thomas Edison patent fees for his cameras ran away from parts east to the little hamlet of Hollywood, California. There they built a mighty industry that pumped out hundreds of movies each year and, later, thousands of television shows that have captured the world’s imagination. Now, they’re running away from here.” (Strauss) Hollywood may have outlasted its usefulness as it simply can not compete with the tax incentives that other states are offering. Georgia notably has made a conscious effort to share some of Hollywood’s elongated success.

Georgia has made significant strides to get where we are today in terms of the economy, particularly in the entertainment industry. The success primarily traces back to the introduction of the tax credits in 2007. This bill was called the “Georgia Entertainment Industry Investment Act” which I will be referring to as the GEIIA from here on out. The GEIIA has many provisions that could massively benefit any production agency that was willing to migrate to Georgia. “The program is available for qualifying projects, including feature films, television series, commercials, music videos, animation and game development. With one of the industry’s most competitive production incentive programs, the Georgia Film, Music & Digital Entertainment Office can help you dramatically cut production costs without sacrificing quality.” (Fibben) There is a requirement that 500,000 must be spent in the state to qualify but if that is met, credits can be as high as 20 percent and up to 30 percent if a tagline and jingle saying “made in Georgia” is placed at the end. Tax breaks are not the only thing that brings the industry to Georgia. The environment in our state is beneficial to companies looking to build. Hollywood suited their needs for a long time but eventually got too expensive. According to an article by Thomas C. Frohlich and Alexander Kent, the average price of an acre of land in Georgia is only $14,242 compared to the exorbitant pricing of $39,092 in California. Production Studios are very expensive and take up a lot of room so they need to save money wherever they can. Additionally Georgia has a more temperate climate. We have 4 semi-predictable seasons. If a director wants to shoot a movie set in the winter but they are limited to Hollywood, they would have to get more creative. However the number one thing that makes Georgia so appealing is the eagerness by the state government and citizens here to have the industry here. Land has already been cleared to build these massive studios and people want to work here. All of these attributes of the Georgia built environment have really helped the entering film industry. Georgia and the people that live here have really benefited as well.

The world hit a global recession in 2008. At a time where almost everything was closing down and cutting back on spending. The film industry and the entertainment industry did not see a major drop off and in some cases even experienced gains. Movie Theaters are commonly said to be a recession proof commodity. While everyone was impacted by the recession, Georgia was able to recover quicker than most places around the world. The entertainment industry was able to generate enough money to get the economy turning again. “These deals [in reference to the tax incentives] have grown the film business from an impact of 280 million in 2008 to 5.1 billion in 2014.” (Feifei Sun) That is an increase of over 1800% in less than two years and now generates just about one thousand dollars for every person in Atlanta. The industry generates so much money by hiring local citizens, purchasing land, and simply spending money on their productions. In fact there have been too many jobs that have been created. Some companies claim to not have the work force to keep up with recent demands. Television crews to work on productions have been short staffed and in some cases crews have to be recruited from other states. This has created more opportunities in the form of education. There have been specialized schools opened to train people in the ways of production. There are numerous jobs that are created for each film that is shot here, some being permanent and some temporary. It is truly amazing how just one feature film can impact an entire state.

The 2015 summer feature film Ant-Man has been said to be the state’s economic superhero. The film single handedly boosted the economy. “The highly anticipated Georgia-lensed ‘Ant-Man,’ set to premiere nationwide in theaters on July 17, made a major economic impact in Georgia during filming,” said Deal. “‘Ant-Man’ employed 3,579 Georgians, spent more than $106 million in Georgia and utilized 22,413 hotel rooms during filming. In addition to filming at Pinewood Atlanta Studios, ‘Ant-Man’ shot scenes in Atlanta including the state-owned Archives Building, Bank of America building and on Broad Street.” (Nelms) This is one of the biggest movies to ever be shot in Georgia and due to its success, more big productions should follow suit. In fact Marvel is working out a deal with Pinewood Atlanta Studios to move production of its major films starting in 2017. Big movies literally change the environment to meet their needs. Sometimes they can be a nuisance to locals as they can mess up traffic by closing off streets. One of the cool things I have learned while researching is that those yellow signs that can be seen all over the city that just have one word mirrored at the top and bottom and an arrow are actually directions for certain films. The signs look like this

This particular sign says misty and is a tag, called a production code, for the movie Nice Guys with Ryan Gosling. “Production started just after last month’s filming update and the crew has been all over town since then. Toward the beginning of November, filming took place near Cumberland Mall and off of Old Powers Ferry Road in Sandy Springs. Just before the Thanksgiving break, the production was spotted in Stone Mountain and Stockbridge. Most recently this past week they were within a few blocks of Peachtree Center, shooting near Baker Street.” (Walljasper) These production codes and many more like it will be more and more common in the coming years.

Although the recent success of the Georgia Film Industry has been great, we may have recently hit a bit of wrinkle. The Religious liberty bill that has been at the front of discussion over the past several months threatens the existence of the booming film industry in our state. Many production studios and other parts of the entertainment industry have threatened to leave the state if it passes. At one point it looked as if this might actually happen but Nathan Deal eventually vetoed the bill. Similar bills have been passed in other states and have been met with criticism and consequences. For example, North Carolina recently passed a bill and now are receiving backlash from both the NBA and the NCAA. The NBA has actually threatened to pull the 2017 all star game from Charlotte who currently has claims to it. The NCAA also threatened to pull out their tournament games for next year. One of the leaders to “steal” the big game from Charlotte is none other than our very own Atlanta. In a council meeting, led by Caesar Mitchell, introduced the idea of the game coming here. “”We just wanted to say: `If you guys are going to take a look at other places, consider us,’” Mitchell said. “We wanted to assure the NBA that Atlanta is open for business, and open to (all) people.”” (Klepal) Georgia itself was threatened to have their bid to host a super bowl pulled because of the religious freedom bill but since it was vetoed, all has seemed to work itself out

The past decade has worked out really well for both Georgia and the growing entertainment industry. Little argument can be made against the notion that there has been enough growth to call the project a success. In fact, “More than 100 new businesses have relocated or expanded in Georgia to support the industry, creating jobs for Georgians as well as economic opportunities for our communities and small businesses and ensuring Georgia’s place in the industry well into the future.” (Nelms) However the future is not certain. While we are in a good position now, we saw a glimpse of how fragile the industry is when it comes to unfavorable policies. Also what is stopping other states from copying the Georgia model? The only thing we can do, as Georgians, is hope for the best and ride this train out as long we can.