The making of The Hollywood of the South - Part 1
Written July 20, 2020
Living in Atlanta, it has become increasingly difficult to stroll down the beltline and not pass a familiar looking face only to realize later that he or she played a supporting role in the last Netflix series I binge watched. Or pass a real house wife while I’m hanging out at Atlantic Station. I also find myself looking at the background of any tv show or movie I’m watching more than the action, thinking things like “Is that Inman Park?” “That looks like Alpharetta” and “I’m almost positive that is the empty school across from Target on N.Druid Hills.” You see, I have this odd sense of pride and ownership anytime a hit TV show or Hollywood blockbuster is filmed in Atlanta.
Let me take you back to 2004. I had just graduated from college and was looking for my first “real job.” Skipping a lot of details, I landed a paid internship (which eventually turned into a full-time job) at a post-production company called LAB601 located on the corner of North Ave and Glen Iris in the Old 4th Ward. During that time, the film and TV industry in Atlanta was centered around Ted Turner’s subsidiaries (TBS, TCM, Cartoon Network, etc), The Weather Channel and the Independent Movie scene. The Atlanta Film Festival (AFF) was the best ticket in town. I distinctly remember opening night of the 2005 Atlanta Film Festival. Everything felt larger than life. We were viewing Hustle & Flow, a movie starring an unknown actor named Terrence Howard but Ludacris was also in it so I was sold. Craig Brewer, the writer & director was there to introduce the film. It began and I was sucked in for the next hour and 56 minutes. I felt like I had just watched something that was going to blow up Terrence Howard’s career but little did I know that he would really be launching more of an Empire (wink wink).
But how did we get our “Hollywood of the South” nickname? In 2005, Georgia passed a 10% film tax credit to incentivize filming in our state. Soon after Tyler Perry moved to town when he purchased land out by Greenbriar Mall for Tyler Perry Studios and bumped up the economy for a hot minute. But that didn’t last. Once a month, about 100 industry professionals came together for a meeting called Georgia Production Partners (GPP) at Manuel's Tavern to discuss what was happening in the industry, things filming in Atlanta and throughout Georgia, networking events, etc. The industry had been steady since Georgia passed the 10% incentive but Louisiana was experiencing an increase. So what was the difference? It’s amazing to me how I can’t remember what I wore last week, but I distinctly remember every detail about this one particular GPP meeting. Where I was sitting, what I ate, the conversations that ensued, etc. Louisiana was offering a 20% film tax incentive. From a locations standpoint, Louisiana has the same type of coastline, terrain, neighborhoods, etc that Georgia has. So why come here? You’d think with a multi million dollar budget, 10% doesn’t really matter but 10% of a 100 million dollar budget is still 10 million. Example: Guardians of the Galaxy 2 was shot in Atlanta with a 200 million dollar budget. That’s not pocket change. If Georgia wanted to stay in the game, we had to up our game. So in that meeting in the back of Manuel’s Tavern that day, we began discussing how Georgia can match Louisiana’s 20% and more.
Of course it was only the beginning of the conversation, it still had to go through the office of the Georgia Film Commission, written as a House Bill and passed by the Governor. On May 12, 2008, Governor Sonny Perdue signed into law the 2008 Entertainment Industry Investment Act (HB 1100), new legislation designed to encourage entertainment industry productions in Georgia.
And Atlanta has been living happily ever after ever since.