Big entertainment project eyed for Civic Center site*

[Ohhsweetconcord]

I think the chances are better than Atlanta will continue to see growth in Film production, but most of the important, big money operations will remain in LA. Think of most of the film production in Atlanta as the factory manufacturing part. Car and airplane companies have already done the same thing.

Technology is the real reason for all this production "outsourcing", just like any industry. LA will continue to house all the pre- and post- production work (casting and talent, financial acquisition, CGI production, advertising and marketing, etc). LA will most likely always be the king of filmmaking, but Atlanta could become the leading location for a very specific part of the production process.

Production moved to Atlanta for a couple of reasons:

-Tax incentive
-Cheaper, union-free labor, cheap transportation
-Local governments willing to cooperate
-Diverse locations (city, coast, mountains
-Good weather
-An already established shooting location for BET, CNN, and Tyler Perry

The tax breaks were a great idea - Hollywood was already looking to begin outsourcing filming due to technological change. Georgia and Atlanta were there with a tax break to compete. These subsidies are often races to the bottom, but no one can deny that this new industry wouldn't be here without them.

[tikigod311]

As much as I fear this being some huge bubble, I really want to get a job in this industry

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by AtlantaComment

It is entirely true.

As great a place as Georgia is, the productions would absolutely pull up stakes and skip town if the incentives ended. None of the attributes you listed cant be found elsewhere aside from the tax incentives.

Why do you think so many productions fled California/NY for places like GA and Toronto in the first place? Not due to a lack of shooting locations, infrastructure, airports or talented crew.


A place like Pinewood just needs the incentives to last for a few years in order to make all of their money back. It is a calculated risk just like any business venture.

The problem with you argument is despite some losses the film industry in those locations, especially LA, is HUGE and many many times bigger....often without any incentives at all.

While the industry will grow towards locations offering incentives, they still keep lots of operations and jobs near infrastructure and creative talent.

The more infrastructure, especially quality and expensive infrastructure, and the more labor talent we can build up, the better off we will be in the long-run with less incentives.

Now with less incentives we can expect lower levels of growth and some losses, but with the proper infrastructure in place... the production savings are not having to rebuild infrastructure or reeducate talent. We will still likely keep an industry producing more than it before the incentives existed.

LA currently has this same advantage and despite some losses they are retaining most of their production capacity.... but are losing out big time on growth. The problem LA also has is an expensive talent pool facing a high cost of living.

We will be left with a low cost of living and a cheaper labor pool... its just a matter of keeping infrastructure and a quality labor pool.