OPENINGSOON AT

NOW OFFERING WORLD-CLASS STUDIO SERVICES IN ATLANTA NOW OFFERING WORLD-CLASS STUDIO SERVICES IN ATLANTA NOW OFFERING WORLD-CLASS STUDIO SERVICES IN ATLANTA

SOUND STAGES SOUND STAGES

EXTERIOR LOCATIONS EXTERIOR LOCATIONS

LIGHTING & GRIP LIGHTING & GRIP

TRANSPORTATION TRANSPORTATION

COSTUME COSTUME

FABRICATION SHOP FABRICATION SHOP

SIGN SHOP SIGN SHOP

SPECIAL EVENTS SPECIAL EVENTS info@universalproductionservices.com series for Savannah, to create an ongoing pipeline of work and investment. Longer term, the SFC team “would love to have a studio here and it’s something we are working towards every day”.

PAINT SHOP PAINT SHOP AND MORE! AND MORE!

Location manager Stephen Yetman’s career credits have included Oscar-winning movie Cold Mountain and the Stephen King adaptation Mr. Mercedes. Originally from South Carolina, his work is increasingly based around Savannah.

Recent projects where Yetman has utilised Savannah locations include Hulu Original's The Act, starring Patricia Arquette and The Girl From Plainville, starring Elle Fanning. In 2022, “I spent a lot of the year working on Panhandle, a Spectrum series about an eccentric armchair detective who gets teamed up with a reluctant trafc cop.”

For Panhandle, Yetman used one of the most popular flming locations in the Savannah region — Myrtle Grove plantation house. Previously used for projects including Glory, The Underground Railroad and Birth of a Nation, the house becomes the home of the central character in Panhandle

Like all flming destinations, Georgia has a handful of key clusters — but the GFO’s Thomas is keen that the benefts of production should be felt across the state. “We have the regional 10% uplift,” she says, “but there is also our Camera Ready Community programme. All 159 counties across the state have a representative, so that when we get a script requiring a specifc location we can blast out a message and see what comes back. What I’d also say is that the benefts of flming in Georgia aren't just about getting production out there. If the carpets or lumber are sourced from somewhere in the state then that’s an example of economic impact being shared around.”

Among communities that have benefted from the Georgia flm boom is Macon, about 80 miles south of Atlanta.

Aaron Buzza, COO at Visit Macon, says Macon has “some incredible architecture. The historic preservation throughout the community, and especially in the downtown area, makes Macon work well for productions that need historic looks.”

Other places enjoying a surge in flming activity include coastal city Brunswick, which has hosted Netfix series Pieces of Her and Marvel movie Black Panther: Wakanda Forever The nearby locations of St Simons island and St Mary have also featured in recent projects, including Doctor Sleep.

Augusta, famed for golf’s iconic Masters tournament, has also emerged as an intriguing option for producers, recently hosting The Mule and Suicide Squad. “But more usually we would welcome small- to mid-sized independent productions or flms that go straight to streaming,” the city’s flm liaison Jennifer Bowen says. “We’ve had MarVista Entertainment shooting here in recent times and, before that, Dennis Quaid was here for The Hill.”

The city’s diverse array of architecture is a major draw for a few reasons: “Augusta was one of the few places to avoid destruction in the American Civil War, so we have a lot of 17th- and 18th-century buildings,” Bowen says. “Later, people would use Augusta as a winter resort, building their own distinctive homes here. So we have an eclectic range of Tudor-, Mediterranean- and New England-style properties.”

With its strong incentive and studios popping up across the state, there’s no question Georgia is in good shape. But is there anything else that needs to be done to future-proof its success story? “The main thing is probably crew depth,” the GFO’s Thomas says, “but we’ve been working hard on that since the creation of the Georgia Film Academy in 2015. By working with universities, technical colleges and key stakeholders like the studios and the union IATSE, we’re building a craft base that ofers career opportunities across communities.”