Babacar Ndiaye recalls how daunting it was to get into a film school in Atlanta.
With little more than a desire to “tell other people’s stories through a visual medium,” he applied to Georgia State University’s program for film, television, and digital production. The rejection that he received really stung.
So he called the film department to ask what he could do to improve his chances for the following year. The admissions committee was so impressed that it reviewed his portfolio and accepted him into the program.
“Through that, I learned to be persistent and never take ‘no’ for an answer,” Ndiaye says.
His persistence paid off. Ndiaye, whose family was originally from West Africa, recently spent a year filming and editing a documentary called More Than Music: Senegal, about how the community there views hip-hop as a way to address social injustices. His film was accepted into the Atlanta Film Festival.
“Atlanta’s filmmaking industry is taking off so much right now,” Ndiaye says. “There’s a good balance of big budget and indie productions. And the growth of film in this city is so new and fresh that you can still make a living while doing a lot of independent things.”
By any measure, Atlanta’s film industry is booming. And the rest of the state is benefiting as well. Georgia’s film and entertainment industry brought in $6 billion last year, up from $5.1 billion from the previous year, according to the MPAA. That makes it one of the country’s filmmaking powerhouses, just behind Los Angeles and New York.
What’s the draw? It doesn’t hurt that filmmaker Tyler Perry opened a studio in Atlanta in 2008. Besides a 400-seat theater, the studio has five sound stages, a post-production facility, private screening rooms, and spaces to host events and entertain studio executives. The studio is bringing in business from around the country.
“For Tyler Perry to set up his production facility here was the pinnacle moment for the film industry in Atlanta,” says LaRonda Sutton, director of film and entertainment for the city of Atlanta. “He was the first to take advantage of the state tax incentives, and his business model has been viewed by all of the industry as revolutionary.”
Those tax credits benefit film companies that spend $500,000 or more on productions based in Georgia. And all of the state’s 159 counties have a streamlined permitting process that allows filmmakers easy access to shooting locations.
One local who helps to attract filmmakers is Craig Miller, whose production company is a mainstay in Atlanta. His camera-ready crew and has helped increase the number of productions shooting in and around the city.
“When the tide comes in, all boats rise,” Miller says. “We’ve got a good creative base in Atlanta and good opportunities to work that exists during this time. But you got to get out and you got to introduce yourself to people, produce good work and show that to folks. You eventually find people that you feel you’re connected with.”
What’s unique about Atlanta is that it’s got a program for up-and-coming filmmakers. Governor Nathan Deal helped to create the Georgia Film Academy, which has been operating in three schools since the pilot program launched in January. This job-training program offers two-course certification, equipping students with a basic level of on-set film production skills and putting them on the fast track to finding film and TV jobs.
“At one time, we were commonly known as the setting for southern comedies,” says Lee Thomas, division director of Georgia Film, Music and Digital Entertainment Office. “That’s not the case anymore. Now you see all kinds of films—The Hunger Games, The Fast and the Furious, and the Divergent series. We’ve had a lot of post-apocalyptic shoots. We’re even in the category of the undead series like Vampire Diaries and Drop Dead Diva.”
Another positive sign is that local banks are providing special loans for companies in the film industry. Atlantic Capital Bank is one example of such.
“The needs run the gamut,” said Atlantic’s Jennifer Hall, “from local banking services for crews working in Georgia to permanent financing needs on major studio projects.”