Just a few short years ago, if you wanted to work in movies or television you had to move out to Hollywood.  But that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore as it appears that Hollywood has come to Georgia.  Georgia was recently included in the Top 10 Filming Locations Worldwide, by the trade magazine P3 Update.  More than 700 feature films, TV movies, TV series, single episodes and pilots have been produced in Georgia since 1972 and the film industry seems to be building momentum over the past few years for Georgia.  The reason for this boom?  In 2008, Governor Perdue signed into law the Entertainment Industry Investment Act which offers 30% of production tax incentives to qualifying productions, which gave Georgia one of the most competitive tax incentives in the country.  Add to that our beautiful and diverse landscapes, pleasant weather year-round, vast network of production resources, a large skilled workforce, and Georgia is a standout choice for filming.

And Athens has not missed out.  Just in the past 3 years since becoming a Camera Ready Community, we have seen 3 major motion pictures stop by as well several television shows.  And why not?  Athens is an eclectic town that has been used as the backdrop for such locales as New York City and Asheville, N.C.  For long productions, the crew calls their film location home and Athens is always a great host. 

These filmmakers have also been spreading the word about their positive experiences in the Classic City.  Sentiments such as “excited”, “supportive”, and “easy to work with” were used to describe their interactions with the Athens community as well as the county government.  This may in part be due to the coordination between the Athens-Clarke County Unified Government, Athens Downtown Development Authority, the University of Georgia, and Film Athens, a local non-profit organization working to support, educate and foster the growth of the film industry and film community in Northeast Georgia.

But even with an amazing setting, delightful atmosphere, and supportive community, one thing is still missing- a qualified workforce.  Recent productions had to fill technical positions such as grips and gaffers with film professionals from Atlanta or even California.  In an effort to develop that qualified workforce and thus create a competitive edge, Film Athens has partnered with the Clarke County School District and Athens Technical College to build a set of credit-earning high school classes to be held in their new classroom, the Film Lab, which houses digital film production equipment and over 30 film editing stations at the Athens Community Career Academy.

The Film Lab classroom will allow Film Athens to better provide education opportunities to both ACC students as well as the Athens area community. Workshops of varying sizes are being organized with both volunteer and for-pay instructors. This space will be set up with software to allow for self-teaching during open lab hours. Workshops, speakers, and training are open to all ages and levels of experience. The primary goal of 

Film Athens education is to offer the Athens community an educational opportunity they might not be able to receive otherwise. The workshops are often free, or offered at a class fee set below market cost. 

Once Film Lab is up and running, students will gain a knowledge base that will help them work on a film production. “If we had a trained crew here, then we’d have more movies here,” Film Athens Executive Director Danielle Robarge Rusk says.  Currently, the curriculum for a college credit-earning film pathway is being developed by Athens Technical College and is based on film industry standards and plans to roll out in Spring 2015.

“We want to teach everything involved in film,” Robarge Rusk said. “From pre-production like writing, budgeting and storyboarding ... to production, technical classes and definitely editing, distribution, the whole gamut. We’ve had a lot of local filmmakers in the past express interest in teaching, and there are people in Atlanta we can work with.”  The vision for Film Lab will be a hub where professionals and hopefuls meet and learn from each other.  It will take some time for the film pathway to be considered “workforce training,” Robarge Rusk said, but more of a way to show the range of work opportunities in the film industry.

For more information and updates on Film Lab, visit www.filmathens.net