Georgia sound stages' latest sign of the state's growing motion picture business: a sprawling 30-acre studio complex which has launched in the former Lakewood Fairgrounds spot near downtown Atlanta. The fairgrounds, owned by the city of Atlanta and until not too long ago utilized as a place for a flea market, are a local landmark and currently a favorite filming location, home for such films as Burt Reynolds' 1977 trucker film "Smokey and the Bandit."
EUE/Screen Gems, a New York company that also operates studios in Manhattan as well as Wilmington, North Carolina, stated that it will spend $6 million in order to convert the fairgrounds and its Spanish colonial-style exhibition halls into Georgia's biggest studio. Even though it was previously managed by Columbia Pictures, the company isn't connected with the Screen Gems production label now owned by Sony Pictures. The company intends to build a 37,500-square-foot soundstage, and renovate four other buildings on the property which date to the turn of the last century. When the venture is done in March 2011, the complex will cover over 100,000 square feet of sound stages as well as office space, as well as a set of construction shop and lighting as well as grip amenities.
Film makers, directors and studios asked the company to open a facility in Atlanta, considering its central location as well as the appeal of the state's film tax credit, one of the highest in the country. Among the projects anticipated to shoot at the Lakewood facility will be an adaptation of the Broadway play "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf" from Atlanta-based filmmaker Tyler Perry. Under the program, producers can get a credit equal to 30% of their in-state production expenses, that they could apply toward any tax liability they've got with the state of Georgia. Alternately, producers can sell the credit to a third party and keep the money, thus lowering production costs. The credit is broad, applying not only to movies and TV shows but likewise commercials, music videos, video gaming development as well as animation.
Georgia sound stages have an upswing since the credit was increased to 30% from 20% in 2008, production has influxed into the state. Movie as well as television production spending tripled to $770 million in 2009, as per the Georgia Film Office. In the last two years, 26 motion pictures have been filmed in the state of Georgia. For the last two years they have had a really, really great run as stated by the Georgia Film Office.
Georgia sound stages not only provide an ideal tax incentive, but its capital, Atlanta, appears to be the brand new hotspot outside of California. EUE/ Screen Gems just lately purchased a 33- acre movie and tv production campus, situated ideally 5 miles from the downtown area of Atlanta and six miles from the country's most frantic airport. Actually, it appears that Atlanta and EUE/ Screen Gems particularly have provided both the movie and TV industries with an unique and affordable opportunity that has good quality production. EUE/ Screen Gems also do business in Wilmington, North Carolina, one more tax incentive state that has seen a rise in productions during the last couple of years. EUE/ Screen Gems own and run a 50-acre complex with more than 150,000 square feet, 2 special effect water tanks.
More info are soundproof, hangar-like structures employed for film as well as TV productions. Also, euescreengems.com/ make it easier for the production crew to design as well as set up the sets to be utilized.