A look at how Georgia is training up production crews for its expanding film industry
Georgia's controversial film production tax credits have helped it become the "Hollywood of the South." That means the state needs trained production staff.
With either Joe Biden or Donald Trump in the White House come January, the push from both is to make more things in America. Our question this week is: Who gets the skills to get those jobs? Marketplace’s David Brancaccio traveled to Georgia to explore three efforts to create pipelines of people from all walks of life who will have the skills to work and create those Jobs IRL, in real life. He begins the coverage in the Atlanta area with people looking at the jobs pipeline for that “business they call ‘show.’”
You ever see that peach as the credits come to an end on screen for shows like “The Walking Dead” or “WandaVision”?
That peach means filmed in Georgia, a state set to surpass California for sound stages by square foot. The names that come before the peach — best boy, gaffer or, in this case, “key rigging grip” — they all come with a paycheck.
“We do things ranging from putting cameras onto dollies and cranes to hanging heavy lights above people’s heads,” said Francis Harlan. He does this for a show called “The Bondsman” being shot here on a set designed to look like a honky-tonk bar. It’s about an undead bounty hunter starring one Kevin Bacon. (Talk about fewer than six degrees.) Blumhouse, the production company, spun up a program to give a trainee his shot.
“He’s been with us for the whole show. And he’s just doing fantastic,” Harlan said. “Today we signed him, into the union.”
Where’d they find this new member of the crew? Georgia has a resource for that.
Scott Votaw is assistant vice chancellor of the University System of Georgia who oversees the Georgia Film Academy, a training network paid for by the state and connected to more than 30 Georgia schools and colleges.
“I’m teaching them not how to make a movie, but I’m teaching them how movies are made,” Votaw said.
Want to be a director or write for the screen? Regular colleges have full master’s programs for that. But the academy trains for all those other names in the credits. “Those are all craftspeople that make money working in this industry,” Votaw added.
Three student filmmakers are pulling up floor tiles from a whitewashed movie set on one of the Georgia Film Academy soundstages. Ashlynn Henderson, a student at the University of Georgia, needed craft job people to help her shoot her master’s project, a sci fi film called “Do Not Go Gentle.”
The Academy had a crew of apprentices trained up, ready to go, “which was phenomenal and [we] got to use this set,” Henderson said. “We repurposed it. It was a ‘Stranger Things’ room.”
And meet 29-year-old Samuel Wakina. With no film experience, he entered the Academy’s program, which got him interning for a real show. It went well, but Sam thought it was just a one-time deal.
“The best boy calls me, ‘Sam, where the hell are you?’ I’m like, ‘What do you mean? My internship’s over.’ ‘Well, you’re hired.’ I was like, ‘All right, I’ll make my way to set.'”
More recently he got two grip credits in the second “Black Panther.”
And even in a digital effects world, to make something fake for a show, you often use real materials.
“We’re drawing scale,” said Chuck Kerr, lead instructor at the Georgia Film Academy. “We’re doing elevations. We’re doing floor plans. We’re doing a model afterwards.”
Amid all the specializations, the Georgia Film Academy also gives students a grounding in the personal finance side of a business where’s money can be good but comes in spurts.
“It’s a bit freelance,” Votaw acknowledged. “You go from job to job to job.”
Back at the fake tavern at the professional set for “The Bondsman,” I got a lesson on Georgia’s tax credit for show production plus the state funding for the training academy to build a local talent pool, all from showrunner Erik Olseon.
“When you couple a local available crew base with a tax credit, you make yourself very competitive against other regions that might have tax credits but not a crew base, or a crew base but not a tax credit,” he said.
The tax credit cost Georgia $1.3 billion last year, and lawmakers this year backed away from a bid to cap the amount. The film industry spent $4.1 billion in Georgia last year, but the return on investment of the tax credit remains controversial.