Atlanta Is On The Map Now For Movie & TV Production

NEW STUDIO COMPLEX FOR ATLANTA

Well, the latest news this past week that EUE/Screen Gems will lease the old Lakewood Fairgrounds near downtown Atlanta as motion picture and television production facilities is GREAT news.

We in the movie production community heard about this months ago but the news is only just recently becoming public.

More jobs (an estimated 1,000) are foreseen for the production industry here and this will be a further cementing of Atlanta and Georgia's growing pivotal role in movie and network TV series production.

VCGTV shot EPK promotional material for Screen Gems at the 2008 BET Hip Hop Awards in Atlanta.
The focus of this production was the cast of the motion picture NOTORIOUS who attended the event and the after party at an Atlanta mansion.

Now, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution is claiming that the Screen Gems facility will be "state-of-the-art". Whoa there AJC. Not quite. Not YET.

http://www.ajc.com/business/ready-for-your-close-528580.html

Uh, this is NOT the first Atlanta-area "state-of-the-art studio complex".

Riverwood Studios was built years ago south of Atlanta in Senoia, Georgia and still operates. Tyler Perry opened his studio and backlot complex in November 2008.

Screen Gem's studio facility will be the latest. But it won't be state-of-the-art for a while. Word on the street is the first movie shooting there - FAST AND FURIOUS IV - will use existing, upgraded Lakewood Fairgrounds buildings. New construction will occur at some point in the future.

Every week we receive job applicants from veteran Los Angeles production people who are moving to Atlanta. This is, after all, where much of the work is going. Atlanta hosted more than two dozen major movie productions to LA's nine in 2009 is my understanding.

Let's hope we Atlanta-based folks who worked and lobbied hard for the state tax incentives for movie and TV production, honed our craft and lived in the shadow of LA for so long will get many of these new jobs.

MUSIC LIBRARY FIND

Last night I stumbled upon a great spin-off web site from Wikipedia that offers free, high-quality, downloadable music of many genres. Wikimedia Commons.

Wikimedia Commons offers public domain, high-quality and downloadable photos. They also offer music as well.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Music_sound

Many of these music cuts are public domain. These photos and especially the music will be a huge low-cost public service to those of us editing finished product for TV and movies.

Copyright 2014, Porter Versfelt III

Atlanta Now On The Map For Movie & TV Production

NEW MOVIE STUDIO COMING TO ATLANTA

Move over Hollywood!

Many of us in the movie and TV production community here in Atlanta knew months ago that EUE/Screen Gems planned to lease the property at the former Lakewood Fairgrounds near downtown for production. Now it is official.

The Atlanta Journal-Constituion has published an article claiming that this is the first "state-of-the-art" movie production facility in Atlanta. Well, not quite. Not yet.

http://www.ajc.com/business/ready-for-your-close-528580.html


Riverwood Studios in Senoia, Georgia south of Atlanta has been operational for years. The Tyler Perry Studios and huge backlot with standing street sets opened in November 2008. While Riverwood is open to the public for rental and while Mr. Perry's studio is not, his facility is the latest up-to-date production complex in Atlanta.

Word on the street is that Screen Gems will first produce a FAST AND FURIOUS sequel at their new Lakewood complex using existing buildings. State-of-the-art upgrades and new construction will come at some point in the future.

Versfelt Communications Group shot for EUE/Screen Gems at the 2008 BET Hip Hop Awards held in Atlanta. The focus was on the stars and creative executives behind NOTORIOUS who attended the awards event and a lavish after-party at an Atlanta mansion.

Many in the film and TV production community and the Georgia Production Partnership (GPP) have worked hard for many years to encourage production in Atlanta and Georgia. The lobbying for the state-wide film production tax incentives worked in a big way. In 2008 and 2009 Atlanta hosted more productions here than Los Angeles did.

Hollywood is looking east and south. Not a week goes by that I don't receive many job applicants from experienced movie and TV production people defecting to Atlanta.

Let's hope that the new competition for jobs won't freeze out Atlanta-based crew who are very qualified as well.

Here are more stories about the Screen Gems move:

http://www.11alive.com/rss/rss_story.aspx?storyid=144106

http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2010/may/17/studio-expands-outside-of-state/


http://www.wsbtv.com/entertainment/23532642/detail.html


http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/dpp/entertainment/Film-Studio-Coming-to-Atlanta-051310


http://atlanta.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2010/05/10/daily35.html


FREE MUSIC LIBRARY FOR POST-PRODUCTION

Last evening I stumbled across this subsidiary of Wikipedia offering free and often public domain music for movie and TV production: Wiki Commons.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Music_sound


Wiki Commons also offers free-use photos as well. This is a huge resource for those of us who are producing content.

Mount Wilson Fire And Broadcast History

During the last 24 hours I have been watching closely the large forest fire surrounding Mount Wilson, California, which is north and east of LA with a peak of around 5,700 feet.

In case you don't know, Mount Wilson is home to two significant technological complexes:

Mt. Wilson Observatory and associated astronomy research sites dating back to near the year 1900.

A large collection of TV and radio transmitter and transmitter sites dating back to the beginnings of TV broadcasting in 1939!

This current fire is VERY close to all of this and could have a great impact on astronomy research and broadcasting in the LA area if it reaches the peak of Mount Wilson.

I have discovered some wonderful and detailed web sites tracing the history of Mt. Wilson and the activities there, including amazing pictures. This may well be the location of the largest concentration of television and radio broadcasting towers and associated facilities in the United States, perhaps the world. I'm researching this further.

Here is a link to one of several well-researched and photographed web sites (created by broadcast engineer Scott Fybush and his Northeast Radio News) detailing the broadcasting history of Mount Wilson, California.

Did you know a Packard dealer in Los Angeles built one of the first TV transmitters and towers in the western USA here?

See more ephemera about Mt. Wilson at:

http://www.fybush.com/sites/2004/site-041217.html

http://www.fybush.com/sites/2005/site-051216.html

Here is a link to a large collection of web sites about radio and TV history:

http://www.fybush.com/links.html

Live (updated every two minutes) high definition tower cam on top of Mount Wilson facing toward the tower and transmitter sites. Note the orange glow in the background on the other side of the peak. This is the fire.

http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~obs/towercam.htm

There are houses and apartments for the various broadcast engineers who live on Mt. Wilson in one-week shifts. Apparently, all staff there and at neighboring Mt. Wilson Observatory have been evacuated. The transmitters are being operated and monitored remotely from their respective broadcast studios down in LA.

Link to Mount Wilson web page:

http://www.mtwilson.edu/

Enjoy this fascinating exploration of broadcasting history in the western U.S.

Porter Versfelt III

PIXEL - A Blog