Georgia Film Academy Helps Fill Industry’s Workforce Gap (Atlanta: credit, neighborhood)

[LynnHarris1]

"Georgia has become a “hot spot” for film and TV production in recent years, largely due to generous state tax credits. But the state didn’t have enough workers to meet industry demands. So, in 2016, the state opened the Georgia Film Academy. The idea was to train enough crew to work on TV and movie sets.

The GFA is a collaboration between Georgia’s university and technical college systems. It doesn’t award degrees. However, it offers college-level courses designed to train students in “below the line” trades, like props, painting and construction.

Many GFA students are enrolled in other state schools. Some colleges teach GFA courses on campus. At others, students can take GFA classes at the school’s campus on the sprawling Pinewood Studios Atlanta lot in Fayetteville. Georgia’s HOPE program covers tuition costs for students who qualify.

All students take a class called "GFA One," where they learn the basics of set production. Then, they can move on to “craft” courses, where they can specialize in lighting and electric or set construction, for example. Students can also apply for internships, which are highly competitive. GFA executive director Jeff Stepakoff says those practicums take place in active production environments.

The Missing Link

However, Stepakoff says, one piece of the business is missing in Georgia: content creation, or what the industry calls "above the line" trades. Most TV shows and movies are created, written and edited in New York or Los Angeles..."

SOURCE: Georgia Film Academy Helps Fill Industry


INDUSTRY RELATED STORY:
Birmingham Aims To Lure More Movie Productions To Alabama

http://news.wabe.org/post/birmingham...ctions-alabama

[ATLTJL]

Until we get above the line professionals in Georgia, we will never see the full benefit of the industry. We're like the service workers at Disney World while the ride creators and executives are living in a different neighborhood.

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

Until we get above the line professionals in Georgia, we will never see the full benefit of the industry. We're like the service workers at Disney World while the ride creators and executives are living in a different neighborhood.

I have to agree with this.


Atlanta should strive to be a secure, well-rounded #3 for TV and Film.


The "Milan" of TV and Film.

[chiatldal]

Basically ATL is missing more Tyler perrys not talking about his content but his ambition.

[kinstamusic]

I'm a good writer myself. I did not that their was a problem finding writers in the state of Georgia. I guess I will look into it. Thanks for the information.

[chiatldal]

Because most of the companies are located in NY and LA they have advantages cause writers might want to be near them to pitch their ideas. So Atlanta also need to bring or create companies themselves. The film and music industry are very centralized into few conglomerates in LA and NY and they aren't moving. But often they serve as parent companies or distributors to smaller film studios. Atlanta can lure or create these smaller studios. Like Tyler perry company works with Lion Gate. This happen in music a lot of artists start their own label under a larger so they have more creative control. The larger is mainly for financing and distributed.

I think city/state should also take advantage of the silver screen. This is sort of happening with TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network and etc while some of the content is created in Atlanta much of the writers and etc for the networks are in LA and New York. And not much reason behind this other than it's where most of the studio traditionally been.