Cobb Seeks to Open Doors for Hollywood

Whether it's a large plantation, scenic mountain views, a coastal swamp or busy city sidewalks, Georgia's landscape is ready for primetime and the big screen.

A wide variety of possible filming locations—combined with attractive tax incentives, great weather and a large airport—have led to increased production of movies and TV shows in the state in the last five years or so. Last year alone, there were roughly 350 productions shot in the Peach State.

“Georgia can stand in for just about any place,” said Craig Dominey, a program manager for the Georgia Film, Music & Digital Entertainment Office.

And now, Cobb County wants to jump on the bandwagon.

This week, the Cobb County Board of Commissioners voted to submit an application to become a Camera Ready Community, a special designation reserved for Georgia counties that want to attract film and TV production.

It is a way to streamline the ability to respond to production companies that might be looking at the state for "an antebellum house and a swamp," Dominey said.

The film office is able to type in keywords, and various spots in Georgia will pop up with pictures to be sent to location scouts.

The program started last year with 16 counties, including Carroll, DeKalb and Fulton. Some counties, though, were working with the film office before the official program, Dominey said.

Seventy more counties have since applied for the camera ready designation, and an announcement concerning those applications will be made in the next month or so, he said.

The application process involves answering various questions about the county, including what kind of hotels and restaurants are available for film crews, and sending in pictures of specific locations that might interest Hollywood.

DeKalb County has pictures of the Fernbank Museum, Agnes Scott College and its historic courthouse among several shooting locations featured on the film office's site. Fulton has pictures of Turner Field and the Georgia Aquarium.

Atlanta has been home to many movies. Most of Driving Miss Daisy was shot there, and more recently, The Blind Side used various schools in the area for filming.

And Cobb has had its fair share of films shot there as well. Recently, the new Footloose movie used spots in Acworth, and filmmakers from Remember the Titans and the prequel to Dumb and Dumber were fond of Marietta. 

During the hard economic times that are hitting governments across the state, the financial boost that production crews can bring to an area can only be a plus, Tim Lee, chairman of the Cobb County Commission, said at a recent meeting.

The estimated economic impact of the film and television industries on the state last year was $1.33 billion, up from $1.1 billion in 2009, according to the film office.

With the camera ready designation, a person is designated by each county to head up dealings with film and television officials. Cobb hasn’t officially appointed anyone yet, said Terrilyn Hannah, the county's economic development coordinator.

Cobb is working on getting a film permit in place and contacting its six cities for help in compiling locations for shooting.

Hannah said she wasn't sure how long it would take to get Cobb's camera ready application submitted.

For years the state had an unofficial way of helping film crews select location sites in the state. But with a vast database at the film office’s fingertips, the process has been much easier, Dominey said.

“We’ve had stuff come in,” he said of site locations submitted by counties, “that I never even knew was out there.”