MOVIEMAKER.COM WINTER 2019 63
and symphony scene at a rate of nearly 10,000
a month. “The creative vortex that’s Atlanta,
combined with Georgia’s quality of life, is a
magical combination rivaled in few places,” he
adds. “It’s awesome to be in the middle of that,
and it’s fun to see other people feel it when
they get here.”
Thirty-five miles southwest of Atlanta is
another testament to the city’s expansion:
a 234-acre purpose-built town called
Pinewood Forest (co-funded by Pinewood
Studios and Chick-fil-A owner Dan Cathy)
that sits symbiotically beside the booming,
700-acre Pinewood Atlanta Studios,
the blockbuster factory that hosted
Spider-Man: Homecoming and has its own
Home Depot. Envisioned as a mixed-use
project boasting residential communities, ho-
tels, and restaurants, Pinewood Forest beganmoving in residents in 2017 and has since laid
plans for 15 miles of walking trails that will
connect the perimeter. Artist renderings of
the development’s central square show movie
posters looming above the walkways, a re-
minder of the project’s foundational impetus.
With this much on the line, it’s easy to see
why after a hard-fought Georgia gubernatori-
al campaign, industry watchers will be atten-
tive to how incoming governor Brian Kemp
treats an industry that delivered $2.7 billion
in direct spending in fiscal 2017 alone. On the
campaign trail Kemp promised to “push to
preserve the film tax credit” despite pressure
from fiscal Republicans for a scale-back (the
state offers a no-sunset-date 20 percent base
incentive on productions that spend $500,000
or more with another 10 percent padded in), a
testament to the industry’s growing gravitas.
(Before the 2008 revamp of the state’s tax
incentive, Georgia’s entertainment industry
brought in $241 million per year; last year, it
brought in around $9.5 billion.) Marquee pro-
ductions recently setting up shop in Atlanta
include WB’s sequel to The Shining, the
Ewan McGregor-starring Doctor Sleep, the
third season of the Netflix horror nostalgia
series Stranger Things, and an HBO pilot for
a series (subsequently greenlit and Atlanta-
bound) based on Alan Moore’s Watchmen.3
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA
As you might expect from the world’s
largest VFX cluster, Vancouver’s 2018
dance card has been heavily populated by
processor-reliant superhero shows, including
Supergirl, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow,
and Arrow along with VFX-heavy series like
Snowpiercer, starring Jennifer Connelly. On
top of that a spate of intriguing studio films
have made their way to the soundstages this
fall: Projects recently filming include the
Guillermo del Toro-produced fantasy
horror film Antlers, with Keri Russell,
the Aubrey Plaza-starring remake of
Child’s Play, and Jordon Peele’s highly-
anticipated series reboot of The Twilight Zone.
(Secrecy is such a priority for the latter that
cellphones are reportedly banned on set).
Figures released in July by provincial agen-
cy Creative BC show that for the 2017-2018
fiscal year there were 450 incentive-eligible
productions in Vancouver supporting 60,000
workers and the BC area, as well as 250 local
businesses catering to the industry, including
30 post companies and 100 animation andVFX companies. There was a 30 percent in-
crease over the previous year in the number of
productions qualifying for tax credits, for a to-
tal of 110 feature films overall versus 164 tele-
vision shows. BC Creative figures also showed
that 2017 was the first year in which British
Columbia topped Ontario as the top Canadian
destination for film/TV production, if only by
a small margin, and noted that expansion into
various corners of BC are proceeding apace,
with new sound stages going up in Kelowna
and on Vancouver Island.
“For two years running, metro
Vancouver has been one of MovieMaker’s top
two most welcoming cities in North America
for moviemakers, both at the studio and
indie level,” says Prem Gill, CEO, Creative BC.
“The reasons are many, from a strong motion
picture economy, film-friendly communities
and a globally-recognized culture of industry
collaboration to a rich and growing festival
culture that promotes diversity, emerging
talent and, importantly, environmental and
social sustainability. It’s not just what we do
in British Columbia—it’s how we do it that’s
important.”4
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
“Shooting in New York City is like be-
ing in the most exciting relationship
of your life,” says Emma Tillinger Koskoff,
producer of Martin Scorsese’s upcoming film
The Irishman. “But it can only be successful
with a huge support system. I’ve shot all over
the world and I can tell you I always find that
system here. New York crews are exemplary—
talented, committed, hardworking, loyal,
professional, and fun.” Koskoff also praises the
Mayor’s Office for their ability to meet “unique
challenges” as well as the NYPD’s Movie/TV
Unit, which she says tends to go above and
beyond to get the job done. She adds:
“New York is a great city to shoot in, but it can
be arduous and expensive. Then again, what
part of moviemaking is easy and inexpensive?”
Erica Lee, producer of the upcoming trilogy
capper John Wick: Chapter 3, struck a similar
note, asserting that even if there are cheaper
and potentially less-challenging alternatives,
the downside is that they aren’t New York.
“We love shooting in New York,” she says.
“We decided early on when we were prepping
Wick 1 to shoot in New York City even though
it was cheaper to shoot in many other places.
The scope and scale that the city brings to a
film is unquantifiable. You also get amazing
crews and actors; it can be challenging at
times, but the city has become a real character
of the film, part of its DNA.”« THE SHORT HISTORY OF THE LONG ROAD CREW
SETS UP A SHOT IN ALBUQUERQUE, NM