479 NEWS
Governor Predicts More Growth for Georgia’s Film Industry
Please take a moment to read the following passage from Governor Deal’s final State of the State address “Orchards of Opportunity”, delivered to the Georgia General Assembly yesterday morning. Our members should be aware that we have supported the Governor and his efforts throughout his administration and are looking forward to a very prosperous 2018 thanks to the staunch support of Governor Deal and our state legislators. As the Governor stated, we expect to break new records this year, and that’s just good for Georgia.
Thank you,
Mike Akins, Business Agent IATSE Local 479
2018 State of the State Address
[the following is an excerpt from Georgia Governor Nathan Deal’s State of the State address, “Orchards of Opportunity”, delivered on January 11, 2018]
“As we consider the achievements of their respective dedicated teams, we should also take note of a tree we “re-planted” – you might say – which has taken deep root in recent years and borne greater and greater harvests with each passing year. I am referring to the film production industry.
Just ten years ago, this industry generated $241 million in economic impact for the state. This past fiscal year alone, it generated $9.5 billion in economic impact. That’s quite impressive growth for this (more…)
Reviewing 2017 and Looking Ahead to 2018
I am happy to report that 2017 has been a banner year in the Local 479 jurisdiction! The number of projects produced in both Georgia and Alabama has increased 15% from 2016 to 2017, and all of the stars seem aligned for an equal or greater increase as we move into 2018.
Atlanta, in particular, is home to over 60 purpose-built stages spread throughout the metro area among 8 studio lots, with another studio still under construction boasting an additional 9 stages. This growth is expected to bring new production to our jurisdiction, providing even more work opportunities as production companies increase their desire to hire locally.
I am proud to report that at any given time throughout 2017, an average of 80-90% of our Local 479 members were found to be working. This number is based on a couple of factors: our Availability List was continually being requested by productions and seemed inefficient in providing the amount of labor requested, and I received more requests than ever before from people living outside the jurisdiction asking permission to work in town, as productions needed the extra (more…)