Published Sunday, February 08, 2009

Movie incentives - 'Finally something is working'

By Sarah Fay Campbell

The Times-Herald

Though the bailout seems to be a bust, and the stimulus package not very stimulating, Georgia's film incentives just might be a case of government effort to stimulate the economy actually working.

Movie productions have been pouring into Coweta, with more on the way. Newnanites have been dazzled by the star power, and candle power, radiating from the Temple Avenue set of "Get Low."

Woody Haralson is on his way to Newnan, and Ashton Kutcher will be filming in Senoia.

"The good news is there are so many projects heading this way -- the incentive is working. Finally, something is working!" said Scott Tigchelaar, president of Riverwood Studios in Senoia.

Tigchelaar said Riverwood has signed a deal with Lion's Gate for the Ashton Kutcher movie "Five Killers." According to the Internet Movie Database, Kutcher plays a retired hit man whose life is turned upside down when someone from his past sends a group to hired killers to knock him off.

The "stage work" will be done at Riverwood and there will be some filming on the northside of Atlanta, Tigchelaar said. Also, the producers have been checking out some subdivisions around Senoia because "they have to blow up a house." The house will be built especially for blowing up but will be full size, Tigchelaar said.

Filming a movie in the real world, where people live and work, will always cause some disruption and inconvenience, but that can be minimized with good coordination and good ground rules, Tigchelaar said.

Film crews "will obey whatever rules you set down," he said. "But in the absence of rules, they're going to make up their own."

When a movie is filming in Senoia, "we try to coordinate things with the city as best we can and make sure the production is coordinating with the city as well," he said. "So that you don't end up with situations that leave people with a bad taste in their mouth," he said. "If nobody has a set of rules to follow, they will just park anywhere. And they will leave a bad taste," he said.

"Oftentimes you will find areas where one film has been done and they never do another one," Tigchelaar said. Nobody laid ground rules and "things just run amok as a result," he said.

When business owners are worried about street closings, "you can keep them on half the sidewalk instead of the whole sidewalk, or say they can shut it down for five minutes at a time," Tigchelaar said. "Then you get the best of both worlds," he said, because the movies can be made without negatively impacting businesses.

Making movie making more convenient for all involved is a big part of the Historic Senoia Project. Tigchelaar and Paul Lombardi, Riverwood's CEO, formed Historic Development Ventures and bought up several pieces of property in Senoia's downtown.

"We've laid out Senoia as kind of a live back lot," Tigchelaar said. The commercial buildings they have built downtown are fully functional, but are designed for enhanced "shootability."

But the major part of the living backlot will be the Gin project, which will feature commercial buildings, lofts, single family homes designed to resemble those in Charleston and Savannah, and New York City style brownstones.

"That helps you cheat New York and get more versatile looks without having something that sticks out as not really fitting in a small Southern town. It's something that blends seamlessly," Tigchelaar said. "So you don't have to travel very far or go to very expensive places to film."

As for the layout, there will be back alley access to all of the homes. "So you can shut down the street and film and people can still get into their homes," Tigchelaar said. "We can have a real development with real brownstones and real people that live in them and just lay it out in a way that overcomes the biggest impediment to shooting on a real street -- shutting it down."

The plan for Senoia "lends itself to more versatility and shootability," Tigchelaar said. "And it's not just facades. It's real buildings, there are going to be real people that live there. So when things aren't being filmed there, there is a community there that can thrive and support itself economically."