Entertainment production services company winds down operations in Atlanta amid film production decline
As Georgia sees a drop in film and television production, Quixote, a leading industry vendor, announced at the end of April that it would begin winding down its Atlanta operations.
The company calls itself a one-stop shop for transportation and production equipment.
The announcement comes as Georgia sees more productions that may have filmed in the Peach State move overseas — impacting the industry across the board.
"It's cheaper to shoot there," said Georgia Production Partnership co-president Darius Evans. "You don't have to deal with the costs of unions there. You don't have to deal with — it's producers, I think there are some producers who say it's cheaper to take an entire crew and fly them and house them overseas than to shoot here in LA or New York or even Atlanta."
It's not just Quixote's Atlanta operations that have been impacted.
The company said in a letter to clients that it made the decision to wind down much of its sound stage business in Los Angeles, in addition to winding down Atlanta-based operations.
"Like many of you, we have persisted through the prolonged and ongoing slowdown in commercial, television, and film production. But ultimately, industry conditions have forced difficult decisions," the letter reads in part.
"Any time a studio or service provider closes or downsizes, it impacts real people," Evans said. "It impacts our crews, our vendors, the ancillary companies around it, and also families here in the state. And so we shouldn't pretend that it's insignificant."
Evans said we aren't seeing the end of the industry in Georgia, but a recalibration.
"You know we had an unprecedented expansion cycle from 2008, 2009 when we first introduced the tax credit, and there was a lot of expansion, a lot of fast, rapid, large-scale growth," Evans said. "And I think what's happening now is that we're experiencing not just a downturn, but a correction of the market, a correction of the industry here in the state of Georgia."
According to the Georgia Department of Economic Development, there are 26 projects filming in Georgia, six of which are feature films.
Hudson-Pacific, Quixote's parent company, said 70 positions are being impacted between Los Angeles and Atlanta.
