Mesage from Georgia Branch President Wilbur Fitzgerald

For the past few years I have had the pleasure of working with the dedicated members of our local SAG Board and Council, and on occasion attend national SAG Board meetings as an alternate if national board member Debra Nelson, or our former local SAG President Mike Pniewski, were unable to attend. I learned right away about the wonderful reputations which both Debra and Mike have earned nationally. Mike Pniewski became an outspoken leader while serving on several national committees and was able to bring significant attention and SAG resources to our local branch.

In all my many years as a Georgia SAG member, I have never been more proud to be a local member, and I am excited about serving as your new President of the Georgia Branch. This past summer I was acting in one of the numerous SAG movie productions shooting here in Georgia, and I had an opportunity work with some of our other Georgia SAG members as well as some actors from California and New York. Without exception the out of town players seemed pleased to be spending their "per diems"  in Georgia, and they were impressed with the many talented SAG actors who make Georgia their home. As a 29-year veteran who has worked on television shows and movies throughout the Southeast, making a favorable impression on our working visitors has become a familiar story to me. Many actors have moved here lock stock and barrel based on good work experiences and the inviting locale.

Ever since such Southern-flavored movies like Deliverance and Smokey and the Bandit kicked off Georgia's popularity as a desirable movie location, Georgia has been able to boast about having some of the best actors east of Hollywood and south of New York. The visiting actors I spent time with also gave our Georgia crews some pretty high notes of praise as well. The fact is for many years movie, television and commercial productions here in Georgia have grown and attracted some of the most experienced talent in the United States. Now that the Georgia Legislature has enacted an extremely competitive tax incentive to attract productions in our already location-rich state, television and film production is again robust. 

No longer does production just come to Georgia to tell only Southern-based stories. We have become home to productions where on any given day the City of Atlanta might double for Los Angeles or New York. Our mountains and shoreline might double for California and many other states west of the Mississippi River. Every week new projects are making inquiries about shooting in Georgia, while scouting local communities throughout the state. The Georgia Film Office reported recently that fiscal year 2009 was a record with an investment of over $591 million dollars in production, and that created an economic impact exceeding $1 billion dollars. This past year Georgia has been home to such feature films as The Blind Side, The Last Song, Zombieland, Life As We Know It, The Conspirator, I Can Do Bad All By Myself, Five Killers, and Halloween 2.  Television films and series have also benefited from the Georgia tax incentives.  A partial list of television projects includes Ben 10: Alien Swarm, House of Payne, Past Life, The Vampire Diaries, Drop Dead Diva, Meet The Browns, and The Real Housewives of Atlanta. As Georgia continues to roll out the red carpet to welcome a growing SAG talent base and crew base, we look forward to another record year of movie and television production in 2010. I look forward to seeing our talented SAG actors on movie and television screens in the days ahead.

In Solidarity,
Wilbur Fitzgerald