The meeting this past Friday was especially good because there was a new member induction.  RCSE welcomes Jim Thornton to the club!  After Jim's initiation, Charles "Bo" Bowen, an attorney who specializes in entertainment law, talked about the film industry in Savannah.  
 
Bo began by giving the club some statistics about filming in Georgia:
2015 - Georgia was #6 in the country for number of productions 
2016 - Georgia was #3 in the country for number of productions
2017 - Georgia was #1 in the world for number of productions
There are a few reasons that can be attributed to the increase in productions.  One of them is the entertainment incentive offered by the state which is a 30% tax credit.  
 
How does this relate to Savannah?  In 2014, 1% of the money being spent on productions was being spent in Savannah.  In 2017, 3% of the money being spent ($60 million) was spent in Savannah.  SEDA gets a lot of credit for the increase in productions in Savannah due to the 10% rebate they offer for money spent in Chatham county as well as paying for moving expenses for experienced workers (7 years minimum) in the industry.  
 
What is holding Savannah back from getting a larger piece of the pie? It is the lack of infrastructure specifically the lack of a sound stage.  Atlanta has 50 sound stages and receives 90% of the money being spent in the state.  When films come to Savannah, the only option for filming is to film on location.  Bo has been working with a group to purchase 14 acres of the Coastal Empire Fairgrounds.  The fairgrounds is 70 acres and was recently purchase by the city for $2.9 million.  They had an industry consultant come and look at the location and was told the quonset hut on the grounds is a perfect place for a sound stage.  They offered the city $1.1 million.  The city turned them down saying the property was worth more and they weren't interested in selling at this time. 
 
Bo concluded his talk with 2 final thoughts: 1. He encouraged members to register their business at savfilm.org.  A list of businesses is given to productions companies when they decide to film in the area.  2. He asked that everyone realize that the benefits of filming in Savannah far outweighs the negative.