November 19, 2025 • 39 mins
How two out-of-town creative entrepreneurs hustled their cinematic dreams into existence, and how two locals transformed Atlanta into a moviemaking capital to rival Hollywood and New York.
HOSTED BY: Big Rube
STARRING: Will Packer, Rob Hardy, Jason Weaver, Tina Gordon, Shay Bentley Griffi
NARRATED BY: Jewel Wicker
SUBJECTS: Movies, Atlanta history
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Atlanta is Black Hollywood. Who could have predicted that my
city would be so blessed to be the place that
so many people held close to the chest, a place
where different folks from every town across our nation would
leave their home and start a southern migration. I was
astounded when I found Atlanta, of all places, was to
be the mecca of black cinemas, awakening an incredible sight
(00:23):
to see with my own two eyes. It was LIC's
camera action towards unlimited skies and then to see the
hoods we knew bigger than life on the screen, made
as proud as a peach to be Atli and beings
Big Rube and Atlanta is filmed on locations.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
If you've been to a movie theater anytime in the
past decade and you're one of those people who stays
until the very end of the credits, you've probably seen
a giant Georgia peach.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
It's only on screen for a few short.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Seconds, but what it means is that productions that shoot
in Georgia get a pretty sweet tax incentive for doing so.
It's the reason why the state is one of the
top production hubs in the country, generating billions of dollars
a year. Black Panther, Stranger Things, Bad Boys, Ride or Die.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
They all filmed here. Georgia hasn't always.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Been known for its film industry, though in the early
two thousands, the state, well specifically Atlanta, was more known
for its music scene, it's historically black colleges, and it's
black politicians. Back then, no one could have imagined Georgia
as legitimate competition to New York or LA's film industries.
That movies, big movies, A lot of movies would be
(01:44):
filmed in Georgia. Few people even had the vision to
dream up something like that. This is the story of
four dreamers, how they came together with a lot of
hustle in one peach to make that dream come true.
I'm Juel Wicker, and this is episode four of Atlanta is.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Well.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Packer and Rob Harty are two giants in Atlanta with
really impressive resumes. Separately and together they've been making films
that audiences, particularly black folk, have loved for decades. Their
production company, Rainforest Films, has put out movies like Some dr.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
Door, The Stomp in the Yard, Where are You From?
Speaker 3 (02:26):
And Ride Along?
Speaker 5 (02:26):
I'm Gonna take you on a Ride Along.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
On top of that, Will's had a successful career as
a producer. He let the first all black production team
for the Oscars in twenty twenty two, and just last year,
he produced the hit series Fight Night for Peacock.
Speaker 5 (02:42):
No They Burned a Ladder to the ground.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Meanwhile, Rob has become a prolific TV director, working on
episodes of some of today's biggest shows, including Hulu's Reasonable Doubt,
Vampire Diaries, and Being Mary Jane. All of these projects
were filmed in metro Atlanta. Will and Rob moved to
Atlanta in the mid nineties when few filmmakers were doing
(03:08):
the same. They wanted to prove that two black men
could carve out a lane for themselves. Their story starts
in Tallahassee, Florida.
Speaker 5 (03:15):
I met Will the very first day I got to campus.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
That's Rob Party. He and Will both earned engineering degrees
from Florida A and M University, one of the top
ranked historically black colleges and universities in the country. Attending
family is a big deal, but Will and Rob didn't
exactly see it that way.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
As incoming freshmen.
Speaker 6 (03:35):
Neither one of us wanted to be engineers, and we
were both two kids that did not want to be
at that school, and we bonded off that.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
In nineteen ninety four, while Rob was still in school,
he directed a movie about a historically black college, Chocolate City.
Will produced it, their friends were cast in the movie,
and then eagerly attended the premiere for it. Chocolate City
wasn't a blockbuster success, but it was a hit amongst
the students at FAMU. It showed Rob and Will were
(04:03):
serious about their craft and cemented them as creative partners.
Then the title song got picked up by Motown, so
Robin Will were given a budget to make a music
video for it.
Speaker 6 (04:14):
We called them the big camera. They got the big
cameras out here. Now they're filming some music video.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
The whole thing it made Will wonder what else they
could accomplish together.
Speaker 6 (04:23):
And he was like, Yo, this is like a real business.
He always had that entrepreneur spirit. I was a storyteller cat.
So nineteen ninety six, Rob and I are graduating.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
From fam You here's the entrepreneur himself.
Speaker 6 (04:36):
And we've got this dream of being filmmakers. We had
my one little tiny movie. We were like, you know,
let's keep this thing going.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Naturally, they consider it Los Angeles.
Speaker 5 (04:44):
The problem was that we didn't know anybody in Hollywood.
Speaker 6 (04:48):
Was too expensive, it was too far. Everybody was doing
what we wanted to do. New York, same thing, and
we were some broke kids.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
They needed a place that felt a bit more accessible,
buzzing entertainment and business hub where they actually had a
shot at making a name for themselves as young black filmmakers.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
They settled on Atlanta.
Speaker 6 (05:10):
It was the time of organized noise and outcasts Jermaine
Duprie and So So Deaf, Rowdy records with Dallas Austin
and Monica and all those folks, and it was a
take a gas away from Tallahassee. So it felt like
something that we could touch.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
In the nineties, artists flocked to Atlanta to make music
because the city had some of the biggest producers of
the time. Stars like Pink and Madonna spent time inside
Atlanta's studios. Bobby Brown lived here and even had his
own studio in town. It didn't matter if labels were
clustered in Los Angeles and New York. Atlanta had the
hip makers, but for film everything, the sound stages, cast
(05:51):
production crews, and the execs, they were all in La
and New York.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Nothing was in Atlanta.
Speaker 5 (05:57):
Like, it was not popping at all.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
There was no reason to come here.
Speaker 6 (06:01):
It would only make sense if it was like a
specific backdropper location that you needed that was here, that
was in Atlanta, that was in Georgia.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Will and Rob had relocated to an entertainment city that
was known for everything except the one industry they actually
wanted to break into. But they thought about the music
video they'd done for Motown, all those big cameras, maybe
they could do more of that.
Speaker 6 (06:24):
We like finagled our way into a meeting with Jermaine Duprix,
you know, and we finagled our way into a meeting
with Dallas Austin.
Speaker 5 (06:31):
Like we were hustlers, so we had to get to
these people.
Speaker 6 (06:33):
These were like big music industry legends that we did
not know, and we would just tell people, Yo, we're filmmakers.
Speaker 5 (06:39):
We want to shoot music videos.
Speaker 6 (06:41):
When we moved to Atlanta, there was a song called
Ma Boo that was hot. It was on the Soso
Deaf Bass compilation album and.
Speaker 5 (06:51):
Lilid John was the an R.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Robin.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Will were new to town, but they'd already connected with
Little John through a family mutual. My Boo had become
a debut hit for the ghost Town DJs and another
success story for Jamain Dupriez so So Deaf Records. Rob
figured the music video could put him in Will on
the map too.
Speaker 6 (07:09):
So I was like, John's trying to direct the video.
You know, you see my work. He was like yea, yeah,
yah cool. Will come how let me Rob? So at
the time, he was having some issues with his car,
so I would go to his house and pick him
up and drive them to work for me.
Speaker 5 (07:22):
It was my way of kind of trying to politic
to get the video.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Rob says he and Little John were hanging out at
Soso Deaf Records one day when he came across a
box of submissions for the music video.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
He took a look.
Speaker 6 (07:34):
Because he was like, man, that's the ben of stuff
that that's trashed that I ain't never gonna look at.
And I'm just going through the tape and I find
my submission. I'm like, yo, John. He was like, yo,
my bad, Rob, Hardy my bad. He call me to
my whole government name. And then like the next day,
after I dropped them off, I found out that they
were about to shoot the ma Boo video with somebody else.
Speaker 5 (07:52):
I was like John, He was like, Yo, my bad,
n butts you my man? No, you my man.
Speaker 6 (07:59):
We did not shoot one music video. We got shut
out in Atlanta.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
The music video scene was already online. Rob and Will
would have to find another way to break through. Were
you discouraged by the fact that you guys weren't getting
any of those pitches, weren't landing.
Speaker 6 (08:14):
Or we were super discouraged at the fact that nobody
would hire us.
Speaker 5 (08:18):
It was tough.
Speaker 6 (08:19):
I mean we had foregone like solid corporate jobs. It
wasn't like we didn't have college degrees. We had engineering degrees.
All our friends were out working in like buying maximas.
Speaker 5 (08:32):
You know.
Speaker 6 (08:32):
I just remember that I was like the car to
have at that time, and my parents, you know, got
me a Honda Civic for like graduation, and I was
just so thankful that I had anything to drive.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Honda's neat gas and bills have due dates. Will and
Rob needed to get jobs.
Speaker 5 (08:48):
These are the Ramen Noodle days.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
The good thing is they were hustlers, so they weren't
short on ideas for making a few quick books. They
had a short lived cleaning service where they cleaned strip clubs.
Rob sold vacuum cleaners, and Will had temp jobs answering
phones and doing data entry. Eventually he started delivering newspapers
for the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
Speaker 6 (09:09):
I learned that you could also make commission by selling
newspaper for the AJAC, literally knocking on doors, going door
to door. So I was a door to door salesman
after I graduated from college.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
They were always thinking about ways to make money, but
their film dreams remained top of mind too.
Speaker 6 (09:25):
Listen, you know, and I don't recommend this, folks, I
don't recommend this. But what we would try to do
is like we knew where Jermaine du Pre lived, so
we put together a package.
Speaker 5 (09:35):
We went to his house. We put in this mailbox.
Speaker 6 (09:38):
We debated me and Will in the car, shoot we
go knock on the door or maybe that'll be weird.
We ran up on Dominique Wilkins in the club, like, yo,
I got a proposal for this movie. In the car, Dominique,
all I need is two million dollars. For two million dollars,
we can shoot them. And he was looking at me
like yo, I'm so uncomfortable and I'm in the club
and this dude's clearly broke. I'm saying, is trying to
(10:01):
hustle me out of two million dollars as if I
got that in my pocket.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
This must have been such a confusing time for Will
and rob They're in Atlanta, a city where anything feels possible,
and most days they're in arms length away from people
who've made it, but they're still selling newspapers in vacuums.
They needed to prove to themselves that they didn't make
a mistake by going all in on film and Atlanta.
(10:26):
Atlanta's film scene wasn't robust, but Robin Will weren't exactly
alone either. In the nineties, there were a few location
based productions filming here, and there were even a few
established actors who were beginning to see Atlanta as a
home base.
Speaker 7 (10:40):
I made this bold move, leaving Los Angeles and coming
to Atlanta.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Jason Weaver was not a newbie by the time he
relocated to Atlanta in the nineties. He was the singing
voice of Simba in The Lion King and played Marcus
Henderson in the wb sitcom Smart Guy.
Speaker 7 (10:57):
You Know, I bet Dad is really gonna miss you
when you're dead and gone.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
By the time A Smart Guy was canceled in nineteen
ninety nine. Jason was a young adult. He'd been working
for most of his life. He saw Atlanta as a
place where he could chill and have some fun. There
was a popping music scene and a lot of strip clubs.
You also had the Atlanta University Center, the biggest cluster
of historically black colleges and universities in the country, Spelman Morehouse,
(11:24):
Clark Atlanta, and Morris Brown.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
This was the place to be if you were young
and black.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Locals and transplants like Jason all brought their unique elements
of black culture from around the country. People were hustlers here,
businesses were thriving. Sure, Atlanta didn't have much of a
film scene, but Jason saw so much potential.
Speaker 7 (11:46):
The one thing that I kept seeing was more actors,
like black actors just coming down here, living like just
living like, just enjoying what Atlanta represents, which is black excellence,
and you know, as a fluent here and there's black
business down here.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
His agents, though they didn't get it.
Speaker 7 (12:05):
They really couldn't see the silver lining of it all
as far as what Atlanta was bringing to the table creatively,
because they were in their own little circle out there
in LA And at that time, that's all that mattered,
was like what was happening in Los Angeles.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
But Jason was convinced he knew he was experiencing something
that Hollywood couldn't offer.
Speaker 7 (12:26):
Oh, Atlanta was something really really different because you could
just feel this energy in the air that something was
just about to happen. So, you know, I think any
time when you're on the cusp of something, when you
feel like you know it's about to really really explode,
that energy is so intense. And being a part of that, like, nah,
(12:47):
it was it was awesome.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Well, Packer hadn't gotten his big break yet, but he
could see the potential of the city too.
Speaker 6 (12:53):
Atlanta felt like a place where black people were winning
and thriving. The mayor was black, the chief of police
was black, The president of the city council was black,
the fire chief was black. Like, you could go in
neighborhoods and they were all black neighborhoods, and they had
these big houses, you know, and it was impressive. And
me coming from St. Petersburg, Florida, you know, I had
(13:14):
never seen neighborhood like that. I had never certainly never
seen Black Wealth, and it felt like, even if the
film thing didn't work, we were in the place to
be in terms of like having a soft landing.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
They really wanted the film thing to work out, though
Chocolate City, their student film, was a great launch pad,
but they needed to make something post college and in Atlanta.
They needed to make a name for themselves and established
that even as newbies in a city with few film resources,
they could find their audience. They made a feature less
(13:47):
film starring Kenya Moore and Gary Jordan.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Well, now I know the married life has you getting
it all the time.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
What I really.
Speaker 5 (13:54):
Wanted is a Naja twa.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Released in two thousand, the movie told the story of
a couple who decides to have a threesome, only to
encounter some unexpected consequences. People already understood the appeal of
erotic thrillers like Basic Instinct and Fatal Attraction, but Will
wanted to show that the genre could be just as
compelling with black characters.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
If it were me, I would do whatever it took
to make my man happy. I know, Tammy, but I
mean that's out there.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Robin Will wanted to raise seven hundred and fifty thousand
dollars to make the movie. Ultimately, they were able to
get just a tenth of that, and most of that
money went to TWA's actors and equipment. They had to
get resourceful for everything else.
Speaker 6 (14:35):
We shot twy in our own house, which you know,
that is the number one rule of film production that
you should never do.
Speaker 5 (14:41):
You should never break that rule. Don't shoot in your
own house. Remember looking at the.
Speaker 6 (14:45):
Screen and one of the actors had my shirt on
and I was like, yo, that's my shirt, and the
wardrobe pressure was like, yeah, well, I guess would in
your closet.
Speaker 5 (14:53):
Because you know, and we don't really had no budget
on this movie.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
The filmmakers weren't working with the union. So the small
dedicated production crew once filmed for twenty four hours straight.
We'll says crew members with sleeping shifts so they could
keep working. That's how much people believed in the work
these two were doing. They completed the film in two thousand,
but the work was far from over. Now they had
to get people into theaters to see it.
Speaker 6 (15:18):
We literally went city to city in a car promoting
the movie and booking theaters, marketing the movie, and it
came out and you know it had the highest per
screen average of any movie that came out that weekend,
and it was.
Speaker 5 (15:35):
In the trades.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
They finally got Hollywood's attention. It was time to go
to work and double down on Atlanta.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
When Will and.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Rob moved to Atlanta, they brought with them a spirit
of grit and ambition. They saw the potential in the
city and hustled to make something out of nothing. But
there were already a few key people in Georgia who
shared the same vision, who worked behind the scenes methodically
trying to put the state on the map. Two folks
in particular, from two separate worlds, who would eventually converge
(16:10):
to entice Hollywood to Atlanta and turn the city into
a film mecca. The first member of our duo comes
from the world of film.
Speaker 8 (16:18):
Oh all right, well, Shae Bentley Griffin.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Shaye is a casting director who was born in California.
She now lives on her family's farm in Polk County, Georgia.
Speaker 8 (16:28):
My brother has some of the most beautiful blueberries you
have ever seen.
Speaker 5 (16:33):
She says.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
She always saw her life here in Georgia, even if
her industry wasn't concentrated here. If a TV show or
movie was filmed in Georgia in the eighties or nineties.
It was almost always just because it was set here.
But shee felt like she could change that. Shane knew
early on that there was talent here, but proving it
to the industry was a challenge.
Speaker 8 (16:53):
Because it was hard for them to imagine that there
could possibly be any actors in Georgia. So I spent
the first part of my time convincing Los Angeles they
were wrong about that.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
She spent years traveling back and forth between her family
farm in rural Georgia and Atlanta, trying everything to sell
producers on the idea that filming in Georgia was a
good business move, and then she finally cracked the code
ahead of the production of Tim Conaway's nineteen seventy eight
slapstick film They went that away in that.
Speaker 8 (17:25):
A way, there was a key sentence, and that was,
you know when I said to them, I can save
you money.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
She was talking to one of the movie's producers.
Speaker 8 (17:34):
And they looked at me like, uh huh, okay, how
And so I said to them, Well, if you've got
a script and it's got to say, let's just say
twenty rolls in it, and I could help you by
giving you the opportunity to work with really good actors,
maybe in the number of even if it was just ten.
(17:56):
And you did not have to fly them here first classes.
You have put them up. You didn't have to feed them,
you didn't have to do anything.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
These actors wouldn't need a per dim to cover meals
and other expenses related to traveling for work, because well,
they lived here.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
It was a win win.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Local talent would get a shot on the big screen
and the production would save money the pitchwork.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
The producer was convinced.
Speaker 8 (18:20):
My business really became a business at that point. And
I mean, I don't remember when I didn't work.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Name any of the major Georgia productions during this time.
Fried Green Tomatoes in the Heat of the Night, Remember
the Titans, the Fighting Temptations. Shae cast it for all
of them. The actors she worked with have gone on
to do incredible work. Before Walton Goggins started in season
three of The White Lotus Or Gary Anthony Williams played
Uncle Ruckus in the Boondocks. They were both cast by
(18:51):
Shay in local productions. While Shay was casting for TV,
the music producer Dallas was making hits. He's the second
member of our duo and would eventually partner up with
Shay to bring Hollywood to Atlanta.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
But Dallas didn't start off as a film guy. One
of the biggest names in music, Dallas Austin.
Speaker 5 (19:14):
Dallas is like a tour divorce.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Not only did he help launch the careers if Atlanta
based artists like TLC and Monica, he was also working
with pop stars like Michael Jackson. Dallas's Brody Records, alongside
La Face and So So Deaf, helped to cubment Atlanta
as a musical epicenter in the nineties.
Speaker 9 (19:32):
Those still days of freak naked, days of Atlanta being
like Atlanta Atlanta.
Speaker 5 (19:35):
So we were.
Speaker 9 (19:36):
Capturing all that stuff on the records.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
That's Dallas gonna be high talking about those days.
Speaker 9 (19:40):
But we would take that stuff from me and Jermaine
and know Im and just be like, man, we got
to add that to our stuff down here, and we
started making our own Atlanta because nobody was really messing
with us. Like a New York they had hip hop,
La had no something going on, but like Atlanta for
us is all in this country. That's bass music.
Speaker 10 (19:56):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Dallas wasn't was just dominating in music. Though well Will
and Rob dreamed of using the music industry as a
launch pad into film, Dallas actually succeeded. By the early
two thousands, Dallas had already shown that he had the
chops to make it as a film producer with the
release of Drumline, a movie inspired by his high school
(20:19):
band Aids. Drumline helped Nick Cannon transition into a film
star and proved that there was an audience for black
Southern stories. Dallas was determined to prove his Drumline success
wasn't just a fluke. By the time Jason Weaver was
cast in Drumline, Dallas was already thinking ahead to the
next time they might be able to work together.
Speaker 7 (20:40):
He said, Man, I got another one. I got another
one coming right around the corner. Man, Like, I'm so
serious about this. Man Like Atlanta is like they don't understand. Man,
Atlanta really really really got something to say.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Jason is recounting a conversation where Dallas was talking about
the coming of age movie atl released in two thousand
and six.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
Sorry Huh, no ticket, no skates.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
As a teenager, Dallas used to hang out with t
Bos from TLC at the Southwest Atlanta skating rink Jellybean.
By the early two thousands, the pair had collaborated on
hit songs like pre and Ain't Too Proud to beg
They decided to expand their partnership into film by producing
a movie inspired by their time at the skating ring.
Speaker 11 (21:21):
Y'all sluckers, but I'll figure out what y'all gonna do.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
The story was compelling enough that Will Smith came on
as a producer, and somehow Ti, the biggest rapper coming
out of Atlanta, was convinced to play the lead in
the teenage skate.
Speaker 6 (21:36):
Drama Georgia and Down South drew up quick, especially George
and the atl.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
I was obsessed with atl as a teenager, and so
was every other kid at my high school. I mean,
we grew up skating at Cascade. My mom earned skate
trophies at Jellybean just a few short years before Dallas
and t Bos were skating there. To this day, if
I tell someone outside of Georgia that I grew up
on Cascade Road, they all have the same question. Cascade,
(22:11):
like the skating rink from atl.
Speaker 11 (22:13):
It is every walk of life.
Speaker 10 (22:16):
It's the fashion, it's the cars, it's the high Low,
it's hood. It's ratchet, but it's also bouge. Is everything there.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
That's Tina Gordon, Atl's screenwriter.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Tina moved to Atlanta in the late nineties after graduating
from the University of Virginia. Her first gig was as
a screenwriter for Drumline. At first, she was so skeptical
about things working out. She actually juggled being a journalist
with going to say. By the time drum Line wrapped,
there was no question she'd found her long term home
(22:49):
and career.
Speaker 10 (22:51):
I also had never seen black, upward class neighborhoods like
they are in Atlanta. You know, it's just like Manchin
after matchups, imagine, and it's all black people.
Speaker 11 (23:01):
I was always just sort of struck by that, And
that's kind of the beginnings of atl was. I was like,
let's think of the roller skating rink as a place
where all of the different backgrounds can come together and
brush up against each other.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
The thing that makes atl so fun to watch is
that it really does reflect the types of people you
might run into around town. Tina wasn't from Atlanta, but
that wasn't a disadvantage. It actually allowed her to see
things more clearly and to write authentic characters reflecting all
walks of black Atlanta life. One of those characters is
Teddy played by Jason Weaver.
Speaker 4 (23:40):
Had to get my breakfast, aft got to eat, but
get out your mill. I know guys like that down
in Atlanta.
Speaker 7 (23:45):
I used to hang on Old National a lot, and
I used to be in Fayetteville, down in the South.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Rashad, the star of the movie, was played by Ti.
He was the glue to his friend group and skate crew.
Rashad juggled the demands of providing for him himself and
his younger brother while also pursuing a love interest who
came from a different social class. In real life, tia
I was providing for his family through rap, actually through trap.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
Some people credit his.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Two thousand and three album Trap Music with giving the
genre its name.
Speaker 10 (24:18):
Was I.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
His music turned his real life experiences as a charismatic
dope boy into bona fide hits like Rubber Band Man,
Bring Him Out and what you Know Lol Ride. It
was a big risk to cast the rapper as the
lead in a movie. T I had never acted in
anything before. He was also one of the city's biggest stars.
(24:41):
So he was booked and busy and barely had time
to be on a film set.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
T I was really late.
Speaker 10 (24:47):
He was on music time like all the time, and
Hollywood already.
Speaker 5 (24:52):
Was just like, we've hired a rapper. Anything can happen.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Somehow, Tina the screenwriter got caught in the middle of
a conflict between film exects and the rapper himself.
Speaker 12 (25:05):
I don't know how I got charged with telling Tea, I, Hey,
these folks really are upset about you being late all
the time, and I think, like there is something bad
it's about to happen, right.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Can you imagine being a writer for your second movie
and somehow you have to sell the star they can't
be late to set anymore.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
But I remember he goes, oh okay, and he did
it like he was on time over that. He literally
just was like, oh is that how like like is
that how it works?
Speaker 12 (25:39):
He's like, oh okay.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
As an actor on set, Jason saw this shift happen
in real time. See, I was such a big star
at that like he was big in his rapping career. Yes,
at that point, where is it like to be going
through that process with him.
Speaker 4 (25:56):
You know, I'll be honest.
Speaker 7 (25:57):
It was interesting for me to watch him accept his
responsibility as being a number one. It was interesting to
watch him grow in that time. I saw a change
from a rapper coming into the environment and maybe not
really caring that much to be a part of the environment,
or understanding the impact that this kind of film could
(26:18):
have and his role in it.
Speaker 4 (26:21):
Something clicked one day.
Speaker 7 (26:23):
I think it was when we were doing one of
the skating scenes and we were on a timeline crunch
and we were all kind of tired and fatigued, and
we kind of just fooling around and not really focused,
and Tip just stepped in was like, hey, y'all, we
gotta get this done. Man, Like everybody focused. We got
all these people here, they spending all this money. We
got crew members here, Like, come on, y'all.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Atl wasn't a huge box office success, but it became
a lasting cult classic in the same way that Drumline had.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
For Black millennials, especially those of us from the South.
It was one of the.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
First times we saw our experiences represented accurately and thoroughly
in a movie.
Speaker 7 (27:03):
People are still asking for a sequel even now, when
I have fans of those films approach me. You know,
it's a little bit deeper than saying, hey, that was
a good film. It's like, it's a celebration of our people,
celebration of our culture than how beautiful we are in
any kind of way. Of that helped inspire kids to
like either go to HBCU or you know, make music
(27:23):
or skate or whatever the case may be, or just appreciated,
love themselves for who they are. To be a part
of that kind of storytelling is just it's a blessing.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
That was Austin wasn't just dreaming up his own movies
during this time, he was also meeting with lawmakers and
key players in Atlanta's film industry. Around two thousand and four,
he joined a Film and Entertainment committee set up by
Governor Sonny Purdue. There were tasked with figuring out how
to make Georgia a more enticing place for film productions.
Other states like North Carolina and Louisiana already had tax
(27:55):
incentives that had lord film productions away from Los Angeles
and New York. Maybe Georgia could create a program to
rival them. Dallas was a creator with a lot of ideas,
and he was also really busy. He needed help, so
he nominated Shay, the casting director, as chair of the committee.
She already knew that the way to get Hollywood's attention
(28:17):
was to help their bottom line.
Speaker 8 (28:20):
We knew what we were doing. We had people here
who had worked on enough films that they were valuable
to any production coming here.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
The Commission supported a tax incentive that would offer between
nine to seventeen percent in tax credits for any production
that film here. Those credits could then be sold off
to a Georgia based company who could actually use them.
Filmmakers like Willpacker and Tyler Perry got on board pretty quickly.
They caught lawmakers urging them to show their support for
the bill. It worked, Georgia's first film tax incentive went
(28:51):
into effect in two thousand and five. Willpacker and Rob
Hardy had been on the scene before a tax intentive
was even an idea.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
Now they were the first in line of benefit.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Their two thousand and five film, The Gospel, received the
tax credit retroactively. The Gospel was also the pair's first
film to be distributed by Sony. Two years later, in
two thousand and seven, Sony would collaborate again with Will
and Rob's production company, Rainforest Films to make Sumthy Art.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
The movie, which filmed.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
At HBCUs here in Atlanta, told the story of black
fraternities in their legacy of stepping. Will and Rob are
both members of Alpha Phi Alpha, so they knew the
power of black Greek life intimately. But to get the
white executives of Sony on board, they pitched the movie
as You Got Served two point zero. The film was
a success, opening at number one during its first weekend.
(29:49):
It was further proof that if given a chance, Atlanta
could dominate in film.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
Here's Rob.
Speaker 6 (29:55):
We got a chance to not have side jobs or
we could be filmmakers the whole time, which was cool.
And we had like this relationship with Sony where we
could get other movies made, and in Atlanta had become
the place where independent filmmakers were coming to make their
dreams a reality.
Speaker 5 (30:14):
So it felt like we were head of the curve.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Still, the tax incentive that passed in two thousand and
five wasn't enough to beat out the incentives offered by
other states. Georgia needed to up the ante. In two
thousand and eight, Georgia passed the version of the tax
incentive that we know today. This version offers productions tax
credits of up to thirty percent.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
The only catch they have to include.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Georgia's tourism loco a peach at the end of their credits.
If you don't understand how tax credits work, that's fair.
Taxes are unnecessarily complicated and confusing. Here's an example straight
from Georgia's film office. Say you spend twenty million dollars
on your production here and you receive the total thirty
(30:58):
percent credit.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
That means you could get a six million dollar tax.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Credit that you could use to offset what you owe
in taxes or sell it to a Georgia based company
at say ten percent discount.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
So the Georgia company would pay the.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Production company five million, four hundred thousand dollars, but they'd
still get the full six million dollar credit.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
It's a win win.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
The production company gets back some of the money it's
spent to film here, and the company they sell the
credit to gets a discount on taxes. But yes, like
I said, taxes are confusing. Hollywood understood the implications of this,
though the results were immediate.
Speaker 6 (31:36):
It was like a light switched on and all of
a sudden, you had many more productions looking to shoot
at Atlanta, from Hollywood, from New York, from overseas.
Speaker 4 (31:51):
My agent started calling me and they were like, Hey,
I'm flying down. I'm gonna go see a client, another
client that's here. They're shooting.
Speaker 5 (31:58):
Da da da.
Speaker 7 (31:58):
Hey, this place isn't so bad that after all you
were telling me, you know, how where should I go to?
Speaker 4 (32:04):
Okay, Mary Max? Or well where's that one? Okay, busy bee?
Speaker 3 (32:08):
What's that now?
Speaker 7 (32:08):
Whether they say okay, cool, cool, and I'll be like, Okay,
it's changing because you know, back when I first moved here,
it's like, what are you doing down there? And oh,
you're just hanging out and you're just having fun. You're
not taking it seriously. There's no film community down there.
There are no actors, there are no what, writers, what,
and no everything's here. And then when they started seeing
(32:29):
it for themselves, you know, you saw the page turns.
Speaker 6 (32:32):
And then of course you would see all the location
signs and they stand out because they're yellow.
Speaker 5 (32:38):
When we were first starting.
Speaker 6 (32:39):
We didn't even need location signs, like it was just
you know, go down and make a right to stop sign,
go to the first house.
Speaker 5 (32:45):
On the left.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
Most of the new productions using these yellow signs weren't
actually set in Georgia. The state became a stand in
for anywhere, USA. But soon something interesting started happening. Shows
like Donald Glover's At Length actually tapped into the city's
culture and it's interesting characters.
Speaker 5 (33:04):
Fight this out no good man.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
When Will Packer produced the Peacock series Fight Night, he
wanted to attract as many viewers as possible. He also
wanted to make it clear to anyone watching, no matter
where they might be, that the show was a love
letter to Atlanta. Fight Night is a fictionalized take on
a real life lucrative heightst involving black mobsters that took
place around Muhammad Ali's return to boxing in nineteen seventy You.
Speaker 5 (33:33):
Gentleman, why you're hearing Atlanta?
Speaker 10 (33:35):
Man?
Speaker 1 (33:35):
Who are you?
Speaker 3 (33:37):
You are pity hosts?
Speaker 1 (33:39):
Yes, sir.
Speaker 3 (33:41):
For locals who recognize the locations and storylines, the show
might as well be called if you know.
Speaker 5 (33:47):
You know that's actually pascals. We shot that at busy Bees.
Speaker 6 (33:52):
This is the auc This is Southwest Atlanta where we
shot this scene. Some of it will only be caught
by true Atlanta's Some will only be caught by four
that know the real atl But we had to have
that in there because this is a real atl.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
Story the way he sees it.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
He has an obligation to highlight a place that has
given so much to him as a creator.
Speaker 6 (34:12):
I came to filmmaking prominence in Atlanta. Tina Gordon's first
movie was in Atlanta. Rob Hardy's first movie was in Atlanta.
Tyler Perry came to prominence in Atlanta. All of us
who were birthed by that culture. In that scene, we
all tried to pay it back by showing Atlanta authentically.
After being in Atlanta for thirty years, I still feel
(34:32):
like there's a rich amount of stories to tell that
have yet to be taught.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
The film industry has changed several times since We'll first
moved here in the late nineties. There have been some
massive highs, but also a few lows. In two thousand
and eight, will watch this opportunity appear seemingly overnight. After
Georgia passed its tax incentive. In the twenty tens, Atlanta
benefited from the streaming boom. An influx of new streaming
(34:58):
companies mint studios to greenlight enough shows to film them.
But these days the Georgia film world is fighting a
battle on two fronts. At home, there are politicians who
remain skeptical about the tax incentive.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
Georgia's popular film tax credit got some scrutiny out the
Capitol today, with one lawmaker saying that it's time to
rein it on end. A recent audit of the credit
shows taxpayers lose far more than the state makes in
the film industry jobs a love.
Speaker 5 (35:25):
Of the life's dog.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Throughout the country, the entire film industry is contracting in
the wake of COVID strikes and the end of that
streaming boom.
Speaker 3 (35:34):
The volume of.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
Productions taking place, not just in Georgia but everywhere, remains
much lower than before the pandemic. In this new climate,
both in Atlanta and beyond, black creators say there seems
to be less interest in taking a chance on their stories.
Speaker 5 (35:51):
You know, it's hard to make any movie, I don't
care what it's about.
Speaker 6 (35:54):
You can, you know, try to make a movie about
you know, five straight white guys. It's hard, right, So yes,
if you're trying to make a movie that's for a
niche audience, it's even harder. And it is you got
to figure out a way to do it, though. And
the thing I love about Atlanta is that it's a
city of hustlers. Man, It's a city of entrepreneurs, right.
(36:15):
The joke is that everybody in Atlanta's got a side hustle,
and I think that's true. I don't know that I
would have been able to have been as successful as
I am in this industry if I was trying to
do it in any other city.
Speaker 5 (36:29):
Because I had the support of Atlanta.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
Atlanta done came up a lot, especially since the film
industry made the city at second home. If you're from
my generation, then we share some priceless moments. We're blessed
to be able to call out home. If you're too
young to know firsthand what it was back in the day,
just believe me, you should be proud to be from
the AA. Do everything you can to rep the city
(36:57):
with pride. The day when y'all gonna be og will
be here in no time. It's been a hell of
a ride that I wouldn't change if I could, so
I'm proud to be part of the legendary Black HollyHood.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
Atlanta may now be a film city, but it's been
a church city for even longer. In the next episode,
we explore the city's complicated relationship with religion and influence.
Speaker 3 (37:27):
In Atlanta is where pastors are.
Speaker 5 (37:30):
The original influencers were getting it out the mud.
Speaker 6 (37:33):
It was a dry white season, the church had dwindled
almost to nothing, and God said, this is your assignment.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
Atlanta is the will Packer Media production in partnership with
iHeart Podcast, Idea, Generation and Complex. This episode was written, reported,
and produced by Juel Wicker, with additional production from Maurice
Garland and Christina Lee. Our supervising producer and editor is
Shiva Bayak. Our managing producers are Rose Frulini Bacon O'mari Graham,
(38:14):
and Shamara Rochester. Editorial support from Sean Setero and Jack Irwin.
Speaker 5 (38:20):
Original theme music by Aman Sahota.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
Sound designed by Shiva Bayat and Our Mind Sahota, mixed
and mastered by our Man Sahota. Fact checking done by
Sean Setero, Clarence Counsel, Donnison, Caliph Perez, Lisa Calif and
Jacqueline Schwedt. Executive producers for will Packer Media are Will
Packer and Alex Bowden. Co producer for will pack Of
(38:43):
Media is Nimi Mohun. Executive producers for Idea Generation and
Complex are Jack Irwin and Noah Callahan. Bever Head of
talent Relations for Complex is Anthony Alred, Talent associate for
Complex is Ryan Houston. Senior attorney for comp Lex is
Jordan Washington. Special thanks to Tyler Klang, Terry Harrison, Chris Senator,
(39:06):
Noams Griffin, and Candice Howard. A big ROO piece
Atlanta is Black Hollywood. Who could have predicted that my
city would be so blessed to be the place that
so many people held close to the chest, a place
where different folks from every town across our nation would
leave their home and start a southern migration. I was
astounded when I found Atlanta, of all places, was to
be the mecca of black cinemas, awakening an incredible sight
(00:23):
to see with my own two eyes. It was LIC's
camera action towards unlimited skies and then to see the
hoods we knew bigger than life on the screen, made
as proud as a peach to be Atli and beings
Big Rube and Atlanta is filmed on locations.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
If you've been to a movie theater anytime in the
past decade and you're one of those people who stays
until the very end of the credits, you've probably seen
a giant Georgia peach.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
It's only on screen for a few short.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Seconds, but what it means is that productions that shoot
in Georgia get a pretty sweet tax incentive for doing so.
It's the reason why the state is one of the
top production hubs in the country, generating billions of dollars
a year. Black Panther, Stranger Things, Bad Boys, Ride or Die.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
They all filmed here. Georgia hasn't always.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Been known for its film industry, though in the early
two thousands, the state, well specifically Atlanta, was more known
for its music scene, it's historically black colleges, and it's
black politicians. Back then, no one could have imagined Georgia
as legitimate competition to New York or LA's film industries.
That movies, big movies, A lot of movies would be
(01:44):
filmed in Georgia. Few people even had the vision to
dream up something like that. This is the story of
four dreamers, how they came together with a lot of
hustle in one peach to make that dream come true.
I'm Juel Wicker, and this is episode four of Atlanta is.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Well.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Packer and Rob Harty are two giants in Atlanta with
really impressive resumes. Separately and together they've been making films
that audiences, particularly black folk, have loved for decades. Their
production company, Rainforest Films, has put out movies like Some dr.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
Door, The Stomp in the Yard, Where are You From?
Speaker 3 (02:26):
And Ride Along?
Speaker 5 (02:26):
I'm Gonna take you on a Ride Along.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
On top of that, Will's had a successful career as
a producer. He let the first all black production team
for the Oscars in twenty twenty two, and just last year,
he produced the hit series Fight Night for Peacock.
Speaker 5 (02:42):
No They Burned a Ladder to the ground.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Meanwhile, Rob has become a prolific TV director, working on
episodes of some of today's biggest shows, including Hulu's Reasonable Doubt,
Vampire Diaries, and Being Mary Jane. All of these projects
were filmed in metro Atlanta. Will and Rob moved to
Atlanta in the mid nineties when few filmmakers were doing
(03:08):
the same. They wanted to prove that two black men
could carve out a lane for themselves. Their story starts
in Tallahassee, Florida.
Speaker 5 (03:15):
I met Will the very first day I got to campus.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
That's Rob Party. He and Will both earned engineering degrees
from Florida A and M University, one of the top
ranked historically black colleges and universities in the country. Attending
family is a big deal, but Will and Rob didn't
exactly see it that way.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
As incoming freshmen.
Speaker 6 (03:35):
Neither one of us wanted to be engineers, and we
were both two kids that did not want to be
at that school, and we bonded off that.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
In nineteen ninety four, while Rob was still in school,
he directed a movie about a historically black college, Chocolate City.
Will produced it, their friends were cast in the movie,
and then eagerly attended the premiere for it. Chocolate City
wasn't a blockbuster success, but it was a hit amongst
the students at FAMU. It showed Rob and Will were
(04:03):
serious about their craft and cemented them as creative partners.
Then the title song got picked up by Motown, so
Robin Will were given a budget to make a music
video for it.
Speaker 6 (04:14):
We called them the big camera. They got the big
cameras out here. Now they're filming some music video.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
The whole thing it made Will wonder what else they
could accomplish together.
Speaker 6 (04:23):
And he was like, Yo, this is like a real business.
He always had that entrepreneur spirit. I was a storyteller cat.
So nineteen ninety six, Rob and I are graduating.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
From fam You here's the entrepreneur himself.
Speaker 6 (04:36):
And we've got this dream of being filmmakers. We had
my one little tiny movie. We were like, you know,
let's keep this thing going.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Naturally, they consider it Los Angeles.
Speaker 5 (04:44):
The problem was that we didn't know anybody in Hollywood.
Speaker 6 (04:48):
Was too expensive, it was too far. Everybody was doing
what we wanted to do. New York, same thing, and
we were some broke kids.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
They needed a place that felt a bit more accessible,
buzzing entertainment and business hub where they actually had a
shot at making a name for themselves as young black filmmakers.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
They settled on Atlanta.
Speaker 6 (05:10):
It was the time of organized noise and outcasts Jermaine
Duprie and So So Deaf, Rowdy records with Dallas Austin
and Monica and all those folks, and it was a
take a gas away from Tallahassee. So it felt like
something that we could touch.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
In the nineties, artists flocked to Atlanta to make music
because the city had some of the biggest producers of
the time. Stars like Pink and Madonna spent time inside
Atlanta's studios. Bobby Brown lived here and even had his
own studio in town. It didn't matter if labels were
clustered in Los Angeles and New York. Atlanta had the
hip makers, but for film everything, the sound stages, cast
(05:51):
production crews, and the execs, they were all in La
and New York.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Nothing was in Atlanta.
Speaker 5 (05:57):
Like, it was not popping at all.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
There was no reason to come here.
Speaker 6 (06:01):
It would only make sense if it was like a
specific backdropper location that you needed that was here, that
was in Atlanta, that was in Georgia.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Will and Rob had relocated to an entertainment city that
was known for everything except the one industry they actually
wanted to break into. But they thought about the music
video they'd done for Motown, all those big cameras, maybe
they could do more of that.
Speaker 6 (06:24):
We like finagled our way into a meeting with Jermaine Duprix,
you know, and we finagled our way into a meeting
with Dallas Austin.
Speaker 5 (06:31):
Like we were hustlers, so we had to get to
these people.
Speaker 6 (06:33):
These were like big music industry legends that we did
not know, and we would just tell people, Yo, we're filmmakers.
Speaker 5 (06:39):
We want to shoot music videos.
Speaker 6 (06:41):
When we moved to Atlanta, there was a song called
Ma Boo that was hot. It was on the Soso
Deaf Bass compilation album and.
Speaker 5 (06:51):
Lilid John was the an R.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Robin.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Will were new to town, but they'd already connected with
Little John through a family mutual. My Boo had become
a debut hit for the ghost Town DJs and another
success story for Jamain Dupriez so So Deaf Records. Rob
figured the music video could put him in Will on
the map too.
Speaker 6 (07:09):
So I was like, John's trying to direct the video.
You know, you see my work. He was like yea, yeah,
yah cool. Will come how let me Rob? So at
the time, he was having some issues with his car,
so I would go to his house and pick him
up and drive them to work for me.
Speaker 5 (07:22):
It was my way of kind of trying to politic
to get the video.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Rob says he and Little John were hanging out at
Soso Deaf Records one day when he came across a
box of submissions for the music video.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
He took a look.
Speaker 6 (07:34):
Because he was like, man, that's the ben of stuff
that that's trashed that I ain't never gonna look at.
And I'm just going through the tape and I find
my submission. I'm like, yo, John. He was like, yo,
my bad, Rob, Hardy my bad. He call me to
my whole government name. And then like the next day,
after I dropped them off, I found out that they
were about to shoot the ma Boo video with somebody else.
Speaker 5 (07:52):
I was like John, He was like, Yo, my bad,
n butts you my man? No, you my man.
Speaker 6 (07:59):
We did not shoot one music video. We got shut
out in Atlanta.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
The music video scene was already online. Rob and Will
would have to find another way to break through. Were
you discouraged by the fact that you guys weren't getting
any of those pitches, weren't landing.
Speaker 6 (08:14):
Or we were super discouraged at the fact that nobody
would hire us.
Speaker 5 (08:18):
It was tough.
Speaker 6 (08:19):
I mean we had foregone like solid corporate jobs. It
wasn't like we didn't have college degrees. We had engineering degrees.
All our friends were out working in like buying maximas.
Speaker 5 (08:32):
You know.
Speaker 6 (08:32):
I just remember that I was like the car to
have at that time, and my parents, you know, got
me a Honda Civic for like graduation, and I was
just so thankful that I had anything to drive.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Honda's neat gas and bills have due dates. Will and
Rob needed to get jobs.
Speaker 5 (08:48):
These are the Ramen Noodle days.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
The good thing is they were hustlers, so they weren't
short on ideas for making a few quick books. They
had a short lived cleaning service where they cleaned strip clubs.
Rob sold vacuum cleaners, and Will had temp jobs answering
phones and doing data entry. Eventually he started delivering newspapers
for the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
Speaker 6 (09:09):
I learned that you could also make commission by selling
newspaper for the AJAC, literally knocking on doors, going door
to door. So I was a door to door salesman
after I graduated from college.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
They were always thinking about ways to make money, but
their film dreams remained top of mind too.
Speaker 6 (09:25):
Listen, you know, and I don't recommend this, folks, I
don't recommend this. But what we would try to do
is like we knew where Jermaine du Pre lived, so
we put together a package.
Speaker 5 (09:35):
We went to his house. We put in this mailbox.
Speaker 6 (09:38):
We debated me and Will in the car, shoot we
go knock on the door or maybe that'll be weird.
We ran up on Dominique Wilkins in the club, like, yo,
I got a proposal for this movie. In the car, Dominique,
all I need is two million dollars. For two million dollars,
we can shoot them. And he was looking at me
like yo, I'm so uncomfortable and I'm in the club
and this dude's clearly broke. I'm saying, is trying to
(10:01):
hustle me out of two million dollars as if I
got that in my pocket.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
This must have been such a confusing time for Will
and rob They're in Atlanta, a city where anything feels possible,
and most days they're in arms length away from people
who've made it, but they're still selling newspapers in vacuums.
They needed to prove to themselves that they didn't make
a mistake by going all in on film and Atlanta.
(10:26):
Atlanta's film scene wasn't robust, but Robin Will weren't exactly
alone either. In the nineties, there were a few location
based productions filming here, and there were even a few
established actors who were beginning to see Atlanta as a
home base.
Speaker 7 (10:40):
I made this bold move, leaving Los Angeles and coming
to Atlanta.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Jason Weaver was not a newbie by the time he
relocated to Atlanta in the nineties. He was the singing
voice of Simba in The Lion King and played Marcus
Henderson in the wb sitcom Smart Guy.
Speaker 7 (10:57):
You Know, I bet Dad is really gonna miss you
when you're dead and gone.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
By the time A Smart Guy was canceled in nineteen
ninety nine. Jason was a young adult. He'd been working
for most of his life. He saw Atlanta as a
place where he could chill and have some fun. There
was a popping music scene and a lot of strip clubs.
You also had the Atlanta University Center, the biggest cluster
of historically black colleges and universities in the country, Spelman Morehouse,
(11:24):
Clark Atlanta, and Morris Brown.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
This was the place to be if you were young
and black.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Locals and transplants like Jason all brought their unique elements
of black culture from around the country. People were hustlers here,
businesses were thriving. Sure, Atlanta didn't have much of a
film scene, but Jason saw so much potential.
Speaker 7 (11:46):
The one thing that I kept seeing was more actors,
like black actors just coming down here, living like just
living like, just enjoying what Atlanta represents, which is black excellence,
and you know, as a fluent here and there's black
business down here.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
His agents, though they didn't get it.
Speaker 7 (12:05):
They really couldn't see the silver lining of it all
as far as what Atlanta was bringing to the table creatively,
because they were in their own little circle out there
in LA And at that time, that's all that mattered,
was like what was happening in Los Angeles.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
But Jason was convinced he knew he was experiencing something
that Hollywood couldn't offer.
Speaker 7 (12:26):
Oh, Atlanta was something really really different because you could
just feel this energy in the air that something was
just about to happen. So, you know, I think any
time when you're on the cusp of something, when you
feel like you know it's about to really really explode,
that energy is so intense. And being a part of that, like, nah,
(12:47):
it was it was awesome.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Well, Packer hadn't gotten his big break yet, but he
could see the potential of the city too.
Speaker 6 (12:53):
Atlanta felt like a place where black people were winning
and thriving. The mayor was black, the chief of police
was black, The president of the city council was black,
the fire chief was black. Like, you could go in
neighborhoods and they were all black neighborhoods, and they had
these big houses, you know, and it was impressive. And
me coming from St. Petersburg, Florida, you know, I had
(13:14):
never seen neighborhood like that. I had never certainly never
seen Black Wealth, and it felt like, even if the
film thing didn't work, we were in the place to
be in terms of like having a soft landing.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
They really wanted the film thing to work out, though
Chocolate City, their student film, was a great launch pad,
but they needed to make something post college and in Atlanta.
They needed to make a name for themselves and established
that even as newbies in a city with few film resources,
they could find their audience. They made a feature less
(13:47):
film starring Kenya Moore and Gary Jordan.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Well, now I know the married life has you getting
it all the time.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
What I really.
Speaker 5 (13:54):
Wanted is a Naja twa.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Released in two thousand, the movie told the story of
a couple who decides to have a threesome, only to
encounter some unexpected consequences. People already understood the appeal of
erotic thrillers like Basic Instinct and Fatal Attraction, but Will
wanted to show that the genre could be just as
compelling with black characters.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
If it were me, I would do whatever it took
to make my man happy. I know, Tammy, but I
mean that's out there.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Robin Will wanted to raise seven hundred and fifty thousand
dollars to make the movie. Ultimately, they were able to
get just a tenth of that, and most of that
money went to TWA's actors and equipment. They had to
get resourceful for everything else.
Speaker 6 (14:35):
We shot twy in our own house, which you know,
that is the number one rule of film production that
you should never do.
Speaker 5 (14:41):
You should never break that rule. Don't shoot in your
own house. Remember looking at the.
Speaker 6 (14:45):
Screen and one of the actors had my shirt on
and I was like, yo, that's my shirt, and the
wardrobe pressure was like, yeah, well, I guess would in
your closet.
Speaker 5 (14:53):
Because you know, and we don't really had no budget
on this movie.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
The filmmakers weren't working with the union. So the small
dedicated production crew once filmed for twenty four hours straight.
We'll says crew members with sleeping shifts so they could
keep working. That's how much people believed in the work
these two were doing. They completed the film in two thousand,
but the work was far from over. Now they had
to get people into theaters to see it.
Speaker 6 (15:18):
We literally went city to city in a car promoting
the movie and booking theaters, marketing the movie, and it
came out and you know it had the highest per
screen average of any movie that came out that weekend,
and it was.
Speaker 5 (15:35):
In the trades.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
They finally got Hollywood's attention. It was time to go
to work and double down on Atlanta.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
When Will and.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Rob moved to Atlanta, they brought with them a spirit
of grit and ambition. They saw the potential in the
city and hustled to make something out of nothing. But
there were already a few key people in Georgia who
shared the same vision, who worked behind the scenes methodically
trying to put the state on the map. Two folks
in particular, from two separate worlds, who would eventually converge
(16:10):
to entice Hollywood to Atlanta and turn the city into
a film mecca. The first member of our duo comes
from the world of film.
Speaker 8 (16:18):
Oh all right, well, Shae Bentley Griffin.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Shaye is a casting director who was born in California.
She now lives on her family's farm in Polk County, Georgia.
Speaker 8 (16:28):
My brother has some of the most beautiful blueberries you
have ever seen.
Speaker 5 (16:33):
She says.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
She always saw her life here in Georgia, even if
her industry wasn't concentrated here. If a TV show or
movie was filmed in Georgia in the eighties or nineties.
It was almost always just because it was set here.
But shee felt like she could change that. Shane knew
early on that there was talent here, but proving it
to the industry was a challenge.
Speaker 8 (16:53):
Because it was hard for them to imagine that there
could possibly be any actors in Georgia. So I spent
the first part of my time convincing Los Angeles they
were wrong about that.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
She spent years traveling back and forth between her family
farm in rural Georgia and Atlanta, trying everything to sell
producers on the idea that filming in Georgia was a
good business move, and then she finally cracked the code
ahead of the production of Tim Conaway's nineteen seventy eight
slapstick film They went that away in that.
Speaker 8 (17:25):
A way, there was a key sentence, and that was,
you know when I said to them, I can save
you money.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
She was talking to one of the movie's producers.
Speaker 8 (17:34):
And they looked at me like, uh huh, okay, how
And so I said to them, Well, if you've got
a script and it's got to say, let's just say
twenty rolls in it, and I could help you by
giving you the opportunity to work with really good actors,
maybe in the number of even if it was just ten.
(17:56):
And you did not have to fly them here first classes.
You have put them up. You didn't have to feed them,
you didn't have to do anything.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
These actors wouldn't need a per dim to cover meals
and other expenses related to traveling for work, because well,
they lived here.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
It was a win win.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Local talent would get a shot on the big screen
and the production would save money the pitchwork.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
The producer was convinced.
Speaker 8 (18:20):
My business really became a business at that point. And
I mean, I don't remember when I didn't work.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Name any of the major Georgia productions during this time.
Fried Green Tomatoes in the Heat of the Night, Remember
the Titans, the Fighting Temptations. Shae cast it for all
of them. The actors she worked with have gone on
to do incredible work. Before Walton Goggins started in season
three of The White Lotus Or Gary Anthony Williams played
Uncle Ruckus in the Boondocks. They were both cast by
(18:51):
Shay in local productions. While Shay was casting for TV,
the music producer Dallas was making hits. He's the second
member of our duo and would eventually partner up with
Shay to bring Hollywood to Atlanta.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
But Dallas didn't start off as a film guy. One
of the biggest names in music, Dallas Austin.
Speaker 5 (19:14):
Dallas is like a tour divorce.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Not only did he help launch the careers if Atlanta
based artists like TLC and Monica, he was also working
with pop stars like Michael Jackson. Dallas's Brody Records, alongside
La Face and So So Deaf, helped to cubment Atlanta
as a musical epicenter in the nineties.
Speaker 9 (19:32):
Those still days of freak naked, days of Atlanta being
like Atlanta Atlanta.
Speaker 5 (19:35):
So we were.
Speaker 9 (19:36):
Capturing all that stuff on the records.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
That's Dallas gonna be high talking about those days.
Speaker 9 (19:40):
But we would take that stuff from me and Jermaine
and know Im and just be like, man, we got
to add that to our stuff down here, and we
started making our own Atlanta because nobody was really messing
with us. Like a New York they had hip hop,
La had no something going on, but like Atlanta for
us is all in this country. That's bass music.
Speaker 10 (19:56):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Dallas wasn't was just dominating in music. Though well Will
and Rob dreamed of using the music industry as a
launch pad into film, Dallas actually succeeded. By the early
two thousands, Dallas had already shown that he had the
chops to make it as a film producer with the
release of Drumline, a movie inspired by his high school
(20:19):
band Aids. Drumline helped Nick Cannon transition into a film
star and proved that there was an audience for black
Southern stories. Dallas was determined to prove his Drumline success
wasn't just a fluke. By the time Jason Weaver was
cast in Drumline, Dallas was already thinking ahead to the
next time they might be able to work together.
Speaker 7 (20:40):
He said, Man, I got another one. I got another
one coming right around the corner. Man, Like, I'm so
serious about this. Man Like Atlanta is like they don't understand. Man,
Atlanta really really really got something to say.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Jason is recounting a conversation where Dallas was talking about
the coming of age movie atl released in two thousand
and six.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
Sorry Huh, no ticket, no skates.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
As a teenager, Dallas used to hang out with t
Bos from TLC at the Southwest Atlanta skating rink Jellybean.
By the early two thousands, the pair had collaborated on
hit songs like pre and Ain't Too Proud to beg
They decided to expand their partnership into film by producing
a movie inspired by their time at the skating ring.
Speaker 11 (21:21):
Y'all sluckers, but I'll figure out what y'all gonna do.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
The story was compelling enough that Will Smith came on
as a producer, and somehow Ti, the biggest rapper coming
out of Atlanta, was convinced to play the lead in
the teenage skate.
Speaker 6 (21:36):
Drama Georgia and Down South drew up quick, especially George
and the atl.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
I was obsessed with atl as a teenager, and so
was every other kid at my high school. I mean,
we grew up skating at Cascade. My mom earned skate
trophies at Jellybean just a few short years before Dallas
and t Bos were skating there. To this day, if
I tell someone outside of Georgia that I grew up
on Cascade Road, they all have the same question. Cascade,
(22:11):
like the skating rink from atl.
Speaker 11 (22:13):
It is every walk of life.
Speaker 10 (22:16):
It's the fashion, it's the cars, it's the high Low,
it's hood. It's ratchet, but it's also bouge. Is everything there.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
That's Tina Gordon, Atl's screenwriter.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Tina moved to Atlanta in the late nineties after graduating
from the University of Virginia. Her first gig was as
a screenwriter for Drumline. At first, she was so skeptical
about things working out. She actually juggled being a journalist
with going to say. By the time drum Line wrapped,
there was no question she'd found her long term home
(22:49):
and career.
Speaker 10 (22:51):
I also had never seen black, upward class neighborhoods like
they are in Atlanta. You know, it's just like Manchin
after matchups, imagine, and it's all black people.
Speaker 11 (23:01):
I was always just sort of struck by that, And
that's kind of the beginnings of atl was. I was like,
let's think of the roller skating rink as a place
where all of the different backgrounds can come together and
brush up against each other.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
The thing that makes atl so fun to watch is
that it really does reflect the types of people you
might run into around town. Tina wasn't from Atlanta, but
that wasn't a disadvantage. It actually allowed her to see
things more clearly and to write authentic characters reflecting all
walks of black Atlanta life. One of those characters is
Teddy played by Jason Weaver.
Speaker 4 (23:40):
Had to get my breakfast, aft got to eat, but
get out your mill. I know guys like that down
in Atlanta.
Speaker 7 (23:45):
I used to hang on Old National a lot, and
I used to be in Fayetteville, down in the South.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Rashad, the star of the movie, was played by Ti.
He was the glue to his friend group and skate crew.
Rashad juggled the demands of providing for him himself and
his younger brother while also pursuing a love interest who
came from a different social class. In real life, tia
I was providing for his family through rap, actually through trap.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
Some people credit his.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Two thousand and three album Trap Music with giving the
genre its name.
Speaker 10 (24:18):
Was I.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
His music turned his real life experiences as a charismatic
dope boy into bona fide hits like Rubber Band Man,
Bring Him Out and what you Know Lol Ride. It
was a big risk to cast the rapper as the
lead in a movie. T I had never acted in
anything before. He was also one of the city's biggest stars.
(24:41):
So he was booked and busy and barely had time
to be on a film set.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
T I was really late.
Speaker 10 (24:47):
He was on music time like all the time, and
Hollywood already.
Speaker 5 (24:52):
Was just like, we've hired a rapper. Anything can happen.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Somehow, Tina the screenwriter got caught in the middle of
a conflict between film exects and the rapper himself.
Speaker 12 (25:05):
I don't know how I got charged with telling Tea, I, Hey,
these folks really are upset about you being late all
the time, and I think, like there is something bad
it's about to happen, right.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Can you imagine being a writer for your second movie
and somehow you have to sell the star they can't
be late to set anymore.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
But I remember he goes, oh okay, and he did
it like he was on time over that. He literally
just was like, oh is that how like like is
that how it works?
Speaker 12 (25:39):
He's like, oh okay.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
As an actor on set, Jason saw this shift happen
in real time. See, I was such a big star
at that like he was big in his rapping career. Yes,
at that point, where is it like to be going
through that process with him.
Speaker 4 (25:56):
You know, I'll be honest.
Speaker 7 (25:57):
It was interesting for me to watch him accept his
responsibility as being a number one. It was interesting to
watch him grow in that time. I saw a change
from a rapper coming into the environment and maybe not
really caring that much to be a part of the environment,
or understanding the impact that this kind of film could
(26:18):
have and his role in it.
Speaker 4 (26:21):
Something clicked one day.
Speaker 7 (26:23):
I think it was when we were doing one of
the skating scenes and we were on a timeline crunch
and we were all kind of tired and fatigued, and
we kind of just fooling around and not really focused,
and Tip just stepped in was like, hey, y'all, we
gotta get this done. Man, Like everybody focused. We got
all these people here, they spending all this money. We
got crew members here, Like, come on, y'all.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Atl wasn't a huge box office success, but it became
a lasting cult classic in the same way that Drumline had.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
For Black millennials, especially those of us from the South.
It was one of the.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
First times we saw our experiences represented accurately and thoroughly
in a movie.
Speaker 7 (27:03):
People are still asking for a sequel even now, when
I have fans of those films approach me. You know,
it's a little bit deeper than saying, hey, that was
a good film. It's like, it's a celebration of our people,
celebration of our culture than how beautiful we are in
any kind of way. Of that helped inspire kids to
like either go to HBCU or you know, make music
(27:23):
or skate or whatever the case may be, or just appreciated,
love themselves for who they are. To be a part
of that kind of storytelling is just it's a blessing.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
That was Austin wasn't just dreaming up his own movies
during this time, he was also meeting with lawmakers and
key players in Atlanta's film industry. Around two thousand and four,
he joined a Film and Entertainment committee set up by
Governor Sonny Purdue. There were tasked with figuring out how
to make Georgia a more enticing place for film productions.
Other states like North Carolina and Louisiana already had tax
(27:55):
incentives that had lord film productions away from Los Angeles
and New York. Maybe Georgia could create a program to
rival them. Dallas was a creator with a lot of ideas,
and he was also really busy. He needed help, so
he nominated Shay, the casting director, as chair of the committee.
She already knew that the way to get Hollywood's attention
(28:17):
was to help their bottom line.
Speaker 8 (28:20):
We knew what we were doing. We had people here
who had worked on enough films that they were valuable
to any production coming here.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
The Commission supported a tax incentive that would offer between
nine to seventeen percent in tax credits for any production
that film here. Those credits could then be sold off
to a Georgia based company who could actually use them.
Filmmakers like Willpacker and Tyler Perry got on board pretty quickly.
They caught lawmakers urging them to show their support for
the bill. It worked, Georgia's first film tax incentive went
(28:51):
into effect in two thousand and five. Willpacker and Rob
Hardy had been on the scene before a tax intentive
was even an idea.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
Now they were the first in line of benefit.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Their two thousand and five film, The Gospel, received the
tax credit retroactively. The Gospel was also the pair's first
film to be distributed by Sony. Two years later, in
two thousand and seven, Sony would collaborate again with Will
and Rob's production company, Rainforest Films to make Sumthy Art.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
The movie, which filmed.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
At HBCUs here in Atlanta, told the story of black
fraternities in their legacy of stepping. Will and Rob are
both members of Alpha Phi Alpha, so they knew the
power of black Greek life intimately. But to get the
white executives of Sony on board, they pitched the movie
as You Got Served two point zero. The film was
a success, opening at number one during its first weekend.
(29:49):
It was further proof that if given a chance, Atlanta
could dominate in film.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
Here's Rob.
Speaker 6 (29:55):
We got a chance to not have side jobs or
we could be filmmakers the whole time, which was cool.
And we had like this relationship with Sony where we
could get other movies made, and in Atlanta had become
the place where independent filmmakers were coming to make their
dreams a reality.
Speaker 5 (30:14):
So it felt like we were head of the curve.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Still, the tax incentive that passed in two thousand and
five wasn't enough to beat out the incentives offered by
other states. Georgia needed to up the ante. In two
thousand and eight, Georgia passed the version of the tax
incentive that we know today. This version offers productions tax
credits of up to thirty percent.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
The only catch they have to include.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Georgia's tourism loco a peach at the end of their credits.
If you don't understand how tax credits work, that's fair.
Taxes are unnecessarily complicated and confusing. Here's an example straight
from Georgia's film office. Say you spend twenty million dollars
on your production here and you receive the total thirty
(30:58):
percent credit.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
That means you could get a six million dollar tax.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Credit that you could use to offset what you owe
in taxes or sell it to a Georgia based company
at say ten percent discount.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
So the Georgia company would pay the.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Production company five million, four hundred thousand dollars, but they'd
still get the full six million dollar credit.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
It's a win win.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
The production company gets back some of the money it's
spent to film here, and the company they sell the
credit to gets a discount on taxes. But yes, like
I said, taxes are confusing. Hollywood understood the implications of this,
though the results were immediate.
Speaker 6 (31:36):
It was like a light switched on and all of
a sudden, you had many more productions looking to shoot
at Atlanta, from Hollywood, from New York, from overseas.
Speaker 4 (31:51):
My agent started calling me and they were like, Hey,
I'm flying down. I'm gonna go see a client, another
client that's here. They're shooting.
Speaker 5 (31:58):
Da da da.
Speaker 7 (31:58):
Hey, this place isn't so bad that after all you
were telling me, you know, how where should I go to?
Speaker 4 (32:04):
Okay, Mary Max? Or well where's that one? Okay, busy bee?
Speaker 3 (32:08):
What's that now?
Speaker 7 (32:08):
Whether they say okay, cool, cool, and I'll be like, Okay,
it's changing because you know, back when I first moved here,
it's like, what are you doing down there? And oh,
you're just hanging out and you're just having fun. You're
not taking it seriously. There's no film community down there.
There are no actors, there are no what, writers, what,
and no everything's here. And then when they started seeing
(32:29):
it for themselves, you know, you saw the page turns.
Speaker 6 (32:32):
And then of course you would see all the location
signs and they stand out because they're yellow.
Speaker 5 (32:38):
When we were first starting.
Speaker 6 (32:39):
We didn't even need location signs, like it was just
you know, go down and make a right to stop sign,
go to the first house.
Speaker 5 (32:45):
On the left.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
Most of the new productions using these yellow signs weren't
actually set in Georgia. The state became a stand in
for anywhere, USA. But soon something interesting started happening. Shows
like Donald Glover's At Length actually tapped into the city's
culture and it's interesting characters.
Speaker 5 (33:04):
Fight this out no good man.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
When Will Packer produced the Peacock series Fight Night, he
wanted to attract as many viewers as possible. He also
wanted to make it clear to anyone watching, no matter
where they might be, that the show was a love
letter to Atlanta. Fight Night is a fictionalized take on
a real life lucrative heightst involving black mobsters that took
place around Muhammad Ali's return to boxing in nineteen seventy You.
Speaker 5 (33:33):
Gentleman, why you're hearing Atlanta?
Speaker 10 (33:35):
Man?
Speaker 1 (33:35):
Who are you?
Speaker 3 (33:37):
You are pity hosts?
Speaker 1 (33:39):
Yes, sir.
Speaker 3 (33:41):
For locals who recognize the locations and storylines, the show
might as well be called if you know.
Speaker 5 (33:47):
You know that's actually pascals. We shot that at busy Bees.
Speaker 6 (33:52):
This is the auc This is Southwest Atlanta where we
shot this scene. Some of it will only be caught
by true Atlanta's Some will only be caught by four
that know the real atl But we had to have
that in there because this is a real atl.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
Story the way he sees it.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
He has an obligation to highlight a place that has
given so much to him as a creator.
Speaker 6 (34:12):
I came to filmmaking prominence in Atlanta. Tina Gordon's first
movie was in Atlanta. Rob Hardy's first movie was in Atlanta.
Tyler Perry came to prominence in Atlanta. All of us
who were birthed by that culture. In that scene, we
all tried to pay it back by showing Atlanta authentically.
After being in Atlanta for thirty years, I still feel
(34:32):
like there's a rich amount of stories to tell that
have yet to be taught.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
The film industry has changed several times since We'll first
moved here in the late nineties. There have been some
massive highs, but also a few lows. In two thousand
and eight, will watch this opportunity appear seemingly overnight. After
Georgia passed its tax incentive. In the twenty tens, Atlanta
benefited from the streaming boom. An influx of new streaming
(34:58):
companies mint studios to greenlight enough shows to film them.
But these days the Georgia film world is fighting a
battle on two fronts. At home, there are politicians who
remain skeptical about the tax incentive.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
Georgia's popular film tax credit got some scrutiny out the
Capitol today, with one lawmaker saying that it's time to
rein it on end. A recent audit of the credit
shows taxpayers lose far more than the state makes in
the film industry jobs a love.
Speaker 5 (35:25):
Of the life's dog.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Throughout the country, the entire film industry is contracting in
the wake of COVID strikes and the end of that
streaming boom.
Speaker 3 (35:34):
The volume of.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
Productions taking place, not just in Georgia but everywhere, remains
much lower than before the pandemic. In this new climate,
both in Atlanta and beyond, black creators say there seems
to be less interest in taking a chance on their stories.
Speaker 5 (35:51):
You know, it's hard to make any movie, I don't
care what it's about.
Speaker 6 (35:54):
You can, you know, try to make a movie about
you know, five straight white guys. It's hard, right, So yes,
if you're trying to make a movie that's for a
niche audience, it's even harder. And it is you got
to figure out a way to do it, though. And
the thing I love about Atlanta is that it's a
city of hustlers. Man, It's a city of entrepreneurs, right.
(36:15):
The joke is that everybody in Atlanta's got a side hustle,
and I think that's true. I don't know that I
would have been able to have been as successful as
I am in this industry if I was trying to
do it in any other city.
Speaker 5 (36:29):
Because I had the support of Atlanta.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
Atlanta done came up a lot, especially since the film
industry made the city at second home. If you're from
my generation, then we share some priceless moments. We're blessed
to be able to call out home. If you're too
young to know firsthand what it was back in the day,
just believe me, you should be proud to be from
the AA. Do everything you can to rep the city
(36:57):
with pride. The day when y'all gonna be og will
be here in no time. It's been a hell of
a ride that I wouldn't change if I could, so
I'm proud to be part of the legendary Black HollyHood.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
Atlanta may now be a film city, but it's been
a church city for even longer. In the next episode,
we explore the city's complicated relationship with religion and influence.
Speaker 3 (37:27):
In Atlanta is where pastors are.
Speaker 5 (37:30):
The original influencers were getting it out the mud.
Speaker 6 (37:33):
It was a dry white season, the church had dwindled
almost to nothing, and God said, this is your assignment.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
Atlanta is the will Packer Media production in partnership with
iHeart Podcast, Idea, Generation and Complex. This episode was written, reported,
and produced by Juel Wicker, with additional production from Maurice
Garland and Christina Lee. Our supervising producer and editor is
Shiva Bayak. Our managing producers are Rose Frulini Bacon O'mari Graham,
(38:14):
and Shamara Rochester. Editorial support from Sean Setero and Jack Irwin.
Speaker 5 (38:20):
Original theme music by Aman Sahota.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
Sound designed by Shiva Bayat and Our Mind Sahota, mixed
and mastered by our Man Sahota. Fact checking done by
Sean Setero, Clarence Counsel, Donnison, Caliph Perez, Lisa Calif and
Jacqueline Schwedt. Executive producers for will Packer Media are Will
Packer and Alex Bowden. Co producer for will pack Of
(38:43):
Media is Nimi Mohun. Executive producers for Idea Generation and
Complex are Jack Irwin and Noah Callahan. Bever Head of
talent Relations for Complex is Anthony Alred, Talent associate for
Complex is Ryan Houston. Senior attorney for comp Lex is
Jordan Washington. Special thanks to Tyler Klang, Terry Harrison, Chris Senator,
(39:06):
Noams Griffin, and Candice Howard. A big ROO piece
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