The entertainment industry in Georgia has exploded, and DeKalb County is at the epicenter of that continuing growth. On this week’s episode of The Playbook, host Mark Collier, area director for the UGA Small Business Development Center, sits down with Shelbia Jackson, Director of the DeKalb Entertainment Commission. Today, Jackson is going to discuss her pivotal role in driving entertainment production in DeKalb County and beyond.
Transcription:
Mark Collier:
Welcome into The Playbook, Shelbia.
Shelbia Jackson:
Thank you. Thank you for having me today.
Mark Collier:
All right. Well, as I said in my lead-in, the entertainment industry is really exploding here. I mean, I drive to work every day, and I see that huge studio going up at 285 at the former General Motors plant. And, of course, Tyler Perry is a well-known commodity here with his studio as well. So before we dive into that, tell me about your professional journey. How did it begin, and how did you get to your current role as Director of the DeKalb Entertainment Commission?
Shelbia Jackson:
Well, you know what, it was by chance because at the time, DeKalb County didn’t have a process for managing the amount of film production that was coming as a result of that film tax credit. It was exploding across the state, and we were no exception to that. So when it landed in my lap to coordinate services, I also felt the need to figure out what our management process should be. And so, I work with county officials, our board commissioners, every single department in the county to determine what does that look like? What should our structure be? What should our film ordinance look like and so forth? So we ended up forming an entertainment commission-
Mark Collier:
Very smart.
Shelbia Jackson:
… that is fully funded by the county. And we have an entertainment strategic plan that guides us in what we should do as well as an entertainment commission of 10 organizations to help us understand this industry and what it needs.
Mark Collier:
Phenomenal. I love to hear the words “strategic plan.” I’m a big strategy guy. And I mean, you need a blueprint. If you don’t have a blueprint, you don’t know where you’re going.
Shelbia Jackson:
Right.
Mark Collier:
All right. So let’s dive a little deeper. Describe some of your responsibilities as the director at the DEC and as well as the responsibility of your team members.
Shelbia Jackson:
So not only do we work with our school system and our technical colleges, we work with partners in the industry who have a longstanding history of understanding and working with this industry, not just including our commission organizations, which also include the unions, organizations that help to create our film tax credit, our music tax credit, our digital media tax credit. All of those organizations provide us with advice on what we should be doing to support-
Mark Collier:
Makes sense.
Shelbia Jackson:
… the creative community. So we want to definitely grow the industry. We want to grow local talent. So we created workforce programs to help them grow their skills from being a novice to intermediate, to advance so they can always have job opportunities in the industry.
Mark Collier:
Excellent.
Shelbia Jackson:
We created services around location. That’s the primary way to get a production to film in your area is to be proactive about the film friendly locations that you have in your area. So we know where those are. We have a free database for residents and business owners to contact us and let us know that they’re film friendly.
Mark Collier:
Interesting. Okay.
Shelbia Jackson:
And then when productions reach out to us, we can go down the list of locations that they need and locate them in DeKalb County. So that’s how we maintain our reputation for being a consistent, streamlined organization that has topnotch customer service.
Mark Collier:
All right. So, well, that’s important because there’s competition out here.
Shelbia Jackson:
Absolutely.
Mark Collier:
DeKalb County is not the only county in Georgia, and I’m sure everyone’s kind of grasping at those entertainment dollars. So you have to kind of differentiate yourself in order to get a leg up.
Shelbia Jackson:
That is true as well, but we also like to be a regional partner.
Mark Collier:
Very good.
Shelbia Jackson:
So we have 12 cities in DeKalb County, but we count city Atlanta, so it makes 13. So we work closely with city of Atlanta. We love working with Fulton County. We love working with Savannah and Columbus. So we try to be a regional partner because we know that if someone’s filming in Columbus or they’re filming in Savannah, more than likely their production will come back and they’ll film in Metro Atlanta. If you’re a regional partner, then you’re welcoming to everybody.
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