While the big Marvel movies and Netflix shows get the bulk of the attention when it comes to TV and film production in Georgia, there are many smaller companies that focus on the less sexy world of commercials.
But a proposed revision to the generous 2008 TV and film credit program that is working its way through the state legislature could basically shut out this niche of the entertainment business in town. Already, new audit requirements passed in 2020 and interpreted by the state Department of Revenue have made it more difficult for these companies to qualify.
“We spend millions a year on commercials and I feel we are being disregarded,” said Tabitha Mason-Elliott, owner of Atlanta-based Bark Bark Entertainment + Content Studio which does promos and commercials. She is also chairperson of the national board of The Association of Independent Commercial Producers. Her company, which employs 18 people and hundreds of freelancers, has done promos and brand integration for AMC’s “The Walking Dead,” FX’s “Atlanta” and a raft of Tyler Perry shows.
She said her association recently polled its members and 35 of them said they have filed for tax credit breaks over the past four years.
“Those across the country have been shooting commercials here on a regular basis,” Mason-Elliott said. “We worked through the actors and writers strikes. We employed hundreds of people. But under the proposed new rules, none of the companies would qualify for tax credits.”
Mason-Elliott said the Department of Revenue recently began requiring audits for each individual commercial project rather than an aggregated single audit for an entire year, Elliott said. This, she said, is cost prohibitive. She said her organization is trying to resolve this issue internally with DOR but proposed changes in the tax credit program would tie their hands.
Currently, companies could combine multiple productions and qualify for the tax credit if they spend at least $500,000 in qualified expenses in the state of Georgia. At that amount, a commercial production company would receive $100,000 in tax credits, which for a small company is substantial.
But the proposed change would raise that aggregated minimum to $10 million.
A Department of Revenue spokesman did not return a query for comment.
Peter Siaggas, who has run commercial producer Spots Films for more than 15 years in Atlanta, said he shot 15 commercials in Georgia last year. Adding the budgets of those commercials, he would exceed the current $500,000 minimum. Spots has five full-time Georgia-based employees out of an office near Krog Street Market.
In all, he shoots about 30 commercials a year and any given day, that means employing an extra 50 to 60 people. His clients over the years have included Nickelodeon, Jack’s, Corona, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Hasbro.
But budgets for any individual commercial shoot has only gotten smaller in recent years, usually ranging from $80,000 to $150,000.
“We’re not making tons of money,” Siaggas said. “It’s not a big margin business. The tax credits give us stability that comes back to the community many times over. Without the tax credit, we’d have to get rid of the office and lose staff. I’m scared for me, my employees and the Georgia film community.”
Mason-Elliott said she doesn’t want small businesses like hers to be forgotten. “We’re not the big fish,” she said, like Netflix or Disney. “They’re more politically active than we are.”
She said it might behoove the state to create a tiered tax credit system that could help smaller production companies that focus on commercials and “acknowledge that our needs are different” than film and TV show creators like Warner Bros. Discovery or Lionsgate.
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