For her vision of building the Hudson Valley into a national film hub, Mary Stuart Masterson has Georgia on her mind.
More specifically, the actress and director best known for starring in “Fried Green Tomatoes” and “Some Kind of Wonderful” wants to see how Georgia’s rapid growth in film and television production can be replicated in New York. As the executive director and founder of the nonprofit Stockade Works, Masterson is helping to lead a project that would convert part of a Kingston warehouse into a film and television production studio.
In a speech given Jan. 19 at the Upstate Venture Association of New York annual celebration in Newburgh, Masterson described the relatively small production economy in Georgia when she arrived there to film “Fried Green Tomatoes” in 1991. The film’s staging had to be built and most of the crew came in from other states.
Today, Georgia has utilized tax incentives and an expanding workforce and facilities to become the third-largest television and production industry in the country, behind only New York and California. The industry in the state is worth well over a billion dollars.
“A single production can create an economic ripple effect that can be felt statewide, and Georgia is currently basking in its booming entertainment economy,” Masterson said.
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