The general consensus following the first reading and public hearing for a proposed Hall County motion picture and film ordinance is that there is still a lot of work to be done.
"Rules are good," said Commission Chairman Richard Higgins at Thursday's Hall County Board of Commissioners meeting. "But I think we need some balance. I came away from reading this (ordinance) as kind of harsh, and I felt like it was going to run more (film companies) away and hurt our opportunities."
A lot of the issues stem from the fee structure laid out in the ordinance that includes numerous fees that could easily add up to tens of thousands of dollars per day to use county roads, facilities and/or services.
"There may be communities that have been doing films in California that can get away with the fees that are being proposed in this ordinance, but we're not quite there yet," said Stacey Dickson, president of the Lake Lanier Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Dickson and her office has served as the camera ready liaison with the Georgia film office for seven years, placing dozens of film and TV projects within the county during that time. She has worked with productions ranging from major motion pictures to small independent films to commercials to everything in between and worries that certain portions of the ordinance would discourage film companies from doing any future business with Hall County.
"We have a really good project coming in April," Dickson said. "I can't say what it is, but it's a major feature (film).
"If this (ordinance) proceeds and gets voted through by the end of the month, they might say, 'we're out'."
The Lake Lanier Convention and Visitors Bureau plans to submit a memo to the Board of Commissioners with some suggested edits to the current proposed ordinance based on the experience the Bureau has gained working with these film companies.
"I think we all want to encourage the film industry to come to Hall County," Commissioner Billy Powell said. "But at the same time, we definitely want to make sure that our neighborhoods and citizens are protected and that (Hall County) benefits as well as we can."
At least 16 films were shot in Hall County last year including The Accountant starring Ben Affleck, and the recently released Table 19 starring Anna Kendrick, which shot most of its principle photography at Lanier Islands.
With so much production taking place in Hall County, Dickson proposed a film ordinance last year that she admits was very basic.
"Maybe what we gave was too simple and this is the other end of the spectrum," she said. "It's on the right track to have something but maybe not quite this stringent."
