Terry Shuler, left, receives Colquitt County's Camera Read certification from Craig Dominey, Camera Ready program manager with the Georgia Department of Economic Development.

Lights! Camera! Action, y’all!

With terrain that can mimic nearly any in the world, the state of Georgia has become one of the most popular states in the nation for film crews. Colquitt County hopes to take advantage of that through a state-sponsored website that connects the film industry with the kinds of locations they want to shoot.

Colquitt County was declared “Camera Ready” last week, the culmination of an effort by the Moultrie-Colquitt County Chamber of Commerce to meet state requirements.

“There’s a lot of background that needs to be done,” said chamber marketing director Terry Shuler. “It’s time-consuming, but it’s not hard.”

The chamber gathered more than 20 locations whose landowners were agreeable to letting a crew film on their property. The chamber staff completed large quantities of paperwork — “a background of the community,” Shuler called it — and photos and descriptions have begun being uploaded onto the state’s website, where film industry professionals can search by keyword for whatever they need: from a spooky, rural house to a bare rock quarry.

“It may not be something fancy,” Shuler said. “They may want a winding dirt road, or a tree-covered road … a pond, or Spanish-moss-covered trees.”

Among the sites either already uploaded or ready to be: Pecan Hill Inn, the Colquitt County Arts Center and Gin Creek.

The state picks up the cost of the website, Shuler said, and there’s no cost for a community to participate.

Getting a feature film would be great, of course, but the website is also available for companies that shoot commercials and music videos. Such smaller projects are less disruptive than a big movie but they bring an economic boost while they’re here, Shuler said. Most film companies want to use local labor when they can, she said, and the crew and cast will have to be housed and fed while they’re here.

On top of that, a feature film can boost tourism, she said. Tourists still visit Tara, the house where “Gone with the Wind” was filmed, or hunt for Forrest Gump’s bench in Savannah, or seek out the restaurant from “Fried Green Tomatoes.”

According to the Georgia Film, Music and Digital Entertainment Office, a division of the Georgia Department of Economic Development, the economic impact of the entertainment industry in Georgia hit $2.4 billion during fiscal year 2011. The Camera Ready Community Program, which started in October 2010, now includes 112 Georgia counties, but it isn’t the only state initiative trying to draw entertainment projects.

“Our aggressive tax incentive, new infrastructure and expanding crew base make Georgia the leading lady for film and television production,” said Commissioner Chris Cummiskey of the Department of Economic Development. “At any given time you can find multiple productions providing jobs and investment in numerous communities across the state.”

If a landowner wants to join the list of possible film sites, contact Shuler at the chamber of commerce, (229) 985-4545.