The Hollywood of the South

Most of the larger cities in the United States have film bureaus or liaison offices that aid filmmakers in getting their location shots for their product. Those scenes of the good guy chasing the bad guy through the streets of New York’s Time Square are often shot on actual location and more often than not, are not computer generated. But where do you go when you want to do a movie with a small town or rural location. Many filmmakers now turn to the “Hollywood of the South” – Covington, Georgia.

Founded in 1822 and named after Leonard Covington, a hero of the War of 1812, Covington is the county seat of Newton county, Georgia. This small city with a population of just over 13,000 provides filmmakers with a small town environment and rural landscapes just 35 miles southeast of Atlanta. Thus, many filmmakers have used Covington as the backdrop for their TV and movie productions. For seven years, Covington was Sparta, Mississippi in the TV show, In the Heat of the Night. It is currently the town of Mystic Falls, Virginia in the CW hit TV show, The Vampire Diaries. It has been featured in the TV show or film:

• Sweet Home Alabama
• The Fighting Temptations
• Remember the Titans
• The Odd Life of Timothy Green
• The Dukes of Hazzard
• Miss Evers’ Boys
• I’ll Fly Away
• And many Tyler Perry films plus those others listed in the Film and Television section of the City of Covington Wikipedia entry.

Like many southern towns, where the tallest structure in town is its court house; Covington has a town square which is a center of activity in the community and a  monument to its Confederate Civil War dead.  But this is a progressive city that is proud of the fact that it has its own airport, community TV and free Wi-Fi service around the town square.

The City of Covington is also proud of its participation in various film projects. In the town square, the City commemorates each project with a Star similar to those found on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.

A few of the many stars are shown below:

The City of Covington has a published strategic plan that would put many organizations I’ve worked for to shame. It starts with its mission statement: Preserving the value of small town life while preparing an innovative community with access to the world. It’s plan is bold, ambitious, loaded with benchmarks and doable. It’s a heck of a town and filmmakers west of the Mississippi seem to agree that it’s the place go to get that small town, middle America location shot. And the City of Covington, Georgia is happy to provide it.