Autumn Bailey-Ford produces global entertainment.
Autumn Bailey-Ford has found a family in Georgia entertainment since arriving from Raleigh, North Carolina, in June 2008.
That was the year Georgia’s upgraded entertainment tax credit launched a film and TV surge. It’s also the year she founded Autumn Bailey Entertainment.
She has since earned production credits on about 50 feature films, shorts, documentaries and TV series, and has nearly 30 other projects in progress. As an independent producer, she coordinates everything from finding stories and hiring cast and crew to scouting locations and securing distribution.
“I always want to do the type of projects that are uplifting, that can really inspire people and get people excited, especially excited about their faith,” says Bailey-Ford, a Buford resident who works at the Assembly Studios complex in Doraville.
Her highlights include Maynard, a documentary on Atlanta’s first Black mayor, Maynard Jackson; On a Wing and a Prayer, a faith-based drama starring Dennis Quaid and Heather Graham; and “Barbershop,” a forthcoming Prime TV series based on the movies.
“I always was a fan of watching movies, and I never wanted to act, never wanted to write. I always wanted to be the person that put everything together,” says Bailey- Ford, a native of York, Pennsylvania. She was a big fan of the Bob Hope-Bing Crosby Road To films on Turner Classic Movies.
While at Shaw University, where she graduated in 2005, she took entry-level work behind the scenes on movie sets. Then she read DeVon Franklin’s 2011 book, Produced by Faith, and contacted the producer preacher to mentor her.
“I’m never afraid to reach out to anybody, whether they know me or not,” she says. “Some respond. Some don’t. But the ones that do, I always make sure I build good, meaningful relationships.” She makes extensive use of LinkedIn, which led “Survivor” producer Mark Burnett to her in 2015. Now she and Burnett’s son Cameron are partners in Los Angeles- based Prominent Productions.
She estimates she spends half her time reading scripts and books. She buys a random mix of fiction and nonfiction off Amazon, looking for anything that inspires her.
“I want to watch movies that everybody’s in. I want to see a diverse company,” Bailey-Ford says. “It is a colorful world of different people, and those are the type of projects that I want to be a part of.”
She has projects lined up in England, Qatar and Singapore, and this year she launched AfriNova Entertainment in Cape Town, South Africa. She shot much of Georgia written Boys Trip there.
Shooting the whole film in Georgia would have cost $8.7 million instead of $2.8 million, Bailey- Ford says. “I want our work to stay here in Georgia, but the reality right now is people are working all over because people got bills.”
She showed her local commitment last year with an agreement to prioritize shooting at Assembly Studios, which is “trying to do more stuff, not just to be a space to hold for people to come rent their space,” Bailey-Ford says. “They support independent filmmakers in Georgia.”
She says the local filmmaking community is more supportive and passionate than Hollywood and feels like a family. She has grown that family through past efforts such as organizing industry mixers and the Georgia Entertainment Gala, and through her current role as a Georgia State University artist in residence.
While often working from 3 a.m. to 10 p.m., Bailey-Ford also manages time for husband Rashad and their son, 4-year-old Xavier, though she treasures the midmorning period after she drops him at pre-K. “I’m a 43-year-old who takes naps.”
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