It was apropos that Chatejah “Taj” George was outfitted in a fire-engine red dress and frequently flosses bright scarlet locks.
She has launched a four-alarm blaze of a business in south suburban Atlanta with multifaceted movie-making business, C & C Movie Film Studio.
The multi-hyphenate entrepreneur has now added film studio owner to her other titles of web series creator, clothing line designer, director, producer, actress, singer and aspiring model.
George, 23, is killing two birds with one stone with the opening of her studio in Riverdale, Georgia. She can now easily finish up the fourth season of her web series, “Iesha,” while providing a multi-tiered platform where other independent moviemakers create content.
Though the business is in its embryonic stage, for which she procured a business license in January 2021, it is brimming with enough dynamism that the likes of music mogul and part-time Atlanta resident Rick Ross stopped by to check out the space in late June.
C & C Movie Film Studio is percolating with a plethora of possibilities for the content creator looking to make a movie, film a music video, facilitate a photoshoot or host a podcast. The studio boasts multiple rooms to rent, including a business office, a doctor’s office, a pink changing room, a classroom, a chemistry lab, a barbershop, a dining room, a hospital, and a kitchen.
Moreover, George indicated she has the equipment and personnel to make the rooms interchangeable at the client’s request, including props to turn one of the rooms into a church or another room into a fundraising party or alter another room from a dentist’s office to a hospital room.
The idea for George’s own film studio was born when she began trying to break in the business as a model, singer and rapper but got twisted up like a pretzel from the myriad of scams, runarounds and false promises from unscrupulous types. The studio also provides an alternative when trying to undergo the arduous, mind-numbing process of securing a professional setting for a particular scene or photo shoot.
“You can’t just walk into Grady and say ‘hey, can we use your hospital room,” George quipped with a knowing smile. “I was renting out space to fill my own stuff because I’m also a filmmaker and I needed a hospital. I needed a jail. I needed a barbershop. I needed this or that, you know, and I got tired of just filming outside. I was either outside or in the house and after that, it gets boring.” Not to mention uninspiring and unimaginative.
Furthermore, George said she is working to construct a restaurant and bar set in her studio as well as a jail, the latter setting being the most popular background that creatives desire. And it can be done without the customary exorbitant charges.
“By the time you add up all the money that you’re spending with filming locations, I was like, why not just get my own and help other independent filmmakers?” George said.
George is a businesswoman who is not only turning a profit. She also has empathy for the young creative who is not armed with the deep pockets of a Ludacris or T.I. Therefore, George has decided to charge $100 an hour instead of the customary $300, which enables the filmmaker and photographer who are working odd jobs to still fund their projects or events more easily.
“Because I saw that when I was looking for spaces. It was so expensive,” George said. “I just wanted something that everyone can afford like me because I was once needing a space and couldn’t afford much as well.”
While George is collecting fees for rented space, she is simultaneously financing the fourth and last season of her popular “Iesha” series. The YouTube drama centers on a young privileged girl who gets seduced by the temptations of the streets that reach out to her like poisonous tentacles.
“It’s about a young girl who dates a hood guy and gets into a lot of trouble. She ends up robbing people. She ends up in jail. She ends up scamming people,” said George, who plays the main character that gets entangled in domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse and other misgivings. “Just dealing with the wrong guy basically can get you can get you messed up, and if you don’t stray away from him, eventually he can really mess up your life.”
George said she is already fielding a myriad of inquiries from other filmmakers, screenwriters, actors cameramen and producers to make and produce a variety of films moving forward.
George’s dream of creating content for the likes of Netflix or HBO+ has already begun. Young creatives may want to hop on now or risk getting left in George’s smoke.
C & C Movie Film Studio is located at 6561 Church St., Riverdale, GA 30274. To contact George and the studio, call 770-310-3630. You can also log onto Instagram @ccmoviefilmstudio, Facebook at: C and C Movie Film Studio, and email at: CCATLFILM@gmail.com. Also check out George’s personal IG page @chatejahgeorge.
Hey Terry, this is a well-written article! I was just directed by my executive producer to find out some information on the studio & everything I needed to know was right here. This is why we need more outlets for our voices to provide conscience content, we exude excellence when tested…