Update: This version includes statements from Bill Vassar of EUE/Screen Gems Studios in Wilmington.

Despite big changes looming in North Carolina’s film incentives, film activity is continuing for now in the Wilmington area.

The television series Sleepy Hollow will continue shooting locally until the end of the year, Johnny Griffin, director of the Wilmington Regional Film Commission, said Tuesday.

All production work done in 2014 will be eligible for the state’s current 25 percent tax credit program. Sleepy Hollow, whose second season premieres Sept. 22, is renting sound stages at Wilmington’s EUE/Screen Gems Studios facilities.

Work is starting on a feature film as well. Hard on the heels of 20th Century Fox’s The Longest Ride, a feature film based on the Nicholas Sparks novel and filmed in the Wilmington area, another company is bringing in another Sparks-sparked project, The Choice, Griffin said. Shooting is scheduled to begin in October.

In fact, said Bill Vassar, executive vice president of EUE/Screen Gems in Wilmington, "We are experiencing one of our busiest years ever.

"The latest Nick Sparks film The Choice opened production offices on the lot today [Tuesday]," he continued. "They will begin shooting in mid- to late October. The Fox Network series Sleep Hollow continues to shoot on the lot for 20th Century Fox Television. They expect to complete their 18 episodes for season 2 by the end of December." 

Vassar added that the ABC Network Series Secrets and Lies is shooting into November. The sets for Under the Dome remain standing, waiting a decision as to whether the series will be picked up for a third summer season.

"All 10 stages have been full since June," he said.

Movie projects ready to start at this time of year want to be sure they can finish up before the end of the calendar year: ideally, by Thanksgiving or no later than Christmas, Griffin said.

“If they finish by Thanksgiving, that gives them to option of coming back in December if they need to, and then send people home for the holidays,” he said.

Griffin said the film commission is talking to a “couple of other projects” that are looking at a fall production schedule. But beyond that, what happens is anyone’s guess, he said.

“Later in the [calendar] year, we normally hear about productions that want to start in the new year early enough so they have the ability to be shooting by mid-March or early April,” he said. “That’s also the television pilot season. That will be the real test for us. It will be interesting to see if we’re hearing about projects or are off the list.”

North Carolina’s General Assembly failed to extend the state’s tax credit incentive program in its short session, replacing it with a grant program with $10 million in funds for the first six months of 2015. Cinemax last week announced it was moving production of seasons four and five of its show Banshee from Charlotte to Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  

Louisiana, like Georgia, has been enhancing its film incentive programs to lure more activity to the state. And now California has in a better position to entice projects to stay in the state, Griffin said.

“California just passed a new film incentive program,” he said, explaining that lawmakers there had upped the amount in the state’s grant pool from $100 million per year to $330 million per year and guaranteed that the funding would continue at that level for the next few years.

“They decided to ramp that [program] up and recruit more productions to come back home, and I’m sure they will,” Griffin said. “The problem was, in the past, that $100 million was dispersed so quickly. I think, with that larger amount, that more productions will stay in California, and they will retain those jobs.”

Local officials have sent a request to Gov. Pat McCrory to reconvene the legislature this fall to consider not only the film incentives issue but other economic development measures as well. McCrory, as of Tuesday, had not announced whether he would or not.

Griffin said he and many others associated with the film industry in the state a will be watching the North Carolina legislature, as it convenes for its long session in January, to see if there is willingness to reconsider substantive film incentives.

“Is [the lapse in incentives] a glitch which will get fixed or is this the way it’s going to be?” he asked.