It took nine months to reach the end of the roller coaster ride, but by late summer the state’s film industry advocates could take a deep breath. The biennial budget, approved in mid-September, contained a line item for the new N.C. film and entertainment grant program and funded it at $30 million for each fiscal year.

And that will be good news for Wilmington’s film community in 2016, officials say. While the program’s level of funding is about half of what the state paid out in reimbursements to qualifying film projects in the previous couple of years through its former tax credit incentive, it will motivate projects to return to North Carolina, especially since the amount of funding is assured through June 30, 2017.

In early December, EUE/Screen Gems Wilmington’s executive vice president Bill Vassar received word that TNT’s drama Good Behavior, whose pilot was shot locally in October, was green-lighted for nine episodes, which will be filmed on his lot early next year. He also reported the “very strong possibility” that another series would land at the EUE/Screen Gems Studios in early 2016.

The first months of 2015 were grim for the industry here. With the expiration of North Carolina’s tax credit reimbursement program Dec. 31, 2014, replaced temporarily with a grant fund of $10 million for the second half of fiscal year 2014-15, uncertainty put the brakes on film production activity statewide.

Wilmington alone saw the departure of two hit television series, Sleepy Hollow and Secrets and Lies, for Georgia and California, respectively. Summer replacement series Under the Dome grabbed $5 million of the $10 million and shot its last episodes.

Experienced crew members were lighting out for jobs in other states, in some cases putting their houses up for sale or working away from their home and union bases, according to Wilmington Regional Film Commission director Johnny Griffin. Local small businesses that had benefited from a local film industry reported distinct downturns in their sales, he said.

The N.C. House and Senate had different ideas about the level at which state government should support film activity in the state. After weeks of budget negotiations, however, the General Assembly signaled that there was bicameral agreement on the $30 million per year appropriation. That announcement got Griffin’s phone ringing.

“We definitely have folks that want to be here. Georgia – and Louisiana – are extremely busy, crowded places. North Carolina is another option for them again,” Griffin said.

After having received only 20 project inquiries from January through August – during which previous years had seen about 140 – Griffin reported a turnaround. Between September and November, he’d had another 20 calls.

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