Wilmington producer Jon Cornick recently wrapped indie feature film, “Hick,” starring Chloe Moretz, Alec Baldwin, Blake Lively and Juliette Lewis. The dark comedy follows 13-year-old Luli McMullen (played by Moretz) as she hitchhikes from Nebraska to Nevada to escape her dysfunctional family.

The story is based on the young adult novel written by Andrea Portes. It stars 14-year-old actress Moretz, who came to Wilmington for the filming of Hick between starring in Martin Scorcese’s latest film “Hugo Cabret” and co-starring with Johnnie Depp in Tim Burton’s next film.

The filming of “Hick” took the cast and crew to 11 different cities in North Carolina.

“It was a very intense production in the sense that we were rarely in the same place for more than two days,” said Cornick, who coordinated the scheduling and logistics of about 85 crewmembers.

Director Derick Martini shot the film in about 30 days, which is a relatively short time for a feature film. He was initially thinking about shooting it in New Mexico, but approached Cornick about filming in North Carolina. They had worked together on other films including the 2008 indie film “Lymelife.”

“Once I did a budget for him, we were able to determine that financially it would be better for him to shoot here rather than New Mexico and a lot of the crew people we would use are based here,” Cornick said. “Hick” is a $6 million project, which he considers a low-budget film. High-budget independent films cost about $8 million to $10 million to make, he said.

In January, Cornick joined the team and gathered the crew. They opened a production office at EUE/Screen Gems Studios in late February and began filming the last week of March. Filming took them to Whiteville, Hallsboro, Kelly, Burgaw, Atkinson, Lexington, Madison, Concord, Winnabow, Lake Waccamaw and Wilmington.

“Going from Nebraska to Nevada you’re going to go through some mountains and foothills. So that was the reason why we went. What’s great about North Carolina is what it has to offer location-wise,” he said.

But, moving the caravan of crew and support staff was not an easy task. To be efficient and to keep costs low, Cornick had to be strategic about setting up a base camp that would support a maximum number of locations and shoots.

“We have a huge amount of support – a hair and make-up trailer, wardrobe, production, star wagons, catering. It’s a big deal to move all of this stuff,” he said. It was a creative exercise for the locations department and production design to find locations with the most visual impact for the film within a certain radius.

The film takes place in the early 1980s. The locations department stumbled upon a goldmine in Concord in Cabarrus County. Frye’s Lake Lanes bowling alley, with its wood-paneled walls and orange and yellow décor was perfectly intact.

“This place was not only early 80s, but it looks like it has not been touched. From a production design standpoint, it was literally like we walk in and shoot,” Cornick said. “We shot there. It was a great scene.”

Because of the complex logistics of this project surrounding the multiple locations, they brought in Editor Mark Yoshikawa from Los Angeles to Wilmington. He was stationed at Screen Gems Studios to log and review the footage as they were shooting. He would let the production team know if another shot was needed at a particular location by walkie-talkie, because returning to a particular place for another shoot on another day would be difficult if not impossible.

In addition to Yoshikawa, Cornick worked with a team nicknamed the “Core Four” consisting of director and writer Martini, who lives in Rhode Island, first assistant director Michael Jefferson who lives in Wilmington, director of photography Frank Godwin, who recently moved from Wilmington to Chapel Hill, and producer Jon Cornick who lives in Wilmington. The four have worked together since 2007 on several films, including “Bolden,” “Lymelife” and “Louis.”

“We’ve done a number of projects together and we’ll work on the next one together. It’s a great working relationship. We know each other’s idiosyncrasies,” Cornick said.

Now, they are in 16 weeks of post-production and plan to submit the film for the Toronto Film Festival, which is in September. From there, they are hoping it will be picked up for distribution.