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Film Officials Look Ahead To New Projects With Incentives Agreement

By Jenny Callison, posted Sep 9, 2015
Buoyed by two announcements Tuesday, the film and television industry in Wilmington is getting back to business, film commissioner Johnny Griffin said Wednesday.

The first piece of news for the industry was the announcement of a new TNT pilot that has moved into the EUE/Screen Gems Studios in Wilmington. The proposed drama series, Good Behavior, stars Michelle Dockery, who plays Lady Mary Crawley on the popular PBS series Downton Abbey. Griffin said production on the pilot is expected to begin in October.

The second news item was word of the General Assembly’s agreement to fund the state’s film and television grant pool at $30 million per year for the next two fiscal years. That announcement came in a news release from Sen. Michael Lee (R-New Hanover) and Rep. Ted Davis (R-New Hanover).

“We are very encouraged by the amount of money we got, which will allow us to get back to business,” Griffin said. He added that, over the past few months, he has spoken to projects that would like to come to Wilmington, but since funding for a replacement grant program has been uncertain, “all we’ve been able to say is that the legislature is still in session.”

When it allowed the state’s tax credit film incentives program to expire at the end of December 2014, the General Assembly replaced that program with a grant program and funded it with $10 million for the second half of fiscal year 2014-15. There has been substantial disagreement between the General Assembly’s two chambers as to the level at which the state would fund the grant program in the next biennial budget.

The $30 million, while less than the $40 million per year in the House budget, is more than the $10 million per year the Senate first proposed. The final figure, however, won't be finalized until the overall budget passes.

Still, legislative support for the $30 million-per-year compromise has local film officials busy already. In comparison, they only had $10 million to work with statewide for the first half of this year.

“Last night at midnight I got a text from a producer in California who had already heard [about the $30 million] and said ‘Give me the details,’” Griffin said. “You just need a little bit of bait, and the fish are out there.

“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,” he continued.

Given the delayed budget agreement, which lawmakers say they hope to finalize by Sept. 18 when another deadline hits, and time for the new film and television grant process to be in place, Griffin does not expect that many projects will elect to start up before the new calendar year. But that won’t keep local film officials from wooing Good Behavior to choose Wilmington for its permanent location, should TNT give the drama the green light for a series.

“Obviously, we’ll start the conversation with TNT, but any number of things could come up,” he said, citing considerations of cost, available crew, adequate variety of locations to shoot and the geographic preferences of the  stars as all weighing in on where a TV series is produced.

Some series pilots choose to shoot in Wilmington but go elsewhere to film, once the series is picked up. Pilots for Revenge and Hart of Dixie, both shot here in 2011, are two examples.

Other shows, such as Under the Dome and Secrets and Lies, have chosen the Wilmington area for both pilot and series production. Sleepy Hollow shot its pilot in Salisbury but came to Wilmington for two years of production, Griffin pointed out, adding that Homeland wanted to film in Wilmington but couldn’t find enough locations that could be convincing as Washington, D.C., backdrops, even for the pilot.

Even with many members of the Wilmington film crew base currently working on projects in South Carolina and Georgia, Griffin doesn’t see any problem with finding experienced folks to work on the Good Behavior pilot.

One piece of film incentive news that is expected in the next week or two is the announcement, from the N.C. Economic Development Partnership, of the project or projects that will receive the $4 million in grant funds from FY 2014-15 freed up when the planned remake of Dirty Dancing in western North Carolina failed to materialize.

Lee and Davis worked hard to see the film and television incentives funded in the new biennial budget, according to the news release they issued Tuesday.

"The film grant program is one of the only small business incentives in North Carolina and is vital to New Hanover County," Lee said in the release. "I am pleased that my Senate colleagues, after much negotiation, have agreed to increase the funding levels for this important program. While there is still much more that can be done, today is a victory for both our region and our state."

Not everyone, however, is pleased at the legislature's decision.

"A $30 million budget earmark for Hollywood film studios is nothing short of a tragedy for taxpayers in the Old North State," stated a news release for Americans for Prosperity North Carolina, an organization that advocates for reducing the size and reach of government and has a history of opposing business incentives. "As funding for core functions of government is hotly debated in Raleigh, leaders at the General Assembly have instead decided to give money to movie studios ... This money comes directly out of our public education, public safety, public transportation and public health programs."
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