CityView Magazine

Photo courtesy of EUE/Screen Gems Studios FEATURE ,, CAROLINA CINEMA The film industry in our state and its past and present. L By Miriam Landru ights, Camera, Action" is a phrase one and one of the biggest in the world. Later, the filmmakers in would be accustomed to hearing on a the western and eastern parts of our state converged. film set in Hollywood or New York. In the late 1980s and 1990s, North Carolina was the But, thanks to North Carolina's tax incentive plan for production companies that was revamped in 2007 when Aaron Syrett became film commissioner, making movies and great TV here is a reality. North Carolina has jumped on an award winning bandwagon with these competitive tax incentives. "We're in the top five states for filming in the country," Syrett said confidently. A Brief History of Film in North Carolina Filming in North Carolina started in the late 1970s when Charlotte resident Ed Owensby started making B movies and training those eager to be involved in the industry. Shortly after, Italian filmmaker Dino di Laurentis came to Wilmington and "fell in love" with the area. Accompanying him were his Italian filmmaker friends who began teaching the coastal locals how movies are made. The international film magnate founded EUE/Screen Gems, the largest on the East Coast 40 | October • 2013 place to make "Movies of the Week." However, in the early 2000s, the popularity of reality television started growing, North Carolina's filming was relatively at a standstill thanks to competitive film incentive plans overseas. Most famously, North Carolina lost out to Romania as the set for the 2001 N.C. Civil War era epic, Cold Mountain. Though at the time, the classic WB teen drama Dawson's Creek was filming in Wilmington, "N.C.'s film industry was decimated by 2002 and we were not competing at all," said Syrett. When the Utah native became film commissioner six years ago, much time and effort was spent reworking our state's film incentive program. Currently, a production company can spend $250,000 or more and receive a 25-percent tax incentive. In 2010, when Homeland began filming in the Charlotte area, the North Carolina industry emerged again. "We knew that Charlotte would be the first city to 'blow up' thanks to its urban feel," affirmed Syrett.

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