Written by Carleigh Hoy, Charleston Young Professionals Steering Committee Member

Lights, Camera, Action!

Last week, Charleston Young Professionals hosted their first ever virtual YP Wake Up, our quarterly coffee series that connects CYP members to cutting-edge speakers with roles in critical industries throughout Charleston. Our exceptional guest speakers, Dan Rogers and Amy Heath, presented a captivating update as they discussed the economic impact of the film industry in the Lowcountry and issues they are currently facing. Dan Rogers is a Senior Project Manager for the South Carolina Film Commission, where he has built up over thirty years of experience in the film industry. Amy Heath has more recently immersed herself in the industry, but she plays an integral role as a film liaison as part of her bigger title: Director of Tourism for the City of North Charleston.

The South Carolina Film Commission’s mission is to recruit the film and television industries to bring their projects to South Carolina, while also fostering the growth of local personnel and businesses to effectively compete inside one of the United States’ top exports. Their tasks range from marketing South Carolina as a desirable place to film to conducting industry training seminars four to five times a year, where SC residents can sharpen their film crew skillsets. Film producers often gravitate toward locations with skilled local crews because it allows them to allocate their budget to areas other than relocating out of state crew members.

Rogers emphasized that SC has built one of the largest local and qualified crew teams in the country. As part of their efforts to build a local crew, the SCFC also manages the Production Fund Grants Program, which provides budding filmmakers the money they need to jumpstart their career. A grant recipient will use their funds to create short films while joining forces with not only local film students but also experienced professionals in the industry. Recently, the Academy Award winning Director of Cinematography, Russell Carpenter, known for Titanic and Ant-Man, mentored a recipient of the Production Fund Grant during the production of their short film.

While the Mayor of North Charleston, Mayor Summey, has offered his full support for recruitment of the film industry to South Carolina, the SCFC has struggled to obtain support from other local leaders and decision makers. Many local leaders view film production in South Carolina as an inconvenience. Rogers offered his opinion that, “[many of our leaders] are not educated… they don’t understand how large the economic impact is; they think it’s aggravating to close streets, so it gets a bad rep.” While there are some inconveniences, Rogers and Heath want to educate local citizens and lawmakers on the many benefits that the film industry has on our economy.

Army Wives was a popular seven-season long television series that was filmed in Charleston between 2006 and 2013. The following were direct impacts to our local economy over those seven years exclusively from Army Wives: 1,700 production days; 101,000 hotel nights; and 14,600 South Carolina jobs. This all sums to a total estimated $124,115,615 of direct spending in South Carolina. Not included in this amount is the increase in tourism generated from having the opportunity to showcase our beautiful Charleston locations to 3.5 million viewers for one hour every Sunday night for seven years on major cable network.

Major productions average $150,000-160,000 per film day, with most requiring six to seven packed months to create just one series. Film and television productions create jobs that blend local arts, trades and technology. Additionally, there are no infrastructure costs to build and maintain, such as roads and schools – which was necessary to recruit newcomers like Boeing – and Heath emphasizes that the industry always leaves our locations in a better condition than they found them: “they come, they spend, they leave.”

Support from local leaders is required to maintain our strong, warm relationship with the industry because their business models revolve around state incentives. While Georgia, for example, is on a tax credit program which allows essentially an unlimited amount of state grants, South Carolina is on a limited cash program. In recent years, Georgia has been able to offer $70 million per year for the recruiting of film productions, whereas South Carolina is limited to $15 million per year. In 2019, SC had to turn down 29 different productions due to lack of funding. The SCFC hopes to double their budget in the next couple years to $30 million in order to recruit larger feature films.

Rogers and Heath believe that our leaders need to change their mindset toward the film industry from thinking of it as an inconvenient hobby to comparing it to a large manufacturing or technology company. Heath explained, “we need to start treating the film industry like a Mercedes,” as the industry is responsible for a significant beneficial economic impact over recent years. The support of local leaders is required to reach their goal of raising their budget to $30 million, and they ask that if you are in support of their goal to contact local officials and share your interest in increasing SC’s position within the film industry.