Quiet on the set

A captive audience stared toward a blank movie screen inside the intimately lit Terrace Theater on James Island one night last week.

The group, members of the Carolina Film Alliance, listened patiently as local attorney and television judge Akim Anastopoulo stood at a podium in front of the screen, talking about his new production facility on S.C. Highway 162 in Hollywood. But as soon the floor was opened to questions, they jumped:

Is it true the Lifetime series "Army Wives" will leave Charleston to film in North Carolina?

Doesn't that show hire mostly out-of-state workers who take South Carolina's money back home with them anyway?

Will the state ever lock in its film incentives to ensure productions stay here?

Anastopoulo, just another industry member, didn't have those answers. But disconcertingly, state officials don't either.

Fuzzy math

South Carolina sinks $15 million annually into wage and supplier incentives. But competition is tough: Only 12 states don't offer some type of film incentives. And this state's two-year-old program has its limitations.

South Carolina caps wage incentives at $10 million, and when that money runs out, it's difficult to lure productions with supplier incentives alone. Plus, any unused money does not carry over to the next year.

The University of South Carolina and the College of Charleston each studied the value of the incentives but drew radically different conclusions. USC found the state gets $3.68 in returns for every $1 invested in incentives, while the College of Charleston concluded the state is losing 81 cents on every dollar spent.

Addressing the Senate Film Incentives Study Committee just days ago, state Treasurer Converse Chellis suggested every dollar going to film incentives generates $10 in job creation. And in-state businesses, namely hotels and supply companies, boom when a film comes to town.

The Senate committee launched an inquiry with hopes of finding truth in its own numbers.

The only guaranteed return, though, is a flash of marketing. Any production taking advantage of the incentives must include in its credits this phrase: "Filmed in South Carolina pursuant to the South Carolina Motion Picture Incentive Act."

When the incentives became law two years ago, Trident Technical College planned to hook a developer to build four soundstages on a tract of land it owns. The idea drew as many as 10 bites, recalled Kaye Koonce, the school's senior vice president and general counsel.

But then the Department of Commerce, determining too much money was going to out-of-state workers, scaled back the film incentives.

"Developers said, 'You've got to make these incentives permanent,' " Koonce said. "There is no point in us trying to recruit until this is done."

Trident Tech's film, media and visual arts division is thought to be the only two-year school in the country that teaches on the same 35mm cameras used in major film productions. The college also devotes two computer labs to animation.

Trident's students, seeking a certificate or a two-year degree, sometimes quit school early after finding high-paying work on sets, according to Koonce. One recent graduate makes $36 an hour.

"The catch is she had to move to Wilmington to do it because we don't have the indigenous crew," Koonce said.

Stage struck

Before you can have local crews, you need studios for them to work in.

S.C. Film Commissioner Jeff Monks envisions an industrial cluster for film production in South Carolina, complete with soundstages up for lease and ready to take in 5 percent of a multimillion-dollar film's budget.

That, he contends, is the only way to keep business steady and secure.

"If there are only one or two crew bases and one or two films already are here, you're not going to be too excited about going to South Carolina," Monks said.

The Senate Film Incentives Study Committee sought guidance from O'Neal Compton, a Sumter native and retired actor whose resume includes "Diabolique," "Little Big league" and two episodes of "Seinfeld."

He's fond of putting it this way: "We have the light of the South of France in South Carolina. What we don't have is stages."

And he doesn't think a partnership between a developer and Trident Tech will do the trick. "That's no place to build soundstages," Compton said. "Who wants to film on their campus?"

Instead, on Friday he plans to tell the Senate committee in a meeting at Francis Marion University in Florence that South Carolina needs high-tech stages with flyaway walls for quick set changes. They'll cost twice as much as a standard soundstage to build, but they potentially could cut a production's time in half and lure steady business with that promise.

Then, if it can find the money, the state should set up an investment fund to get some of the rights to the movies made here, Compton contends.

"It's much less risky than just giving it away" in cash rebates, he said.

His stage argument isn't unproven. North Carolina has 32 soundstages at seven complexes across the state and regional film offices to promote them, all in addition to an incentives package.

That stings Senate Film Incentives Study Chairman Yancey McGill.

"North Carolina was working when we were sleeping," he said.

In fact, South Carolina has had a tax credit for investment in soundstages on the books for a decade, to no avail.

Facilities such as Anastopoulo's Hollywood space and others cropping up across the state are just that — facilities — according to Monks. A true production studio is something much bigger.

But before focusing money in that direction, the state first has to figure out if its $15 million a year spent in incentives amounts to anything more than a mention in the credits.

Reach Allyson Bird at 937-5594 or abird@postandcourier.com.