Film perks not just good for industry, but for area
Monday, July 31st, 2006
By Chris Fitzsimon
Several years ago, a friend brought his family to a beach house in Oak Island. His daughter, maybe 13, was greatly bored by everything around her until I mentioned that Dawson’s Creek was filmed in Wilmington. Her eyes widened.
"Really? Dawson’s Creek? Take me there!" she said.
That’s when I realized that the film industry brings us far more than the $300 million a year productions spend in North Carolina.
It brings us prestige, free publicity and, in past years, thousands of adoring fans.
So I was pleased that the state House passed the film incentives bill in the form that gives a full 15 percent tax credit to productions spending at least $250,000 in the state.
Because of a technical glitch, a similar bill last year only refunded 8.1 percent.
Mark Schreiner, our man in Raleigh, tells me that it took determined back-room maneuvering by Rep. Danny McComas, R-New Hanover, and Rep. Thomas Wright, D-New Hanover, to get the full 15 percent credit sought by Sen. Julia Boseman, D-New Hanover, and not a 12 percent credit that appeared to be on the way to enactment as a compromise.
We need those incentives to compete against other states bending over backward to lure productions.
Francine DeCoursey offers tours of Wilmington’s locations and the EUE Screen Gems Studio, although she’s cutting back this year for personal reasons. (more…)
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