With locations that range from beaches to wetlands to mountains, South Carolina has enough natural beauty to lure anyone in need of an inspiring location. That coupled with a hearty incentive plan make the state a destination for commercial and feature film producers. SHOOT contacted commissioner Jeff Monks of the South Carolina Film Commission to find out more about the state of lensing in the Palmetto State, which includes the recent launch of the Film Production Fund.
SHOOT: Tell us about your incentive legislation [the South Carolina Motion Picture Incentive Act of 2004, which was passed in July ’05], and the Film Production Fund.
Monks: It’s one massive piece of legislation with three components. The first is a recruiting component; it offers several things. Productions that spend over $250,000 in South Carolina are exempt from sales and accommodations tax. The second element is a rebate on two categories–one is wages, and that is a 15 percent rebate that applies to anybody that has South Carolina withholding applied to their income so that could be anybody from around the world who works in South Carolina; and the other is on suppliers in the state and some out-of-state suppliers. It’s a 15 percent rebate that’s paid back within 30 days of the final audit.
The second component deals with our indigenous development and there are tax credits for construction, equipping or converting production facilities. There is a 20 percent tax credit for South Carolina commercial production companies that spend over $500,000 in South Carolina annually. So here’s a way for out-of-state production companies to team up with our South Carolina producers and reduce their overall costs.
And the third component is the Production Fund, which was just recently announced. There are really three goals for the Production Fund. One is to create job-ready students. The second is to raise the abilities of our in-state crew and producers. And the third is to produce broadcast or film festival-ready product. It’s all about collaboration. We’re offering this Production Fund to media professionals that collaborate with our schools that have film programs. The more collaboration there is, the more money there is available.
SHOOT: What are the ins and outs of the rebate plan?
Monks: It’s a cash rebate versus a tax credit. • You get 100 percent of that rebate back within 30 days from the final audit. Only a few states offer rebates–we’re the only state that will reserve that rebate amount once the production company is qualified. The problem with some rebate funds is that because they have a limited pool of money to rebate to production companies a lot [of states] say, ‘Get in the queue and if you turn in your rebate form and there is still money left in the bank, you’ll get a rebate.’ So they don’t know necessarily that a production company would get a rebate at the end of the day. The way we’ve changed the equation is to say, ‘Once you’re qualified, we’ll reserve those rebate funds for you.’ So they can literally bank on that money being returned to the production company.
SHOOT: Explain the fee-free state properties part of your incentive plan.
Monks: Any production that qualifies for incentives is able to use our state locations for free.
SHOOT: It sounds like all of these incentives relate to commercials. Are there any that exclude commercials?
Monks: None of them.
SHOOT: What’s the state of commercial production in South Carolina right now?
Monks: It’s consistent with an eye toward growth. Of course our local industry is always busy and the regional as well. We do a fair amount of national level commercials–not as much as I’d like to see. I’m a little surprised by that because we are well known by the feature industry.
SHOOT: What is the overall state of production in South Carolina right now?
Monks: It’s good, we’ve been picking back up. Our production days jumped over 80 percent and our revenues jumped over 90 percent last year (as compared to the preceding year). So it’s been good. The incentives definitely have helped jump start us and get us back in the game.
SHOOT: Give us an overview of the range of locations in South Carolina.
Monks: We offer diversity. That includes [everything from locations that can stand in for] the jungles of Southeast Asia and Africa to a 1700s-period town. We have a really cool one that just came online. There is a newly abandoned and environmentally clean 1,600-acre nuclear facility with a huge variety of buildings and landscapes; it’s really sci-fi looking. It just came online and it’s just available so that’s going to be a great location to market. We also have small towns to the mountains to a very long and diverse coastline.
But probably more importantly the ease of doing business in South Carolina is incredible. Only two of our towns require filming permits. Because it’s a small state–probably the longest drive you could take in the state is four hours–it’s got great proximity to those locations. And although we have four seasons, you can still find year round green along our southeastern coast.
SHOOT: What areas can stand in for the jungles of Southeast Asia and Africa?
Monks: On our coast from Charleston down to Beaufort. There is a particularly great state park called Hunting Island off the coast of Beaufort that has an incredible look. In fact, we’ve done Yuban coffee commercials down there. Forrest Gump did all of their Southeast Asia [settings] there.
SHOOT: Tell us about your infrastructure.
Monks: We have two crew bases: one that is predominately around the Charleston region and the second we share on our north-central border with Charlotte–two large, very capable crew bases with the suppliers to go with it. You can fly into either on direct flights from New York or direct flights from L.A. into Charlotte International and be on the ground and filming very fast.
SHOOT: What are you focusing on now? What are your long-term goals?
Monks: Well certainly to increase our infrastructure. In fact, two production facilities have come online since [our incentives legislation has passed]. One is in Fort Mill, which is just across our border from Charlotte–[there are] two great production stages. There’s a production facility outside of Charleston. And, about three months ago, there was a groundbreaking for a production facility that is opening in the Columbia area, our capital. So not only to further develop the infrastructure, to not only better recruit, but also to develop our own product in South Carolina. But again to keep the product coming in and keep South Carolina as user friendly as it is.
