Film on a Roll in NC

(on the right, a still from "Junebug.")

NC Film folks are saying that production in the state increased substantially and they expect the film production incentives passed last year to have an increasing effect in 2006.

In addition to the NASCAR-themed Will Ferrell feature lensed in Charlotte, a multitude of independent features and shorts made here, two TV series shot in Wilmington, "One Tree Hill," and "Surface," the state's film festivals are also really taking off as major events. Full Frame's doc fest coming up in April promises to be the biggest ever, while Riverrun, Carolina Film and Video Festival, Cucalorus, and the Asheville film festival are all headed toward greater visibility and importance year by year.

Last year (2005) also saw two NC-centric films, "Junebug," and "Loggerheads," receive both Sundance film festival exposure and successful and widespread general release. Something like a North Carolina genre is emerging. As well it should, with so many of our state's creative film-makers achieving works of such quality. Geez. I feel almost patriotically proud of such quality work (idiotically as that sentence makes me feel in more than a few ways, it's nevertheless true). Prediction: NC Film will eventually be recognized as a specific genre, quite unique and specific in its subjects, semi-gothic eccentricity, and technical sophistication.

Look at the three-dimensional composition of the still from "Junebug" up on the right, for instance. One reviewer complained about a very quick shot of empty rooms, which established setting in an instant when words would have required minutes.

Apart from my blogger's perogative to editiorialize, though, the industry here does seem much on the upswing.

ECU studios is building two more sound stages, a good sign. In 2003 and 2004, we heard a lot of grumbling from NC film-makers about the paucity of work in the state after its hey-dey back when Dilaurentis ruled and Hollywood luminaries walked Wilmington streets as well as Wilshire and Vine.