Screen Gems Was a Gem

Waiting in line at Screen Gems Studio, the largest television and movie studio outside of California, for the 2:00 tour, we strike up a conversation with Keith, a 30-something native of Augusta, Georgia, who has been in Wilmington all week to see if he wants to move here.

He explains that he has lived his entire life in Augusta and feels the need to move away from family and friends. He asks us how we like Wilmington. We extol the virtues of life here.

Then it is off on the tour of Sound Stages 5 and 7 where One Tree Hill has been filmed for eight seasons. Since some of us aren’t the demographic (teenage girls, primarily), our guide gave us a capsule plot summary. Oh, my. Let’s see. Two half-brothers who don’t know the other exists and assorted other teens deal with the trials and tribulations of high school in the first four seasons. Fast forward four years. These characters return to their hometown as a fashion designer, rock musician, published author, and a NBA player, to name a few. How’s that for realism?

Walking through the sound stages and seeing all the tricks to make the rooms look as if they are in a real house was intriguing. My favorite trick was the plywood countertops painted to look like granite. One even had an ogee edge.

Since there is no electricity or plumbing on the set, an extension cord or garden hose has to be run to the kitchen if someone wants to make toast or wash a plate. One Friday someone forgot to unplug the extension that powers the refrigerator light. Picture pop cans exploding.

But on the other hand, there is a patio with a full-sized, heated swimming pool.

We spoke with almost all the tour guides and learned some interesting tidbits. All the original art work is by Wilmington artists. A lot of the furniture is from the Ikea store in Charlotte.

In the Screening Room we watched a trailer with scenes from many of the productions done here such as Firestarter, Muppets from Space, Nights in Rodanthe, and The Secret Lives of Bees.

The tour guide explained how some of the scenes were filmed.

One of the funniest stories dealt with a misplaced stunt man. During a hurricane a branch had to crash through a window. When reviewing the dailies, they discover that the stunt man in his yellow slicker can be seen through the window. Since the set had been struck, they had to rebuild it. The retake still had the guy visible. Yes, they had already struck the set. Third time was a charm.

She also talked about problems with continuity. Some of the time they opt not to re-shoot the scene because of the expense. In one such instance a character in One Tree Hill kept taking her heels off and putting on her sneakers between takes. Then she would forget to change back so sometimes she is dancing in heels and sometimes not.

So why is Wilmington such a hotbed of television and movie production? North Carolina House Bill 1973 and House Bill 713 were signed into law on July 22, 2010. The first provides a 25% tax incentive; the latter eliminates the 6.9% corporate income tax on the incentive taken by a production company. This allows the production company to realize a full 25% of qualifying expenses. These two new laws have brought more projects to Wilmington. According to one tour guide, they were losing projects to Atlanta because of the more favorable tax laws there. Now Wilmington has the upper hand.

Who knew that an hour tour could be so interesting?

Oh, and Keith? We caught up with him at the end of the tour. When I encouraged him to be adventuresome and make the move, he revealed that he had put a deposit down on an apartment today. I think the Friday nightlife downtown closed the deal.