Is Charleston the Ideal Filming Location? Maybe Not Anymore...

All went well until last summer when South Carolina lost its competitive Film Incentives. Film incentives are rebates provided by the state to the movie makers and are one of the main reasons why productions select a specific state. Without them, the chances of large productions coming back to our state are SLIM, especially when competing with N.C. offering 25% and GA 20-30% in tax incentives. —Studio Charleston

Harald Galinski, Studio Charleston's founder, needs your help. Because the incentives in South Carolina were disbanded this past summer, we have been losing a lot of work to North Carolina and especially Georgia, and now the amazing working-space that is Studio Charleston is at risk of closing its doors, which could effect thousands of local filmmakers.

Harald has started an IndieGogo campaign to allow anyone to donate to help keep their doors open until the recent film incentive bills that have been submitted to Congress can pass. If we can help him raise $75,000 before March 9, he can stay afloat and save this beautiful establishment. 

Watch the video below explaining how important this is to our state's economy, especially the Lowcountry, and how you can help Studio Charleston. If you donate, Studio Charleston is offering perks for your size donation and your contribution and name will be featured on their website, as well with some other prizes for helping

Now some scene-work that Charleston has lost due to our incentives being lost includes Iron Man 3, which was shot in Charlotte, Falling Skies on TNT, Showtime's Homeland, and AMC's The Walking Dead which is currently based out of Georgia.

Now I got my first film gig as an assistant casting director under the amazing Tona Dahlquist during my tenure at Trident Technical College when I was in their film program. It was for Dear John with Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried, and it was an amazing experience that never would have have happened without the film incentives South Carolina has been granted in the past. I, of course, casted all of my friends that showed up for the casting call and even got an old classmate at Trident a speaking role. I even helped with location and equipment on the poster for Dear John that was shot on Folly Beach using a Canon 5D. It truly was something seeing that movie in theatres and seeing the poster come out months later after the shoot wrapped. The credit I earned on Dear John led me to work on Lifetime's Army Wives as an assitant casting director under the hillarious Richard Futch, Showtime's Homeland pilot, and even AMC's The Walking Dead as a zombie aka "walker". I even got to work on Little Red Wagon as a media extra and attended the red carpet covering the event here in Charleston.

Because of these film incentives, I was given an opportunity that has motivated me to work as hard as I do from job to job. I owe so much to my first film credit over at Dear John as do a lot of other hard working filmmakers in Charleston do as well.

I've always been a huge supporter of the Carolina Film Alliance which has been rallying and supporting film incentives in South Carolina for years. We almost lost our film incentives back in 2010 which would've shut down Charleston's very own Army Wives which is shot on King Street Ext. The Carolina Film Alliance held a rally at The Hippodrome that year, which I gladly volunteered to help run along with a lot of other local filmmakers. We were able to rally enough support to our local Congress and were granted incentives for another year. The show is now on its 7th season, returning on March 10, 2013. Recap of the rally by WCBD-2 below.

That event was such an important role in saving our film incentives that year because if we did in fact lose them, ABC would've shut down Lifetime's production of the show and over 1,000 peple would've been out of working jobs and would've greatly effected our economy locally.

Now, with Valentine's day just behind us, I should remind all the ladies out there that The Notebook was shot here in Charleston and in the surrounding area. Even our very own Trident Technical College was used for crew and production and the film made over 100 million back after box office sales. So if you want more Ryan Gosling and huge blockbusters to come into our neck of the woods, please do what you can and give Studio Charleston a chance to thrive and attract more work for our state.