Markee Magazine. National trade. 1996.

The Carolinas: Production Report
By Jennifer Willis

Looking for high quality talent but operating under a tight budget? How about searching for just the right location to lend that distinctive personality to a production? Or simply looking to get out of the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles and New York?

Welcome to the Carolinas.

Located on the Atlantic coastline, North and South Carolina have experienced a boom in recent years as production companies are discovering the area in greater numbers. And the attraction to the area comes as no surprise.

The area boasts a sophisticated talent pool of national caliber, and these professionals are continually gaining experience and honing their skills as production companies increasingly choose the Carolinas over more traditional areas. Then there are also the seasoned West Coast and New York professionals sent on location into the region, who simply fall in love with the climate, the economy, and the inherent friendliness, and decide to stay.

In fact, that is precisely what happened recently to a well-known entertainer. Linda Lavin had come to Wilmington, NC with a Mary Tyler Moore movie, and became so enamored of the area that she moved her company, Linda Lavin Entertainment, to Wilmington in December of 1995. With this addition to such other local powerhouses as Carolco Studios, North and South Carolina are becoming a force to be reckoned with.

Having gained credibility and repeat customers during the eighteen years it has been in operation, the North Carolina Film Office has approximately 1200 crew people registered and reports that with the addition of new facilities in 1995, the state now offers forty-two stages and five backlots to area productions. With fifty films on the books for 1995, and six already slated for 1996, North Carolina is fast establishing itself as a production hot spot.

And locally produced North Carolina films have also been attracting attention lately, with films “Bandwagon” invited to the Sundance Film Festival and “The Delicate Art of the Rifle” selected as one of the ten best U.S. films of 1995 by noted film critic Godfrey Cheshire.

Carolina-based production companies are growing by leaps and bounds as well.

When it first opened its doors thirty-one years ago, the company that is now Videofonics began a rewarding journey toward becoming what Frank Herlant cites as “the oldest production company in the Southeast.” Located in Raleigh, NC, Videofonics offers fully digital edit suites featuring Veus Technology -- developed independently with NEC.

Before Videofonics created DigiFlix, Film Look had been the choice in film-emulation video. But Herlant believes that DigiFlix far surpasses the Film Look technology. DigiFlix has generated great interest from clients as far away as New York and Chicago -- clients who might not otherwise look to North Carolina.

Videofonics experienced great growth in the waning months of 1995, with companies as diverse as Disney and Playboy testing the DigiFlix technology.

Videofonics clients are mostly local and national advertising agencies and corporate marketing departments. Recent production has included a national spot for Softlax -- whose slogan is “Get it and Go.”

Videofonics has also launched ground breaking for a new facility to be opened in the summer of 1996. The custom-built facility will feature two large shooting stages, complete with a low-noise HVAC system. The larger stage, at 74’ x 61’ with an 18’ ceiling clearance for lighting, is described by Herlant as big enough to drive a tractor inside.

Housed with them in the new facility will be Serious Robots, an animation studio which first began operation in 1989.

While Serious Robots is currently pursuing a number of projects, owner Nancy Rich describes one of “the coolest” as a piece commissioned by Glaxo Pharmaceuticals entitled “Medicines: The Inside Story.” It tells the story of how viruses can be used to treat and cure diseases, requiring that Serious Robots create animated DNA strands and viruses at work.

While the majority of the company’s work has a corporate focus, Serious Robots also provides promos for the Cartoon Network and has done work for Mercedes Benz in addition to their standard advertising, marketing, and training pieces. With a new animator on staff, the company is able to provide a wide range of design styles and “nutty cartoon types.”

An exciting new outlet for Serious Robots is Sesame Street. Rich says the children’s program is very open to ideas and always on the look-out for creative solutions. While the show is limited by its small budget, it is willing to work with production companies and encourages the submission of proposals for show segments. Serious Robots recently created for the show a piece entitled “Where Does the Cow Live?” -- a cute and engaging bit of animation exploring appropriate habitats for a cartoon bovine.

Sales are up this year for Serious Robots, and with new clients like Sesame Street and the Body Shop coming aboard, they completely bypassed the traditional summer slump.

A new area of exploration for the company is interactive media, and they are focusing on creative and design work, as opposed to authoring and content. With the help of elements like QuickTime animation, Serious Robots is working toward designing non-static menus, bringing motion to the screen to further engage the user. While the company is still in the early stages of this journey, Rich describes the development as fun and a good change of pace.

In Charlotte, NC, Silverhammer Studios offers three distinct branches of service, in the form of Carolina Production Services, Catwalk, and Bridge Productions.

At Carolina Production Services, Kathleen Stapleton anticipates a very busy 1996, as the company looks to attract more infomercials and related projects. Although she describes November and December of 1995 as slower than usual, Carolina Production Services did round out the year with a bang, working on projects such as a piece for Federal Emergency Medical Assistance with a client out of New York.

For this production, the company provided 35mm with sound and full key and grip packages for a three-day shoot -- one day of which was spent working with a roof constructed underwater, simulating a house in extreme flood conditions. Carolina Production Services also provided a lightning machine for the “very large” project, and the company furnished a day of studio work as well.

Production has also included traditional spots for Duke Power -- a local utility company -- and other regional clients.

A significant source of projects has been nearby Charlotte Motor Speedway. Featuring a drive-in stage, the studio is often host to a variety of automotive shoots, involving 35mm, video, and still photography for NASCAR sponsorship promotion.

Also located nearby, the Charlotte Hornets have turned to Carolina Production Services from time to time, and Stapleton is hopeful that the new Panthers football stadium, ready in the fall of 1996 for the coming season, will attract NFL clients as well.

Silverhammer offers post-production in the guise of Catwalk, which recently added two AMPEX DCT suites, making use of Pinnacle Prism DVE and linked to a digital Beta deck.

Catwalk’s Mark deCastrique says that his clients are mostly finishing up film production work and animation, while he also offers real-time animation special effects, which Catwalk provides on both SGI and Macintosh platforms.

The new suites offer layering abilities and keep the work as component at all stages, and deCastrique is not surprised that interest in the technology is growing. He describes it as a “format that the marketplace is just discovering” and adds that all equipment and technology is linked to everything else in-house, including the animation and sound design rooms.

The third branch of Silverhammer Studios is Bridge Productions, which is currently exploring new pathways in media and learning new marketing techniques while continuing to meet the needs of long-term clients.

While 1994 was the company’s best year ever, Bridge’s Richard Aldridge says that 1995 was pretty close to claiming the same distinction. Although the company did not attract as many high-budget projects as in previous years, they still accumulated ninety-five shoot days, enough to keep busy the three directors on staff and to require the services of a freelance director as well.

And with the Olympics coming to roost not so far away in Atlanta this summer, Aldridge expects 1996 to be a “killer year,” not only for Bridge but for all in the region.

1996 is already starting out with a bang for Bridge, with projects lined up with such heavy-hitting clients as Pepsi, Jefferson-Pilot, and Western Auto.

Aldridge estimates that about seventy percent of Bridge’s business comes through agencies, while twenty-five percent of their work focuses on corporate sales, infomercials, and half-hour shows. Bridge has expanded its regional market into Atlanta and Virginia, and a good portion of their commercial work originates in the offices of Hollywood and New York clients.

Aldridge says there has actually been a great deal of interest in Bridge’s services and in the area in general coming out of Los Angeles and New York. He cites the obvious factors of geography and economy when speculating about national and international attraction to Carolinas, but he also jokes that professionals and clients alike might be looking more seriously into the region because it takes at least two hours to get to work every morning in Los Angeles.

Working exclusively in 16mm and 35mm film format, Jason Dowdle’s Blue Sky Film has been in business in Chapel Hill, NC for four years, providing a polished and finished film look to a broad range of clients -- such as the Greensboro Monarchs hockey team, the Savannah River Credit Union, and the North Carolina Ski Area Association. On a national level, Blue Sky has attracted such companies as Pizza Hut, Jackson Hewitt, Discovery, and A&E.

Providing full production and post-production services, Dowdle works within a customer’s budget to give a project the look it needs. While Blue Sky’s focus is mostly on television and commercial work, other projects have included tourism films, long-format presentations, and high-end corporate films. In conjunction with Bob Landau’s Maceo Productions and associate Janet Gaino, other Blue Sky specialties include wildlife cinematography, talent and dialog direction, children’s programming, and creative consulting services.

A major force in the growing Carolina market is Wilmington, NC’s Carolco Studios. Offering everything a production might require from an expendables store to a prop shop, Carolco also features on its lot Lightning Transportation and Telemedia. “It’s all here,” says Director of Marketing Kat Swaim. “It makes it so much easier for production companies.”

1995 saw Carolco working at a constant pace with three commercials, four motion picture features, and fifteen made-for-television movies -- up from five TV movies in the previous year. Swaim sees an increasing trend toward made-for-TV movies and believes that this growth should continue well into 1996 and beyond.

While Wilmington is not a great metropolis -- boasting a population of approximately 120,000 in the city and surrounding areas -- Swaim has seen a great influx of very skilled crew people who have grown and matured with the Studio during its ten years of operation. And she believes that this is just one of many elements which allows Carolco to offer greater and stronger support services.

While current projects include the likes of feature film “Traveler” -- a “gypsy scam story” starring Bill Paxton and produced by Banner -- and TNT movie :”Bastard Out of Carolina” -- directed by Anjelica Huston and starring Jennifer Jason Leigh -- Carolco also offers services to commercial clients and opens its doors to local companies, such as an automotive dealership which has used Studio lots. Off of the Studio grounds, Carolco offers both grip and lighting support to location shoots.

Further emphasizing the significance and strength of Carolco and the Carolinas, Swaim says that the Studio’s main competition comes from such veteran production regions as Los Angeles and Canada.

1995 was a great year for Wilmington, NC’s Media Masters, specializing in broadcast and industrial lighting and videography. With the recent acquisition of a new Jimmy Jib, owner Blane Allan is attracting a fair amount of new business.

Allan, a native of Pittsburgh, focuses his contract work on his hometown and Los Angeles, though he also picks up local and regional work as a gaffer and lighting director. Fascinated by what he describes as the “dying breed” of live television, Allan first entered the production world as talent, though he soon became disenchanted in that end of the business and tried his hand behind the scenes. Ultimately it was love and marriage which brought him to Wilmington.

While Allan admits that he doesn’t see enough of an industrial base in Wilmington to support most businesses, a thriving market in nearby Raleigh helps to pick up any slack. Local clients for Media Masters -- which Allan runs with Rich Howard, also of Video Image -- include Carolina Power and Light, which recently commissioned a video informational piece on the processes involved in the draining and refueling of nuclear containment rods.

While 1996 will mark only the third full year in business for Media Masters, Allan already has some exciting new regional commercials lined up and is confident that it will be a strong year, especially with growing interest in the Carolinas from outside markets.

Greensboro, NC’s Televisual is a full-service company which began operation in 1987. Gary Todd estimates that half of the company’s business involves providing complete service to clients, while the rest consists of “a la carte” services for producers.

Todd describes Televisual as “one-stop shopping” for complete in-house media services, from location shooting to graphics and post. This full-service approach helps to keep costs down by keeping all elements and phases of production in one facility, lessens confusion while progressing through each stage of production, and allows both client and producer to retain full control over quality. The results, says Todd, are always “very predictable” -- a great comfort in a industry seemingly full of surprises.

While Todd sees other companies offering “splintered services” -- specializing in one area or another of production -- Televisual is one of the few true full-service companies left. This approach, combined with a deep commitment to customer needs, encourages a “strong level of trust and understanding” between Televisual and its long-term clients. 1995 was more than simply a good year for the company, as an extra shift was added to the schedule just to keep up. 1996 will find Televisual co-producing larger projects and exploring multimedia -- a natural outgrowth of services already provided.

Building on experience in trade show kiosks and booths, Televisual will expand a traveling exhibit on textiles produced for the Discovery Museum. Also slated is the development of CD-ROM products for corporate clients.

While Televisual’s clients are mostly regional and based in the mid-West, they are involved in several markets and have been feeling the benefits of North Carolina’s current strong growth phase. Todd sees many new companies moving into the area as North Carolina becomes a more familiar and nationally recognized commodity. And Televisual’s proximity to Charlotte, NC and Atlanta is really paying off.

With the addition of a new digital media department, graphic firm Xpost in Greensboro has seen a thirty percent increase in its business over the past year.

Offering graphics and digital media services, Xpost has been working with AVID on-line technology for the past two years. Tripp York explains that they also offer CD-ROM interactive media on such projects as a comprehensive digital database of models and other talent. Production time on this CD is expected to run four weeks, with Xpost heading up the public relations campaign.

While standard corporate and advertising projects comprise the majority of Xpost’s volume, the company has also been working on national spots for companies such as Volvo and Glaxo Wellcome, and has developed a relationship with IBM Microsoft. A long-standing and steady client is the United States Post Office, which has been utilizing Xpost services for eight years now.

York believes that it is Xpost’s laid-back atmosphere and commitment to service that initially attracts clients, and that the friendliness of the staff and going beyond the standard client-relationship ensure long and productive business relationships.

Apart from infrastructure and a healthy economy, another significant feature of the Carolinas is “location, location, location!”

Auspiciously situated at the confluence of major arteries such as I-40 and I-85/95, the Carolinas see a great deal of traffic, opening up this natural corridor to the world of production.

A strong South Carolina commodity is its wide range of locations. With such recent credits as “Die Hard with a Vengeance,” “Something to Talk About,” and the miniseries “Scarlett,” South Carolina’s beautifully preserved natural and built environments are really paying off.

Greater use is being made of rural South Carolina locations, and southern geography adds real character to any production. In terms of diversity, South Carolina locations have been used as substitutes for every region in the United States -- and even as Southeast Asia, as seen in “Forrest Gump.” For productions trying to control costs, this opportunity to consolidate locations is an attractive lure.

But South Carolina has much more to offer than simply geography.

In December of 1995, Creative Post and Transfer’s Bob DeLano made the move from senior editor to general manager, adding to the company’s renewed dedication to clients and service, and boosting client confidence

Creative Post offers both digital on-line and analog services in its editing suites as well as linear and non-linear off-line. Additional capabilities include digital audio and graphics and film-to-tape transfer.

Through a string of parent companies, Fort Mill, SC’s Creative Post is owned by ESPN, ABC, and ultimately by Disney, and this chain of command has generated some exciting new projects. Due to ESPN’s needs alone, Creative Post is host to two college basketball shows and has two insert stages with fiber capabilities.

Creative Post’s client base is quite diverse. Regional coverage includes Charlotte and Spartanburg and stretches northward to Virginia Beach and Indianapolis.

The company has added a new international client as well. Located in Dublin, Ireland, Bluthe turned to Creative Post for help with a thirteen-part animation series. Since this work is being done in the Carolinas, all character voices are provided by local talent, with DeLano himself even filling in from time to time.

Creative Post’s clients are made to feel right at home, and DeLano jokes that long-standing customers keep their own coffee mugs at the facility. The focus is on long-term personal relationships, and it is not unusual for DeLano to give out his home telephone number so that he is always accessible.

DeLano says that the hardest thing to do is to say “no,” but that’s exactly what he will have to do in 1996 with the large volume of projects the company is attracting, even with seventeen employees on staff and a large pool of freelance talent throughout the region.

In Myrtle Beach, SC, Encore Video Productions shoots and produces video and one-camera film-style pieces, providing complete script-to-screen services for both broadcast and non-broadcast. Offering a soundstage in-house and providing crews for outside productions, Encore also supplies behind-the-scenes documentation of film production for such companies as Carolco Studios in Wilmington, NC. With four full-time employees on staff and drawing from a wide talent base of contractors and freelancers in the state, Encore provides a variety of production services to their clients.

While Encore’s primary focus is on advertising agencies, corporate and business communications, and marketing pieces, they also have experience in commercial production, longer-form video, and broadcast -- providing services for outside producers, syndicated TV shows, and cable networks.

Regular Encore clients include DuPont and the U.S. Treasury Department, for whom the company does a good bit of travel and internal communications work.

Another significant client is Danielli, a producer of steel-making equipment, whose media needs have included documentation of new installations. This work with Danielli has led to projects with steel manufacturing companies such as Georgetown Steel, who have approached Encore for production of marketing tapes.

Locally, Encore’s clients range from golf courses to hotels and the real estate industry. And as Myrtle Beach’s entertainment venues continue to expand, there are constantly new opportunities. Local businesses have experienced a growing need for video news releases, and many theatres are now using video in their performances.

Frank Payne says that Encore’s aim is to continue to improve, to keep up with equipment developments in order to provide the best technology and service to clients. He describes the production process as being a carefully crafted marriage of creativity, talent, and equipment. And in this vein, Encore is exploring new areas such as interactive programming -- the company has already produced and installed an interactive piece for the South Carolina Hall of Fame -- and CD-ROM media.

Encore is also expanding its sights globally, forging an alliance with a media company in Ghana, Africa to provide consulting services on operations. As this company seeks to establish a branch office in Myrtle Beach, Encore is looking to extend its international services, possibly even expanding into this new sister country of Ghana, which Payne describes as offering a “tremendous market” with a large tourism business, noting that Ghana and Myrtle Beach share more similarities than differences.

In the romantic city of Charleston, SC, Trident Productions has been in business for ten years and has seen its market expanding both nationally and internationally.

Providing post-production and crew and equipment rental services, Trident has garnered a CableACE Award for The Stingrays Show -- focusing on the local Stingrays hockey team -- one of two broadcast sports shows originating at Trident.

Craig Pitcairn says that eighty percent of Trident’s clientele is looking for turnkey solutions for equipment rental and crew needs -- such customers have run the gamut from local and regional freelancers and production companies to tabloid television programs like “Inside Edition” and “A Current Affair,” and also ESPN. Trident additionally provides equipment for feature film production, such as the recent “Ace Ventura” sequel, shot on location in South Carolina.

Business has been picking up as nationally significant court cases are underway and while stories such as the trials and tribulations of the Citadel’s first female cadet continue to capture the public’s interest. Pitcairn saw a busy holiday season -- a trend that should continue as Carolina golfing tournaments get underway.

Pitcairn attributes this success to a number of factors. Trident is a strong force in Charleston and in the region, able to offer clients “a lot of bang for their buck.” And Trident’s commitment to quality inspires both loyalty and repeat business.

While there has been a desire to move into non-linear post-production -- Trident currently offers linear editing services -- Pitcairn is realistic about the cost-driven Charleston market, which may not be able to bear such a move at this time. However, a strong college market offers tremendous opportunities for area production companies, as there is a constant need for recruitment and fund-raising videos. Election years also bring in a great amount of business, as politicians look to video and broadcast to further their campaigns.

Trident targets specific markets with its many video projects, from how-to videos to tourism pieces. Recent projects include an award-winning approach to manic depression from a family standpoint, as well as a three-part series on Attention Deficit Disorder in schools. Given Trident’s proximity to Paris Island, it is not surprising to find “The Making of a Marine,” “The Making of a Female Marine,” and a project on the Marine’s silent drill team amongst the company’s credits.

With such experienced production companies and personnel throughout the region, it is no wonder that business in the Carolinas is thriving. And with the added benefits of diverse locations and immense value for every production dollar spent, the Carolinas are sure to continue to grow and mature in the South’s evolution into a powerful center for both traditional production and new media.