|
TODAY IN NORTH
CAROLINA
TRIAD
Regional Film Industry
Growing Dramatically
Just as college basketball
rolls out its 2005-06 season, filming has wrapped up
in the Piedmont Triad on a major motion picture about
the sport. Entitled “Home of the Giants,”
the movie stars Haley Joel Osment of “The Sixth
Sense.”
Although the film is set
in Indiana, the movie’s production company set
up shop in the Triad area for more than a month. Hundreds
of local residents volunteered to appear as extras in
crowd shots of basketball games staged at Lawrence Joel
Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Winston-Salem and the
gym on the UNCG campus in Greensboro.
Greensboro businessman Charles
Grimes, president of SymPics International, who doubles
as chair of the Piedmont Triad Film Commission, is executive
producer on the movie.
The latest movie project
represents “an exciting time for this area,”
said Piedmont Triad Film Commission Director Rebecca
Clark. “Our industry is growing dramatically in
the Triad region.”
As proof, Clark noted that
the film production industry accounted for a $22 million
contribution to the local economy during 2004.
“This is big business
for North Carolina and for the Triad,” she said.
“It’s about creating jobs.”
The area been successful
in attracting high profile film projects recently. Last
year Bon Jovi spent time in the Gate City filming a
production known as “The Trouble with Frank.”
Two summer theater releases,
“Junebug” and “The Gravedancers,”
were filmed in the region. In fact, “Junebug”
was filmed entirely in the Triad under the direction
of Winston-Salem’s Phil Morrison. The film debuted
at the Sundance Film Festival and was released by Sony
Classics. It received superb reviews for its portrayal
of a sophisticated Chicago couple visiting family in
North Carolina and suffering a bit of culture shock.
A Triad film even won an
Oscar last year. The Academy recognized a film called
“Two Soldiers” as the best live action short
of 2004.
With the passage in the General
Assembly this year of incentive programs to attract
more filmmakers to the area, Clark sees an even busier
time for movies in the Piedmont.
“The results from these
projects filters through the economy in numerous ways,”
she said, “from lumber sales to antiques to car
rentals. It’s a good way to create economic development.”—Jerry
Blackwelder
|
