Find Out How to Bypass New York and L.A. and Start Your Career in a Southern City
By Wyatt Elling
You might not know it, but North Carolina is one of the most active states for filming movies and television outside of New York and California. In fact, it has the most soundstages (1,000,000 Square Feet's worth) and production hubs of any state in the union outside of California! Over the years it has played host to over 700 feature film productions and 14 major television shows.
Movies like Being There, Forrest Gump, The Fugitive, The Last of the Mohicans, Firestarter, Cold Mountain, Dirty Dancing, and The Patriot have been filmed mostly or entirely in North Carolina. Dawson's Creek, the most successful show ever to air on the now defunct WB network, was filmed in NC for six years. One Tree Hill is currently in production there as well. In all of these cases many roles were cast from the local populations, and almost all of the background actors were pulled from local communities. This is a great opportunity for natives of the Carolinas.
Independent production is also ramping up significantly; since 2001 over 100 independent films and shows have been filmed in-state. The Science of Cool, starring Scott Bakula, is currently in production in NC, and is a high-profile HD feature.
So how can you get involved in the thriving acting scene in North Carolina? The first and most practical step you can take is to move to Charlotte. It's a great city with a large community of actors and entertainment professionals, and it's within driving distance of any production or audition within the state. It is also close to many other major Southern Cities. Charlotte also has the most production companies and ad agencies of any city in the Carolinas, which do a large volume of commercial and model casting. There are also several professional Equity theaters in the city that run stage shows year round that are supported by a professional and amateur acting group called First Friday.
Many of the roles and jobs available for actors in North Carolina are non-union, which has both plusses and minuses. On the plus side, non-union jobs are easier to acquire, more plentiful, build up your resume, and allow you to side step cumbersome union rules and work qualifications. The major downside is that these roles don't pay union scale, and won't necessarily help you get a SAG membership.
There are many reasons why North Carolina has become a Hollywood hotspot. For one thing, Productions in the state are much cheaper than filming in L.A., New York, or internationally. The state is idyllic, and has a wide range of environments, including mountains, beaches, cities, countryside, forests, and small towns. The North Carolina Film Commission claims that 95% of the movies and TV shows shot in the state don't "take place" there. Any kind of movie can be shot there, so you shouldn't have any reservations about being shoe-horned into Southern films.
The North Carolina craze was partly started by mega-producer Dino De Laurentiss, who scouted out the town of Wilmington to film Firestarter. The production went well, and came in $3 million under budget. Laurentiss used the extra money to buy property and build soundstages, setting up a permanent state-of-the-art production house. More followed, and productions have been on the rise ever since. Laurentiss also handed over background casting duties to two local brothers, Craig and Mark Fincannon, who went on to create the biggest casting agency in the Carolinas. They're still the number one source of employment for screen actors in NC.
There are acting opportunities all over the country. If you live in North Carolina or within driving distance, you might just find that you can break into the film industry in your own backyard!
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