Mount Pleasant Magazine March/April 2016

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W hy did TV shows
such as Bravo’s “Southern
Charm,” HBO’s “Vice
Principals,” Lifetime’s
“Army Wives” and CBS’
“Reckless” choose South
Carolina as their primary
filming location? Although an argument can be made that
Charleston’s entertaining, flamboyant and dynamic local
reality TV personalities enticed
the industry to the region, that
theory would not exhaust all the other factors that played
a role in their decision.
In 2013, South Carolina’s state Legislature passed a bill
allowing film companies to be reimbursed up to 30 per-
cent for supplies purchased from South Carolina vendors.
The legislation also increased the rebate film companies
could receive for doling out wages, to 25 percent for South
Carolina residents and 20 percent for others. Under the
law, the incentives became permanent, protecting them
from the Legislature’s annual budget process.
Simultaneously with the passage of the South Carolina
bill, North Carolina’s lawmakers launched a campaign to
simplify the state’s tax codes by eliminating tax loopholes
and industry-specific incentives. Ultimately, that came to
include the state’s film industry tax credit, which in its last
The LowcounTry embraces FiLm
RedCarpet
Ready
by Joe semsar
Photos courtesy of Meeting Street Productions.