Busy Kitchen

I spent the morning in Southport, visually a stereotypical small American beach town. It could be in New England, or anywhere on either coast for that matter, but is located near the mouth of the Cape Fear River. Today, scenes were being filmed for the upcoming HBO series, "Under the Dome" from the Steven King novel of the same name. The story actually takes place in Maine, but Southport fits the bill, and has a healthy, quality movie crew ready for work. By the way, Southport was the location for the recent movie "Safe Haven".

This coastal area and the Wilmington studios, have be making films and TV shows for many years. It's a good industry, clean, and provides many high paying union jobs. It marries well with the tourism, and appeals to most of the residents. But the way it works these days is that the state provides incentive dollars to the film makers to do their work. Many states do this, but North Carolina's dollars are big and they already have the crews. Most of the stars like coming here to get away from Hollywood, or New York. They are pretty much left alone, can hang out at the beach and go to restaurants without too much hassle.

Recently two politicians have written a bill to ban incentives, and have raised quite a backlash. The film makers will go where they get a good deal., and the crews and their families have to be uprooted. It also takes away millions of dollars from the state. From what I have read, the incentive money is well worth the initial investment. I hope the bill dies in committee. A movie studio beats a cement plant every time.

A Few Additional shots from Southport today.