The industry takes root in S.C.

State 'enjoyed its strongest spring of ... recruitment ever'

Creative Forge Productions

Director Brad Jayne (from left) with 'Song of Pumpkin Brown' stars Khari Lucas and Chris Gay.

COLUMBIA — For West Ashley filmmaker Brad Jayne, the state's investment in him and South Carolina's fledgling movie industry is paying off.

"The film commission has done a bang-up job," Jayne said Monday, reflecting on how the receipt of a $100,000 grant to make "Song of Pumpkin Brown" served as a springboard for his career.

The S.C. Film Commission recently announced the second round of Production Fund grants, including one awarded to Bravada United of Charleston to turn the heartbreak of the 1955 Cannon Street YMCA All-Stars into a film. The fund is designed to develop the state's movie industry by pairing professionals with students.

Although disputes at the state level have hampered efforts to establish a South Carolina film industry, Jayne said his grant worked the way it was supposed to — to develop a foundation for future productions.

"Having the grant opened up a lot of doors," he said.

In February, Jayne and several partners formed Creative Forge Productions, a Daniel Island-based

independent feature film production company. That was about a year after the premier of "Pumpkin Brown," a 30-minute independent, narrative short film set in the early 1960s about a boy at Jenkins Orphanage in Charleston.

The film took home awards at the Kansas City Filmmakers' Jubilee and the Beaufort Film Festival.

Jayne is now working on two films he wrote: "Warrior," about 24 hours in the lives of three 18-year-olds who travel from rural Charleston to Myrtle Beach and the transformation of one of the boys, and "The Purpose of Winter," a story of a woman in her 40s coping with a family history of mental illness.

Gov. Mark Sanford and the Legislature have disagreed on how the state should capitalize on film production and establish the industry. Last week, lawmakers overrode his veto of legislation aimed at bolstering the industry by changing its oversight and incentives.

Rep. Seth Whipper, D-North Charleston, one of the early advocates for film incentives, said the state is searching for the best way to develop a pool of local talent that will let independent filmmakers like Jayne thrive and that will entice large production companies to make movies here.

"This industry takes the best of South Carolina, uses it, advertises it, compensates it well and leaves us just as they found us and maybe even improved," Whipper said. "We're looking at these films to come in and progress. They involve computer graphics — anything you could name, cosmetology to woodworking, catering, limousine services, hotels, restaurants; can you see it?"

The state Department of Commerce recently announced two films that will come to South Carolina to film: "Band of Angels," a Hallmark Production directed by Bill Duke, and "Dear John," an adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel by New Line studios production.

Officials at the Commerce Department, one of the governor's Cabinet agencies, weighed in on the debate over how South Carolina should encourage film production. Effective today, the Film Commission will move from the Commerce Department to the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism, also a Cabinet agency.

In a statement, Daniel Young, executive director of the Coordinating Council for Economic Development, a division of the Commerce Department, said, "Even with the national writers' strike slowing productions around the country in the fall of 2007, South Carolina enjoyed its strongest spring of film recruitment ever.

"With four feature films and a television series, our resident crew base has been virtually fully utilized. The focus of film recruitment should be employing South Carolina residents and keeping the South Carolina crew base working is the strongest measure of film recruitment success."

Reach Yvonne Wenger at 803-799-9051 or ywenger@postandcourier.com.