Carrboro Film Festival might lure fewer film pros

Durham resident Marilyn Hays became a film director by playing hostess during local film festivals.

She made connections by routinely showing visiting filmmakers around town.

“When you happen to be a creative person who knows a lot of people who are making films, they talk you into becoming a filmmaker, too,” said Hays, who will be making her directorial debut in the ninth annual Carrboro Film Festival next month.

But Hays is also worried that such opportunities might soon disappear because of changes to the state’s film incentives enacted in August.

Nic Beery, director of the Carrboro Film Festival, said the festival has not been directly affected by the changes to film incentives because it is geared toward independent filmmakers. But he is similarly concerned about the change.

“It does not affect me, but films should be made here in North Carolina,” he said. “My friends should be able to work here instead of having to go other states to work.”

The tax credits that once lured big productions like “The Hunger Games” to the state were reduced and changed into a grant program. The new program will only give a total one-time allocation of $10 million over the span of three years. There was no cap previously. To qualify for the grant, feature films need to spend at least $5 million in the state, while the previous incentives only required $250,000.

“If moviemakers aren’t making movies here and creative people leave, then it sends a message to artists everywhere that North Carolina doesn’t want you here,” Hays said.

“If they don’t make a climate that moviemakers believe they can maximize their chances to produce movies at a cost recoverable, they will move to some place where they can.”

= said independent filmmakers are not directly affected by the change because they typically have budgets below the minimum investment requirement.

But Hays said she and others will be affected by the reduced opportunities to interact with visiting professionals who come when they have productions in the area.

“All the big stuff is brought in from outside,” she said.

“It gives local people a chance to hook up with big productions.”

Many industry professionals visit festivals like Carrboro’s to scout for talent when they film in the state, Beery said.

Rob Underhill, a filmmaker and longtime Carrboro Film Festival contributor, often hires visiting professionals to help with his local projects.

“They help establish the bigger film festivals — without them around, everything kind of shrivels,” Underhill said. “I can make cooler movies with a bigger chance of success, with more access to resources and top industry people.”

Underhill works in Raleigh, where he said many industry professionals live while working on big productions. He has hired a visiting director of photography and a top score composer on his past projects.

But lately, he said he has heard about how difficult it is to find a film job in the state due to insufficient incentives.

“I know some folks who moved to Wilmington who are not sure if they can do it long term anymore,” Underhill said.

“I think the biggest scary thing is that the incentives are going to go away, and these TV shows would rather move to somewhere else.”

Hays said departing talent led her to hire the three main actors in her film from New York.

“It’s hard to find professional actors in great quantities here because opportunities are limited in things like film here,” she said. “The creative people leave the area.”

Hays has plans to make her second small film with a friend in Durham, but she aims to expand in the future.

“It’s going to keep being small until it gets bigger,” Hays said. “When it becomes bigger, we will have to eventually move away.”

arts@dailytarheel.com