Bringing Hollywood to the Triad: The Piedmont Triad Film Commission

When most people think of producing a big Blockbuster movie, they think of Hollywood, California; or maybe New York City. But one Piedmont Triad resident wants you to think of North Carolina. WFDD Radio Camper George Sanders has more.

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Rebecca Clark Mills is the executive director of the Piedmont Triad Film Commission. This group, formed in 1993 promotes and markets the 12 counties that make of this region. Clark Mills explains how her group attracts film producers to the area.

For instance, they may say, “Okay, there is this film and we need a college campus… we need a big city… we need a small town… and then we need a white clapboard farmhouse that sits at the top of the hill.” So, the first thing I do is we have an online database and I try to collect as many digital images as I can of all these types of locations. You know, letting them know too that it's really cost effective to shoot here and that that we have a great state film incentive so they'll save a lot of money.

She told me that she reached her current job with a love for the entertainment industry and a wanting to help people create.

I always wanted to work in the entertainment industry. I wanted to be a comedian. That was my first… I wanted to be Carol Burnett when I grew up. So, I think that my desire to work in the entertainment industry has been since I was a small kid.

I asked her about some of the films shot in the Piedmont Triad. She told me the region has held films like Spike Lee's “He Got Game,” “Junebug,” “Leatherheads” with George Clooney, and Whoopie Goldburg's “Eddie.”

But we also have recruited Hallmark television movies based on a two books by Beverly Lewis, a Fiat commercial that's on right now on television. It's “The Italians Are Coming.” It's really funny and a lot of people have seen it. I see it every time I turn on the television… and so it's pretty funny.

       

She says that the area has much to offer to the film industry and that we should be expecting a lot of activity involving future filming in the Triad.

For WFDD Radio Camp, I'm George Sanders.