North Carolina’s rolling hillsides, charming cities and rugged beauty make it an enchanting spot for filmmakers, be it the latest Hollywood blockbuster, quieter indie productions or classic films like Dirty Dancing.
The same versatility applies to group events, as North Carolina can do glitz and glamor, or reign it in with subtle small-town charms.
The film industry is a huge economic factor in the state. The North Carolina Film Office reports that movie production is responsible for almost $250 million in spending and 25,000 jobs a year. The 2012-2013 calendar included shoots for television shows such as Homeland, Revolution, Sleepy Hollow, Eastbound & Down, as well as various reality shows.
The production boom really took off in 2010 when North Carolina lawmakers increased a refundable tax credit for wages paid while performing work in-state and goods and services purchased from state vendors, attracting attention from big-spending movie crews.
Nowadays, the state welcomes film travelers with easily available itineraries, and many of the sites and experiences can be visited by or adapted for groups.
The latest big-screen blockbuster with ties to the Tarheel State, Iron Man 3, was released this summer, starring Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow and Don Cheadle. The third movie in the Iron Man trilogy grossed $1.2 billion worldwide and was filmed in the cities of Cary, Rose Hill and Wilmington. North Carolina scenery appears in the film as locations ranging from California and Florida to Afghanistan.
Wilmington, or “Hollywood East”, has been a filming location in more than 400 movies and television shows and is a great group escape, from the Cape Fear beaches to the 107,000-square-foot, LEED-certified, Wilmington Convention Center, which accommodates up to 2,000 people.
While some identifiable filming locations such as the Port of Wilmington are closed to the public, action sequences of Iron Man 3 were shot above the Cape Fear River, and Ben Kingsley, who plays the film’s villain, visited the historic USS North Carolina battleship, used in the Pacific Theater during World War II, for a private tour by the ship’s captain. The battleship memorial is open to visitors and can be rented for group events and meetings.PageBreak
Based off the popular books by Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games brought the national spotlight to rural North Carolina when the first movie was released in 2012.
Groups can connect with the movie at several locations in the state, including the upscale 1,191-seat Knight Theater at the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center in Charlotte, which shows up in the movie as the luxurious capital city, and the abandoned Henry River Mill Village off Interstate 40, where scenes from The Seam, heroine Katniss Everdeen’s poverty-stricken home, were filmed.
Many scenes were shot in the surrounding Asheville area, which is also home to the pinnacle of North Carolina luxury, the Biltmore Estate, built by George Vanderbilt in the early 1890s. The 250-room mansion welcomes groups for elegant events such as garden tours and wine tastings, and has been the site of major motion pictures including Patch Adams, Forrest Gump, Last of the Mohicans and Hannibal.
Planners also love Asheville’s numerous art galleries that double as function spaces. The Blue Spiral Gallery is a three-level space with white walls, hardwood floors and natural light, accommodating up to 500 people for receptions.
Taking advantage of Blue Ridge Mountains vistas, Lake Eden Events hosts gatherings in restored barns and offers cabin lodging.
Omni’s Grove Park Inn is another classy local venue, with 57,000 square feet of event space, an award-winning spa and boundless team-building opportunities.
Attendees can also enjoy the star treatment at numerous upscale venues throughout North Carolina. PageBreak
For equestrian fanatics, Tryon’s elegant horse estates, south of Asheville in the Appalachian foothills, have more than 80 years of thoroughbred history. Horse Country Tours offers personalized visits to local farms in the summer season, highlighting the most stunning barns, scenery and training facilities.
Groups travelling to Durham will hit a home run by checking out the Historic Durham Athletic Park, where climactic scenes from the 1988 movie Bull Durham were filmed. The field can be rented for events year-round, from picnics and fundraisers to cook-offs and baseball tournaments. The Durham Convention Center is complemented by several meetings properties, including the Washington Duke Inn, Hilton Durham near Duke University and Sheraton Imperial Hotel.
Nearby Chapel Hill offers its own venue options, including the newly renovated Carolina Inn and the 9,000-square-foot Carolina Club on the University of North Carolina campus.
Another city with its own regional film commission, Charlotte has a lengthy list of production companies that have worked in town, and a lengthier list of reasons it is a great meetings destination, from a hub airport to downtown meetings properties such as the 700-room Westin Charlotte, the Hilton Charlotte City Center and the luxuriously sleek Omni Charlotte.
In Greensboro to the north, the upscale Proximity Hotel is LEED Platinum-certified and welcomes retreats and corporate meeting groups. The 147-room property features 7,000 square feet of function space, the adjacent Print Works Bistro and more than 70 sustainability enhancements. One hundred solar roof panels and an innovative elevator system capturing extra energy and returning it to the building’s electrical grid are among the property’s innovative features that will help preserve North Carolina’s beauty for the generations of filmmakers and viewers to come.
