"It's certainly different for Chester," he said.

With three films shooting or gearing up to shoot in the area, Z-1 is among many local businesses reaping the rewards of beefed-up state incentives for filmmakers in place since July.

For Rock Hill, this has meant suddenly becoming the second-largest film production hub in the state after Charleston. "Patriotville" is filming in downtown Chester, and "Asylum" is shooting around York County and plans to film at Winthrop University this week. Filming for "The Third Miracle" is to begin late this month.

Each is expected to spend about a third to half its budget locally on everything from office rental and lumber for sets to wages for extras and beer for crews at local watering holes.

"I don't think we've ever seen the interest we're seeing now," said state Sen. Wes Hayes, R-Rock Hill, who voted for the increased incentives that end in mid-2007. "The latest incentives had some teeth and ... put us on the map as far as attracting movies."

The incentives, plus the area's proximity to Charlotte contribute to the boom, said Margaret Young, sales director for the York County Convention and Visitors Bureau. She notes "Patriotville" and "Asylum" have offices in downtown Rock Hill because it's close to Interstate 77 and Charlotte's airport.

The infrastructure for movies was in place from commercial and television work in the Charlotte area, said Beth Petty, director of the film division for the Charlotte Regional Partnership, which represents York, Chester, Lancaster and Chesterfield counties. The incentives are bringing in a tremendous amount of work, she said, and with that, "you grow the things you need -- the crew base, the equipment base."

Charlotte has four major film equipment rental houses and more flights per capita than any other city, making the area ripe for growth, she said.

In addition, South Carolina's great variety of locations and temperate weather also sweetens the pot for Hollywood. From Brattonsville's 18th century homesteads "The Patriot" used as a backdrop in 1999, to university campuses and hundreds of miles of shoreline, filmmakers can readily shoot period pieces or present-day films.

Perfect for the script

Last spring, the South Carolina Film Commission began courting Hyde Park Entertainment for both "Asylum" and "Death Sentence," shooting in Columbia. "Asylum" producer George Parra and director David R. Ellis scouted Charles- ton and Columbia, but when they saw Winthrop, they knew they'd found the right place.

They're using Tillman Hall to double as a haunted college dormitory, said Parra, adding they loved the campus' big magnolias and fountain.

"It is genuinely perfect for this script," he said.

Parra said the majority of the "Asylum" crew comes from the Southeast, with only a handful from Los Angeles, New York and Chicago. On top of their weekly wages, those coming from outside the area receive a stipend for lodging and meals. With supplies, and accommodations purchased here, Parra predicts the $10 million film will inject about $3 million into the local economy.

The S.C. Film Commission has been recruiting out-of-state suppliers to set up shop locally, said commissioner Jeff Monks. Roughly a dozen new corporations have set up South Carolina offices in response to the incentives, including film-related payroll, bond and insurance companies, plus motion picture lighting, transportation and catering companies.

Although many of these have set up in the Charleston area, they benefit the entire state by helping to develop a production cluster that is much more sustainable, he said.

The only missing piece of the puzzle, Parra said, is the lack of sound stages in the area. They have converted a warehouse in a local industrial park by soundproofing the roof, covering skylights and installing portable air conditioning.

He said it would have been "incredibly easier" if York County had stages available. Parra points to a 500,000-square-foot sound stage complex being built in New Mexico and said if the South Carolina incentives remain in place, maybe "they could put up stages that would eventually pay for themselves."

Movies like a small business

Because each movie is set up as an independent company apart from the studio that provides funding, it is like a new business springs up each time a project is given the green light. Monks likens it to a producer coming to town with nothing more than a check.

Because film producers don't stay in town long, they prefer to rent rather than own and generally leave little in their wake.

"It touches so many sectors -- hotels, restaurants, gas, service providers, security firms, massage therapists, equipment rentals," said Young of the Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Z-1 Talent saw an opportunity to grow and went for it. The company got the chance to handle the entire extras casting for "Patriotville" because the casting director who would normally handle that kind of project was booked elsewhere in South Carolina.

Z-1 has been in the business 15 years but until now has primarily provided models, actors, singers and dancers for print and TV advertising, or put clients up for auditions with larger casting companies for national ads and film jobs.

"Patriotville" has been a big job for Z-1. It's put 150 to 200 people to work as extras. The agency didn't have trouble finding talented, willing folks and received more than 600 applications from Gaffney, Shelby, N.C., York, Columbia and Rock Hill.

Harris said filmmakers from "Patriotville" had only one complaint: Carolinians are too good-looking.

"They were looking for 'regular people,'" he said.

Maxann Crotts-Harvey, a casting director and producer from Rock Hill, is handling extras casting on "The Third Miracle," to be shot in Charlotte, Rock Hill and Spartanburg this fall. In the business since 1985, Crotts-Harvey has worked all over the Southeast and as far away as Idaho on the Bruce Willis feature "Breakfast of Champions."

She's found plenty of locals eager to be in the movie about boys from Mexico who became the first non-U.S. team to win the Little League World Series.

"We've gathered over a thousand people in the last two days who want to be in the movie," she said.

With the boom, however, film professionals sometimes find themselves educating locals on the ways of Hollywood. Crotts-Harvey needs extras to commit to a 12- to 14-hour day for pay that ranges from $70 to $80 a day.

"If you're close to the actor in a scene they shoot in the morning, they might come back and shoot it from another angle eight hours later," she said. "If that extra's gone, they have to re-shoot the whole thing."

Similarly, Monks, the film commissioner, occasionally has to explain the rebates to local merchants. Film production companies that qualify for exempt status don't have to pay the area's 8 percent sales and accommodations tax.

Monks said a cash rebate of 15 percent on wages and supplies was permanently put into law in 2004, but as of July they were raised to 20 percent for wages and 30 percent for supplies for one year. This was a direct response to a fiercely competitive market between states to attract film production, he said.

"It's the direction our competitors are going in," he said. "Luckily, our legislature had the foresight to give us the proviso. This gives us the edge over North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Maryland and Florida -- our daily competitors."

But the increased incentives also bring a challenge, said Monks, who has to entice film production while not using up the local talent pool.

"We're trying to manage it so there's consistent production in the state, but no more than we can handle," Monks said.

The program allots about $10 million in wage rebates and $7.5 million in supplier rebates annually. The goal is to strive for sustained production, developing the infrastructure, crew and supplier base.

The S.C. Film Commission has stopped accepting applications for the program but expects to open it again in October.

Z-1's Harris hopes the incentives will be extended next year.

The program's success will encourage the General Assembly to keep them in place, Hayes said. The only concern is "that other states will see what we're doing and copy us. It's a very competitive thing."

Monks said filmmakers "have been very pleased with the community, how we're welcoming them to the area, from the government to the average retailer."

The locals like being home, too.

Coming off a film that shot recently in Rockingham, N.C., Crotts-Harvey is thrilled to be working in her hometown of Rock Hill.

"It's always better to be home in your own bed," she said. "I'm happy to know the incentives are in my home state."