West Virginia Film Office Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

WVU Student Looks At Return Of State Film Office

As part of his capstone project Max Bruce, a recent graduate from West Virginia University, took a look at the effects of the state’s new film office on the state’s burgeoning entertainment industry.

The West Virginia Film Office has had a bumpy ride to get to where it is today.

As part of his capstone project Max Bruce, a recent graduate from West Virginia University (WVU), took a look at the new film office’s effect on the state’s burgeoning entertainment industry. He spoke with Chris Schulz about his reporting, which you can read here.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.

Schulz: What is the film office?

Bruce: The film office is an organization set up by the government under the Department of Economic Development. It acts as an all encompassing resource for filmmakers and creatives in the state to get films, music videos, TV shows and anything in a visual medium created and supported.

Schulz: What attracted you to report on this office and their work?

Bruce: For me, it was because originally I shifted into media from civil engineering in college. I wanted to get more involved in media and make people laugh and do something creative. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a film program at WVU, so the closest I could get was working with media, working with camera equipment, editing software, took me down the route of journalism. My professor brought up the idea when I was scratching my head for topics for this. And it just made sense as someone who had such a passion for film growing up to bring it back around and do this ultimately, really, really fun project.

Schulz: The film office has kind of had a bumpy road to get to where they are today. The West Virginia Legislature approved them and then unapproved them and then re-approved them recently. Can you tell us a little bit about that process?

Bruce: The original film office was dissolved actually by the legislature in 2018. They didn’t see it as bringing in sufficient economic gains, apparently, they were minimal. The tax credits were capped instead of being uncapped, and the benefits that they were seeing were not substantive enough to warrant keeping them around. So there was a vote in both the House and the Senate. They dissolved it, they brought it back four years later in 2022. That passed overwhelmingly with major sweeping changes and they’ve been on fire ever since, they’ve just been on a roll, doing some really great stuff. Really, really good people over there.

Schulz: Can you tell me a little bit about how the film office is actually making these changes to foment a film industry here in the Mountain State?

Bruce: Some of the major changes, like I mentioned, we now have really, really robust tax credits. You can get up to 27 percent back on major productions if there are over a certain amount, I believe the amount is $50,000. And that is uncapped. So we will be able to provide you with more services that are available. Plus, there’s an additional 4 percent that you can get back totaling up to 31 percent total if you have a certain amount of crew members that are from Appalachia, and are from the region.

Schulz: How is the film office helping people who are working in this industry? If I understand correctly, you hope to be one of them. How are they being helped?

Bruce: You’re very much correct. And I do hope to be one of them. The film office has actually been doing some really interesting things by creating a service on their website, a catalog of sorts, of people working in the industry. Say, for example, you’re working on a production and you need another accountant or you need a grip or something along those lines, there’s actually a resource that people can go through, that are in the process of making productions, are in the very early stages of productions, and find those people and match them. So it’s a good way of connecting local West Virginians, and Appalachians, for that matter, to productions and allowing them to expand and work on these productions. It’s a phenomenal resource, and it’s surprisingly robust as well.

Schulz: Tell me a little bit about some of the people that you spoke with for this story, who are the filmmakers in West Virginia?

Bruce: There’s quite a few really cool people that I had the pleasure of talking to. Obviously I spoke to a gentleman over at the film office who’s spearheading this endeavor. His name is Dave Lavender. Everyone I talked to in my reporting had told me like, ‘You need to talk to Dave, you need to talk to him.’ Yeah, after speaking with him, he is the coolest guy you could possibly talk to, and he’s exactly the kind of person you want. Just really passionate about films in West Virginia and getting things done. He’s a real, ‘Yeah, let’s do it. Let’s have some fun. Let’s get this taken care of’ kind of guy.

I spoke with Tijah Bumgarner, who is a professor now at Marshall University. She grew up in West Virginia, and moved out to California at a certain point to pursue a career in film, bounced around for a tiny bit and then settled back down. She is now creating, or helping to create with the film office, the first filmmaking program in the state of West Virginia at Marshall University.

[Joe Stretchay’s] not quite in West Virginia anymore, he’ll come back and work on productions, but one of the other people I spoke to that really stuck out to me was Stretchay, who is legally blind. He’s been a consultant for film and TV in different projects. His most recent project was working on the Apple TV series See, with Jason Momoa. But he’s also famous as being the coordinator for Charlie Cox on the Netflix series Daredevil. He told me that, ‘Yeah, unfortunately, I didn’t get to do a lot of fun stuff with punching and fighting in the Daredevil stuff. But I helped Matt Murdock move around and brought that character to life.’ He said it was a great experience. He’s a wonderful fellow as well. He’s based out of New York now, I believe.

Schulz: What exactly is the timeline for seeing some progress and maybe some productions here in the state?

Bruce: I think the big thing to acknowledge is that there’s already productions that are happening, I don’t think that ever went away. A lot of it is fostering the current crop of people that are in the state, but then also bring people in from outside. It’s not quite that productions haven’t been going on, we’ve seen that they’ve happened in the past, and there’s been a steady stream. It’s just, unfortunately, not as widely publicized. You’ll see actors all the time from all over the state and all over the region. I mean, I was watching Mad Men a couple of nights ago, and I saw one of the guys on there, I pulled his IMDB page, and he was from Huntington, West Virginia. The guy who played Cole Phelps, in the video game LA Noire. He was from Huntington. So you see it all the time, you just don’t realize it. I mean, we know the famous ones. We know the really prolific people like Don Knotts and Jennifer Garner, and so on. But it’s more common than you think, it just takes a sort of trained eye to look for it.

Schulz: What has your reporting told you about the future of film in West Virginia?

Bruce: That it seems incredibly bright. It seems like we’re moving in a very good direction. Anecdotally, I’ve heard from a lot of the people I interviewed and talked with that they’re interested in coming around here. They’re interested in seeing what we can do and making more films. There’s been Lifetime movies that have been filmed here. There’s been a couple actually, music videos are still popping up. There’s a lot of buzz and interest in it, especially because of how competitive the tax credits are, but also how versatile the state is. There’s a beauty to it. That’s, I feel like in some cases, overshadowed for the stereotypes of West Virginia that I don’t want to even mention because everyone’s already rolling their eyes.

Schulz: Is there anything that I haven’t given you an opportunity to discuss about your reporting about this industry? Or something that you’d like to highlight that we already discussed?

Bruce: Yeah, again, I want to make it clear that the main takeaway I wanted from this is that the industry in West Virginia is very hopeful. And for someone growing up, regardless of where you are, regardless of what part of the state you’re in, or even that you’re from West Virginia in general, there are opportunities for you to be creative, there are opportunities for you to be successful. And there’s opportunities to tell the stories you didn’t think would ever get told, like your stories and people that are like you.

It’s an amazing time to be a filmmaker in West Virginia and to be a creative in this state. And I only see that flourishing as time goes on. I only see that growing more and more as people start coming towards the state and as we revitalize the industry here. I mean, towns in Georgia when The Walking Dead were coming on blew up overnight by being tourist attractions and bringing money and people into the state and bringing more attention to it. And I think given enough time and given certain productions and given the strong backbone that the industry has now, I can see that easily happening.

There And Back Again: How W.Va.’s Film Office Is Back With A Mission

With the reinstatement of the tax credit for filmmakers, the film office located at the state Capitol Complex in Charleston reopened in April 2022.

With a new Film Office under the Department of Economic Development reestablished in 2022, a bevy of unique and gorgeous filming locations and tax incentives on par with those offered in Georgia, a question hangs over the film industry of West Virginia: why hasn’t it gained more recognition in the public eye?

Listen to an interview with Max Bruce about his reporting.

Tijah Bumgarner had a passion for video cameras and making short videos from a young age. But she left West Virginia and headed for Los Angeles in 2004 where she discovered what the world of filmmaking could offer.

After years of creating independent films, she saw the opportunities a film program in West Virginia could offer other aspiring filmmakers.

“I just want to tell these stories that have not been told before,” Bumgarner said, “To let kids know that their stories are important, the small stories are important and that you can change perspectives of what people think of your hometown, basically, or your state.”

A native of Meadow Bridge, Bumgarner had been trying to create a university film program since 2017, but recently found success due to changes in tax credits and renewed interest in video production at Marshall University’s College of Arts and Media.

The West Virginia Film Office is working to foster homegrown filmmakers by partnering with Marshall on the creation of a Bachelor’s Degree of Fine Arts in Filmmaking, making it the only university in the state to have this kind of program.

After being dissolved in 2018, the film office was reinstated in 2022 by House Bill 2096. The bill also instituted credits totaling up to 31 percent back with no annual cap for various media productions in the Mountain State. The previous credit had been capped at an annual amount of $5 million and was deemed as providing “minimal economic impact” by a state Department of Commerce audit.

The 2018 vote to end the original tax credit passed in the West Virginia House 54-42 and the Senate agreed 28-2. The 2022 reinstatement bill, however, passed with an overwhelming majority in both chambers.

The current tax credit allows for productions of $50,000 or more to receive back 27 percent on local spending and both resident and nonresident labor on commercials, web series, documentaries, feature films, pilots, TV shows, music videos and more. There is also a potential 4 percent bonus available for production companies that employ 10 or more residents of West Virginia as full-time employees. All together that makes the maximum available credit 31 percent.

Individual tax incentives for film are different from state to state. Some offer tax credits towards productions, others offer cash rebates in special cases, while certain states provide benefits for individual crew members.

With the reinstatement of the tax credit for filmmakers, the film office located at the state Capitol Complex in Charleston reopened in April 2022. Dave Lavender has spearheaded the newly reestablished office under the Department of Economic Development.

“My responsibilities are pretty much all encompassing as far as helping to do anything within the state of West Virginia to promote film and to promote filmmakers that are right here,” Lavender said. “To help build out the workforce and to also provide a wide range of services for production companies that are interested in filming in West Virginia, kind of like a concierge for the film industry.”

Brad Paisley, an American country music star and West Virginia native, (shown center in front of Whipple Company Store in Scarbro, Fayette County) shot two music videos “Sons of the Mountain” and “The Medicine Will” in the state in May 2023. Music videos are also covered under the tax incentives put into place by the West Virginia Film Office.

*Courtesy of the West Virginia Film Office*

The office also offers a website that lets production companies browse a library of shooting locations within the state, a resource for finding crew members in all available positions and tax credit information through an industry sheet.

It isn’t just the film office trying to showcase the talented people of West Virginia and what it has to offer. Nonprofit organization Shine on WV, founded by Jillian Carney-Howell, aims to shine a spotlight on Appalachian filmmakers and creatives.

Carney-Howell has a YouTube channel where she interviews Appalachians working in the field, and highlights their works. She said that while it may not be massively publicized, there are filmmakers, actors and other creative people from West Virginia and Appalachia, who are out there being successful, who should be getting more recognition for their successes.

“We know the historic ones,” said Carney-Howell. “We know Don Knotts and then we know the really famous ones like Jennifer Garner, but the smaller ones, we weren’t looking for it. So as a West Virginia audience, we just assumed it wasn’t possible. The second I switched my viewpoint and started looking for it, I started finding it.”

Shine on WV has featured a variety of people from different positions in the industry, both in and out of the region. One such person is Joe Strechay, a legally blind producer and consultant for blindness and low vision, who has worked on shows like Netflix’s Daredevil and Apple TV’s series See.

Strechay began losing his vision while in college and began to take a more critical look at how blindness and low vision were being portrayed in film and on television.

“We’re definitely moving in a more positive direction with regards to representation of people who are blind or low vision,” said Strechay. “I would say low vision is still not really represented in TV and film … but total blindness, for sure, we’re definitely in a much better place.”

His first major production was the Netflix series Daredevil, a blind lawyer by day who fights crime as a masked vigilante by night in the Marvel universe. Strechay was a consultant for both the child version of Matt Murdock, the series’ main character, as well as his adult counterpart, played by Charlie Cox. He remembers it at the time being just a cool experience while working another job. As more projects gradually started to come in from both Netflix and Apple TV, he began to see a full-time vocation.

“I asked myself, ‘Is this a full time job?’ and they were like, ‘I think it is.’ I guess I need to quit my job then.” Strechay said.

Strechay said he is excited for the new tax incentives that the state has rolled out.

“I have to say, our new tax credits are amazing. I’m pretty psyched about it. I’ve heard from other people outside of West Virginia; I’ve talked to friends from Canada who researched even filming here in West Virginia,” he said.

Strechay is one of the state’s native industry leaders, who are enthusiastic about the state’s new initiatives and hope that they could lead to the resurgence of business in the state, similar to what happened with Georgia in the 2010s when investments and a few very successful projects like AMC’s The Walking Dead turned the state into one of the nation’s top film destinations. In 2020, Georgia’s cumulative wages for film and television crews totaled $3.51 billion, the fifth highest in the nation according to the Motion Picture Association.

That same year, West Virginia’s film and television crews’ wages totaled only $118 million, but there was no tax incentive being offered, and the film office was still closed.

Another aspect of Georgia’s rise in popularity for filmmaking is the versatility of the state to showcase different types of environments, a benefit that West Virginia shares with the Peach State.

“Getting the word out about the locations that we have here might get people to consider it for a variety of projects,” said John Temple, a professor at West Virginia University (WVU) and screenwriter/filmmaker. “Obviously, there’s plenty of other mountainous states, but like, the mountains we have in West Virginia are different, you know … and there are places in West Virginia that are just untouched, or sort of look the way they used to.”

Temple’s most recent project is a feature film called Beatdown where large parts of the film were shot in Beckley, West Virginia in May 2023. The film will follow a boxing family in West Virginia.

“We were also really interested in showing a side of West Virginia that we’ve experienced that we don’t think makes it onto the screen very much,” Temple said. “The warmth of West Virginia, the humor of West Virginia, the beauty of West Virginia – all of those things.”

With the systems in place from the film office, the state’s versatility and the passionate community of Appalachian creatives, West Virginia has everything in place to show the world what the Mountain State has to offer.

Maxwell Bruce discussed his reporting on this story with Chris Schulz, West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s North Central/Morgantown reporter, in the July 22, 2024 episode of West Virginia Morning.

Electricity Prices And A Look At New Film Office’s Impact, This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, electricity prices in West Virginia have increased faster than the rate of inflation. A recent report concluded that the state’s heavy reliance on coal is the reason. Curtis Tate spoke with the report’s author, Brendan Pierpont, director of electricity modeling for Energy Innovation Policy and Technology.

On this West Virginia Morning, electricity prices in West Virginia have increased faster than the rate of inflation. A recent report concluded that the state’s heavy reliance on coal is the reason. Curtis Tate spoke with the report’s author, Brendan Pierpont, director of electricity modeling for Energy Innovation Policy and Technology.

Also, in this show, the West Virginia Film Office has had a bumpy ride to get to where it is today. As part of his capstone project, Max Bruce, a recent graduate from West Virginia University (WVU), looked at the new Film Office’s impact on the state’s burgeoning entertainment industry. He spoke with Chris Schulz about his reporting.

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University.

Emily Rice produced this episode.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning

Native W.Va. Filmmaker Combines Hollywood And Home

Jillian Howell began making movies as a grade schooler. The Putnam County native now works in Hollywood, but her passion is telling stories on film about West Virginians who inspire her.

Randy Yohe talked with the Disney production coordinator and documentary filmmaker about her show business start, her latest project and her drive to support Mountain State arts.

The transcript below has been lightly edited for clarity.

Yohe: It seems your passion for filmmaking began in Scott Depot, West Virginia at a young age, with a toy that my sister had as well. Tell me about that.

Howell: When I was seven, Santa Claus brought me a Barbie video camera. I made videos constantly with my dolls, and with my family that recorded straight to VHS. I taught myself stop animation with my brother. I was just constantly making things, and it wasn’t really until YouTube started in 2006, that I really started making things that other people were able to watch. I taught myself how to video edit on my mom’s Windows XP Movie Maker, and was able to start creating things to put on YouTube, and classmates were able to see them. I started entering video contests. In high school, I created Music Video Monday, which was also on our morning announcements that took off on the internet as well. There weren’t a lot of film opportunities for kids my age, there wasn’t a curriculum kind of tailored to it. It started with making my own opportunities.

Yohe: You’re now with Walt Disney Animation Studios in Los Angeles. Tell us about that job.

Howell: I got my first internship through West Virginia connections at Disney Parks internal ad agency, where I interned for a year and a half and then just kept pounding the pavement. I knew I wanted to work in animation production management, and didn’t know when I was in college that was a career path. I’ve been at Disney Animation since 2019. I started as a production assistant on Frozen II, and went on to be a production assistant, or as we call it, a PA, on Raya and the Last Dragon and then a production coordinator on some park attractions, Strange World and I’m now working on Wish.

Yohe: Even though you’re in Los Angeles, it seems your heart remains in West Virginia. You’re ready to debut a three-year-in-the-making documentary on your childhood best friend Zane, and that’s also the title. Tell us about his story.

Howell: I met Zane in fourth grade when he was seated next to me at Scott Teays Elementary School. I had never really had the opportunity to become friends with someone who had special needs and hadn’t really seen anyone fit into the mainstream. I feel like Zane was this bridge that connected what is a self-contained classroom to the mainstream classroom.

Zane is very unabashedly joyful, friendly and hilarious. He can make me laugh. I’ve always enjoyed every moment with him and sharing those stories with my family. I had been thinking about making a character piece on Zane, and decided to kind of just go for it. By the time that we scheduled the first interview, Zane had lost his job that he had for four years at Lowe’s. A very important thing about Zane is that he is one of the hardest workers I’ve ever met. He loves working. He just lost his job to regular layoffs, it wasn’t anything that he did personally, so I think that made it even harder for him.

A key component in Zane’s story, and in Zane’s success, is his mom Anne. Anne was actually studying special needs before she even knew that Zane was going to be diagnosed with an intellectual disability. She has a doctorate in special education. She is his biggest advocate, and also an advocate for so many folks with special needs. Zane has a huge heart, and a lot of faith. I wanted to capture that really charming character, but also show his mom’s tenacity to be able to continue to move forward in a situation that is really frustrating. Eighty percent of folks with special needs are often unemployed, but they offer so much to the workforce. We just have to really give them a chance, and be willing to make some accommodations for that.

I just want people to fall in love with him. The best way I know how to do that is through film and through sharing his story.

Yohe: West Virginia has recently restored its film office and restored its film tax credit to help make the state globally competitive as a production site. What kind of impact do you think that that will have?

Howell: I think the ripple effect of having a film office in West Virginia is big. When you see West Virginia represented in media, in film, and television, you really become the ambassadors for the state. You are able to show off the state in a way that makes people respect our state and see what we have to offer. I think the more that we open the door to those opportunities, we’ll see our state continue to be respected and grow.

Yohe: Tell us about your online social hub, Shine On WV.

Howell: Once I started realizing there were so many West Virginians working in important, artistic fields, and we just weren’t talking about it, it was just kind of like household chatter. I decided we had to create a database of creative West Virginians, and give them a chance to tell their story and share their work. It’s been really tremendous to just kind of start to see the connections that we can make. I just really want to break down the barrier to that. It is great to have a career in the arts. It takes a lot of passion, a lot of patience, and figuring things out. I’m tired of hearing that art is not a career option. It just takes a lot of creativity to figure out how to pay your bills, and to also sustain that lifestyle.

Yohe: You’ve got a lot of irons in the artistic fire. Going forward, your personal career goals, I imagine will springboard from Zane, to what filmmaking end?

Howell: I think that my dream changes a lot, but I know that it involves producing films. I have several ideas of my own films that I want to make. I’m helping produce an indie feature right now. I have so many different passions that it used to feel impossible for them to all kind of align and come together. I’m starting to realize that I can kind of continue to create those opportunities for myself, even though it’s exhausting. I have set boundaries for myself to really kind of stop and self-analyze, rest and take care of myself. My husband will say I’m not great at it, but I have gotten a lot better at it.

State Filmmaking Groups Begin Organizing Statewide Job Workshops

Filmmakers and producers are organizing workshops to support a potential filmmaking workforce statewide.

A grip and lighting workshop is scheduled for late February in Morgantown as part of a partnership between the state’s film office and the West Virginia Filmmakers Guild. It’s the first that the office is organizing, with plans to sponsor similar workforce development workshops in places around the north-central region and the Eastern Panhandle.

“They just passed the tax credit this past July, so there’s a need for more grips and electricians to start working on more independent films that are coming into the state,” said Justin Owcar, West Virginia Filmmakers Guild President. “So we want to be able to help more people that would be interested in the industry and train them and give them the opportunity when these productions do come into the state.”

The film industry in West Virginia generated $120 million in wages and around 5,800 jobs with eight television series like Underground Marvels and Mountain Monsters being produced in-state throughout 2020 and 2021, according to the Motion Picture Association.

West Virginia Development Office Apprenticeship Coordinator Dave Lavender said attracting film crews to West Virginia is great for economic development, supporting local towns’ economies and creating new jobs during the filmmaking process.

“We really believe in trying to create opportunities here, for everyone in West Virginia, so that if somebody wants to work in film, and work in the creative industry, they can do it here, they don’t have to always be traveling to Atlanta to work,” Lavender said. “We want people to be able to be able to work and live and play in West Virginia as much as possible.”

The workshop is scheduled for Feb. 25 and 26. The office is also planning to sponsor a make-up workshop, run by television and film make-up artist John Caglione, at the Berkeley Springs Film Festival in March.

Sign-ups for the Morgantown workshop are currently available on the West Virginia Filmmakers Guild’s website.

After Legislative Action, The State’s Film Industry Is Making Gains

Just five months after a new law revitalized the West Virginia Film Office, the state’s film industry is already seeing a bump.

Earlier this year, the state legislature revitalized the West Virginia Film Office, as well as the state’s film tax credit. The law went into effect in July and in just five months, the state’s film industry is already seeing a bump.

When Jeff Tinnell started in the film industry, you either worked in California or you didn’t work.

“I remember when I first started doing it and not living in [Los Angeles] and people said, ‘Where are you? What are you doing? Where’s the set? Where did you come from? You can’t do that here,’ type of thing,” Tinnell said.

Jeff and his filmmaker brother, Robert Tinnell, grew up in Rivesville in Marion County. They’ve since made their way back to West Virginia with their company Allegheny Image Factory, and things in the industry have changed.

“Now people could care less,” Jeff said. “You compound it with the pandemic where people work at home, they just want you to prove that you can do the work completed, and you have the skill level to be able to do it.”

Over the last 20 years, dozens of places outside of the country’s traditional film epicenters of California and New York have established burgeoning film industries of their own. Georgia, North Carolina and Texas now all boast robust film industries, and West Virginia is working to get in on the action.

In July, the legislature relaunched the state’s film office, moving it from the Department of Tourism to the Department of Economic Development, and restructuring the state’s film tax credit.

“The Film Industry Investment Act puts West Virginia in the national conversation,” Meghan Smith, manager for Business and Industrial Development at the Department of Economic Development, said. “It gives us the opportunity to reap the economic benefits of the film industry by having productions here.”

Smith also said the state’s new tax credit makes it competitive compared to neighboring states like Pennsylvania and Maryland.

“There is no per project cap, no credit cap,” she said. “When other states around us reach their credit cap for projects, they’re going to be looking at us to spend their money in West Virginia, because we don’t have that cap. So that’s one of the biggest and most exciting differences.”

While money is a driving force, the film office isn’t focusing exclusively on finances. Dave Lavender is the Apprenticeship Program Coordinator for the Department of Economic Development, but he also helps productions around the state find what they need. He said productions of any size can seek out help.

“West Virginia, it’s Appalachia. We’re full of storytellers,” Lavender said. “We get a lot of inquiries, and some small budget films who need help. We try to connect them to some of the funding possibilities, and some of the arts grants and things that are out there, even if they don’t qualify for the $50,000 minimum spend.”

In what has suddenly become a crowded market for filmmakers and production companies to choose where to base their productions, West Virginia distinguishes itself with the variety of filming locations packed into a relatively small space.

“We have places where you would really want to make a film,” Lavender said. “We got Civil War battlefields and coal towns and diverse cities and landscapes and places like the Palace of Gold and Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum.”

It’s still early days for the film industry in West Virginia. The office hasn’t compiled data on how many productions have come into the state, or how much revenue they’ve produced. Things are still being built out, and Lavender said the film office is always looking for more locations. One of the pieces still growing to fit the state’s filmmaking puzzle is a skilled workforce. Lavender said the film office is working on that, too.

“We have a service, a professional directory up there for crew members, and also for support services,” he said. “It takes a village, a huge village, to make a film. Support services are really everything.”

That means everything from drivers to painters, hair and makeup specialists and caterers. It also means the core filmmaking skill set of actors and video producers, who Lavender said are here already, but typically go out of state to work.

“We do have a lot of actors here, we do have a lot of tons of video production companies,” he said. “We’re hoping to have enough creative projects here where they can stay home and work in state.”

The Tinnells have been filming commercials, TV and movie projects in West Virginia now for 15 years and have already noticed a difference in the months since the new film office opened.

“We’ve done features here, we’ve done some television work here, we’ve done a lot of commercial work here,” Jeff said. “What was great about the last six months was the excitement that people had to want to get behind it.”

The goal for the Tinnells and their Allegheny Image Factory is to produce six to eight projects each year. In the past six months, they managed three, including two Lifetime movies based on the mystery novels of Ann Rule. Jeff’s brother, Robert, who filmed his 2019 holiday feature “Feast of the Seven Fishes” in Marion County, said seeing film productions is starting to get a little more common in West Virginia.

“When I did ‘Seven Fishes,’ that was really surreal and cool,” he said. “Now I’m getting sort of used to it, to driving through Fairmont going, ‘Oh, look, there’s a whole bunch of big lights and about 70 people standing around making a movie.’ It’s a really good feeling and I’m proud.”