COVID-19 couldn’t keep this faith-based feature movie from being filmed in Columbus
While the coronavirus continues to keep most of the film industry shut down, Columbus is in the vanguard of locations showing how productions can shoot their projects safely and successfully — as well as boost the local economy and give local residents more experience in the movie business.
An independent feature film by Mustard Seed Entertainment titled “The Greatest Inheritance,” co-starring and co-produced by Phenix City native Meredith Riley Stewart, wrapped this month. Crews spent 17 days shooting at an antebellum home in the Upatoi community of northeast Columbus.
The movie is a faith-based, family-friendly story about a one-hit-wonder rock star named Kasey. She returns home, along with her estranged siblings, to bury their mother and claim their inheritance. The deed to the estate is hidden on the property, and the first one to find it inherits everything. But, as she races her siblings, the scavenger hunt for the deed leads Kasey and her siblings to a revelation.
“The film deals with the biblical theme of ‘You can’t take it with you,’” Stewart, a 1997 graduate of Central High School, told the Ledger-Enquirer last year, “and also reminds us that our true inheritance in life is not money or an estate but the people that we are blessed to call our family.”
Now back in Los Angeles, Stewart told the L-E last week that seeing her dream of filming a movie in her hometown area come to fruition despite the challenges is another lesson about faith.
“This project has been put together for over two years,” she said. “… It was a lot of figuring it out, of striking out with people, getting a no and just having the attitude of like, ‘Every time I get a no, I’m getting closer to a yes.’”
Plenty of yeses
Stewart got plenty of yeses in the Columbus area. In fact, 90% of the movie’s nearly $1 million budget is funded by local investors, she said.
“It’s just a reminder of, ‘Just keep plugging away at little steps every day to get closer to what you want to do,’” she said.
The movie was supposed to be shot here in April. That plan was delayed when the film industry shut down productions in March to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
“The weather was going to be beautiful,” Stewart said. “The azaleas were going to be in bloom.”
But she kept plugging away. Stewart used the downtime to create a document of about 15 pages detailing the precautions “The Greatest Inheritance” followed to shoot 62 scenes more efficiently while keeping social distancing in mind. She gleaned protocols from union guidelines and tailored them to this movie’s situation. Being filmed all on one property helped contain the problems.
“I just knew we were going to have to prove to any cast or any crew I was asking to fly across the country during this and to live there for a month that I was going to have to prove to them,” she said, “not to mention SAG (Screen Actors Guild), so they would accept our production.”
Stewart has acted in dozens of productions and produced dozens more on online, but his is her first feature film as a producer.
“It was like all the parts of me got to function and got to flourish in this project,” she said. “I got to call on people who I knew would be supportive from my childhood. That sort of web of connectivity really did support us throughout this. … People who knew my parents also were supportive and people just from the community. When it comes to indie film, that’s essential.”
Her mother, Mary Jane Riley, was a Spanish teacher, guidance counselor, assistant principal and principal at Central, then assistant superintendent of Phenix City Schools. Her father, Aubrey Riley, was a founding professor of accounting and statistics at Chattahoochee Valley Community College. Both are deceased.
Stewart held back tears as she said, “Many times on set, it struck me, if they were around, they’d both be here watching this happen. Yeah, it was a lot to sort of carry. I know I have their spiritual support, their generational pull that brought me to this place, that has given me the attitude to make me see myself as someone who could accomplish this.”
Coronavirus precautions
The production’s coronavirus precautions included:
- Testing before anyone could be on the set, then follow-up testing three days per week for all actors and anyone in close contact with the actors.
- No carpooling to the set.
- Daily temperature checks for everyone who arrives on the set.
- Masks required to be worn at all times, except for actors when they are being filmed.
- Social distancing as much as possible.
MercyMed of Columbus conducted the testing and provided a COVID-19 compliance officer, Martin Wood. The production’s budget set aside about $20,000 for testing, Stewart said.
A total of 342 coronavirus tests were conducted during filming and no one among the 40-50 people on set received a positive result.
“People were just willing to do what needed to be done in order to work,” Stewart said. “These are folks who are hourly-wage workers, they are union members. They haven’t been working since March. Their unemployment was running out. They wanted to be on the set, so they were absolutely willing to comply, and we were thrilled to put money in the pockets of individuals who really needed it.”
All of which was heartening for Stewart.
“It was incredible to see,” she said. “Even during the most trying time of probably all of our lives, people were willing to band together, to take care of each other — because that’s what it really came down to — to act respectfully outside of work. … If you came to work with a positive test, that would have been a wrench in our plan. More than just you would have been affected.”
Local involvement
In addition to support from Columbus investors and area businesses, the production’s cast and crew included several other local folks:
- Grace Pippas was a supporting actor.
- Her brother, Gabe Pippas, was the gaffer, which means chief lighting technician.
- Springer Film Institute director Sara Lynn Holbrook was the child safety coordinator.
- Kaitlyn Clarke and Georgia Simonds, graduates of the Georgia Film Academy at Columbus State University, also were on the crew.
Gabe, 26, co-owner of Cinder Lighting & Grip in Atlanta, is a 2012 graduate of Brookstone School. He has worked in the film and video industry for seven years. Cinder has been involved in more than 8,000 productions, but this is the first one he has done in his hometown.
“I’ve been wanting to work on a film in Columbus for a long time,” he told the L-E. “For the month of production, I moved back in with my mom and dad and slept in my old bed for the first time since I was 18. Living at home was a great change of pace from the normal workload in Atlanta and having your family’s support always makes things smoother.”
Grace, 21, graduated from Brookstone in 2017 and is on track to earn a bachelor’s degree in communication from CSU in 2021. She is taking classes online while living in Los Angeles and pursuing more roles. Her eight film and TV credits include a lead role in the yet-to-be-released “Bad Impulse.”
Besides acting in a film shot in her hometown and working with her brother on the set, the movie’s message also attracted Grace to this project.
“’The Inheritance’ is the perfect film to watch as a family,” she told the L-E. “You’ll feel warmed by the family experience, inspired, and laugh a little along the way.”
The Pippas siblings also appreciate the coronavirus precautions Stewart and the other producers insisted on the cast and crew following.
Grace called it “a testament to their professionalism and planning. … It just really goes to show that you can work if you follow the rules and safety guidelines.”
Economic impact
The Georgia Department of Economic Development certifies projects that meet the qualifications for the Film Tax Incentive, which offers productions that spend at least $500,000 in the state a 20% tax credit and an extra 10% if the Georgia logo is used in the credits and a link to ExploreGeorgia.org/Film is on the landing page of the project’s website.
Since 2016, when Georgia overtook California as the top location for feature films, the Peach State consistently has been in the top five of the international rankings conducted by FilmLA.
In 2019, the 391 film and TV productions in Georgia spent $2.9 billion in the state, supported 3,040 industry businesses and created $9.2 billion in total wages, according to the Georgia Film Office.
Columbus is getting an increasingly bigger piece of that pie.
In January 2019, the Columbus Film Commission announced $5 million in local donations that established the Columbus Film Fund to provide grants for bringing 10 film or TV productions to the local area in three years.
Those productions could create more than 500 local jobs and $100 million in local economic impact, according to the commission’s November 2018 presentation, citing estimates from the Georgia Department of Economic Development.
The fund already attracted “Survive the Night,” starring Bruce Willis, and the Vanna White-produced “Electric Jesus” — and nine prospects were in the pipeline when the pandemic postponed productions, commission and VisitColumbusGa president and CEO Peter Bowden told the L-E.
Those two movies had a combined estimated economic impact of $1.1 million, Bowden said.
“The Greatest Inheritance” didn’t receive a grant from the fund, but it still generated an estimated $150,000 for local businesses, he said. It also could encourage other producers to consider Columbus as their filming location during the pandemic.
“This project has allowed us to do some promoting of how we can be a film destination and be safe,” said Bowden, who noted he just got off a call with a producer looking to make a deal for multiple projects.
So he is optimistic “The Greatest Inheritance” can reignite the momentum for making Columbus a significant film hub.
“COVID-19 has changed things, but there is a potential for acceleration because of the amount of content that is waiting to be made,” he said. “Once the industry can provide agreed upon safety protocols, I think we will see more opportunity for success.”
This story was originally published August 28, 2020 at 7:00 AM.
