Mount Pleasant Magazine March/April 2016

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claimed that Trident Tech’s program
“is one of the best film programs
on the East Coast,” and that he
wouldn’t have seen success in the
film industry without the support
of his Trident Tech professors. Ben-
son is thankful, too, that he doesn’t
have to go far to follow his passions:
“It’s a dream that there’s a great
deal of film work right here in the
Lowcountry.”
The same friendly economic
environment that lured Williams and her team to the
Lowcountry also attracted Dave “Buddy” Morgan and Lit-
ton Entertainment to Mount Pleasant. Litton, an Emmy
Award-winning independent TV distributor who produces
Saturday morning hits airing on ABC and CBS such as
“Born to Explore” and “The Pet Vet,” has hired a multi-
tude of local talent for acting, producing and directing
roles since setting up shop East of the Cooper.
Tuesday Beebe, a Mount Pleasant resident and Litton
employee, completed MUSC’s Physician Assistants gradu-
ate program in 2002. While still in school, MUSC asked
her to help out with a commer-
cial by acting on-air as an ER
doctor. From there, Beebe caught
the acting bug and has been
working on her trade ever since.
Today, Beebe and her
boyfriend work full-time for
Litton, and they teach acting
classes on the side with hopes
of “building the local talent
pool for future productions that
come to the area.” Tuesday’s
hope is that South Carolina continues to foster an eco-
nomic environment conducive to attracting film produc-
tion companies away from Georgia and Louisiana, the two
other film industry tax-friendly states in the Southeast.
Like Beebe, Kara Williams believes that the future of
the film industry in South Carolina is up to state lawmak-
ers. Williams and Meeting Street Productions would like
to produce four feature films in South Carolina over the
course of the next two years, but she admits reluctantly
that “although the state has a lot to offer, ultimately film-
makers go where the film incentives are.”
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