Story by Olivia Gschwind
Photos by Samantha Hoffman
Graphic by Chrissy Wang
Humid coastal air clings to the leaves of oak and magnolia trees lining the street of a picturesque southern neighborhood in Wilmington, North Carolina. Regal houses stand proudly among the hum of bugs in the tree moss, their constant sound an ode to the stagnancy of an 85-degree day in September.
A loud sound disrupts the scritching insects in the canopy above. It’s a director’s voice — accompanied by a chorus of people brandishing walkie-talkies, earpieces and large swaths of cables connected to carts full of complex screens, cameras and other intricate-looking machines to the untrained eye.
The snap of a clapperboard reverberates down the street, cutting everyone to attention.
“Three, two, one, action,” director Jonas Pate says, leaning in to examine a trio of monitors while listening in with a headset.
Similar to the call-and-response of the birds in the trees above, producers and crew members cue waves of jargon across the neighborhood-turned-film set. Interjected phrases like “Pictures up!” “Rolling, rolling!” “Cut!” and “Reset!” slice through the street’s quiet facade as a miniature village bustles outside a million-dollar home—the day’s set for Pate’s latest project.
Scenes like the one in this Wilmington neighborhood hint at a revival of North Carolina’s film industry across the state after various factors slowed it down: state incentive fluctuations, legislation, COVID-19 and industry strikes. Pate, director of the hit Netflix series “Outer Banks,” is glad to return to filming in North Carolina. His current project, an eight-episode series called “The Runarounds,” is more than a tribute to his home state. It’s a close-knit set of North Carolina-bred industry experts and their family members who follow in the same footsteps and love what they do.
Pate, 54, and his twin brother, Josh Pate, grew up in Winston-Salem, N.C. The two attended different colleges, with Josh Pate staying in-state and attending UNC-Chapel Hill, and Jonas going up to Princeton. Jonas Pate said he frequently visited his brother at school and has since become a Tar Heel fan by extension of his brother’s fanatics.
The cornerstone of Pate’s Chapel Hill visits was watching one band, Dillon Fence, perform at venues around campus. The band became a UNC-CH staple during the 90s. While the film crew set up cameras, Pate reminisced about the experience and explained his desire to recreate that exhilarating feeling of watching a small band grow.
“We just went down there and listened to a bunch of great bands, went to the Cat’s Cradle, and I just thought, it’s such a brave thing to try to be a band,” Pate said. “Because if you fail, you’re broke, and you’re 30, and it’s hard. I just wanted to try to tell that story.”
Similar to Pate’s “Outer Banks” series, “The Runarounds” captures the coastal teenage indie experience, this time with a musical twist built on that feeling.
“The Runarounds,” expected to wrap filming in November, is a fictitious story starring real-life band members—Will Lipton, Axel Ellis, Jeremy Yun, Zendé Murdock, and Jesse Golliher—who form a rock band the summer after graduating high school, according to an Amazon Studios announcement. Pate originally held auditions to put together a band to perform on an episode of “Outer Banks.” His real motivation: hand-pick real musicians with real chemistry, not just actors. This was for an entirely new show that then became “The Runarounds.”
Pate found musicians Jeremy Yun and Will Lipton’s YouTube channel, where they had been posting shows and original songs. Yun said describing the situation as “lucky” is an understatement.
“Having now been around set here for a couple of months, I understand how amazing this industry is and how hard people work,” Yun said. “Although we did the music thing and prepped for a while, I still am incredibly, incredibly fortunate to be here.”
Pate’s team wanted to reverse the typical pattern in films where actors are cast to play singers. Instead of faking the music or lip-syncing, Pate’s team sought talented young musicians and wrote the script to their personalities.
“They’ve gotten so at ease, even though they weren’t actors before this,” he said. “Because when we shoot the musical scenes, we just want people to realize that, no, this is this band. This is who’s playing.”
Crew members close to Pate said part of his casting priorities is giving young actors their first big shot.
“I love that age group,” Pate said. “I love watching young people pursue things that they want to achieve.”
In addition encouraging young actors, Pate’s emphasis on family also permeates throughout the set. He uses the same crew that worked on the set of “Outer Banks,” and the cumulative time they’ve spent together exudes a certain closeness. Almost a dozen people on Pate’s team have another family member or spouse working on the set.
Jonas Pate’s daughter, Lilah Pate, stars in the show as a female lead, and his wife is a co-producer. Between takes, Lilah sat next to her father as they talked through scenes and enjoyed downtime between takes.
Pate said working with his family on set has been a blast.
“My daughter’s on the show, my wife is a producer on the show,” Pate said. “But we have lots of departments that have family members inside of it. It’s just more fun.”
Michael Jefferson is a co-producer for “The Runarounds” who has worked in the N.C. film industry his whole life. As a native of Wilson, N.C., he met his wife, a hair and makeup artist, on set and now works alongside his daughter, who currently serves as Pate’s assistant, among other past roles within film production.
“The hours are crazy, but it still makes it a little more fun when you like the people you work with,” Jefferson said. “Wilmington has a tight-knit film community and a tight-knit film family.”
He called the return to filming in North Carolina a homecoming, having worked on set with major productions like “Dawson’s Creek” and “The Hunger Games.” Jefferson was among Pate’s original crew of “Outer Banks” when the show was originally filmed in Charleston, S.C. The show moved to North Carolina to film season four, partially due to the reinstatement of the state’s 25% rebate incentive.
Besides “The Runarounds,” there are four other productions with filming underway in the state and one in pre-production. Of the 16 wrapped projects filmed across the state in the last 18 months, 8 were based in Wilmington.
Guy Gaster, director of the North Carolina Film Office, said the 25% rebate incentive is the top reason productions choose to come to the state.
“As far as production itself, it certainly has been kind of a roller coaster ride for us the last couple of years,” Gaster said.
Pate noted that the industry in Wilmington dwindles when the incentive isn’t intact or even when certain legislation is passed, such as H.B. 2—the 2016 bathroom bill requiring people to use public restrooms corresponding to their birth gender—deterred filmmakers and other industries from choosing the state.
The scale of film production can make the industry seem nearly untouchable. But this isn’t the case where a changing labor force is concerned. The set of “The Runarounds” was exactly that—early signs of this gradual shift — as young workers transition into the roles left open as older people begin to leave or retire.
Pate’s crew is sprinkled with production assistants and other crew members in their mid-to-early 20s who are close with each other and cast members of the same age. Their shared Gen Z experience informs a deeper level of understanding, such as Zac Efron’s iconic golf course scene from “High School Musical 3,” briefly performed by a few production assistants in a corridor of the busy production village between takes.
The lighthearted authenticity is intergenerational. Faces light up with the general sense of familiarity unique to an industry with long, fluctuating hours. Rank goes out the window as stand-ins and assistants are on a first-name basis with lead actors and executive producers.
Gaster said a large group that built the state’s film reputation will be beginning to consider retirement soon.
“We are working to make sure that that next group of film professionals are ready and available and hopefully getting to learn under those folks,” he said.
On set, there’s a clear indication of the younger generation moving into film. Some on set chose to attend college, while others got experience by jumping into small roles or positions, even if that meant starting near the bottom. In both scenarios, they began in North Carolina, under the mentorship of the state and industry’s best.
For Pate, being on set in North Carolina is an opportunity to show a part of the country that has been overlooked, especially in an industry that emphasizes locations like New York and Los Angeles. Pate said he’d keep every story based in the state if given the option.
“Fingers crossed the industry will keep building here,” he said. “I’m good not going anywhere else.”
