Twins hope to launch film company in Midlands
By Kara Apel
Sharee and Rhonda Washington have always loved watching movies.
“I love the channel of film,” Sharee said. “Film really captures people.”
The identical twin sisters have starred as extras in several films and movies, including Lifetime’s “Army Wives,” and although they have enjoyed the experience, they are more interested in the behind-the-scenes action.
The twins noticed there was a lack of Christian films in the industry and decided to start their own film production company, We Connected Productions.
Sharee said she loves the way Christian films deliver religious messages. Their father and some of their uncles are preachers, so the Washington sisters are comfortable with religion.
“That’s what I grew up with,” Sharee said.
Though they would like to make their company a primary source of income, both of the sisters have full-time jobs at Midlands Technical College and manage their film company in their spare time.
Money from their full-time jobs and contributes from family members has provided start-up funds for their production company. Currently, the company only consists of the twins, but they said they have different volunteers and contractors who step in to help.
According to Sharee, everyone goes to Atlanta or New York to make films, but the sisters wanted to film in Columbia.
“Why can’t the production go here?” Sharee said.
There is a demand for the arts, such as filmmaking, in Columbia, according to the “Arts & Economic Prosperity III: The Economic Impact of Nonprofit Arts and Culture Organizations and Their Audiences” study. The study, conducted by Americans for the Arts, said Greater Columbia generates $56 million annually and attracts over 1.7 million people to arts and cultural events, 341,000 of whom are visitors from outside Richland and Lexington counties.
The Cultural Council of Richland & Lexington Counties tries to help local artists, such as the Washingtons, with funding. The council distributes about $250,000 per year based on the small, medium and large size categories, according to Assistant Director Teresa McWilliams.
Donations to the council come from individual donors, businesses and the government. The council also seeks support from corporations and some local businesses have workplace giving campaigns where employees donate a dollar out of each paycheck. This is helpful for the medium-size and smaller-size organizations who don’t qualify for government funding, McWilliams said.
Though McWilliams said she does not think more organizations are asking for money, she said the organizations that usually ask for grants are having a harder time.
“We can tell that they don’t have as much money as they did before the economic crisis,” McWilliams said. “They’re having to figure out how to keep their doors open with less money.”
McWilliams, who has lived in Columbia for 11 years, said the government is providing less money to organizations and this affects schools.
“There’s not arts in the schools anymore,” McWilliams said.
According to McWilliams, it is hard to put a value on the arts, which is why funding is hard to grapple with. The only way to make up the money that isn’t given through government funding is to donate to organizations like Cultural Council, McWilliams said.
“You know in your heart that seeing a moving play can make you a better person,” she said. “It’s hard to put that in numbers and we’re a society that likes numbers.”
Like the council, The South Carolina Arts Commission is also trying to preserve the arts in South Carolina. The Commission is a state agency and uses tax dollars to fund arts programs and individual artists.
“We mainly fund arts organizations around the state to make sure folks around the state have access to the arts,” said Communications Director Milly Hough.
Hough said she has heard of some artists and organizations struggling, but there are “a handful that are holding strong.”
State funding for the arts has been reduced, according to Hough. She said the commission received a 25.9 percent budget cut in 2009 and the 2010 budget began at that same reduced amount of funding.
“We are down from the beginning of our fiscal year,” Hough said. “We are seeing a cut back.”
According to the commission’s Web site, the S.C. General Assembly did not allocate state funding toward the organization for 2010, but allocated $550,000 in federal stimulus funds to the organization instead.
Though this is a potentially rough time for artists, the Washington sisters are determined to keep their production company afloat.
“I’m trying to bring the Indie movie back,” Sharee said. RCT