SOCASTEE, S.C. (WBTW) — The Socastee swing bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway will close July 29 to film a stunt for Season 5 of the Netflix show “Outer Banks,” the South Carolina Film Commission said.
State transportation officials said traffic will detour using Highway 544, with signs in place ahead of time to alert drivers to the temporary closure.
Over the years, the Myrtle Beach area has seen productions filming, like “Magic Mike XXL” in 2014, “Shag” in 1989, “Don’t Make Waves” in 1967, and a couple of smaller TV shows.
Compared to Wilmington, Southport and Charleston, which have seen the majority of filming for “Outer Banks” and several other well-known movies like “The Notebook,” “The Patriot” and “Dear John” — Myrtle Beach has seen a noticeably smaller number of filming permits.
South Carolina Film Commissioner Matt Storm said film crews beyond physical aesthetics when choosing locations. He added that areas like Charleston and Wilmington have longer-established crew bases, and that Myrtle Beach’s tourism could play a negative role, especially during the summer months.
“Typically, it’s the crew base that makes it difficult. The more touristy an area, the less popular it’s going to be with the filming location, because it’s going to be so much more difficult to be able to control that area,” he said. “‘Outer Banks’ that films in Charleston, they’re not shooting on the battery. They’re shooting areas that are going to be controlled easily, just like there wouldn’t ever be a film that would shoot in the middle of the summer at like, Barefoot Landing.”
Storm added that it’s more about feasibility. Things like distance, cost for location stays and deals offered to production by the area can all impact a decision.
Making Myrtle Beach more attractive to production, Storm continued, is all about making Myrtle Beach more visible.
“Greenville is starting to do this,” he said. “They are wanting to run their own film page so that they would link with our website so we can just say, ‘Hey, producers, go see this.’ Then there’s a whole collection of locations that are available in Greenville to give people that don’t know what Greenville looks like, an idea of like, ‘Oh, this is a sample of gas stations, or whatever that we could film at.'”
The bridge will reopen on July 30.
