It’s 1989 in Wilson, North Carolina, and the crew on a Michelle Pfeiffer movie begins its work.

At the same time, 23-year-old Chris Crowder is fresh out of the Navy Reserve and trying to figure out what to do next. He doesn’t know it yet, but his life is about to change. Because the movie industry has discovered North Carolina and is near the beginning of a decades-long relationship with the state.

“I was doing real-world construction, and heard this film was in town, and they were looking for some carpenters,” said Crowder, who was born in Wilson.

He’d been building houses for about a year and figured his skills might translate into building sets.

“I just literally went to where they were shooting this movie and looked for the people who were dressed like me,” Crowder said. “I went to work that day.”

After the Michelle Pfeiffer movie, called Love Field (a road trip story about a Dallas housewife determined to attend President John F. Kennedy’s funeral in Washington, D.C.), Crowder moved on to a TNT movie of the week – Ironclads, filmed in Richmond, Virginia.

Wilmington’s film industry, which took off with the filming of Firestarter in 1983, began to flourish in the 1980s and gained the nickname Hollywood East.

With the contacts he made on his first productions, Crowder ended up as a major behind-the-scenes player in the Wilmington film industry and beyond.

For the next 18 years, Crowder worked as a construction foreman and set designer on more than 50 TV shows and movies across the country. His experience has led him to become head of operations and client services at Cinespace Studios, formerly EUE/Screen Gems, overseeing massive studio campuses in Wilmington and Atlanta.

Crowder managed the construction of Stage 10 in Wilmington. “And then they (the Cooney family, owners of the Wilmington and Atlanta studios until last year) started talking about going to Atlanta and building a studio down there and asked me if I’d be interested in being involved with that.”

He met with a real estate broker in Atlanta and “must have looked at 50 or 60 sites” before settling on the 35-acre site at 175 Lakewood Way SW. “We renovated all those buildings. We built a couple of sound stages over two or three years, and then that construction project turned into an operations job because they were building a studio, but they didn’t have anyone to run it.”

He became vice president of physical operations for EUE/Screen Gems in 2010. Crowder said he was in a supporting role when it came to the Atlanta studio operations under EUE.

“Whatever the problems or challenges were, I helped them with those because I had a lot of production experience,” he said. “I could help them communicate with the clients and get them over some hurdles because there are challenges when you go in and start an endeavor like that.

“Even at that point, the (film) incentive was very new in Atlanta, and the business was just starting to grow.”

Meanwhile, in North Carolina, a 25% refundable tax credit program began in 2010. Two years later, the Wilmington area drew feature film productions, including Iron Man 3, We’re the Millers, Safe Haven and The Conjuring taking advantage of the incentive.

The film industry took a hit when the tax credit incentive ended on Dec. 31, 2014. The state legislature replaced the incentive in 2015 with the Film and Entertainment Grant, which offered a rebate on qualified expenses incurred in the state.

Film spending dropped from a high of $377 million in 2012 to $111 million in 2015. The film grant program eventually gained traction, and spending returned to the nine-figure zone, although film industry labor strikes in 2023 caused another dip.

Crowder was promoted to head of operations and client services in 2023, when Cinespace bought the EUE/Screen Gems campuses in Wilmington and Atlanta.

“Chris’ leadership and dedication are key to driving our operations in Wilmington,” said Eoin Egan, co-managing partner and COO of Cinespace Studios. “With years of industry experience, he possesses a deep understanding of the local crew culture, allowing him to uniquely address the diverse needs of every production that comes to our lot.”

Crowder said he felt welcomed by Cinespace last year.

“I embrace change,” Crowder said. “Things can always be better. No matter how good they are, they can be better.”

Through the industry’s ups and downs, Crowder said he and Cinespace have kept their focus on clients.

“For me, it’s like what are we doing today to make sure that the clients that we do have, and the clients that we’re looking to have, know that we have best-in-class service, that we’re here to make sure that all your needs are met when you come to Cinespace, that you’re going to be well taken care of,” he said.

For those who want their own behind-the-scenes career in the film industry, Crowder said they should stick to some basic habits.

“Show up early. Smile a lot,” he said. “Network, network, network.”

It’s 2024 in Wilmington, and Chris Crowder is walking the lot at Cinespace Studios. The Wilmington production facility has 10 sound stages, 152,000 square feet of shooting space, construction mills and offices. The Atlanta studio, which is home to Netflix’s blockbuster hit Stranger Things, has 360,000 square feet of production space across 13 sound stages. And Crowder is in charge of it all.