Horry County, SC Filming & Production: Student Filming (2026)

Sec. ' The exemption for a student school project stands on its own, separate from the fifteen-person threshold that applies to commercial productions, so a class project doesn't have to keep its crew under fifteen to qualify; it only has to be a genuine school assignment. The ordinance defines 'cast and crew' as 'compensated individuals involved in any portion of the filming activity,' which matters because most student productions pay nobody, reinforcing that they fall outside the permit scheme built around paid commercial crews. A separate exemption under subsection (a)(2) covers productions already approved for incentives by the South Carolina Film Commission, which need only submit proof of that eligibility to the county instead of filing for the special event permit.

Even though an exempt student shoot skips the county's own permit process, it still has to follow every other law that applies on the ground: filming on private property needs the owner's consent regardless of exemption, and any activity that would otherwise require its own permit, such as using pyrotechnics or closing a street, still triggers that separate requirement under Sec. 13-36(c) and (e), because the film-permit exemption doesn't waive unrelated permits.