“I’m not that pretty,” was the effect of the statement made by owner Mike Goings as he stepped out the side of the box truck he and associate Carl Watson had just finished converting into what resembled a full kitchen.
Though Goings was only joking, his Cartersville general contracting and remodeler may soon be a star locally as production companies continue to seek its services for building the interior of vehicles used on film and television sets. Goings said that recently his business has worked with the production teams of MTV’s “Finding Carter,” AMC’s “The Walking Dead,” and Canadian TV Channel Showcase’s “Lost Girl.”
So how did a small-town contractor begin doing work for major entertainment producers? Goings, dressed in the red T-shirt, blue jeans and work boots that appear to be daily attire at R and M, said the first call came out of nowhere. Familiar with doing work on homes, the proposition of working on the interior of a hair and makeup truck or trailer seemed a bit foreign to him. Once the work began, Goings said, there was some degree of improvisation involved.
“It was interesting,” he explained, “because nothing working on a vehicle is anything like working on a house or a commercial project. This was something completely different and it was a feel-your-way-through-it-as-you-go. We’ve been real fortunate and lucky, and everything turned out really nice and they’ve been really pleased.”
The most recently finished project, the aforementioned kitchen-box truck hybrid, will plug into a generator and require more power than many homes do. Quite obviously, it was no small project. But Goings said he’s used to the challenges of the industry.
“I grew up with it all my life,” he pointed out. “My dad was in the cabinet business and in the building business right here in Georgia, in Macon. My grandfather was in the business [and] uncles.”
Those many years in the business were enough to garner the attention of Sharpsburg-based Adams Production Team, the craft servicing company that hired R and M Contracting for the box-truck project.
“With craft servicing, we do a lot of different services in the movies,” Adams said. “My daughter came up with the concept that she wanted it to look like a real kitchen, as far as the truck and what not, so we just designed it and told [R and M Contracting] what we wanted and how [the associates of the client company] want it to be built.”
According to Adams, the truck is likely to be used on the set of Tyler Perry’s locally filmed television show “The Haves and The Have Nots.” With more entertainment entities seeking to film at locations in Georgia, Adams said his business and others could benefit greatly in the near future.
“As the movies industry coming into Georgia right now, it’s getting a lot bigger, a lot more opportunity out here for entrepreneurs and what not to get in the industry and make some money,” he said.
And that means good things for people like Mike Goings. As the year goes on, Goings said he has reason to believe there will be more contract jobs coming forth from the entertainment industry. That may seem like a bold prediction for a business that Goings admitted does not actively seek those kinds of jobs, but R and M Contracting’s reputation seems to be preceding it rather well.
“Looks like this is going to be something that they’re going to continue,” he noted. “We anticipate that the next year. Everything’s word-of-mouth right now. We don’t go after anything. It’s just, they call me on a per-job basis.”
According to the company’s Google Plus page, R and M Contracting also offers basement finishing, bathroom remodeling, kitchen remodeling and roofing, among other services.
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