The county's popularity as a location for film and TV shoots is showing little sign of declining - but one district has emerged head and shoulders above all others.

While Medway - courtesy of the backdrop provided by buildings on the Chatham Historic Dockyard estate - takes the lion's share of high-profile film and TV drama, it's a district in the east of the county that is the star of the screen.

"Thanet is definitely the busiest, without doubt," explains Gabrielle Lindemann of the Kent Film Office.

"After that, we get a steady stream across Folkestone, Hythe and Dungeness and Shellness, on Sheppey, is popular too."

As part of Kent County Council, (KCC) the office facilitates and promotes filming opportunities in the county. It's not to be sniffed at either. It is currently pulling in around £8million a year in terms of spend into local economies.

A fact recently highlighted by the crew behind Empire of Light. The Sam Mendes movie has just wrapped up in Margate, with the crews now in the process of dismantling the two cinema frontages very publicly constructed on the seafront.

According to the production crew, it invested some £4m in the town and surrounding area.

But just where, you might ask yourself, does that money go exactly?

"Most of the money that makes up the production spend is on services," Gabrielle Lindemann explains.

"It's to pay businesses off for disruption caused, labour costs, transport, catering and overnight stays for the crew.

"The council will make a decent amount from Empire, but 99% of the spend goes into local people and firms."

Certainly Empire of Light, described as a love story set in the 1980s around a coastal cinema, is not packing the sort of budget the biggest blockbusters boast.

To give a sense of comparison, earlier this year the latest Marvel movie was in the county for several days of filming in Dover.

Kraven the Hunter - the latest spin-off from the Spiderman world - saw its 450-strong crew descend on the historic Citadel site, part of the Western Heights fortifications, built during the Napoleonic Wars.

Empire of Light's crew was a rather more modest 150.

The fees charged for filming in the county are dependant on several factors. The size of the production and its crew and whether its on private or public land.

So, if a production needs to film on a public road, the only costs it pays are towards the road closure (as it's public land).

It costs between £600-800 to close a road, with traffic management charges amounting to between £200-500.

Explains the Kent Film Office: "The government has made it clear it's not a cash cow - you can only charge people what it costs the council. That's why road closures are a fixed cost as it's what KCC estimates to be worth in staff time to facilitate."

It means a film crew needing the road shut pays the same price as, say, a utility company which needs to dig up a street.

If, however, filming takes place on council-owned and maintained land, such as a beach, park or square, well that's slightly different. Then there is a sliding scale of fees depending on just how many people are involved. If you need the beach raked over, benches removed or railings shifted, that's all comes at a cost too.

In addition, prices vary depending on whether you're shooting for an advert, TV or film.

"For Empire of Light" adds Gabrielle Lindemann, "a production of that size is paying between £1,000-1,500 a day to Thanet District Council for the use of the land."

With Dreamland - where the crew and sets were based - being in private ownership, it will have its own - undisclosed - fees it is charging to the production crew.

Rough estimates suggest that could be around £5,000 a day - possibly more given just how much of the theme park's site it has occupied. Given the filming time, that would equate to some £300,000. Preparation work on the venue started back in November - with industry estimates suggesting the fee would have been around half of that during that period.

In addition, space and studio space was built on the Manston Airport site during the production all of which would have come at additional cost. In short, it all adds up.

So how do they come up with that figure of spending in the local economy?

It is reached by using an industry calculation conjured up by the likes of Creative England and the BFI (British Film Institute). They get the production budgets, work out an average for films in similar brackets, and then comes up with an average spend figure in the areas in which they shoot.

Empire of Light, for example, was thought to be spending at least £22,000 a day on all costs - and half that figure during the months of preparation time ahead of the cameras starting to roll.

Kraven the Hunter is certain to be spending considerably more given its likely jumbo budget.

Of those figures, the cash going into the coffers of local authorities (through the various chargeable elements) can be anywhere between 1-20%. (Worth noting here is that the film office was at pains to point out KCC and Thanet District Council would benefit to the lower end of that scale for Empire of Light).

Some productions - such as Location Location Location, may have fees waived as it's seen as bringing positive publicity to a district and the county as a whole.

And the figures quoted by the Kent Film Office are built on sound knowledge.

Adds Gabrielle Lindemann, who worked as a location manager in the film industry before joining the council some 16 years ago: "Photo shoots, with up to 10 people, we estimate they spend about £1,000. They pay that as a location fee, so we know it's accurate - as we assume they're not staying overnight. But they may be spending more. So we think the figures are conservative."

Kent's reputation within the film industry has certainly been oiled by the film office - and it's far from glamorous most of the time.

"There's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes," she adds. "So with Empire of Light, for example, every time there was a road closure we sent out prior warning emails to all the schools in Margate, Cliftonville and Westgate to warn the parents to take alternate routes. We look at the police station and make sure they know roads are closed so they can get around.

"We work with bus companies to sort out alternate routes where it's possible.

"Because it's a period piece (it is set in the 1980s), we needed to move a lot of the street furniture and bins and bollards and lights and all sorts of things. If they're doing night shoots we'll control all the street lights and the private lights, so it looks nice.

"Then we get enquiries saying can we stop the clock chiming so it doesn't interrupt a take and can we have rubbish disposal for where they do the catering.

"People always say the circus has come to town - and it is a little bit like that.

"It's the biggest and longest production in a public space we're ever had."

For those who have not driven through Margate over recent months, its very visible sets were built on the seafront. It's no exaggeration to say they changed the look of the town since their construction back in February.

Most notably, the famous Dreamland neon lights on the side of the old cinema building were replaced with the word Empire while an extended frontage and was constructed by the entrance and, about 50 yards down the road, a replica frontage was constructed - complete with sweeping staircase and foyer, visible to all those passing by. Some have even glimpsed the likes of Olivia Coleman and Colin Firth filming scenes.

The film sets themselves are all built within Dreamland itself. It will be very much a Kent production when it finally hits the big screen.

Over the months in Margate, fireworks for one scene lit up the sky (and pulled in thousands of people to watch the spectacle), convincing fake snow lined the seafront path, and, of course, Marine Terrace - the main road which runs along the beach - was subject to closures as filming took place.

Something which tested residents' patience to the limit at times.

"I think Margate is getting a little tired of it now," reflects the KCC film officer, "I'm glad it's all being wrapped up.

"But for a film shoot that's been here for three months, the amount of complaints I've had I can count on the fingers of my hands.

"The people of Margate have been incredible and the location team are excellent.

"One of the conditions allowing them this kind of access - and it is huge - was that I trusted that team."

There's no denying it has proved problematic at times. A handful of closures at key times brought traffic around the town to a grinding halt and caused congestion on alternative routes.

But when looking back, the main road was only closed on five occasions during the day - between 9.30am and 2.30pm and often they were finished early. There were, however, a number of three minute 'traffic holds' which caused some limited hold-ups.

The Empire of Light team first contacted the Kent Film Office in May 2021 - six months before it first arrived in Thanet. The production company behind it had tried to find a suitable location in the county for another Sam Mendes film some years ago - thought to be his acclaimed war epic 1917 - but could not be accommodated.

Certainly the money coming in this year has helped plug the £2.5m hole the pandemic blew into its plans for 2020.

Among the big movies forced to pull out included the multi-Academy Award winning Dune where a scene was due to be filmed on the White Cliffs at Dover. Other casualties included Channel 4's Close To Me, starring Christopher Eccleston, children's TV show Ted's Top 10 and a couple of Bollywood films.

And there are concerns the current cost-of-living crisis may make a dent going forward.

Gabrielle Lindemann adds: "The worry is as money gets tight, people may cut their Netfix/Amazon/Sky subscriptions and that could see less content being produced and that means the competition across the UK is going to be higher."

But there's plenty to be optimistic about.

Ever since a change in tax credits elevated the UK back to the top table as a place to shoot big productions, Kent's reputation as a movie location has heightened.

But for now the county - and particularly those who got up close and personal to the film set - are waiting eagerly to see Empire of Light on the silver screen.

Oh, and if you were wondering why there are two cinema fronts constructed so close to each other - Gabrielle Lindemann can explain: "When you come into the old cinema building in Dreamland the lobby was not suitable.

"They had a bit of spare land just down the road, so they built another frontage, this time with a proper lobby, complete with a sweeping staircase like an old-fashioned cinema.

"It allows them to have a glass frontage and look out over the street and to the sea. The vista from 30 yards down is not so different that anyone will notice.

"The actual cinema and upstairs area is built in Dreamland itself."