NEWS
Posted 27 August, 2009 in MI News
Lockwood locks up Hollywood productions
By KATHY A. MCDONALD
Michigan’s status as flyover country is quickly changing. The state’s year-old production incentive program has lured Hollywood types, and its film commissions have risen to the task.
First stop is the Michigan Film Office, led by Janet Lockwood, which reviews scripts and approves incentive applications. “Michigan does not have to play Michigan,” advises Lockwood. “We play the world.”
She adds that two fulltime location scouts are on staff and available for up to two days of free location scouting anywhere in the state.
Another resource is Film Detroit, a unit of the Detroit Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau. It covers Motown and surrounding counties, home to about two-thirds of the features produced in Michigan since the tax credits began.
“We’re known as the go-to people,” says Film Detroit senior VP Chris Baum. “Our only motivation is that productions have a great experience.”
Per Baum, producers are usually surprised by the area’s variety of locations, from inner city to upscale suburbs to rural farm areas.
In the city of Detroit, the mayor’s office expedites film permits and coordinates city services, explains Erica Hill, exec assistant to the mayor. While there are no city film permit fees, expenses are incurred if the police or fire departments are involved. Next up for the Motor City: MGM/UA’s “Red Dawn” remake.
Smaller communities like Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Traverse City (home to Michael Moore’s annual film festival), also attract location work.
“Generally speaking, the bulk of productions have been in the Detroit area but that will change as producers’ comfort level develops with local crews,” says Lockwood.
Rick Hert of the West Michigan Film Office — whose duties vary from arranging VIP pick-ups at the Grand Rapids airport to finding vacant industrial spaces suitable for interiors — says all the state film organizations cooperate to bring production to the state. “Genesis Code” is now lensing in Grand Rapids with “Tribes of October” coming up.
Another priority for all the film offices: infrastructure and an experienced crew. Several soundstages are in development. Among them: Raleigh Michigan Studios (see main story); Detroit’s 23rd Studios; and Unity Studios in the town of Allen Park. “The real key is that all will have a jobs-training component,” says Baum.
Also advancing studio and workforce development is Wayne County Film Commission director of film initiatives Mike Mosallam. Wayne County encompasses the city of Detroit and 42 other communities.
Mosallam aims for a 24-hour turnaround time when issuing permits for county buildings and properties. “We are a conduit between the private and public sector,” he says.
Michiganders generally welcome filmmaking. “I haven’t encountered any resistance at all,” says Chris O’ Hara, a Michigan-based DGA member and UPM on “Cherry,” who used campus locations at Kalamazoo’s Western Michigan University.
Dan Angel, exec producer of TNT’s Cuba Gooding Jr. starrer “Gifted Hands,” a biopic of Detroit native Dr. Ben Carson, shot in metro Detroit last fall. “The city and people are committed to this new enterprise and business,” Angel says.
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Posted 20 August, 2009 in MI News
By Sean Dalton, Staff Writer
Michigan’s subsidy for filmmakers has been a great success, as evidenced by California’s passage earlier this year of its own $500 million tax incentive to retain productions that have been fleeing the Golden State for places like the Great Lakes State.
A 42 percent refund for in-state spending is a difficult lure to resist, but Innocence Production Inc.’s George Constas says it’s only a start.
Constas is a location scout for the Ann Arbor based production company. He is largely why places like Dexter, Chelsea, Jackson, Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti were included in the roster of locations around mid and eastern Michigan.
As a native of the state and a Michigan State University graduate, Constas says it feels good be back in his home state to do what he loves after being in the business for the past four years working elsewhere. He’s also proud to be one of the first people building a new industry here almost entirely from scratch.
“Up until this point there haven’t really been any movies in Michigan to speak of until last year,” he said.
For now crews and talent are being bussed, trucked and flown in from elsewhere to film in and around places like Detroit, Dearborn and Ann Arbor, but that’s not a very sustainable way of doing business Constas says, particularly when you consider the freelance nature of everyone in the film business.
“Everybody in the film business is an independent contract worker,” Constas explains. “From the director on the way down you get hired for a show and then they hire some people. It’s all networking based on who you’ve worked with in the past.”
Constas wouldn’t be involved in the current filming of the independent Hillary Swank film if he hadn’t worked on The Dark Knight with one of his sister’s former colleagues. He got a call while he was in Chicago from his sister to come back to Michigan to work on this film and here he is.
“The key is … it doesn’t matter what kind of tax incentive you have, if you don’t have the qualified people to make it work then they’re not going to want to come back,” Constas said. “If you have a movie production and the folks that you hire on don’t know what they’re doing they’re either going to bring people from out of state that do or they’re just going to go somewhere else where there’s a stable sustainable film community that can sustain projects coming in.”
Right now there is an effort to train enough local people to sustain those projects and even more projects in the future, because the people working on a film are committed to that project and cannot shift gears between two or more.
If the state can only handle two or three films right now and 10 film projects are aimed at Michigan, all Constas can do is hope that Michigan wins the bid for that work based on either the existence of freed up production workers in the state or a willingness on the producer’s part to transplant the talent from elsewhere.
That explains why there’s such a frenzy to draw off projects from Hollywood. More connections between Michigan production talent and Hollywood mean more filming, which would seemingly continue to snowball, as Constas explains it.
It’s difficult to gauge the benefit to Michigan in dollars. Constas dodged the question about the budget for his film and how much of that money was being spent on hotels, caterers, restaurants, car rentals and other goods and services that directly inject dollars into local businesses and companies.
“The direct impact is the people that are hired in Michigan,” Constas said. “The gas that’s going into my tank is from here. We fuel all of our trucks and buy lumber and construction materials. We’re eating at local restaurants like this one (The Dexter Pub). We have a crew of about 70 people staying at hotels in Ann Arbor since November.”
The tax breaks are mitigating those costs and making producing films here more desirable, but the focus has to be on developing that talent and those connections in the state, according to Constas.
It’s not a difficult business to break into, but it’s a difficult one to remain in. Constas and most people he knows in film production started as interns or volunteers and moved up in the business fast, but many of them find it difficult and leave.
“The truth of the matter is that it’s very hard work,” he said. “There is a tremendous amount of misconceptions that it’s some kind of glamorous lifestyle, but it’s not.”
For five to seven months Constas and his colleagues work 18-hour days with filming beginning at 6 a.m. and ending at 8 p.m. He has to show up two hours before shooting and two hours after, partly to make sure his crew leaves the filming locations as they were when they arrived.
Part of Constas’ job is to worry about that relationship with the local communities and their representative entities: the police, fire department and city council.
“We understand that the city is doing a lot of running around, residents have to be a tremendous help – we have to tell them not to park somewhere if it’s a period movie,” Constas said. “It’s a lot of effort.”
He says it’s been great working with the residents, police and government, although the only recommendation he would make would be for each municipality to appoint a representative whose sole purpose is to deal with people like Constas on a regular basis.
Aside from that it’s just too difficult to draft policies that put the process on autopilot, he says. “I might be inside a church and all I need to do is make sure there’s no parked cars out front or I might want to blow up a building … every movie is going to be different like that. If we can just have a dialogue with somebody whose specialty that is everyone would have an easier time.”
Being aware of the disturbance filming can cause, Constas says it’s worth it in the long run not just for the jobs and local spending, but for the exposure.
“People see your city and state in a film and get an idea of it in their head … I moved to Houston, just because I thought it was the place to go,” he said. “Imagine if we can get people and businesses thinking of Michigan like that … they just want to come here because of an idea.”
Posted 29 March, 2009 in MI News
EAST LANSING, Mich. – Michigan State University, Lansing Community College and Capital Area Michigan Works! are partnering to prepare Michigan residents seeking employment in the state’s growing film industry.
With a grant of $195,000 from the state of Michigan, Capital Area Michigan Works! will recruit and oversee a joint training program between MSU’s Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media and Lansing Community College’s Digital Media, Audio, and Cinema program to provide on-campus film production training.
Charles Steinfield, chairperson of the MSU department, says the training program is a wonderful example of state partnership – with economic benefits.
“This training partnership demonstrates our commitment to community outreach, and also to the growth of the film industry in Michigan,� Steinfield said.
The MSU department will work with LCC faculty to provide 80 hours of training, which will prepare Michigan residents who are seeking jobs in the film industry, such as production assistants and other below-the-line film jobs.
Competitive scholarships from Capital Area Michigan Works! will cover the full cost of the program for the students selected. Candidates should demonstrate a passion for the film and television industry, an entrepreneurial spirit and a willingness to do what needs to be done. Candidates should also be driven, flexible, highly mobile and willing to learn.
“People with a background in catering, construction, carpentry, security and IT are all needed on a film set,� said Doug Stites, CEO of Capital Area Michigan Works! “Particularly in demand are folks with previous theater, performing arts and broadcast experience, as well as those with electrical experience. This program will give them the foundation to transfer their existing skills into the film industry.�
The program is expected to start in May with the screening process for candidates beginning immediately. Those interested should email film@camw.net.
Michigan enacted an aggressive film incentive structure in April 2008. Since then, the state has seen more than 70 film and TV projects slated for production in Michigan, estimated to bring in about $430 million in economic activity. Gov. Jennifer Granholm announced new film developments in her State of the State address on Feb. 3.
MSU’s College of Communication Arts and Sciences has a film and media arts initiative, which is headed by former Discovery Films executive Andrea Meditch. Meditch was executive producer of the documentary Man on Wire, which received a 2009 Academy Award. The college offers quality degree programs for film-related careers and has a solid group of alumni involved in the film business, ranging from actors to producers to sound designers to directors and storytellers. In fall 2009, MSU is proposing two new specializations: in Fiction Film Production and Collaborative Documentary Production.
Posted 10 January, 2009 in MI News
Twenty post-production certificates have been processed in Michigan for 2008, indicating that production in Michigan is completed, and the 3rd party audit has been accepted. Michigan Business Tax Forms (MBT) for 2008 should be available. Once the MBT is filed the rebate can be processed, with checks starting be issued at the end of January. Projects completing production in 2009 will be eligible for rebates in early 2010.
Posted 12 October, 2008 in MI News
MICHIGAN sends a reminder that productions must wrap, complete their third-party audit and receive a post-production certificate from the state prior to December 31, 2008 for the rebate to be received in 2009 (after filing the Michigan Business Tax return.) Otherwise, the rebate will not be due until 2010. There is currently no legislation in progress to put a yearly cap on the rebates.
Attempts are now underway in the Michigan legislature to limit the amount available per year for production rebates. Currently there is no limit or cap, but last week an amendment bill which would put a $50 million per year cap on the rebate was passed by a Senate committee. The House is now out of session until after the election; legislation not approved by both the Senate and House by December 31 may not be carried over to 2009, so passage is unlikely this year. But it is probable that an amendment will be introduced again next year.
Meanwhile, the Michigan Treasury Department has ruled that mileage reimbursements, meal allowances and per diems will not qualify for the rebate unless they are subject to Michigan taxes.
Posted 30 August, 2008 in MI News
MICHIGAN continues as the incentives state de jour, with 53 films approved to date, 45 applications currently under review, and 16 films either in production, in prep, or wrapped. The state has just posted regulations for the incentive
http://michigan.gov/filmoffice/0,1607,7-248–198439–,00.html
Posted 30 August, 2008 in MI News
By BASHIRAH MUTTALIB
The largest production rebate in the U.S. could result in nearly $300 million in revenue from film shoots this year. New studios are also in the works for Michigan, which is seeing a production boom in the wake of the rebate.
“There are quite a few films scheduled to shoot,” said Michigan Film Office director Janet Lockwood. “Right now we have three in production, three in prep, five finished although not yet gone, a dozen or more incoming.”
Lensing on “Whip It,” with Drew Barrymore directing Ellen Page, began in July; the Weinstein Co.’s “Youth in Revolt” recently completed principal shooting; and Lifetime’s “Prayers for Bobby,” with Sigourney Weaver, wrapped a few weeks ago. Production on an HBO pilot will begin soon, while ABC/Disney TV recently completed its pilot “Prince of Motor City,” a “Hamlet” set in the automotive world. Production on Clint Eastwood’s “Gran Torino” continues, and indies “Red and Blue Marbles,” “The Detroit Job” and “Street Boss” have recently wrapped.
Projected Michigan revenue from the 47 productions approved so far is $288.4 million, while film revenue last year was $2.2 million. “Heck of a difference!” enthused Lockwood.
Michigan has one 15,000-square-foot studio, Grace Wild, and several smaller facilities. The proposed Center City Studios (Daily Variety, June 24) has yet to break ground but is slated for a mid-2009 completion date. Joining it on the drawing board, Watermark Studios is skedded to break ground later this summer in Muskegon.
Watermark Studios, a $60 million project, is a venture that partners Moses Gross, president of Brooklyn-based ANM Group, with Andrew van den Houten, owner and president of Moderncine, a New York City-based production company. The studio will be a component of Watermark Center Lofts, a 1 million-square-foot mixed-use residential center being developed by ANM Group.
Watermark developers hope to capitalize on Michigan’s 40% rebate by offering three major soundstages, the largest at 17,000 square feet and 52 feet to the grid, and fully equipped lighting and grip production vehicles to service multiple on-location productions.
Once completed, Watermark Studios will allow filmmakers to process and edit their film, transfer footage to HD and create and render visual effects in HD color correction suites. Also to be available: 3-D animation, tape-to-film transfers and 3-D film processing, along with dialogue replacement, foley, sound design and sound mixing on THX- and Dolby-certified stages. Screening rooms and theaters are also planned.
Financial consulting, bridge loans for film and television projects, casting, location scouting and distribution services complete the one-stop shop.
Adding to Michigan’s film roster, Moderncine’s van den Houten is currently directing “Offspring,” which is lensing in and around the Muskegon area as well as on-site at Watermark Center Lofts. Pic is based on the novel by Jack Ketchum, who also wrote the screenplay.
Posted 8 April, 2008 in MI News
http://fox17.trb.com/news/040708-wxmi-mifilm,0,1874855.story
Posted 29 March, 2008 in MI News
Incentive was passed through the senate and the house, awaiting signature with the governor. They are hoping to announce on April 7th.
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