Michigan Makes Movies Expo Draws Huge Crowd
If it had been a movie, it would have been a massive crowd scene in one of those old 1950s Biblical epics.
And none of this green screen computer effects stuff either. These people were for real and deadly serious. And they came, 1,300-plus strong, to the CBS Radio Michigan Makes Movies Expo Sunday at the Rock Financial Showplace.
Michigan became a major player in the movie business in April 2008, when legislators passed an incentive package calling for a 40 percent refundable tax credit for movie production costs spent in Michigan, or 42 percent if filmed in one of Michigan's 103 core communities. Importantly, the credit only applies to costs paid to Michigan-based companies or staff -- not staff temporarily imported from elsewhere.
"Movies chase incentives worldwide," said Larry August, director and managing partner of Avalon Films. "That's become the way they do it. So they go to Canada or Louisiana or now, Michigan. There's more movies being made in Michigan than in California. There's literlaly no movies being made in Hollywood right now -- it's shocking. What's being made in Hollywood is a lot of TV shows, because most TV shows are still made in studios."
August said the 40 percent tax credit gives Michgian suppliers an important advantage. "If you services have a built in 40 percent price advantage you would think you could price your services profitably," he said.
The movie industry needs lots of talent in Michgian, August said, from assistant directors to heads of departments to camera operators to makeup artists to grips and electrical staff.
August said all employees in the film business start at the bottom as production assistants, and that the business purposely makes it difficult to get into its unions.
"They want people who are persistent and who won't take 'no' for an answer," August said. "But writers get a pass -- if you write a great screenplay you start at the top."
Also speaking was Christopher Coppola, nephew of the famed director Francis Ford Coppola, who has just been made an adjunct professor at Livonia's Madonna University for his efforts to bring more film and video production training to the school, including this week's Project Accessible Hollywood citizen film training session and film festival.
Coppola said old school film skills like writing screenplays, doing a shot list and working with actors must be combined with new school skills like getting film concepts onto different platforms like cell phones and video games. "The old school needs to tell good stories on these new school platforms," he said.
Coppola said incentives like Michigan's means filmmakers "don't need to move to Hollywood now. You can do these things on stages now from anywhere."
He said Madonna is now building a soundstage with state-of-the-art equipment. And that will help build Michgan a "bullpen" of talent.
"When a kid works on a low budget film with a crew of 15 people and four professionals ... and the film is released on DVD, he has that in his hand, he can say to a film company, 'Hey, I'm a boom operator,' or 'I'm a second sound person,' here's what I did, here's the DVD," Coppola said.
Coppola said the Michiganders he's met so far "have a great work ethic. If you prepare for this new media renaissance, this will be the place people will be coming."
Gary May of Southfield's Parallax Production Studios said he believes Michigan will shine as a filmmaking site not in big-budget blockbusters, "but in that range from say $3 million to $15 million. That range can bring a lot of money to Michigan."
He praised college film programs at Ferris State Universtiy, Grand Valley State University, Western Michigan University, Michgian State University, the University of Michigan as Lawrence Technological University. At the same time, he said, "a lot of people are hanging out shingles in film and saying, 'we can make you brilliant.' All I can say is, be careful where you put your money."
Despite today's economic troubles, May said, "Where the film industry is going to go in Michigan the next few years is up, and we are about to show the world we can handle anything they throw our way."
May said his group is building a 52-by-75-foot stage in Southfield with a lot of generic sets that can be dressed up for different movies thorugh computer graphics. Parallax's first picture, "Intent," will hit movie screens Oct. 2.
May said the film business in Michigan is still lacking in infrastructure, in part because the incentives went from long-discussed idea to state law almost overnight.
Mike Mosallam, director of the Wayne County film initiatives office, moderated a panel of film industry experts including Marcia Fishman of the Screen Actors Guild Detroit Branch, Ken Droz of the Michigan Film Office in Lansing and Rick Hertz, West Michgian film commissioner.
They told the crowd how to get on film industry vendors' lists and how to apply for the state tax credit. They also dispelled rumors -- which they said were started by other states -- that Michigan is waffling on paying the tax credit. They said the credit would probably amount to about $40 million in its first year.
In this session, the overwhelming majority of attendees were aspiring or current filmmakers. Fewer were current or would-be technical helpers, and only a tiny handful were would-be actors.
