Filmmakers’ fears at the loss of Michigan incentives

The end of Michigan’s film incentives leaves the state’s film community wondering about its future.  Planned productions such as “Beverly Hills Cop 4,” “Northern 48” and “Money Is Money,” meanwhile, have been put on hold.

The fear throughout the industry is of a trickle-down situation: If movies aren’t being made, film workers will go elsewhere. And if they leave the state, Michigan will be less attractive for those who do manage to cobble together funding, the Oakland (Michigan) Press reports.

“Michigan had established a really great reputation as a film production center nationally, and now that … is at risk in a best-case scenario,” notes Ken Droz, Southfield-based publicist and industry consultant who worked with the Michigan Film Office for more than two years.

His response to the incentive slash was to send Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder a letter tallying 6,000 recent Michigan college grads who studied film and pursued careers in the state. His letter illustrated what’s at stake.

“We had a crew base that was maybe six crews deep when it was at its peak — six movies could film comfortably with most or all Michigan personnel,” Droz explains. “A lot of those people have already left, and more will follow. There will be some music videos here and there, some commercials, video games, but this will be catastrophic.”

Mark Adler of the Michigan Production Alliance, and owner of VAI Digital in Novi, adds the film industry “is an unlevel playing field.  That’s why we wanted incentives,” he says.

“Other states have incentives and that draws work away.”

He fears without incentives workers film-trained on larger project will leave in droves for Altanta, New Orleans and Los Angeles.

Eddie Rubin of Farmington Hills’ Deep Blue Pictures and an executive producer of “The Pickle Recipe” is, like many others, asking “What are the next steps?” — and knows he has to look outside his home state.

“It’s all up in the air. Everyone wants to stay here, ’cause it’s home, but we don’t know if we’ll be able to make a living doing what we love,” he says.

The incentive cut was ill-timed for documentarians Emmy Award-winning Wixom-based Visionalist Entertainment Productions, which was gearing up for a documentary about a Michigan woman’s battle with cancer. “Now I’m thinking maybe we need to do this somewhere else, and that’s too bad,” says EP Keith Famie. “We owe it to our investors to look at the best avenues available.”

Famie and Visionalist intend “to do whatever we can” to keep the project in Michigan, and he has confidence that other local filmmakers will approach new projects in the same spirit.

Sheldon Cohn, a retired longtime executive at Southfield’s Doner advertising agency, secured more than $490,000 in incentive money for postproduction and marketing of “The Pickle Recipe,” an indie film that just wrapped in Oakland Country.

Opportunities will exist in Michigan even if feature films dry up, he says. He sees a still “robust” industry in commercials, corporate and industrial filmmaking, web products and ancillary productions. But he also hopes to make more movies himself and predicts it will require more hustle and invention to achieve.

“You just have to work harder, maybe work smarter,” Cohn says. “Maybe someone will finance a slate of movies, not just one, and sort of gang them together and make it more efficient in that way.

“It can still be done. We can still create content effectively — and smarter, maybe. (Losing the incentives) is a setback, but it doesn’t have to be the end of it.”