Michigan Film Initiative, Going, Going...Gone?

© tom stoye

Recently, local grip house Mid America Cine Support, closed its doors for good; falling prey to a weakened economy and the all-but-dead Michigan Film Initiative. This is another sad chapter of how the failed initiative has deeply affected the lives of family-run businesses and individuals that were once a viable part of the Detroit film community. A staple of the Detroit area, Mid America was founded by Doug Wandrie in 1977. Since his passing in 1998, his daughter Cheryl had taken over the popular grip house, that had been servicing the Detroit area for as long as I can remember. Like many local companies, Mid America became fully invested in feature films, once filming began in earnest, somewhere around 2008.

Hot off the heals of the housing bubble crash, the Michigan film initiative was ramping-up efforts to escort Hollywood to its doorstep. Its purpose was to lure cost-conscious movie producers to the state, in hopes of creating a Michigan-based film industry to offset a crumbling economy.

Governor Granholm thought it appropriate at the time of its inception, to give production companies an overly-generous 40% tax incentive to film in Michigan. The taxpayers were left with the bill, but it seemed like a smart gamble on the future of the states economy.

Once the bait was taken, Michigan became star struck, as production companies rolled their trucks into town. Because of this, a cottage industry was born.  Gullible locals were chompin' at the bit to trade in their Carhartts for a chance to learn a new trade, that would offer them the opportunity to punch-in at a sound stage rather than the factory floor. Exciting as it was, it was clouded by the reality of whether or not it could be kept alive, given the politics surrounding the incentives.

Eager for work, thousands of laid-off autoworkers with dwindling resources, enrolled in Mom n' Pop seminars that offered the promise of jobs in the film trade. When Republican businessman Rick Snyder replaced Granholm as governor in 2011, he sharpened his pencil, and in one fell swoop killed the initiative, thus dimming the hopes of unemployed workers looking to re-tool themselves for a new economy. Compared to the buzz of 2009 when feature films were setting up shop in droves, we are now left with the carcass of what was once promising industry.

While Granholm was overly eager in offering 40% tax incentives, Governor Snyder has been reactionary with his response in dealing with Granholm's idealistic generosity. Instead of drafting a new incentive that would of sustained a scaled down version of the industry, he has managed to all but kill it. Since then, many of the over-invested studios, grip houses, production companies, location scouts, and the like, have closed up shop as work dried up. We're now left with the aftertaste of a state government who lacked the foresight to figure out creative ways to sustain it.