A storm is raging, and the set of “Appleville” is in total chaos.

It’s late in the afternoon on Aug. 11, 2010. In a parking lot located within the University's North Campus Research Complex, about a dozen crew members, all students, scramble in the downpour to save the expensive filmmaking equipment that was set up for the day’s shoot. Boom operator, composer, communications officer and Music, Theatre & Dance senior Jason Krane, who’s here on his 21st birthday, is soaking wet as he races to load the tarp-wrapped lights and boom mics onto the film’s central prop, a bus labeled “Pleasant Valley Assisted Living.”

Those who aren’t running around are huddled under a cramped tent that houses assorted tables and now-soggy Zingerman’s sandwiches. The tent was set up near a sewage drain, and everyone is up to their ankles in water. Holding down one corner, Michigan State University graduate student and Co-Director of Photography Matt Ortlieb smokes a cigarette while gazing out at the sky.

“I can’t believe our whole set just went underwater,” he mutters.

The crew members are divided in equal loyalty to Michigan, MSU and Wayne State University, but right now they all have one thing in common: They’re drenched. The grips on hand back up a van until its trunk is nudging the edge of the tent, allowing for safe transport of the cameras. LSA senior Bhanu Chundu, the director of “Appleville,” laughs in spite of it all.

“We have 20 people and the only thing that matters now is this tiny little camera,” Chundu remarks. He makes a rectangle with his fingers and frames Ortlieb in an imaginary shot before hearing thunder in the distance. “We have to hurry.”

The unexpected weather has eliminated an afternoon’s worth of shooting from the film’s already tight schedule. Those cameras might be damaged, and considering how much is riding on the completion of this entirely student-run production, this is a big worry.

But for these aspiring Michigan filmmakers, unpredictability is something they'll have to learn to weather.

The Hollywood of the Midwest

It may seem hard to believe, but the stormed-out set is actually part of a Hollywood happy ending for Chundu and other University student filmmakers. The victory is the fact they could make the movie in the first place.

Enrolling in film school in the Great Lakes State over programs based in Los Angeles or New York may seem counterintuitive. But not only are these students finding success in the University’s Screen Arts & Cultures program, many of them are also plotting out their careers within the state.

The recent success of SAC students and graduates could be seen as indicative of two promising new trends. One is the rising stature of the University’s SAC program — which is one of the most intensive and well respected film programs outside of the coasts and has just moved to hi-tech new digs in North Quad. And the other is the statewide movement to increase Michigan’s presence in the film community by growing and nurturing local cinematic talent.

There’s one person in particular who functions as a representative for both missions: Jim Burnstein, SAC professor and coordinator of the screenwriting department. Burnstein joined the faculty in 1995. Since then, he has not only built the screenwriting program from the ground up, but also helped give SAC its departmental status.

The lifelong Michigan resident was a local self-made screenwriter (“Renaissance Man,” “D3: The Mighty Ducks”) long before the state’s current film tax incentives made that career path look more sensible. He is also the vice chairman of the Michigan Film Office Advisory Council and played a crucial role in orchestrating those incentives in 2008.

Thanks to the efforts of the Council and Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, who approved the program with Burnstein standing by her side, the state now offers more tax rebates to filmmakers than anywhere else in the country.