Tax incentive provides opportunities for student filmmakers
Brandon Conradis
Managing Arts EditorAugust 3rd, 2008
When the summer began, LSA senior Brendt Rioux didn’t expect to work on a film set, let alone work alongside an established storyboard artist. But a little more than a month ago, Rioux, who is concentrating in Screen Arts and Cultures, received an e-mail offering a student internship on the set of “Whip It,” a new Drew Barrymore film being shot in Michigan. His interest piqued, Rioux sent in an application.
He got a call offering him the internship almost immediately, he said. The job had a perk he wasn’t expecting.
“As it turned out, the storyboardist (J. Todd Anderson) had done almost all of the Coen Brothers’ movies,” he said, referring to the duo’s spate of Oscar-winning films like “Fargo” (1995) and “No Country for Old Men” (2007).
Shortly after, Rioux was promoted to a paid production assistant position.
“The work is extremely difficult,” he said, “but it does teach you a lot about working on a movie set.”
Like many young filmmakers, Rioux is just happy to get the experience. There are many opportunities for University students to work on smaller, independent film sets in the area, but major Hollywood productions have always been harder to come by in Michigan.
This summer has seen a couple of higher-budgeted films make their way to the state, including “Whip It” and “Youth in Revolt.” And University students like Rioux are taking advantage of the opportunities they offer.
As he pointed out, “It’s one thing to work on a small student film with friends, but to work on a large scale with many different people, when the logistics are a lot more complicated, that’s something else.”
The main reason for this onslaught of Hollywood film productions in the area is a tax incentive recently adopted by the state. In an effort to create jobs and boost the state’s recessed economy, the state now offers a 40-percent tax break to productions with proposed budgets of at least $50,000. If the movies are shot in one of 103 “core communities,” those the state has targeted for urban development incentives, an additional 2-percent break is offered. Ann Arbor and Detroit are both core communities.
According to Janet Lockwood, director of the Michigan Film Office, which oversees all film productions in the state, the tax break is quite inviting.
“The growth has probably been a thousand-fold,” she said, referring to the number of film productions that have come to Michigan in the past year. “Last year I saw maybe six scripts, this year I saw over a hundred.”
And she’s not the only one who has noticed. Mary Lou Chlipala, the program coordinator for the University’s Screen Arts & Cultures Department, is enthusiastic about the new opportunities available for students.
“We would never have all this going on in the summer,” she said, when asked about how the tax break has affected the opportunities available to Screen Arts & Cultures students. “I’m assuming this is going to stay lively.”
According to Chlipala, there are about 10 University students currently working on major film productions in the area. One of them, LSA alum Mark Zakaliak, who graduated in April, began as a director’s assistant on the film “Youth in Revolt.” He was then given a job in office production.
Zakaliak, who started his college career intending to go to medical school, changed his focus when he realized that his true interests lay in filmmaking. A sub-concentrator in the University’s screenwriting program, Zakaliak was recommended to the makers of “Youth in Revolt” by his professor, accomplished Hollywood screenwriter Jim Burnstein.
“I love it,” Zakaliak said of his experiences on the set. “To actually be working in film, and to feel that the decision I made (switching concentrations) was right — it feels great.”
For a student like Zakaliak, one of the main benefits of working on a major film set is the experience he or she takes away from the shoot — experiences unavailable in the classroom.
“The foundations are there for the production classes (the University offers),” Zakaliak said. “But there’s no other way to learn than by doing it.”
And while he admits that it’s stressful work, he also said that his experience on “Youth in Revolt” has opened the doors for more film work — he already has an interview for a production position on another film.
In fact, Screen Arts & Cultures students said another major benefit of the tax incentive is that it allows them to pursue filmmaking careers within the state of Michigan, as opposed to relocating to Los Angeles or New York City.
Zakaliak, who always planned on moving out to California, remains open to the idea of staying in Michigan.
“If things are happening here, it would be stupid for me to just get up and leave,” he said.
Chlipala, who coordinates student internships, agreed, “If more films are made here it might be a real option for some of them (to stay).”
Though he said that, because of his interest in animation, there aren’t as many appealing career options in the state, Rioux is still aware of the growing possibilities in Michigan.
“With all these opportunities coming to Michigan,” he said, “it’s possible to be a big fish in a small pool.”
As University students like Rioux and Zalkiak have discovered, a career in Hollywood isn’t so far away from home after all.
Printed from www.michigandaily.com on Sat, 21 Nov 2009 16:35:07 -0500