Film incentives

(NEWSCHANNEL 3) – It's one of the biggest events of the year, and on Thursday the annual Waterfront Film Festival kicks off in Saugatuck.

The festival has filmmakers from around the globe converging on West Michigan. The event grows every year, as does Michigan's fledgling movie industry.

On Thursday, Newschannel 3 learned that Janet Lockwood, the head of Michigan's Film Office for nearly 20 years, is retiring.

In this week's Tom's Corner, Tom Van Howe weighs in on the criticism of that office and the state's film incentive program.

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A few months ago, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a conservative think tank in Midland, railed against our state's film incentive program by focusing on Michael Moore.

The filmmaker is getting a sizable, refundable, tax credit, easier to call it a rebate, against what he spent in making his movie, 'Capitalism: A Love Story.'

The Mackinac Center argues that the Michigan film incentive program is, therefore, a 100 million dollar boondoggle fed by crony capitalism, all at taxpayer expense. It added that Moore, who is also on the state film office advisory board, was a hypocrite and should reject the rebate on principle.

The people who do all the thinking at the Mackinaw Center are normally pretty good thinkers, but I think they're missing the boat on this one.

To condemn the incentive program by concentrating on Michael Moore is like sending back the meal because you don't like the waiter's tie.

There is a bigger picture, and it's a lot bigger than Michael Moore, and that's not meant to be a pun.

Three years ago there were just a handful of productions made in our state, at a total of seven million dollars.

In April, Michigan became the most aggressive state in the nation in attracting movies. In the two years since then, 99 films have been shot in locations all over the state for a total of a whopping $350 million.

Of that, $100 million has gone, or will go, back to the production companies who spent all the money on sets, actors, hotels, caterers, accountants, paint, security workers, and more.

Net gain? $250 million.

The rebates range from 30 to 42 percent, based on the dollars spent in Michigan, in what cities the movie is shot and on whether the workers hired are from Michigan.

Where is all this taking us? 99 movies shot so far, of 67 new applications, 24 have been given the go-ahead by the film office.

One of those is the $80 million Dreamworks sci-fi thriller 'Real Steel' staring Hugh Jackman that is about to get underway in Detroit.

Another is called '30 Minutes of Less,' a comedy by 'Zombieland' director Rubin Fleicher, currently being shot in Grand Rapids.

ABC will soon be using Detroit to shoot a new crime series, HBO has plans for Michigan, and Tic-Tock Productions in Holland is putting the final touches on 'What's Wrong With Virginia?' a film shot in the fall of 2009 and scheduled for release in 2010.

Things are hot for film in Michigan, and none of it would be happening without the incentive program.

There's a nuance developing that can't be easily translated into dollars and sense, something conservative critics have a hard time getting their arms around.

For example, the Grand Hotel up on Mackinaw Island continues to take in some $600,000 annually from tourists who want to see the location of the Christopher Reeve movie, 'Somewhere in Time,' and that was shot 30 years ago and wasn't even that big.

I agree with film office spokesperson Ken Droz who said, “this is the birthing of an industry, it takes time.”

From this corner, I say 'lights, camera, action – let 'er rip.'