ON SCREEN
Hopwood Depree discusses the Michigan film tax incentives before a Senate subcommittee earlier this week
(Photo credit: Dustin Dwyer)
There's a lot to talk about these days. Since the state passed its generous film tax incentives last year, about 40 feature films have been shot in Michigan. But most of the action has been in Southeast Michigan.
Still, people haven't given up on filmmaking on the west side of the state.
Hopwood DePree is one of the founders of the Waterfront Film Festival. He grew up in Holland, but he left right after high school so he could make it big in the movie business. He lived in L.A. for 18 years, and was getting ready to launch his own production company, named TicTock Studios.
Then DePree came back to Michigan for a weekend visit. He heard how the economy was starting to go downhill. And one friend, a local state rep named Bill Huizenga, told him about an effort to get tax incentives passed for the film industry.
"So that weekend trip really turned into everything," DePree says. "[I] quickly made a decision, maybe I should set up TicTock in Michigan as opposed to Los Angeles."
It was a gamble.
In 2006, when the studio opened, the film incentives were still just an idea. Now, DePree can hardly keep up with the all the work the incentives are creating. He sits in his office on the second floor of what used to be a furniture store, juggling emails and phone calls.
TicTock is finishing up post-production on a movie called 'Tug', and getting ready for pre-production on a movie called 'What's Wrong With Virginia.' So far, Liam Neeson and Jennifer Connolly are signed on, and the movie will be directed by Dustin Lance Black, who won an Oscar last year for his screenplay on the movie 'Milk'.
'What's Wrong With Virginia' will shoot in the Holland area. Depree says he knows it's not the first place filmmakers think of when they come to Michigan.
"I think most people's natural reaction to shooting in Michigan is the Detroit area," DePree says. "That's the city that most people have heard of, and that's pretty much what they're picturing in their head. So they're always surprised when they come to West Michigan and see its beautiful beaches, and how diverse the landscape is and how different it is from the east side."
West Michigan is also a pretty low key place. That was a big advantage for Brian Miller. He just wrapped up production in Grand Rapids on a movie starring the rapper 50 Cent. Miller says in a bigger city, there would have been a lot more attention, and a lot more cost to closing off his set.
"We were able to do process trailer and tow cars, and drive around the city with actors in a very secure and safe environment,"Miller says.
Miller, like Hopwood DePree, is originally from West Michigan.
So they already had reasons to come here. But the challenge is getting the word out to others who don't know anything about the west side.
That's a challenge for Rick Hert. He heads up the West Michigan Film Office, which is a part of the West Michigan Tourist Association. Hert says one reason many filmmakers don't think of this area is that there's just a much bigger infrastructure for film on the east side of the state.
"When you punch in to the state production guide, 'studios', it comes up with a list of 20 studios, one of them in Grand Rapids, 19 of those are in Southeast," Hert says. "That's why they're getting 90-95% of the projects."
Since the film tax incentives were put in place, two new studios have been announced - both in the metro Detroit area. Hert says he'd like to see more permanent studios in West Michigan.
But you have to wonder if the state would be better off concentrating its efforts in one area, one Hollywood of Michigan.
Hopwood DePree says it doesn't work like that. The more the better.
"I think the state can have multiple production hubs and I think that will only help us as a whole," he says.
DePree also says he's never even a little disappointed when he hears about a new film project going to te east side of the state. Eventually, he says, word will trickle out that West Michigan is also a great place to shoot movies.
© Copyright 2009, MICHIGAN RADIO
