Jeff Spilman (S3 Entertainment, Ferndale)

Group keeps up pressure to retain Michigan film incentives

URSULA WATSON
March 4 2011 The Detroit News

Michigan's film industry supporters aligned Thursday to take more shots at Gov. Rick Snyder's proposal to cap the state's film tax incentives.

Members of Michigan Film First, a coalition of film and TV industry leaders, rallied with other supporters at the Troy Marriott late Thursday to discuss ways to help save the local film business.

While the rally lacked celebrities like actor and filmmaker Jeff Daniels and filmmaker Mike Binder, who roused a crowd of incentive backers Feb. 25, the audience of 600 listened attentively to speakers such as Jeff Spilman, managing partner of Ferndale-based S3 Entertainment Group; Chris Baum, senior vice president of the Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau's Film Detroit Division; Rep. Ellen Lipton, D-Huntington Woods; and David Haddad, chairman of Film First and owner of Haddad's Inc., which rents trucks to movie companies.

Haddad said thanks to the incentives, he was able to hire three people fulltime and provide benefits. If Snyder's proposal is adopted, Haddad said such job opportunities would disappear and would also end his Brownstown business.

"Tonight I hope that we define the film community's message that we need to keep the incentives in place," he said.

Organizers called on the film industry community and others to contact their lawmakers and the governor's office and urge them to keep the incentives.

"We can win this fight," said Oakland County Treasurer Andy Meisner. "… (The legislators) work for us, and we must remind them of that. We need every job."

Since the tax incentives, which provide rebates of up to 42 percent of a film or TV production's expenses, were introduced in April 2008, the state has attracted major Hollywood names like Robert De Niro and Hilary Swank as well as big-budget films like "Scream 4."

According to the Michigan Film Office's 2010 annual report,

58 projects were shot last year in Michigan, generating $294 million, creating 5,310 local production jobs and more than 8,179 talent hires. The report said those projects were awarded $115 million in incentives.

While 11 projects, including the film "Oz," are slated to begin filming this year, the governor's proposal to cut the now-uncapped incentives to $25 million annually in 2012 and 2013 already has sent some film productions packing. The big-budget "The Avengers" will now be shot in Cleveland, Ohio, Gov. John Kasich announced Thursday.