1. Notes: 3 / 2 years ago  from kenohno

    kenohno:

    HEY MICHIGAN PEEPS!

    As you’re probably aware, last year Michigan enacted a massive tax incentive program for the film industry. As a result of this the film industry spent over $60 million dollars on productions in Michigan in 2008 (up from a paltry $2 million in 2007). It’s not a perfect program, but it’s has gotten people excited and hopeful about the future of the state during a time when even “not bad” news is worth celebrating. Thousands of unemployed people have begun retraining programs to learn how to work on film sets, and plans are in motion to establish several studio complexes near Detroit.

    However, assholes morons skidmarks Republicans elements within the state legislature are making concerted efforts to at the very least lower the incentive rate to the point where it is not competitive as well as cap the amount of money given to productions in a year(to $50 million), or to just flat out eliminate the program all together.

    Because you know if you planted a garden and ONLY got 3000% percent more vegetables in the first year, you’d say “fuck it, I’m done gardening,” and walk away, right?!

    Just the talk of decreasing or eliminating the film incentive has caused at least two productions to move elsewhere. At this early stage in the program, any change would kill it completely. Which would cause the people working in the Michigan film industry to become unemployed, those currently unemployed and retraining to work in the film industry will now look foolish for wasting their time and money, and all the construction jobs created to build what will now be useless studio complexes will be gone along with the last remaining hopes that Michigan can turn things around.

    I know many of you who follow this blog are from Michigan and have college degrees and now work in film and television. Do me a favor and send an email (or better, write an actual letter) to the state legislator from the district you grew up in. Even if you have no intention of ever moving back to Michigan for any reason, write to them and tell them (lie to them) that the only reason you left was because you wanted to work in the profession you love. Tell them that if Michigan had a stable and thriving film industry that you’d move back in a heartbeat, but the prospect of eliminating the film incentives has only confirmed that you were right to leave. Yeah, it may be a lie, but they’re politicians, so they deserve a taste of their own medicine.  Michigan has been suffering a “brain drain” for years now due to lack of new industry and job opportunities, and a stable and thriving film industry could go a long way to reducing or even reversing that trend.

    I love my LA friends and I love making movies, but I really didn’t like living in LA. I live in Michigan, and I want to work in Michigan. But politicians that can’t see beyond an election cycle would rather force me (along with thousands of others who would feel royally screwed if they give up on this program after ONE YEAR) into leaving again.

  2. Notes

    1. glennblog reblogged this from kenohno
    2. kenohno posted this
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