Hundreds Turn Out To Support Michigan Film Incentive

BLOOMFILED HILLS (WWJ) - Hundreds of people with an interest in Michigan's movie industry turned out Tuesday night at a meeting at the Kingsley Inn in Bloomfield Hills. It was organized by a group pushing to restore the film incentives called Michigan Film First.

The group's founder Jeffrey Spillman said uncertainty over the future of Michigan incentives is putting out a bad message to Hollywood and others who might want to make movies in Michigan.

"We don't have certainty here, the incentive goes up and down, other states don't do this, they are much smarter business-wise than our state is," said Spillman. "We need to have an incentive, we need to keep it intact and stop playing with it, and be grateful for people hiring our Michigan folks and invite them to come back."

Rod Meyers of Bloomfield Hills said the movie industry has been good for his family.

"It gave my son an opportunity to have a nice supporting role in a Hallmark movie called "Smooch" and that was last October and it was a fantastic opportunity, my son is only 12 and he was just thrilled to have an opportunity in the business," said Meyers.

Most people who spoke to WWJ at the meeting, including casting agents, writers and others, agreed Michigan's film incentive should be tweaked, but say it needs to be restored to put people back to work.

Spillman says he has been forced to close his production company S-3 Entertainment, which has cost metro Detroit 35 permanent jobs.