Written by new-contact on Sep 22, 2011. Posted in On Location

Michigan awards location filming support to local Dogman feature

A low-budget feature called Dogman has been awarded incentive support in Michigan. It will spend just over USD380,000 and get a payment of slightly more than USD155,000. Inspired by Michigan folklore, the film tells the story of a wolf-like animal said to appear in the seventh year of each decade.

Shooting will take place mainly in Benzie County and the production’s expected to hire around 50 locals. Carrie Jones is Director of the Michigan Film Office: “Dogman is not only set in Michigan, it is also hiring its entire crew from Michigan and creating paid internship positions to help train the next generation of Michigan filmmakers. Combined, these factors make this project the perfect fit for the film incentives.”

Dogman is not only set in Michigan, it is also hiring its entire crew from Michigan and creating paid internship positions to help train the next generation of Michigan filmmakers.

Carrie Jones, Michigan Film Office

Up until a few months ago Michigan had one of the most generous filming incentive schemes in the US. The state still offers a base 40% tax credit for eligible projects, but the film fund will be just USD25 million a year from October 2011, likely reducing its appeal to big-budget productions. To add to that, the film office has been given flexibility to reduce the size of the tax credit it awards to certain productions.

Oz: The Great and Powerful, directed by Michigan native Sam Raimi, is currently filming at Raleigh Studios and is the last production to get a USD40 million tax credit payment from an in-state spend of more than USD100 million.