Written by new-contact on Nov 16, 2011. Posted in Incentive News

Raleigh Studios and Michigan industry await bill clarifying revised filming incentive

Michigan’s film industry, including Raleigh Studios in Detroit, is anticipating a new bill clarifying the parameters of the state’s revised filming incentive. The annual film fund sits at just USD25 million and the film office needs solid guidelines on what productions have to do to qualify.

The new bill has already passed through the state Senate and will clarify qualifying criteria like how many Michigan residents a project needs to employ, how much money producers plan to spend in-state and to what extent a project promotes Michigan. There’s also a hope that the film fund will be increased.

There’s a mis-perception that the [Michigan] industry died this year. We actually had a good year with 23 films that wrapped. We weren’t quite as busy as in 2010 when 58 projects were shot in the state.

Michelle Begnoche, Michigan Film Office

Michelle Begnoche, of the Michigan Film Office, spoke to the MI Central Network: “There’s a mis-perception that the industry died this year. We actually had a good year with 23 films that wrapped. We weren’t quite as busy as in 2010 when 58 projects were shot in the state. We are allocated the USD25 million, but we don’t have the parameters for how it is to be awarded.”

Michigan native Sam Raimi is currently filming Oz: The Great and Powerful at Raleigh Studios Detroit. From an in-state spend of just over USD100 million the project is getting a USD40 million rebate, nearly twice the total value of the revised film fund.

Clarifying the terms of the revised incentive scheme may help Michigan advise its queue of applicants, but appealing to big-budget studio productions is going to be a long-term challenge.