Michigan film graduates turn hometown loyalty into international win, despite worries over tax incentives

That time was 2007, before Michigan attempted to lure Hollywood to the "north coast" by offering the most generous incentives for filmmakers in the United States, recouping from 40 percent to 42 percent of their budget on approved projects, depending on the location.

But ever since the state passed the filmmaking incentive in 2008, there's been another path for graduates of the film program: Staying home.

That path could be threatened if Gov. Rick Snyder's plan to cap Michigan's film incentives at $25 million a year for the next two years becomes law.

A recent study by Ernst & Young found that Michigan paid out some $117.2 million in film credit costs in 2010, up from $73 million in 2009.

Marty Stano, a 2008 graduate of the U-M program in Screen Arts and Cultures, is one film school alum who never had to leave Michigan to find work.

Stano, Mazumder and Natalie Condon, an '09 grad, got a taste of the success that's possible as Michigan-based filmmakers when they won the MOFILM Mobile World Congress video contest last month with a 90-second spot they made for Mountain Dew.

"The Pitch," as the spot is called, was put together on a shoestring budget of $250. Stano created the concept and wrote and directed the commercial. Mazumder worked as a producer and assistant director. Condon also produced and had a brief acting role.

"The Pitch" features actor and 2008 U-M graduate Danny Mooney's high-energy attempt at a pitch session with a Mountain Dew executive, played by David Roetman, whom Stano said drove from Grand Rapids in a snowstorm to make it to Ann Arbor for the shoot.

Mooney plays an ad man hyped up on caffeine whose ideas are as high-voltage as the beverage he's selling.

At one point, Mooney straps a vest made of Mountain Dew "bombs" to the executive's chest. Stano originally hoped to shoot the pitch man's scenarios in full, and use those as the commercial, but it would've cost too much.

So a friend suggested he just shoot the pitch itself.

That was good enough for first place, a $10,000 cash prize, and a trip to Barcelona, Spain, for the Mobile World Congress event, which ran from Feb. 14 to 17.

"The Pitch" will also air at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York, Stano said. In Barcelona, the crew members took Overall Grand Prize honors, which recognized their ad as the best among the nine brand winners. Other brands included AT&T and Tropicana.

If Stano and company had needed to rent equipment and their shooting location — the offices of Michigan Marketing & Design — or pay the crew for its time, the costs could've skyrocketed above the $10,000 they won for the commercial, Mazumder said.

Instead, the University of Michigan Film Office facilitated the whole production.

Lee Doyle, director of the film office, which runs through the Office of the Vice President for Communications, said the group was a pleasure to work with. The film office might get notoriety for working with the visiting George Clooneys and David Schwimmers of the world, but at heart the office's mission is helping students shoot on campus.

The future of "The Pitch," and whether we'll ever see it on television, is uncertain.

In Barcelona, the guys heard murmurs that some Mountain Dew reps thought it might have too many guns to air widely.

"The Pitch: 'Too extreme for Mountain Dew!'" Mazumder said. "It's kind of a funny thing."

"Maybe we'll just take it viral" and distribute it online, Stano said.

Commercial competitions, Stano has found, offer the best mix of creativity and reward.

"I live on my sister's couch," Stano said. "My expenses are nonexistent. I can make commercial money stretch a long time, hopefully to the point I won't have to get a day job."

Danny Mooney, who played the Mountain Dew-fueled ad man, agrees about the value of commercials.

He's been working on a feature film, and for two years it's been in the development stage: writing and re-writing the script, location scouting, casting, and the toughest part, financing. It will finally start shooting this summer, but then editing and production and getting it to market are another years-long process.

The turnaround time is just too long for an upstart filmmaker, he says.

Meanwhile, Stano is planning to take part in another MOFILM pitch competition, this time for Chevrolet. He took a roadtrip to Alaska last year and plans to use some of that footage in his commercial.

"If I can show these companies what's possible when I'm just rubbing nickels together, they'll know that a $10,000, $20,000 budget is something I can handle," Stano said.

From there, he hopes, more doors will open to feature projects.

If the film incentive is capped and Hollywood does flee, Doyle said that the U-M Film Office would spend less time on big-ticket projects and more time on student efforts. The transition would be relatively minor.

Statewide, the impact could be big.

Entertainment lawyer Howard Hertz, of Bloomfield Hills, represents native Michigan talents like Eminem and Elmore Leonard, and has worked closely with filmmakers since the incentive passed.

In the past he's said the Michigan film industry could be a billion-dollar business. But if the cap on incentives passes, he said it would be a "killer." It would most certainly hasten brain drain among young filmmakers with college degrees, he said.

Even so, Stano and his collaborators were hopeful, and some of them insistent, that they could make things work in Michigan even if the incentive were capped. But the uncertainty has been bad for business.

"Already, 'The Avengers' have pulled out," Condon said of the movie scheduled to shoot in 2012.

A friend and location scout who planned to join Stano on a roadtrip had to back out to conserve money. He'd just lost his job.

"That could have easily been me," Condon said.

Late Michigan football coach Bo Schembechler famously said that “Those who stay will be champions.” It’s not clear what will become of the upstart local film industry or the 20-something college graduates who work here if the cap passes.

But the advantages of staying home are immense, the graduates say.

For one, film work is heading to outposts like Michigan, Florida, Louisiana. A lot of those projects might’ve been shot at home in Los Angeles if not for generous film incentives elsewhere. Now some filmmakers have begun banking on those incentives to make their budgets work, especially as the economy struggles.

Mazumder said several of his friends in Los Angeles, even the ones who viewed his return to Michigan with a jaundiced eye, are telling him to stay put, that work has slowed and the jobs are heading his way.

Another local advantage is the lower barriers to entry for Michigan-based filmmakers. It's easier and cheaper to shoot a film in Ann Arbor than it is in L.A. or New York. Those barriers, and the long hours involved on Hollywood shoots, keep Mazumder’s coastal counterparts from shooting their own projects, where they can take "above-the-line" roles like writer, director, producer.

When Mazumder was working at a Los Angeles talent agency, he was "the go-fer getting people's sushi, their coffee."

"But now," Mazumder said with a smirk, "now, when I go back as a producer, people run out to get my sushi, my coffee. I wouldn't be a producer in Los Angeles. In Michigan, I am."

"It's hard to work your way up from within the system," Condon added, which is why she stayed.

The actor, Mooney, is among the insistent. Come capped incentives or high water, Mooney won't be fleeing for the coasts any time soon.

"I'm going to stay in Michigan until they tell me that it absolutely cannot be done," Mooney said of success in the film business. "Until they turn the lights out, I'm going to try to make it work here."

• Watch "The Pitch" online.

James David Dickson can be reached at jamesdickson@annarbor.com.