Governor Granholm's film incentive package plans to boost Michigan's economy.
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TRAVERSE CITY -- It could be a major boost to the Michigan film industry by making Michigan the top state in the country for film and commercial incentives.
Governor Granholm signed the film incentive bill into law allowing Michigan to have significant tax benefits for filming movies in state.
In fact, during her town hall meeting Wednesday night in Grand Rapids, the governor addressed the film incentive package as being "The most robust film package in the nation."
So we wanted to know the effects of this incentive package and what it means for northern Michigan.
Independent film maker Rich Brauer has seen much of his life through the lens of a camera. Many of the locations for his films are close to home right here in northern Michigan.
"I think it's a good think to welcome this kind of industry into Michigan. It's a clean industry, it's green, it's good, it employs a lot of people and it leaves usually a positive mark," says Brauer.
A positive mark that Brauer says lasts well past the final credits on the silver screen.
"It kind of lasts forever. It's like the films don't go away and it it's a good film it can be a very good thing for a community in promotion for the community itself, look what 'Somewhere in Time' did up in Mackinaw Island," says Brauer.
Besides just promoting the towns when production crews come into northern Michigan, Brauer says it's the economic impact that's really benefiting the area.
"Along the way we do leave some money behind and you start adding up all the people that need hotel rooms, just that starts to get into a pretty hefty amount and with each one of those you've got meals, you've got gas and travel," says Brauer.
Right now, the top states for filming movies might surprise you...Louisiana and Georgia. That's because those states offer incentives to film there.
"The first thing they look at is the film incentive package, there's no doubt about that. These guys are all about saving money and maximizing their dollar, there's no doubt about it and now Michigan has one of the best ones in the country," says Brauer.
And in being the best, Brauer says the sky's the limit to the amount of money that film agencies can be bring into the state.
"There's lots of levels of money that a film could be made for, it can be made really cheap or it can be really expensive, or it could be somewhere in the middle which is where I happen to live, so the benefit to the community would be proportionate to that, but when the big boys show up, they're spending some cash and it's a good thing," says Brauer.
The legislation to increase the film production in the state includes through up to seven-million dollars in tax breaks and requires the Michigan Film Office to issue annual reports on film production.
