Clawson Production Company Plans to Weather Proposed Film Incentive Cut

Clawson’s Parliament Studios is an up-and-coming, active member of the Michigan film industry — for as long as that industry lasts. The relatively new studio, formed by a merger of two successful firms in 2009, has thrived in Michigan's growing film sector.

Parliament recently partnered with M-1 Studios of Ferndale to launch MIFilmIndustry.com, a site dedicated to bringing concerned citizens information and action alerts about the film incentive, which might be cut under Gov. Rick Snyder's proposed budget plan.

Snyder announced in February that his plan would include a $25 million cap on the film tax credits program – well below the $163 million Michigan awarded in incentives last year.

And while the film incentive cut is expected to have drastic effects on the industry in Michigan, Parliament's president and creative director, David London, said he plans to keep producing films, no matter what.

“Parliament Studios is about 2 years old now, and it was born out of two separate companies: Filming in Detroit, which is a casting company and location scouting company, run by Vadim (Yelizarov) and Jenny (Feterovich), and Zazen Digital Studios — my design, Web and video company,” London said.

“Because of this economic downturn, we’ve seen a lot of large corporate clients, like GM, pull out, but we branched out into TV and film,” London said.

Although Parliament still occasionally does Web design, branding and logo creation, it has been most actively engaged with the growing film industry. Two documentaries, The Rise and Fall of An Urban Empire and  Unlearn, are in production, as is a Detroit-based feature biopic called The Kingpin's Kid. Parliament brings in freelancers on a per-project basis, allowing the studio to expand or contract as needed.

London said the film industry really picked up after the incentive program was passed three years ago by Republican lawmakers. “It’s not a partisan thing,” he said.

“And the (Ernst & Young) report, which is also nonpartisan, stated that $5.94 comes back (to the state) for every dollar spent — and that’s unheard of, in terms of investment," London said. "You can’t get that kind of return on Wall Street.”

According to the Michigan Film Office, in 2007 — before the credit — two films were shot in Michigan. In 2008, 25 films were shot here, and in 2009, there were 85.

The film industry has provided Michiganians with 3,860 full-time equivalent jobs and $503 million in statewide sales for 2010, according to an Ernst & Young Report released in February. The report attributed that growth at least in part to a 2009 tax incentive that gives the film and video game industry a refundable business tax credit of up to 42 percent for production costs spent within the state.

“It’s not just a business story, it’s a human story,” said London, who lives in Royal Oak. “It’s not just a few dollars here and there. It’s hundreds of thousands of dollars for small Michigan businesses.”

“I think it has helped the job creation in Michigan,” said Jenny Feterovich, Parliament’s producer and a co-founder of Filming in Detroit. “It has helped the economic growth in Michigan, (and) it has helped just an overall sort of happiness of people in Michigan, (knowing) that there is something wonderful happening here.”

Many in the industry, including London, believe Snyder's plan would crush the state’s film industry.

“The problem is, it takes a long time to build up a lot of trust and a lot of faith with Hollywood, and an instant to destroy it,” he said. “In an instant, it’s gone. And if we don’t fix it now, it will never come back.”

According to Entertainment Partners, a California-based production management services company, Michigan and 16 other states have no limit on the amount of money paid back to filmmakers. With Snyder’s proposed cap, Michigan would have fewer incentives than rival states with no cap or with much higher caps, such as New York’s $420 million.

“(Snyder) didn’t kill the tax incentive — he just (wants to) de-fund it to the point where nobody will use it,” London said. “Literally 45 minutes after announcing (the proposed cuts), it was announced that one of the biggest movies of next year, (Marvel Comics’) The Avengers, pulled out. And now they’re filming in Cleveland.”

London said that regardless of whether the tax incentive is cut, Parliament's two documentaries will "happen either way," although securing funding for The Kingpin's Kid will be much harder without the incentive.

Parliament was created with the ability to weather any economic storm, London said, because it can always go back to corporate-oriented work. However, many other startups have put "all of their eggs in the tax incentive basket," which could be devastating, he said.

 “(The industry) is not going to grow without the incentive," Feterovich added. "The way Hollywood is built, they go where the incentives are. That’s just the nature of business. (Snyder) is a businessman; he should understand that."

London stressed that having such large productions in Michigan doesn’t just benefit top-name stars.

 “You don’t just come in with actors; you need grips, you need lighting guys, you need carpenters and more,” he said. “People who were electricians before (got training to) become movie electricians; carpenters learned to be movie carpenters. They invested their time and money, with the expectation of a new industry. It gave the entire region a hope it didn’t have before.”

To learn more about filmmaking in Michigan, visit parliamentstudios.com, filmingindetroit.com and zazendigital.com.