Perhaps I’m just an old lady full of sour grapes. I personally don’t see any logic in giving away money in a vain attempt to make some. My video production friend, who has worked in California before coming back here to live, says the production companies are fairly cloistered. They stay in certain hotels and eat catered food. I doubt that any of them are holed up in Royal Oak’s Travelodge, and definitely none are in the low-budget Royal Motor Inn down the street. I doubt any of them went to the local McDonald’s, even though they were filming right across the street.
I don’t have to add that these filmmakers aren’t helping my business one bit. I don’t run a catering business or a major hotel chain. The people who work in those industries, for the most part, are younger and don’t have children in our target customer age.
The bigger issue I have is that of the long-term effects. The state promises to write rebate checks back to the film producers. Can I ask, pray tell, with WHAT? The state is already in deep financial doo-doo, having not recovered from the fiscal mess of last October, when the Powers That Be threatened a shut down because it was out of cash. What happens when the film producers want their rebate checks and the state’s wallet is thin (again)? I might be wrong, but I’m thinking that more taxes will be on the way. Michigan: proving to the world that you CAN get blood out of a turnip!
Which leads me to the proverbial question: When the circus comes to town, does the economy improve? Or are we left with a wake of flattened grass and more garbage than we had before?
Article comments
1 - Dr Dreadful
Nice piece, Joanne. Very amusing.
I think whether a place gets any economic benefit from a movie filmed there all depends on the movie. It helps if it's a hit, obviously, but a more crucial factor is whether the location is a central character in the movie.
New Zealand got a tremendous boost from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, for example, and I'm sure there were more modest but still significant bumps for Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and for the California Central Coast wine region from the films Witness and Sideways, respectively.
Tourism is always going to be the first beneficiary, of course, but the idea is that the stimulus will eventually trickle down to other sectors of the economy.
That said, Michigan does seem to be a wee bit extravagant with its incentive package. We'll see how it goes.
2 - Baronius
Joanne, doesn't Detroit have a history of coming up with big new economic plans that fizzle out?
3 - Ruvy
However, I do have a problem with how short-sighted this legislation is, and I am also worried about the ultimate costs to those who are stuck living here.
Joanne,
There is a reason for state legislators always taking junkets away from the capital, you know.... It goes beyond just finding a place to sleep with that cute number on the side. The honorable legislators don't want to be stuck in well, Michigan....
4 - Joanne Huspek
I received an email from a friend in Minnesota who says that his state's movie commission (a leader in strongly marketing the state for movie making) is upset over Michigan's sweetheart deal. But, there's no way they can compete against it.
And yes, Baronius, the entire state is known for hare-brained schemes to make money.