From cineastes to camera jockeys, the Ann Arbor area has caught the Hollywood bug. Beyond the renown Ann Arbor Film Festival, fests like CinemaSlam and Miller's Creek are popping up like dandelions. CUT TO: laptop auteurs busily working on their next YouTube masterpiece as local production companies like Odd Angle and Quack! Media generate cutting edge video. CLOSE ON: U-M's film program, where the next generation of Steven Spielbergs and Martin Scorcese are learning their craft. FADE ON: Michigan's state legislature as it approves an ambitious new Film Production Incentive Package. It's only a matter of time before Washtenaw County says, "We're ready for our close up, Mr. DeMille!"
Jeff Meyers
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Ann Arbor is becoming a small hotbed of movie previews. As part of their bus tour across America, Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez are dropping in with their film, The Way. There will be a public screening at the Michigan Theater tonight. Learn how you can attend.
Jeff Meyers
Wednesday, October 05, 2011
Sometimes great things come in small packages. Or so the saying goes. For Beth Tanenhaus Winsten it's more than just a saying, however, it's the foundation of her business. Her Ann Arbor-based tinyBigPictureshow sees the web as an exciting medium for visual storytelling, and she's starting to win over clients with her less-is-more approach.
Tanya Muzumdar
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
What Mark Maynard does from 9-5 is important but not nearly as interesting as what he does the other 16 hours a day (beside sleep). From The Shadow Art Fair to a popular blog to planning a bike-powered film fest to a local talk show that features a puppet stand-in, Maynard personifies Ypsilanti's do-it-yourself creativity. You might even call him the ultimate marionette about town.
Leia Menlove
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Welcome to Hollywood on the Huron! With Michigan's ambitious film incentive package bringing movie sets to Ann Arbor, both U-M and the city have had to develop strategies for accommodating (and capitalizing) on their presence.
Jon Zemke
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
"It's in our DNA to do amazing things," says Harvey Ovshinsky. Metromode's Jon
Zemke sits down with the veteran video producer and screenwriter to talk
about Michigan's Film Incentives and their potential impact on the
state's investment opportunities, job growth, and brain drain.
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Wednesday, March 02, 2011
Banks and offices are the buzz-kill of downtowns. Know why? Urban documentary filmmaker Kirk Westphal, founder of Westphal Associates, gives his view on this and other reasons why folks will do a hard stop and head no further down the block.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Over 2,500 artists each year submit work to the Ann Arbor Film Festival, a venue where the dime turns on provocative indie and experimental fare. Our pow wow pick of the week is the fest's executive director Donald Harrison, who'll be addressing the film industry vs. film as an art, and regional notions of a creativity crisis.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Rob Cleveland knows what it takes to build something out of nothing. A former auto biz writer, he not only grew ICON Creative Technologies Group into a successful 30 person firm, he recently opened the Grange Kitchen in downtown Ann Arbor. Rob believes in the value of tax incentives, and explains how they'll help Michigan develop much-needed entrepreneurs like himself.
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