I live in Brooklyn Heights, so there is at least 1, often 2 or more movies/tv shows/commercials being filmed in my neighborhood every day. Other than the additional constraints it puts on already tight street parking, it is surprisingly not disruptive - and it's exciting! The crews are almost always gone by the time I get home, and they leave the neighborhood as clean as they found it. The one exception to the otherwise peaceful relationship we have with Hollywood was the night they filmed car chase scenes down Court Street for Men In Black 3 in August. Our windows were open, and it went on til 4:00 a.m. My dog barked every time they called "Action!", but it was so cool to have all the 1960s picture cars on the block, I didn't care! Glad to have the boon to NYC economy.

I was also working as an extra on films. I made more in 1 week on a movie than I would have made in two weeks at a retail store.

While people are against the incentives...there was a lot of money being made. Hotels, retailers, lumber companies. Catering companies set up shop and increased their businesses....to lose them when Snyder pulled the rug out from under us.

Worse...is that it made Michigan look bad to ALL businesses. "Well, if you could make promises to one industry, then pull the rug out....you can do that to any other industry.....".

I'm a Michigan actor. I watched the rise and fall of the film incentives program. At first, it was a reason to stay in Michigan. Big films like "Oz The Great and Powerful" used boatloads of local talent. Actor friends and I would sit in a waiting room and marvel that we were about to audition for George Clooney. I auditioned four times for "The Ides of March." I even learned to play piano for the audition. Didn't get it. But there was talk of bigger productions on the way!, including "The Avengers" and "The Dark Night Rises," but governor Rick Snyder killed the program, with over 40 projects coming to our area. Your guest insists that without native crews working in the area, the incentives program would never get off the ground. I know lots of great crew people in Michigan, and given time, we would have built up a sizable and very skilled workforce to handle the load of productions coming to the area.

Now, smaller films still come to Michigan, and last summer, I had the chance to work on "AKA Jimmy Picard," the first English-language film from French master filmmaker Arnaud Desplechin. It stars Benicio Del Toro and Mathieu Almaric, and working on it was one of the great experiences of my career thus far. You will see one or two scenes in the film's hospital setting, where the room is full of Michigan theatre actors. We're sharing the frame with phenomenal film actors like Joseph Cross and Larry Pine. This small, quiet film should prove to be quite powerful, and working for a director like Arnaud has changed the way I work altogether. This kind, brilliant man is an inspiration, and we all fell under his spell. Keep an eye out for this small, beautiful film, shot in Michigan and in Montana. The international crew and creative team came together with local grips and technicians to create a perfect working environment. Michigan still has great locations and lots of talented people, hungry for work. We have brand-new studios standing there like monuments to a gilded age. I would hate to think that they would remain empty.

Thanks for the show, and thanks for highlighting Michigan in your coverage.

Barton Bund
Artistic Director, The Blackbird Theatre