4,730 jobs lost as Detroit 187 & other films leave state thanks to Rick

[ColonelMack]

all that is completely irrelevant to this issue though. Love the bailouts.. or not.. it has nothing to do with this issue.

This comes down to this: Tax dollars being spent to make jobs to try to lift the state's economy. Is this a good place to be putting the money.

My two cents is Hell no-- 20k+ per 50k-a-year job is ridiculous. And to make matters worse, they are jobs that are transient, and disappear the second the state movie welfare dries up. Now what if we put those dollars into machine shops in Macomb County. Good paying, long term blue collar jobs that will be [[more or less) permenant. That would have a much more positive effect on our state's economy.

[canuck]

all that is completely irrelevant to this issue though. Love the bailouts.. or not.. it has nothing to do with this issue.

This comes down to this: Tax dollars being spent to make jobs to try to lift the state's economy. Is this a good place to be putting the money.

My two cents is Hell no-- 20k+ per 50k-a-year job is ridiculous. And to make matters worse, they are jobs that are transient, and disappear the second the state movie welfare dries up. Now what if we put those dollars into machine shops in Macomb County. Good paying, long term blue collar jobs that will be [[more or less) permenant. That would have a much more positive effect on our state's economy.

I know how you feel about machines ColonelMack, and I have the same longing for solid, no nonsense type industry; almost everybody wants that. If we looked closely enough at the variety of incentives and tax rebates in industry at large plus the subsidies to high tech from our governments; it would be an equal playing field with film production. States and provinces not to mention east european countries have been competing for Hollywood business because they create freelance jobs that sometimes dovetail the job opportunities in local productions. There is opportunity for Detroit to regain some of the film production it used to have when film advertizing well as photography studios were top in the US. My claim is that the kids coming out of Wayne State theatre school should be able to stay in Michigan and contribute to an environment that doesnt strictly value traditional industry. Fostering this development will help forge the city and state's new identity and give some screentime to all the untold stories awaiting to be told in Detroit.

It may be hard to believe it is possible to compete with Hollywood product but independant films now have festivals to promote a greater distribution potential and sometimes producers will buy a shoestring budgeted film and propel it to great success. So the many tax paying craftspeople involved in making movies need to remain in Detroit and gather up enough strength to generate a local industry.

[Thames]

all that is completely irrelevant to this issue though. Love the bailouts.. or not.. it has nothing to do with this issue.

This comes down to this: Tax dollars being spent to make jobs to try to lift the state's economy. Is this a good place to be putting the money.

My two cents is Hell no-- 20k+ per 50k-a-year job is ridiculous. And to make matters worse, they are jobs that are transient, and disappear the second the state movie welfare dries up. Now what if we put those dollars into machine shops in Macomb County. Good paying, long term blue collar jobs that will be [[more or less) permenant. That would have a much more positive effect on our state's economy.

ColonelMack, with all due respect, your thinking is archaic.

The good paying machine shop jobs are long gone and they're not coming back. They are mostly $9-$12/hr. jobs now.

Today's young people aren't settling for that and they shouldn't. Would you?

The film industry brought almost endless possibilities for job growth and for our youth.

Electricians/carpenters to build/tear down sets. Transportation to move sets/talent around, hair & make up, production studios, catering, travel agents, props [[selling and creating), the list goes on.

People I know in the business [[only three, but still, they weren't collecting unemployment) were working steady last year. They'd work 90 hr weeks a lot [[at good pay) for a couple months, then have 2-3 weeks off, then get back on another film, working 90 hr weeks, repeat.

I think the incentives could be tweaked, but I don't understand why they want to all but eliminate them. IMO, they didn't give it enough time. Steady work was just starting to take hold.

It almost looked like a young person could have an actual future here. It almost looked like we'd be able to offer more than low paying, low skilled jobs.

Oh well. Guess we'll just start collecting unemployment again and wait for those "great" jobs you speak of. Or leave.

[ColonelMack]

Perhaps my illustrating the absurd with the absurd was lost on you. the "Machine Shop" was meant to be the polar opposite of the cool.. glamorous movie jobs. Fact is the better play with tax dollar would be to give 21% back to health care companies that would locate here. You would get the jobs, they would be long term, they would be solid, high paying, and companies would have fought to come here.. no one gives back a 21% rebate to businesses for what they spend. Yet to draw the films here we gave them back 42% on what they spent. We spent about 20k for every 50k-a-year job, per the film industry study.

It just doesnt make sense. It is ludicrous. We would be much better off bankrolling real, in demand job training. I know that would be a little less glamourous.. but it woudl make a heck of a lot more sense for our states ecomony. If you want to pursue a movie career God bless ya.. just dont take my tax dollars to do it.

[Gsgeorge]

Perhaps my illustrating the absurd with the absurd was lost on you. the "Machine Shop" was meant to be the polar opposite of the cool.. glamorous movie jobs. Fact is the better play with tax dollar would be to give 21% back to health care companies that would locate here. You would get the jobs, they would be long term, they would be solid, high paying, and companies would have fought to come here.. no one gives back a 21% rebate to businesses for what they spend. Yet to draw the films here we gave them back 42% on what they spent. We spent about 20k for every 50k-a-year job, per the film industry study.

So you're saying we should get rid of the film tax credit..... and replace it with a tax credit for a different industry, the medical industry. I'm not really following you. You must just have something against those of us who work in the film industry, otherwise you would just want to eliminate all tax credits across the board. Why not just lower the film tax credit to 21%? Film jobs are high-paying, solid jobs too. Just because we have a little time off here and there, that doesn't really make our jobs any less valuable, and it would be a moot point if the films keep coming here. And they will with a moderate tax credit. You're also forgetting that the film industry doesn't just employ cameramen and actors. It fills our hotels, supports local businesses and contractors, employs local unions, tradespeople, caterers, etc etc.