Michigan Film Festival announces dates, venues and partners for second annual event

Festival expands with more collaboration and venues for Nov. 12-14 event in downtown Grand Rapids

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., March 25, 2010 – Michigan Film Festival (MFF) announced today its second annual festival has been expanded to include additional collaborative partnerships and a new weekend for celebrating films made in Michigan.

The 2010 festival will be held Nov. 12-14 with a campus counting returning venues the Grand Rapids Art Museum (GRAM), scheduled to host panel discussions, lectures and family-friendly workshops; and the Urban Institute for the Contemporary Arts (UICA), for the Production Workshop and film screenings. New this year, Grand Valley State University’s downtown Pew Campus will screen student and faculty works in the Loosemoore Auditorium and ACTIVESITE @ 40 Monroe serves as the hospitality lounge and host site for the Music Supervisor’s Showcase.

The nonprofit Michigan Film Festival will feature screenings, lectures, workshops, panel discussions and receptions, with events for film lovers, film educators and filmmakers. A kick-off party is planned for Friday evening, Nov. 12. The complete schedule is being finalized and will be posted in the coming months at www.michiganfilmfest.org.

Festival theme: Harvesting Films in Michigan
The new dates also fit with the theme selected for the second annual festival: Harvesting Films in Michigan.

“With the passage of the film incentives in our state and the investments our community is making – investments like transforming warehouses into studios and retraining workers – Michigan has sown the seeds for a thriving filmmaking industry,” Pider said. “It’s up to those who care about sustaining this industry to take it to the next level, and that’s what the Michigan Film Festival is all about.”

All of the films shown at the film festival are made in Michigan. Screenings consist of selections from a variety of Michigan-based festivals and universities by invitation. Additional submissions to the Michigan Film Festival are accepted through the Mitten Map Film Competition (submitters are encouraged to visit MichiganFilmFest.org for competition guidelines).

Venues expand opportunities
The Grand Rapids Art Museum again serves as a venue too. “GRAM embraces diverse forms of artistic expression in its programming and event schedule, and the art of filmmaking is no exception,” said Festival Co-Founder Kerri VanderHoff, director of public relations and marketing for GRAM. “The festival’s focus on education and accessibility are especially important to the mission of GRAM, and we’ll offer workshops, panel discussions, lectures and more as part of the Art Museum’s participation as a venue for the Michigan Film Festival.”
UICA Public Relations Manager and Festival Co-Founder Phil Meade said the new UICA building opening at the southwest corner of Fulton and Division will feature two film theatres, a beautiful space for the production workshop and a dynamic array of contemporary art exhibits.
GVSU’s downtown campus is planned to be the host site for workshops geared toward those in film education – professors, teachers, trainers – anyone who educates others in the art and craft of filmmaking.

“The addition of GVSU opens up the event to really encompass downtown Grand Rapids – and it expands our ability to offer more to filmmakers, film educators and film goers,” said John Harper Philbin, associate professor of film and video production at GVSU. At last year’s inaugural Michigan Film Festival, Philbin directed the production workshop and screened his feature film To Live and Die in Dixie. Philbin serves on the festival’s programming committee.

Todd Ernst, who runs ACTIVESITE, is on board to provide ACTIVESITE @ 40 Monroe as a hospitality lounge and host site for a Music Supervisor’s Showcase of Michigan musicians seeking to promote their music for local film projects. “Hosting Michigan musicians is all part of encouraging the use of local talent on the soundtracks of Michigan-made movies,” Ernst said.
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About the Michigan Film Festival
The mission of the Michigan Film Festival is to promote the Michigan perspective in film along with the Michigan filmmaking community by sustaining an event that includes educational workshops, panel discussions and lectures; exhibition venues displaying recently crafted Michigan-made works; and partnerships between local entities involved in supporting the Michigan film industry. Michigan Film Festival is organized by Pider Enterprises in partnership with GRAM, UICA, GVSU, ACTIVESITE and WMFVA. MFF Co-Founders: Jen Pider, Kerri VanderHoff, Chuck Peterson, Josh Depenbrok, Phil Meade, Matt Fulk and Justin Godley.

Additional contacts:
For questions specific to GRAM, please contact Kerri VanderHoff, 616-831-2914
For questions specific to UICA, please contact Phil Meade, 616-454-7000 x19
For questions specific to GVSU and its film program, please contact John Philbin, 616-331-3668
For questions specific to ACTIVESITE, please contact Todd Ernst, 616-805-9240

Music as a Person

Spring 2010
Jen Pider

This paper explores the metaphor of music as a person

“The problem with this version is that it’s been dumbed-down,” he said, after watching Across the Universe a movie comprised of Beatles’ song remakes, “The songs lack balls.” The reference creates a vision of a eunuch singing in high tones, but it also carries impressions of being sterile and unfruitful. This example of a metaphor enables an understanding of music in terms of the experience of being a castrated male. In this illustration, the ontological metaphor is one of personification: music is a person. By examining this metaphor, we gain a deeper understanding of the way society perceives music. Though personifying music allows for a collective agreement of the experience of listening to music, it also highlights the aspects of music that can be personified while hiding the characteristics that don’t fit with the metaphor.

In order to gain a deeper understanding of the way society personifies music consider these examples found in Fran Lebowitz’s book The Sound of Music: Enough Already:

There was a time when music knew its place. No longer. Possibly this is not music's fault. It may be that music fell in with a bad crowd and lost its sense of common decency. I am willing to consider this. I am willing even to try and help. I would like to do my bit to set music straight in order that it might shape up and leave the mainstream of society. The first thing that music must understand is that there are two kinds of music--good music and bad music. Good music is music that I want to hear. Bad music is music that I don't want to hear. ("The Sound of Music: Enough Already," Metropolitan Life, E.P. Dutton, 1978)

Lebowitz gives music human qualities by using these terms: music knew, music’s fault, music fell, set music straight, shape up and leave, music must understand and music can be good or bad. These examples identify methods of understanding music as a person who makes decisions and should be held accountable for them. Viewing music in this way enables us to reference the person of music and the decisions this person has made. As Lakoff and Johnson state in Metaphors We Live By, once we identify our experiences as entities, we can refer to them, categorize them, group them and quantify them and by this means, reason about them. This statement helps us to grasp the advantage of using a metaphor to communicate a certain meaning.

Still, if music is a person, then music can do all the things a person can do. Music can think, move, speak, eat, sleep and procreate. There are many examples of music indicated in this way, such as: that song spoke to or touched me, the birth of a song, music eats away at me, music made me do it, it was a sleepy tune… et cetera. Embodying music not only shapes society’s understanding of music, but the experience of listening to a song. Though a song isn’t a tangible object which can be held, but instead, is something experienced through listening and understood by translating the experience in terms of the individual’s emotional response, through the lens of other experiences. Therefore, personifying an individual’s encounter with a selection of music enables that individual to communicate the experience in term which others will understand. Thus, speaking in metaphorical terms facilitates a collective understanding of an experience.

However, music isn’t a person. Though it’s difficult to describe the way we experience music without creating an ontological metaphor of sorts, we also must admit that discrepancies exist in the comparison. In actuality, music is an art form whose medium is sound. This art form is not a person; it is created by a person. A musical composition is created and can be captured in the form of memorization, recording or written notation. Music as an art form is a deliberate arrangement of sounds which affect the senses and/or emotions of those who experience it. The creator of the arrangement uses it as an expression. Therefore, a song has an intended representation determined by the creator.

Even so, society accepts the personification of music as though the composition is alive, that it is growing and changing, that it interacts with those who hear it and causes them to respond to it. This is an example of how a metaphor, understanding one thing in terms of another, highlights the aspects of the comparison that are true while hiding those that are not. In identifying music as an entity with its own consciousness, the value of the creator and the creator’s intended expression of the art form is lost.

Though collectively humanity may not realize the effect of accepting the personification of music, diminishing the role of the creator is a devilish exploit. The idea that music is its own entity affords society to relate to each composition as a friend or foe. A song might be understood to draw emotion out of a person as they connect in the listening experience. Bonding emotionally with a song, the listener begins to take ownership of it. Terms like ‘our song’ or ‘this is my jam’ creep into our speech. In these instances, the point to note is not entirely the hidden creator, but the demonstration of how a culture interacts in relationships.

By examining personifying metaphors for music, greater insight is gained about how people relate to one another. Because emotional bonds can only be experience between two living entities, the terms used to describe emotional reactions to music are telling of the possibilities between individuals. Contemplating these metaphors and the possibilities they expose, leads to a theory that people might feel a sense of ownership over those with whom they have emotionally bonded. This introduces the concept of objectification of humans.

A simpler way of looking at how metaphor leads to humanity’s objectification: if music is a person and music is an object, then a person is an object. (Though the ontological metaphor of music as an object is not the main thesis of this paper, a few examples of this are music is a building and music is rhetoric.) Considering the progression of logic above, with metaphors of music conspiring to objectify humans, the weight of one’s words is identified. Seemingly harmless ways of using word pictures to draw parallels between experiences could have lasting effects on the way humans treat each other.

In conclusion, the personification of music is an ontological metaphor which society accepts as a means to describe the way musical composition is experienced. By establishing music as a person, a greater depth of understanding can be achieved. However, society is affected by the personification of music as this metaphor shapes the way we interact with music and with each other. Understanding a song in terms of having its own identity ignores the fact that the composition was created by an individual with a specific expression in mind. Moreover, understanding music in terms of ontological metaphors shapes the way culture interacts in relationships even so much as to change the value of a person to be equal to that of an object.

A little report on film incentives for Winter 2010 Global Development class at GVSU

Signed into law by Governor Jennifer Granholm in April 2008, the Michigan film-making tax incentives are part of an aggressive economic stimulus package designed to grow the economy and create jobs in new sectors of Michigan. This paper educates on the program and reports on its progress.

Tax Credits are a financial credit provided by the government in the form of a direct reduction in tax liability to reward citizens or businesses for taking a desired action. These credits can reduce the tax owed below zero, and result in a net payment to the taxpayer beyond their own payments into the tax system.

In the 1990s the U.S. market lost over 100,000 production-related jobs, as motion picture and television programming increasingly became manufactured offshore. The outflow of work was in large part due to lucrative incentives offered by Canada, its provinces, and European Union members. Canada has a federal refundable tax credit of 16% of qualifying Canadian labor expenditures, net of assistance (which includes provincial credits). Each participating providence has an additional tax credit for production work, ranging from 25 to 50% in Novia Scotia. The estimated loss to the U.S. economy since the Canadian rebates is $4.1 billion, or about 25,000 jobs, a year (Katz 2001). However, another economic impact study of “runaway productions” estimates the loss to Hollywood alone as of 2003 is $10 billion annually (McNary 2003).

In the last decade, US state governments have “gone Hollywood” by enacting dozens of movie production incentives, including tax credits for film production. Michigan joined this trend in April of 2008, launching its own film incentive program. The incentives were originally passed as part of a bipartisan effort to cultivate new industries. The state’s leadership was motivated by the need to begin replacing the manufacturing jobs that were being lost due to the shrinking auto industry and other heavy manufacturers.


The program offers incentives for film, television and other digital media production, as well as infrastructure development and work force training. The laws provide a refundable tax credit of up to 42% for production work in Michigan; a 25% MBT tax credit for infrastructure investment specifically designed for this industry; and a Michigan MBT tax credit for worker on‐the‐job training.

Production companies turn in their Post-Production Audit to the Michigan film office to determine the qualifying direct-production expenditures. For the expense to qualify it must have been made in Michigan, it must not be a personal expense, and must be directly attributable to the production or the distribution of the production and subject to taxation in Michigan.

An expenditure “made in Michigan” must meet the following standards: Tangible personal property and services must be acquired by the eligible production company from a source within Michigan, and services must be wholly performed within Michigan “a source within Michigan” means that the vendor has an established physical presence in Michigan that includes both a non‐temporary bricks and mortar storefront and at least one full time permanent employee working in Michigan.

In film production there are above the line personnel (this includes: Producers, directors, writers and actors) and below the line personnel (like: extras, grips, script supervisors, 2nd AD’s…). Compensation (wages and salaries) to above the line personnel is qualifies for a 40-42% tax credit regardless of their residency. Below the line personnel wages qualify for this percentage of tax credit only if they are residents. Otherwise, their compensation can be credited at 30%. Fringe benefit payments made for Michigan resident crew members are eligible for the 40% credit – and Non-Mi residents at 30% credit. Other qualifying expenses include those spent at Michigan Companies for goods or services.


Michigan businesses (even West Michigan businesses) benefit from the spending of film producers. Scott Miller’s company, Harbor Foam in Grandville, is one example. His company makes expanded polystyrene foam and until recently, his only creative endeavor was providing foam for the Nessie Project in the ArtPrize contest. Then one day, he got a call from Mark Zuckerman who was working on MGM’s remake of Red Dawn , which had been filming in Detroit since early fall. Zuckerman stumbled across the company while going through a list of Midwest foam makers; he needed a massive amount of foam to recreate an underground cave for the teenage freedom fighters in the film. When asked how his company benefited from the filming incentives, Miller was very passionate. “Our products are used by the construction and furniture industries, and they are hurting. Being able to replace lost business with something new is absolutely critical to our survival.”

Other businesses benefiting from the film incentives include: Mannie’s Bagel & Delicatessen; Chow Catering; Around the World Travel; Amway Grand Plaza Hotel, Days Inn and Ramada Hotel are seeing an uptick in room reservations, and Woodland Creek Apartments providing longer-term housing needs for filmmakers; S&R Event Rental of Harrison Township; Accounting professionals like Schellenberg & Evers CPAs in Grand Rapids; Legal firms like Warner, Norcross and Judd and Smith Haughey have opened Entertainment Divisions in their law firms since last year –Attorney Joe Voss at Clark Hill in Grand Rapids has become a leading counselor to film producers.

The Michigan Film Office reported that 2009 ended with 126 tax credit applications, 62 of which were approved, 36 were denied and the rest are either filming elsewhere or still under review. Of those approved, 52 completed their work in 2009. 38 submitted their post production audit for the 2009 tax year. These figures represent expenses for 41 productions (2009 through current 2010 wraps): Salaries 119,355,213 (includes both Above and Below the Line; Goods 30,899,499; Services 30,728,440; Total Expenditures 180,983,113; Estimated Credit 68,727,858; and Jobs 3867.

In order to meet the demand for film professionals, Michigan must retrain workers. This involves university programs, networking opportunities and exhibition opportunities. As of 2009, Michigan has 25 Colleges/Universities offering film programs along with 11 Trade Schools. Funding for these schools is provided in part by grant programs (IATSE and Wayne Community College, U.S. Department of Education Detroit‐Lebanon Training Grant) and the United States Department of Labor. Alliances (Skill Alliance, WMFVA) are being formed to ensure a network of film professionals, and seminars (Doing Business with the Business) and Film Festivals (29 Film Festivals in MI) are cropping up to keep the professional community abreast on the opportunities.

Along with a dedicated and educated film community, Michigan must provide areas (sound stages) for indoor filming. Though these infrastructure projects are slower in materializing, they are beginning to surface. One facility is now in operation in Walker and another in Manistee. Five other projects continue to move forward in metropolitan Detroit and Southwest Michigan. In February, Governor Granholm announced two new film-related development projects: the $89.5 million Wonderstruck Studios in Detroit, which will produce computer-generated and animated content; and the $70 million Motown Motion Pictures 600,000-square-foot soundstage development in Pontiac. Still, there has been no infrastructure tax credit claims filed.

Though, it’s difficult to quantify the opportunity cost of choosing to develop the Film Industry, there are hard numbers available, tracking the amount of money the incentives have lured to our state. Michigan has received 180,983,113 dollars from the expenses of this industry, and will refund 68,727,858 of tax payer’s dollars to producers for work in 2009-2010. Approximately 4,000 jobs have been created. Still, this employment is not yet permanent and consists of contract jobs. New educational systems have been created, infusing our universities with grant and federal funding. New business infrastructure development is being created, and this will lead to employment positions.

HP Whitey

Since the theft of Lover-Laptop, my efforts have been held captive to the dinosaur Dell hand-me-down from mom and dad.

Floating on student loans has afforded me the new love of my life, H.P. Whitey. Ooph.

Prepare to be bitten.

Stepping Out: saga of sexy in a little-big city

Vampider prowling.
I thought a sex-in-the-cityesque blog could free my creative mess inside, and reconcile my lifestyle to the ideals of the world.
I'm just starting in the middle, though. I'm not going backward to NYC or that ET guide.
I'm starting with last night.
The current sexy situation: Shakers and Fancy men with soul.

Starting out:

Sometimes, you go all out.

You put on thigh-highs with the short skirt, apply night make-up and don the Maker’s Mark black tee.

Some nights, it’s necessary.

Tonight the black boots are tucked under dark skinny-jeans, and my loyalties aren’t vested in a band-tee but a long-sleeved tastefully tight top which draws little attention to sexy me.

First stop:

Founder’s with friends.

Is it mug-club night? Must be.

Pete and Liz are at the bar enjoying the atmosphere, and each other.

Stopping only for a handshake, our table calls to us from deeper in the pub.

Shakers and tambourines scattered along with mugs and glasses beckon invitingly for the seated to create spicy rhythms while shelling peanuts.

It’s an assembly of percussionists.

Bill Vits travels with this shaker-sideshow, and Hugo Claudin encourages the entire affair.

I’m crashing--with permission--taking my fancy-man out to meet some old friends.

Fancy plays guitar and sax; he travels well.

Porter and Cherry ale the popular samples while music and friends form.

Observation:

There’s a natural drive among artists in this city.

They overcome the lack of support; it does not diminish the desire to create.

Whether it’s house-venues such as Mexicans Sans Frontiers or artist communities, open mics or independent theatres, these artists initiate the avenue, generate awareness and liberate creative forces in themselves and others.

Moving on:

Eastown isn’t for hepcats.

Maybe it once was. I moved here in November ’04.

I’ve seen hipsters. I know Juliet Bennet-Rylah.

Eastown is home to a more bluesy-lost-soulful lot.

Who’s who:

In Billy’s no one calls him ‘Fancy,’ and he feels right at home.

Hot Pockets on stage, a Southpaw sighting upon entry and Oberon on tap, he might play, and I might dance.

Of course, we do.

Kenny entered and danced with every lovely girl at the bar. Mia found her feet; I took a spin.

Stepping up to lead guitar, Andy and Chris added flavor to the three piece.

Scotty P’s special effects kept everyone on their toes, while Joe’s rich, soulful voice and steady rhythm led the dance.

Eye on Dick showed his bearded face, along with Morale’s Christian Kremo.

The end:

Closing comes too soon.

Last weekend the adventure was Chicago, where a 4am closing feels too early.

There was talk of Grand Coney, but that’s all it was.

Their Story

By 1975, Western Sahara had been a colony of Spain for almost 100 years. After decades of struggling towards a right for independence, with opposition from Spain, Morocco, and France, the International Court of Justice finally wrote an Advisory Opinion in October of 1975, declaring that neither Morocco to the north or Mauritania to the south had any rights to the Western Sahara.

To view the full document of the International Court of Justice ruling:
Go to www.icj-cij.org
From the list on the left, click “CASES”
Within the paragraph, click on the (Advisory proceedings) link
Scroll down to 1974- Western Sahara and click “more”
The clearest document is under “Summaries of Advisory Opinions and Orders”, but there is much more information available.

Ignoring not only this ruling, but also one that declared a right to referendum for independence, Morocco and Mauritania invaded on November 5, 1975 in what is known as the Green March. Thousands of Saharawi fled eastward for their lives carrying all that they could on their backs and eventually settled in the western corner of Algeria. It was there they waited for the end to a war between Moroccan troops and the Saharawi POLISARIO Front that would not see a cease-fire until 1991, which also brought hopes of fulfillment of the previously promised referendum. During that time a 1000 mile-long mud wall was built by Morocco, dividing the country of Western Sahara diagonally with the western side being occupied by Morocco, and the other 30% being kept by the POLISARIO. As countless families remain separated by this wall and as result of the war, approximately 140,000 refugees are still in the camps of Algeria….waiting.

Over the past 7 years that we have been involved with the Saharawi, the strongest request we get from them continually is to tell their story. We have been striving to tell their story around America, but believe that now is the time to take one more step and BE THEIR VOICE….

• THEIR STORY
• MORE INFO
• CONTACT

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Winter at Lake Michigan

There's an epidemic



Washed Up Balloons Everywhere














On the shore