Skill Sets for Movie Sets

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Skill sets for movie sets

Film office's Jewell pulling together plan to build needed workforce

By Michelle Martinez

December 15, 2009

Richard Jewell, director of the Michigan Film Office, has a to-do list that

includes developing curriculum standards for the state's film industrytraining programs.

Richard Jewell can see a time in the not-so-distant future whenDetroit will be a major film industry capital, second only toHollywood.

Jewell, director of the Michigan Film Office's workforce developmentefforts, sees in Michigan a state brimming with the raw materials of moviemaking. That includes diverse settings for everything from abeach movie to an urban noir thriller, tons of talent eager to adapt toa growing industry, and an edgy creative set of writers, directors andothers that are ripe for national recognition.

The missing piece, he said, is a big enough pool of skilled workers topopulate the sets and studios producing movies, TV shows, animationand video games brought to Southeast Michigan by the now

embattled film incentive program introduced last year.

But Jewell has a plan. And two years from now, he said, Michigan willbe well on its way to being a major Hollywood player.

“Detroit is on the mat, but we're getting up,” said Jewell, who lives inDetroit. “We can create the best state in the nation for the filmindustry, I see it.”

It's a heady vision, and one that comes with a lengthy to-do list.

Included on Jewell's list is creating curriculum standards for thestate's industry training programs and a collaborative model of



training that reaches all the way down to grade school. The goal is toproduce deep well of homegrown talent that can attract moviemakersto the state.

It's something that Jewell, 54, is uniquely qualified to do, said

Michigan Film Office Director Janet Lockwood.

“Nobody had brought the stakeholders together until Richard,” Lockwood said. The task would be daunting without a deepknowledge of the movie business. But Jewell, “already knew aboutthat.”

Jewell earned his chops as an actor, producer and writer. Highlightsof a 15-year-long career include appearances in movies such as “TheIrishman,” and writing and producing his own movie, “The Mongol

King” in 2005.

Jewell's day job for 26 years was state investigator with the RacingCommission, including time in that organization's regulatory division.He taught criminal justice classes at Michigan State University fornearly 15 years, and in 1992, driven by political conviction, headedRoss Perot's campaign in Michigan.

He's working to get a children's book, Donny's Magic Touch,published and in his spare time, he writes poetry.

It's an eclectic resume. But one that Jewell said gave him the creativeand pragmatic background needed to push the state's workforcedevelopment efforts forward at a breakneck pace.

Jewell's been on the job a scant three months, but already has helpeddeveloped curriculum mandates and a cooperative approach todeveloping talent that includes industry unions, area educators andnonprofits.

Jewell's plan hinges on connecting area educators, the industry'sprimary union for production workers, and aspiring filmmakers andindustry workers. It's a collaborative approach, and one bent onhelping workers quickly gain film industry credibility by earning “social capital.”

More a lifestyle than a job, Jewell said making it in film depends moreon your ability to market yourself, rather than pure talent alone.

“The film industry is not about just getting a job; it's about a passion,a lifestyle,” Jewell said. “And working in film is about selling yourself.”



A pilot program is set to kick off in January at Detroit-based WayneCounty Community College District. The program includes a one-yearcertificate and job internships on working sets supervised by workingmembers of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees,said George Swan, vice chancellor.

The college is working to establish a pipeline to Wayne StateUniversity and other area schools to create a path to a four-yeardegree.

“This has really given us the opportunity to build a program thatcould rival Connecticut or New Mexico, for example, that is reallypromoting the film industry in ways we're trying to emulate,” Swansaid.

IATSE Local 38 Detroit is shifting its own film apprenticeship into thepilot, said Tim Magee, business agent for the group.

The union is “stretched to the wire” trying to get personnel for filmprojects in the region, Magee said.

“What we hope to have is a curriculum that we can author to (a rangeof schools),” Magee said. “So that we know that essentially the sametraining is going on place to place.”

Training should start young, Jewell said, including grade school.Jewell cited the digital media Boll Family YMCA program headed byGillian Eaton, vice president of that organization's arts andhumanities program, as an example of how we might mine youngtalent.

That program, now two years old, not only teaches grade-schoolersand teen-agers digital media and film industry basics, but teachesthem how to pitch a client and deliver an end product.

“They need to be aware of the judgments that are made on creativework, and how to survive that and still work within the businessworld,” Eaton said. “Career guidance counselors are 20 years behindthe times. They're not telling these kids that things they do naturally(such as play video games or watch movies) are potential jobopportunities.”

For Jewell, spreading that message could have far reaching benefits.

“Film is the last bastion of entrepreneurism in its purest form,” hesaid. “It's a critical piece that will help to reinvigorate the state and

instill a sense of confidence.”



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Skill Sets for Movie Sets