November 14, 2009 10:20 pm Don't expect a big "Traversewood" sign to go up on M-72 west of town anytime soon, but it's an important turning point: A Hollywood production company will be in Traverse City for a month or so to make a movie. This is not the first time the city and northern Michigan has been the backdrop for a film. Homegrown filmmaker Rich Brauer has been quietly turning out quality films since 1977, including shooting and editing Michigan-native Jeff Daniels' feature "Escanaba in da Moonlight." He shot his own "Barn Red," which featured Ernest Borgnine as a fruit farmer facing a crisis, right here. Brauer is the real deal. But this month is the first time an out-of-town production company has come here to shoot a film and, perhaps more importantly, spend cash on everything from hotel rooms to restaurant meals to gasoline, boat rentals and stand-ins. There is good reason to believe this won't be the last time. The Traverse City Film Festival has been drawing big-name film folks to the area for years now -- film festival co-founder Michael Moore, internationally known for his documentaries, lives in Antrim County and is a major Traverse City booster, Brauer has Hollywood connections of his own and, last but hardly least, the state is giving filmmakers a 40 percent refundable tax credit on state expenditures, the highest such tax break in the nation. And because Traverse City is considered a Michigan "core community," producers can claim an additional 2 percent tax credit. Make no mistake. The links to the film industry that the festival, Moore and Brauer represent are great, but as they say, "money talks." The film credits are a major reason that partners Harold Cronk and Matthew Tailford formed 10 West, a Manistee-based production company that has already created seven sound stages and preproduction offices for producers. In both cases, of course, no one would have given northern Michigan a second thought, tax breaks or not, if we also didn't offer beautiful scenery and lots of places oozing charm and character. The film being shot in and around Traverse City this month, "A Year in Mooring," called for a remote waterfront town; the Bower's Harbor Yacht Club will provide most of the atmosphere. Downtown will be featured, too. Crews will stage a car crash scene downtown today; the 100 and 200 blocks of Front Street will be closed from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. A pain, perhaps, but as football coaches like to say, "no pain, no gain." It's one more brick in rebuilding the region's economy.
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