To Our Son the Filmmaker, With Love

Hello our filmmaker son!

Thanks so much for sending along a copy of your documentary, "Deadlines," where you depict a typical busy day at the Fox 2 television news station here in Detroit. As promised we (actually Dad) are sending along some observation and comments that should be useful in your continual development as a filmmaker and as a business man:

*like the fact that this is identified upfront as your own production company. I think this is what you need to keep growing and focusing on.

*As I mentioned to you, you need to use this video to help you break in to getting a position with one of the local television stations. And keep yourself open for all kinds of opportunities--including cable access.

*It is clear that you are both a journalist and a documentary filmmaker. That is your strength. You should grow your professional direction with this in mind.

*The establishing scene is just perfect. It is exciting and interesting. What better way to begin than in the control room.

*I liked the interviews of the lady anchor from Alaska and then the African American newscaster who had the artistic talent--but who are they? Their names needed to be provided as did the names of all who you feature along the way. A caption displaying their name would be helpful to the viewer. Still, the way you post the question and then go to the scene of them responding to the question was a nice touch, very professional.

*The initial Lee Thomas piece was interesting but the scene with him and the other guy leafing through reading material went a bit long. Who was that guy with Lee, anyway? Again, name captions would help here.

*The Charles Pugh stuff was very good. You have some really historic footage here since now he is the president of the Detroit City Council.

*But what happened in that moment when you and Charles were going out to the parking lot? Did you drop the camera?

*I really liked the way you took the viewer from inside to outside and showing, though Charles, the on-the-ground news gathering process. But, again, when you come back to the control room scene, this time with the lady newscaster, who was she?

Okay, that's it. Keep making these great creative products! Can't wait to see more!

Love,

Dad and Mom
(Robert and Carmela McTyre)

We Need to Embrace a New Attitude

If you want to see how creativity is taking root in the Detroit Diaspora of the West Coast, check out the latest blog entry and videos from our very own Robert McTyre, Jr. (known in the YouTube world as “MC”).

Robert is an emergent filmmaker (and a Detroit transplant) whose been in the L.A. area for over a year now. He is capturing the Detroit-to-L.A. experience in a series of videos and blog entries.

Find his latest entries at
www.youtube.com/lordtyre

and

http://co-kubrick.blogspot.com/

…In other news…

I was thinking the other day about how dissuaded those of us who grew up in Detroit during the 60s and 70s were from pursuing careers in fields outside of the auto industry. Now here we are today so badly in needed of a paradigm shift away from the manufacturing-30-and-out mentality. And particularly we so need more emphasis on education and continual learning.

The reality is, though, that the entrenched mindset that I experienced coming up is one that is not going to be removed any time soon—despite the best of legislative efforts and good intentions on the part of the business community.

But it has to begin somewhere.

So...welcome to somewhere!

Latest Work from Flimmaker Robert McTyre Jr. Now on YouTube

Some of you will remember the entry from a few weeks ago in which I talked about our son, Robert Jr., who is out in sunny California making his way to being a Hollywood filmmaker. As I mentioned then, Robbie began filming and placing onto YouTube a collection of his work. You can find some of his latest work there now. Go to:

www.youtube.com/lordtyre

The "Devil's Blue" series is a remastering of some work Robbie did while at Wayne State University. And a more recent work, "L.A. Metro," is a visual ride through all central points in L.A. and is accompanied by a pulsating jazz-fusion-blues soundtrack from Detroit's own "Freedom Underground" (of which oldest son, Cornelius, is a member). That band is led by Keith Owens, a renaissance man by any strech of the imagination as he's as known for his writing and editing talents (including The Metro Times and the Michigan Chronicle) as he is for having mad electric guitar playing skills.

These videos will remind you of why emergent talent is so valuable and so much deserves to be nurtured and supported.

Enjoy!

...and please support the arts!

Development of Local Film Studio Moves Closer to Groundbreaking Stage

Crain’s Detroit Business reported recently that land purchase transactions have been finalized on the Allen Park site targeted to house a major movie studio. "The project is expected to employ 3,000 skilled workers and 83 management positions," Crain's reports.In tandem with this, educational institutions such as Oakland Community College and others are providing a host of classes and programs that can fast track prosepctive film industry workers to being eligible for such positions once they become available.


Allen Park Closes on Purchase of Land for Movie Studio Project

By Daniel Duggan


The city of Allen Park has closed on the purchase of 104 acres of land to be used for a movie studio project.

According to a press release issued today by the city, the deal was financed with $28.3 million in private and public funding.

“While this project has not moved as quickly as we had initially planned for a variety of reasons, it is moving forward, and the city’s objectives remain unchanged,” said Allen Park Mayor Gary Burtka in a press release.

“Certainly the financial market, regional economic conditions and discussion in Lansing about making legislative changes to the film credit were key factors in the delay to name a few.”

Unity Studios is majority owned and operated by a group of investors from Los Angeles and Michigan, including Hollywood executive Jimmy Lifton. Originally from Southfield, Lifton has been in the entertainment business for 30 years.

In April, the Michigan Economic Growth Authority board approved a high-technology tax credit worth $2.8 million over 12 years for the project.

The 750,000-square-foot production facility will also include the full spectrum of production, post-production and related filmmaking infrastructure.

Part of it will be built on the 630,000-square-foot office and engineering center at 16630 Southfield Road, adjacent to Allen Park’s city hall. The property was formerly the Visteon Technical Center.

The project is expected to employ 3,000 skilled workers and 83 management positions.

Although the project “broke ground” in August, the land sale was just announced today.

The land purchase will be financed with $25.3 million in general obligation bonds purchased by Pittsburgh-based PNC Financial Services Group with an additional $3 million issued in Wayne County Recovery Zone Bonds. The property was purchased from Allen Park-based Danou Enterprises L.L.C. owned by developer Samir Danou.

Also, it was announced that Southfield-based Redico L.L.C. will have oversight responsibility for the day-to-day maintenance of the buildings, lots and landscaping, and management of leases. The firm will implement the development’s master plan and attract additional tenants.

“Unity Studios along with the other existing tenants is obviously the centerpiece of this development, but our goal is to attract a number of other strategically targeted businesses to the site to create a world class entertainment industry complex,” Burtka said.

Source: http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20091113/FREE/911139982/-1#

Crain's Detroit Business Hosts Meet on Building the Creative Class

“Yes!”

That was the one word exclamation that I came away with at the conclusion of this week’s Crain’s Detroit Business's “Business over Breakfast” forum on the creative corridor. The “Yes!” was expressing the sense of relief, exhilaration--and, yes, empowerment—after hearing the panel discussion from local leaders about progress being made in developing a creative culture in Detroit’s downtown business and residential environs. Moderated by Michelle Darwish, Business Lives Editor for Crain’s Detroit Business, the panel consisted of Sue Mosey, president of the University Culture Center Assocation; Oliver Ragsdale, Jr., president of the Arts League of Michigan, Inc.; Sharon L. Vasquez, dean of the College of Fine and Performing Arts at Wayne State University, and Elijah Kafer, founder of Catalyst Studios. The event took place at the DoubleTree hotel in downtown Detroit.

Among the golden nuggets that came forth:

• Ann Arbor-based vegetarian restaurant, Savants, is opening a restaurant in the university area.
• The video gaming industry will join the film industry as an emergent presence in the region.
• Detroit Renaissance is now known as Business Leaders for Michigan.
• An “artrepreneur” (artist-entrepreneur) is the kind of persona leaders in the creative movement want to see emerge; that is, an individual who has access to resources and support that help him or her to be both productive creatively and to be sustainable economically.
• What is needed most to help coalesce the various creative industry-based initiatives is a central leadership presence (entity) that will build connections between the various silos and stakeholders.

What was clear, as the meeting concluded, is that there is much work ahead. But there is now a clearly defining commitment to making the emergent creative industry in Detroit a full blown reality. I got the sense that this is the way cities such as Baltimore, Cleveland, Santa Monica, and others must have begun in redesigning their regions and making them more attractive to the creative class.

An important follow up to this event will take place on Wednesday, November 11, as Crain’s recognizes entrepreneurs at the University of Michigan Dearborn. Call 313.446.0300.

Creative Corridor Event is Important to Region's Revitalization

Crain’s Detroit Business is hosting a business forum on the topic of developing a Creative Corridor in downtown Detroit. The event takes place on Tuesday, November 3—Election Day—at downtown’s Double Tree Guest Suites.

This is an important discussion and quite timely given the day it takes place. I have watched carefully the candidates running for executive and legislative office in Detroit and I think the city will be well served by whoever ultimately wins leadership roles. There is a quality and caliber of emergent leadership in the city that has been absent for some years. Clearly Dave Bing is the favorite in the race but Tom Barrow has been quite effective in pushing into the public dialogue the value to the region when Detroit begins to recover—and the city WILL recover; albeit, it will be a different city. One more focused on earth friendly industries and concepts.

And it is for this reason that the Creative Corridor forum is an event of immense importance. Metro Detroit leaders have come to fully accept that it will be through a variety of creativity-based enterprises that the full recovery of the city and region will be able to commence in earnest.

For more information go to the following website that Crain’s has established that has a PDF formatted announcement about the event:

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/assets/pdf/BOBNovInvite.pdf

We've Just Scratched the Surface on Multi-Media Learning

Long before there was the mainstreaming of such words as multi-media
and multiple learning styles, I used an assortment of media from which to supplement my formal education. If I was watching a Humphrey Bogart movie where Bogie was the hero fighting Nazi spy rings here in the U.S., and words such as “fifth columnist” were being used, I promptly searched that phrase down in an encyclopedia or asked a favorite teacher for an official definition. [“Fifth Columnist”, by the way, referred to the spy network the Nazis had which extended in to major populated areas throughout the western world.]

I also used this method in a Black History course I took in high school. We had a paper to write on the topic of our favorite Black hero and I chose the Marvel Comics hero, the Black Panther. Also known as T’Challa, the Panther was king of a scientifically advanced African tribe who possessed the strength and agility of a panther. He was first introduced in The Fantastic Four magazine and went on to star in the Avengers and eventually a short lived book of his. Most important about the paper I wrote about him was that it forced me to think about how African American and African characters were presented in popular culture. T’Challa was, in fact, a rarity as most superheroes of color hailed from the Blaxiplotation mindset of being just a step above undereducated street thugs.

In later years I used this method of incorporating my learning from many multi-media environments to gain deeper understandings about everything from Albert Einstein to the Cold War.

And today, unlike any other time, we have at our disposal a broad swath of well researched, well documented media represented in the forms of the works of filmmakers Spike Lee and Ken Burns to just name a couple. One of my current favorites right now is “Mad Men,” which is the AMC hit that enthrallingly depicts the advertising industry during the late 1950s and early 1960s. I should also add that the internet now supplements all of our learning experiences and we've only scratched the surface in how this is being used. Certainly the explosion in online education is one of the more visible results of this.

I think as multi-media resources become increasingly a mainstay in daily commerce and educational interactions, and as multiple learning styles are fully recognized as a fact of life, finding interesting and creative ways to incorporate multi-media resources in to personal learning curriculums will become a central mission for leaders in knowledge and conceptual work fields.

What an exciting time we are living in!