U-M, MSU, and WSU team up for Creative Film Alliance

Wayne State University and the University of Michigan make up two of the three pillars of Michigan's Creative Film Alliance Summer Film Institute.

The intensive eight-week program at Gull Lake this summer is bringing together film industry veterans and faculty from Michigan's three major research universities (Michigan State University is the third) to form the framework for creating the state's future film industry workforce.

"This is a really big deal," says Sharon Vasquez, dean of the College of Fine, Performing & Communication Arts at Wayne State University. "This is the beginning of a relationship that will play a key part in growing the indigenous film industry."

The new collaboration is meant to leverage the strengths and resources of the film schools at each university to build out Michigan's film workforce and infrastructure. For example, Wayne State excels at documentary filmmaking, while U-M brings its strong screenwriting program to the table.

"U-M, MSU, and WSU have never collaborated on a project like this," says Jim Burnstein, coordinator of the screenwriting program at U-M. "Ever."

That's part of the thinking behind this new collaboration. Many of the local film industry veterans and faculty are familiar with each other but the students coming up are unacquainted. Introducing them is expected to create future synergies, along with more production, jobs, and investment. It's also seen as a way to help staunch Michigan's brain drain.

"Who generates the material is more important than the bricks and mortar aspect," Burnstein says. "If you keep talent you keep the projects. The infrastructure will come."

Source: Jim Burnstein, coordinator of the screenwriting program at the University of Michigan and Sharon Vasquez, dean of the College of Fine, Performing & Communication Arts at Wayne State University
Writer: Jon Zemke

U-M, MSU, and WSU team up for Creative Film Alliance

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