Hollywood comes to the county

Lauren Browning wants to be an actress, and last week she learned she might make the big screen.

DON WILSON of Lake Leelanau RV Park stands next to
a sign near the park’s entrance that touts the fictitious
Restless Axles Trailer Park, where scenes for the movie
Youth in Revolt were being filmed.

The Omena-area resident and 2006 Northport High School graduate has taken acting classes at Northwestern Michigan College. Earlier this year, she went to Los Angeles for some vacation time and to get a feel for the city she would most likely call home if her acting ambition pans out.

Ironically enough, it wasn’t until she came home in March that she got her first real taste of Hollywood.

“I had just come back from L.A. and there was a message from my acting teacher at NMC,” Browning said. The teacher had been contacted by a talent scout working for a production company that would be filming in northwest Lower Michigan in June for a movie called Youth in Revolt that stars veteran Hollywood actors Steve Buscemi and Ray Liotta.

“The lady was in charge of hiring extras and models for the movie and asked my teacher if she
knew of anyone who would be available for work as an extra,” Browning said.

Fast forward to last week when Browning arrived at Frankfort at 5 a.m. one day to have the chance of being in the background in a scene. After waiting around most of the day, Browning was chosen.

Lauren Browning,
Acting student from Omena who was
filmed by Youth in Revolt crews in
downtown Frankfort last week.

“I’m in one of the scenes where the actors are walking by and I’m a shopper in the background. I’m only in the shot a few seconds, but it’s really exciting,” she said.

Apart from getting a chance for brief exposure in a major movie, Browning got paid the going rate for stand-ins and extras for this film: $8 an hour. “I made about $100 for my time with the film. That was kind of nice,” she said.

Meanwhile, the movie’s film crew also came to Lake Leelanau RV Park on South Lake Shore Drive in Centerville Township. The movie, being produced by Dimension Films, is about a 14-year-old boy named Nick Twisp, played by Michael Cera, who is coming of age. On a family trip he falls in love with a girl he meets on the road. Cera is best known for his role as the boyfriend of the main character in the movie Juno.

Park owners Don and Marilyn Wilson said other than having to move two seasonal tenants off their lots for filming, having the movie crew around has been very exciting.

“The people working here all last week to get the big two-story trailer built, all the electricians and craftsmen, they have just been the nicest people to work with. It’s really been a lot of fun,” Don Wilson said.

THE FRONT OFFICE at Lake Leelanau RV Park
was converted into a church for the movie
Youth in Revolt.

Wilson said he first learned of the movie in April when he noticed a man walking around the park taking photographs.

“I asked him if he was from the newspaper and he said no and that he was taking location shots for a movie that might be filmed here,” Wilson said. The photographer returned a few times with other people to take images, and two weeks later the film’s director, Miguel Arteta, and producer, David Permut, came to the campground. They put together a deal to use the RV park as a location for the movie.

Filming at the Lake Leelanau RV Park was scheduled to wrap up yesterday. During filming, the crew found other parts of the park to use in the film. Wilson has an ornate pipe organ in the main office of the campground, so the main office building became a church.

“I had about 20 people crammed in the office this (Monday) morning and they shot it from the outside for a revival scene,” he said. The work crews also put in a sign for the Restless Axles Trailer Park, the name of the park in the movie.

Wilson said he met some of the cast, including Cera and Portia Doubleday, who plays the girl that Cera’s character is pursuing.

“I got to meet Michael Cera before they began shooting today (Monday). He’s a really nice boy, very friendly,” he said. Scenes shot Tuesday and yesterday were to include the Twisp’s mother, played by Jean Smart, and grandfather, played by M. Emmet Walsh.

Gerald Sullivan, the film’s art director, talked about the movie on his cell phone while driving up from the Detroit area last week. His responsibilities in the movie are to make sure actors look and dress like their characters should, and that sets have the right look.

Sullivan, originally from Philadelphia and now living in Los Angeles, said part of what attracted the producers to northwest Lower Michigan was how much the area looks like northern California, which is the setting for the story. In addition to Frankfort and filming on the shores of Lake Leelanau, the movie crew has been to Madison Heights, Interlochen State Park and Wixom.

“It has been a joy working in Michigan. From down by Detroit to up north, the people we have met and worked with have been fabulous,” he said.

Sullivan said he hadn’t been to Michigan before and was surprised by how versatile the Michigan shoreline can be. Talking about the Point Betsie Lighthouse near Frankfort, Sullivan said the shoreline and land contour give the lighthouse area “a nice Cape Cod look.”

Two of the actors in the movie, Michael Cera
and Portia Doubleday, converse during filming.

One of the biggest attractions for companies looking to make movies is cost. In February, the Legislature amended laws concerning filming in the state to offer better incentives to attract move film productions. According to information provided by the Michigan Film Office, the state will give production companies a 40 percent cash rebate across the board for any Michigan expenditures on the film as well as tax breaks of 40 to 42 percent for films shot in Michigan. The company must spend at least $50,000 in Michigan to be eligible. For more information about the Michigan film incentives, call the Michigan Film Office at 1-800-477-3456.

Sullivan said the incentives could draw production companies to film in Michigan.

“If you look at the history of the migration of film production, everything started in Los Angeles and New York. In 1997-98, Canada offered tax incentives and everybody started shooting up there. The kind of incentives Michigan is offering are much better,” he said.

Sullivan also said Michigan’s natural beauty and variety of settings is better as well.

The film is tentatively scheduled to be released on Dec. 5, 2008.