Catching Up with Local Filmmakers

July 16, 2015

DAVID CROUSE

Crouse Entertainment, Petoskey

crouseentertainment.com

ON GETTING STARTED: Crouse has been broadcasting since he was 16, when he co-hosted a weekend radio program in his hometown of Lima, Ohio. "Then, in 1987, when I was 35, I had a chance encounter in NYC with Norman Vincent Peale," Crouse said. "He was at the end of his career and spoke a sermon at the church he’d preached at for 52 years. That led to a reawakening in my life. I left radio and moved into independent television production."

MY PROJECTS: Crouse’s first feature was actually about Peale, and that film led to the broadcast moment Crouse is perhaps best known for thus far: interviewing five living presidents in one gathering. "That was pretty overwhelming for my first documentary," Crouse recollected. After that film aired, industry doors were thrown open for him. "It immediately put my company on the map," he said. Discovery and A&E – new channels at the time – were looking for content and Crouse had found a niche. He’s spent the last 30 years filling it with critically acclaimed documentaries, most notably on PBS.

MY FILM WORK IN 3 WORDS: Eclectic, tenacious, driven.

ON THE NORTHERN MICHIGAN FILM SCENE: The wide-open spaces Up North are a big draw for Crouse, who finds them a panacea for what he calls "the hustle-bustle." "In the city, there was always such tremendous pressure to succeed," he said. "I had a glorious run working in the city, in Chicago especially, but here, I can hike, bike, ski. My life is much more enriched, which in turn helps foster more ideas."

AT THE TCFF I LOVE TO: "I’d love to actually go! I’m embarrassed to say I haven’t yet. They say the worst dressed person in town is the tailor and that’s me. I’m constantly on the move, so I just haven’t had the opportunity to go, but I’m absolutely looking forward to it. I will get there eventually!"

WHAT’S NEXT: Crouse makes it clear that he’s not a for-hire producer. All of the film projects that he works on need to hold some sort of meaning for him. "I’ve just been lucky that the topics that interest me also interest a lot of other people," he said. Continuing his long relationship with PBS, Crouse’s documentary about Ronald Reagan’s presidency is running on the channel currently, and he has already started another project in collaboration with Crooked Tree Arts Center and DTE Energy. "I’m working on a major documentary on the history of our state called "˜Michigan: Triumph of Nature and Enterprise,’" he confirmed. "It’ll probably be the most ambitious documentary made about the state." "Michigan"¦" is scheduled to air on PBS in 2017.

CATHLEEN MUNCEY

Novum Productions, Traverse City

novumproductions.com

ON GETTING STARTED: With a background in marketing and "art for commerce," Muncey has worked on commercials for small companies and large corporations. In the end, she said it all boils down to one thing. "It’s all storytelling," she stated. She still does commercial work, but she founded Novum when she realized commercials weren't quite expansive enough to allow for the other tales she wanted to tell. "I wrote a screenplay, "Division," and started the company," she said. "I used to live in Detroit – the downriver area around Flat Rock – but once I got to TC, where I was working as a creative director, I really liked it here."

MY PROJECTS: Thirty-five shorts, 15 features, and hundreds of commercials later, Muncey’s company is already starting to make a name for itself after only a year and a half in business, especially as a purveyor of horror and suspense movies that began with "Thaw of the Dead," a zombie film set in northern Michigan and featuring lead actor Ben Busch. "That one started as just a 15-minute short, but Ben wanted to turn it into a feature, so we extended the film with the help of him and writer/directors Matthew Von Dayton and David Marek," Muncey said.

MY FILM WORK IN 3 WORDS: Scrappy, agile, flexible.

ON THE NORTHERN MICHIGAN FILM SCENE: Muncey sees a lot of potential for filmmaking in the TC area, and she’s also noticed a couple of different factions within the film community. "There’s a lot of passion for film and a lot of talented people, but there’s also like the old guard and the new guard – a lot of older people in the profession who have experience and who are great people to learn from. I haven't even met all of them yet. Then, there’s the new guard, who are people like myself, bootstrapping and crowdsourcing to make films," she said.

AT THE TCFF I LOVE TO: "See movies and then talk about them afterwards. I’m really, really interested in the conversations that happen before, and then after, seeing a movie."

WHAT'S NEXT: While she has nothing lined up for the TCFF this year ("it pains me to not have my film done yet!" she exclaimed), "Division" is expected to be released later this year and, while Muncey has no expectations, she said it would be an honor to be selected for next year's festival. "Division is near and dear to my heart because I wrote it, and because we got to shoot in a lot of local historical locations here. It’s a suspense movie about a woman painter who’s haunted by a ghost and gradually loses her mind. It’s about that line between sanity and insanity. And it would be great to have "˜Division’ showcased in the city it was made in."

CAM WHITE

RCW Pictures, Traverse City

Follow @RCamWhite on Twitter.com

ON GETTING STARTED: "I got into theater in junior high school. Then I started making movies and I realized it actually was a career choice," White said. After winning Best Actor at his school, being involved with a $65,000 production of "Footloose" and holding down lead broadcaster for a year on his high school news program, he got tired of the limelight. "I decided I didn’t want that life," he explained. "I had more fun on the other side of the camera, controlling what people see." After film school, he ended up in Hollywood as an EPK (press kit) filmmaker, working on movies starring Josh Duhamel and Will Ferrell. That sheen soon wore off, as well. "Hollywood isn't really a place; it’s a jumping off point," he said. "We were always being sent other places to film, not Hollywood itself. It was exhausting. So, now I'm striving to transition back here to my hometown full time."

MY PROJECTS: White's first major film was "The Sleeping Bear," the story of a trio of friends turned into a romantic triangle set at a northern Michigan vacation cabin. After interning for Marty Bowen – producer of the "Twilight" saga and "The Maze Runner" – in L.A., Bowen tapped White to helm a movie about Bowen’s own former Pee Wee football team. ""˜The Roughnecks’ tells the story about youth football through the eyes of one particular team in Texas – Marty's old team," White said. "Marty's a mentor and a friend, and helped me skip probably 10 years up the Hollywood ladder. ""˜The Roughnecks’ premiered last fall at the Lone Star Film Festival and now we’re going into a 24-month contract with Netflix starting in September of this year, so everybody will be able to see it."

MY FILM WORK IN 3 WORDS: Cathartic, passionate, real.

ON THE NORTHERN MICHIGAN FILM SCENE: "I think the State Theater and the TCFF is single-handedly the best thing that's happened to northern Michigan," White enthused. "It’s changed the demographic of the area. It’s made TC into this place full of celebrities and it brings value and commerce to downtown. I’m a big fan." White added that, not only do you not have to move to Hollywood to be a filmmaker, but you might be an even better one around here. "I feel that I’m a better screenwriter when I’m home," he said. "There’s something cathartic about the four seasons here, how everything dies and is reborn. In L.A., it’s the same all the time. You don't notice the time passing."

AT THE TCFF I LOVE TO: "Go to the morning panels, the ones that start at 9am. You get coffee and just go listen to all these great things. Last year, Michael Moore and [Rage Against the Machine band member] Tom Morello were there. Plus, it's so fun to get a whole lot of film all at once, to just exhaust yourself on panels and great movies."

WHAT'S NEXT: White is a man with definite and specific goals – and also a realistic viewpoint. "I'd like to have a major film in the $500K-$2 million range; a hit TV show; I’d like to start a creative production studio," he ticked off. "I'm currently writing an original millennial TV series, with social media connected in, aimed at Generation Z. I hope to have it written by fall, so I can be shopping it by 2016. But, in the meantime, the reality is that I’m a classic millennial myself, with debt coming out of my ears and no health insurance," he laughed.

RICH BRAUER

Brauer Productions Inc., Traverse City

brauer.com

ON GETTING STARTED: "When I was in sixth grade, I went to the movies at the Crystal Theater in Beulah. I walked out and I thought, I want to work at that, I want that to be my job," he said. Brauer started experimenting with 16mm film, then 8mm, then Super8, cranking out films while he was still a teenager. "One feature I made was called "˜Wager,’’ he said. "It was a Western in which I starred. In it, I caught a guy cheating at cards, so I played him a card game for his daughter. She didn’t really want to go with me when I won, but I convinced her. And, of course, it was 10th grade, so there were lots of guns and fighting!"

MY PROJECTS: With a double major in Motion Pictures and Undersea Photographic Technology from the Brooks Institute film school in California, Brauer was uniquely poised to take advantage of Michigan’s film-ready surroundings when he returned to TC. From family fare like "Barn Red" (with Ernest Borgnine) and "That One Summer" to more complex efforts like "Mr. Art Critic" (with Bronson Pinchot) and "Deadrise," Brauer is so accomplished at making films locally that he's often called upon to assist with outside productions. "When Josh Lucas was filming "˜Hideaway’ up here, we helped them find a location in Traverse City that their own location scout wasn't able to find," Brauer said. "And then I was hired as their marine coordinator. I shot that whole scene where Lucas falls off the dock into the water and I shot it with my own equipment."

MY FILM WORK IN 3 WORDS: Resourceful, respectful, collaborative.

ON THE NORTHERN MICHIGAN FILM SCENE: Brauer pointed out that everybody has technology now, which has made filmmaking easier for everyone, including the northern Michigan film community. "People don't need to process film in their basement any more, splattering chemicals everywhere," he said. "There are a lot of filmmaking tools that are easy to get. But while the craft of film has been diluted by everyone jumping on this bandwagon, it’s also opened the doors for everyone to have a voice and we have an excellent community of people here now who are really enthused about filmmaking. When the TCFF kicked into gear, I thought, wow, everyone else figured out what I already knew about making movies here."

AT THE TCFF I LOVE TO: "I really like walking the streets and overhearing people talking, with such enthusiasm, about movies, out loud, in public. These are people who in no other place in their life would probably be doing this, and I think it's fantastic."

WHAT'S NEXT: Brauer was hired by Grand Valley State University as their summer filmmaking program instructor this year, so that'll be keeping him busy. "I wrote a script for it and I already have 25 students lined up for the program," he said. Brauer Productions is also continuing their steady stream of commercial work and, this fall, Brauer will be working on a film for a Lansing producer. "It’s a summer camp kids’ movie called "˜Camp Manna,’" he said. And, of course, there’s the second installment of Brauer’s Michigan cult classic, "Dogman 2: The Wrath of the Litter," now scaring horror movie fans statewide. With that kind of variety, it’s no wonder this is one filmmaker who's never bored. "I dig the movie business. I really do," Brauer chuckled.