The talent and skills held by the alumni of Wright State’s motion pictures program and its affiliated faculty are well known in the film industry.

“Production managers from Cleveland to Utah to L.A. know that if a kid has Wright State on their resume, they are highly trained,” said Dayton native and WSU motion pictures program graduate Karri O’Reilly, ’94. “When you’re looking for locations for a movie, having a talent pool to pull from is extremely important.”

O’Reilly knows: The veteran producer is responsible for setting budgets and finding locations and resources for major film productions. O’Reilly has worked as a producer and in other roles on movies such as the upcoming feature film Dark Country, and Blue Car, Wedding Crashers, and Boogie Nights.

“Everyone I work with knows film folks from Dayton are good,” she said.

Now a major initiative sprung out of Dayton, with Wright State as the backbone, could turn that talent into one of Ohio’s next big economic development engines.

FilmDayton, one of five DaytonCREATE initiatives aimed at growing a creative class to spur economic development, is working to grow a film industry through a successful, major film festival and tax incentives for film production companies.

FilmDayton is the brainchild of Wright State employee Debra Wilburn, assistant director of career services, who served as “catalyst” a year ago in the grassroots DaytonCREATE initiative. O’Reilly and two other alumni—Steve Bognar, ’86, and David Gasper, ’78—help direct FilmDayton’s efforts as members of its Board of Trustees.

After gearing up this past year for the area’s first major film festival—a sold-out success held in mid-May—FilmDayton’s leadership focused on a statewide lobbying effort to create a tax incentive plan in Ohio to entice the film industry to produce movies in the state. As part of the state’s biennial budget, $30 million in incentives—reimbursements of 25 to 35 percent on income taxes paid by film companies for employing workers in Ohio—has been approved by the state legislature.

“Once they are in place, we’ll work on getting the word out to filmmakers that this can be a very good, friendly, nurturing, and especially inexpensive place to work and make films,” said Ron Rollins, managing editor of the Dayton Daily News and president of FilmDayton.

“WSU is the linchpin to much of this—[it’s] the reason why we have the existing filmmaking community that we do, and the force that will drive whatever comes next, in terms of creativity, interest, and talent,” Rollins said.

With enough talent in the region to provide film crews—technical work—to at least two movies at once, Dayton is poised to attract productions quickly.

And that talent pool and those incentives are necessary for keeping motion pictures graduates like Rocky Smith, ’08, in Ohio and hopefully the Dayton area.

Smith co-directed the film Toughman, which premiered at the 2009 WSU Big Lens Film Festival, kicking off the FilmDayton festival, and then won Best Ohio Short Film at the Oxford International Film Festival in July. Smith chose Wright State over other top-tier film schools like University of California–Los Angeles, University of Southern California, and New York University.

Watch the trailer for Rocky Smith’s new film, Toughman

“Those schools are incredibly expensive. My junior and senior year in high school, I realized you can get the same quality education here, but without having to take on tens of thousands in debt to do it,” Smith said.

Smith will return to Wright State to pursue an MBA. He hopes to become a producer specializing in financing and marketing productions.

If the FilmDayton effort is successful in making Ohio a good place to make films, he’ll locate his production company here.

“Production is something that could really explode here,” Smith said. “A lot of things have started in Dayton that changed the world, like the Wright Brothers, and we have this natural ability here to do more of that.”

 

WSU student films kick off major film event in Dayton

Wright State University’s award-winning motion pictures program and its popular 2009 Big Lens Film Festival kicked off Dayton’s first weekend-long FilmDayton Film Festival in May at the Neon Movies in downtown Dayton’s Oregon District.

The five short films (8–13 minutes) and one 30-minute documentary by Wright State students and alumni at this year’s Big Lens Film Festival have already advanced to additional film festivals:

• Toughman by directors Doug Paul and Rocky Smith

• Branson Hills and Soothing Nature Day Spa by director Alex Mangen and Left of Center Comedy Group

• Waiting Room by director Trevor Hollen

• Roger and Betty by director Daisy Blakelock

• Run to Me Run from Me by writer and director Ben Garchar

“Our Big Lens Film Festival features the culminating work of graduates of one of the nation’s most highly regarded undergraduate film programs,” said Charles Taylor, dean of the College of Liberal Arts. “The unique combination of film production with theory and criticism that distinguishes our program is fully evident in the extraordinary films screened at this event. Our students make films that matter.”

The FilmDayton Festival was a three-day film event unlike any other festival previously held in the region. Its “Dayton Originals” theme celebrated the motion picture industry that exists in the Miami Valley, featuring films from Wright State University motion pictures students, multiple Sundance film festival selections, and Emmy- and Oscar-recognized short films. With eight full-length films, a Best of Shorts showcase, and behind-the-scenes workshops for filmmakers and fans alike, the FilmDayton Festival highlighted Dayton and Wright State talent.

The award-winning students and alumni from Wright State’s motion pictures program help to link the region to international film acclaim. Students and alumni work in virtually all components of the film and television industry. Past Big Lens and Wright State student films have advanced to the Sundance Film Festival and won Student Academy Awards. Student films have been awarded featured screenings and awards in the most important regional and national festivals in the country, including the Sundance Film Festival, New York Expo of Short Film and Video, Big Muddy Festival, Black Maria Festival, Charlotte Film Festival, College and Independent Film Festival, and the Denver International Film Festival, among others.

Wright State alumni have won Golden Globe and Emmy awards, had their work broadcast on HBO and PBS, and had their films purchased for distribution nationally and internationally. For example, Erik Bork, ’89, co-produced the Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning television miniseries From the Earth to the Moon and was supervising producer on the Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning miniseries Band of Brothers.

FilmDayton plans a second Film Festival in May 2010, coinciding again with Dayton’s highly successful Urban Nights weekend.

 

WSU faculty and alumnus create documentary on last Dayton-area GM plant

This September, HBO will air a film by a Wright State University faculty member and alumnus that looks at the last days of General Motors Corporation’s last Dayton-area plant.

For months, Yellow Springs–based filmmakers Julia Reichert, professor of theatre arts and motion pictures, and Steven Bognar, ’86, followed and interviewed GM workers and Moraine neighbors as they wound down the plant before it closed on December 23, 2008. More than 1,000 hourly and salaried employees worked at GM’s SUV assembly plant.

The documentary is titled The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant.

Best known for their Emmy Award–winning A Lion in the House, a look at families fighting childhood cancer, Reichert and Bognar have won numerous awards for their films, which have also screened at several Sundance Film Festivals and on PBS and the Independent Film Channel (IFC), among others. Bognar is also the 2009 Outstanding Alumnus for the College of Liberal Arts.

The Labor Day debut on HBO will place The Last Truck before a nationwide audience, perhaps giving its creators the widest exposure of their careers.

 

Big Lens – Dayton Film Festival Photo Gallery

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