S3 Entertainment Group Jeff Spilman Mark Sternberg Jeff Stern Larry August

S3 Sets the pace

by Yasmeen H.

Photos courtesy of Makram Fehri

S3 Entertainment Group is breaking ground in Michigan and paving a road that leads filmmaking hopefuls and professionals alike, straight to their doorstep. By utilizing the experience of industry veterans, S3EG has stepped up its game launching another 25,000 square foot studio facility in Madison Heights that combines production, services, partnerships, and training programs.

MMM had the opportunity to sit with Jeff Spilman, the managing partner of S3EG, as he gave the full scoop on how the company is successfully contributing to the growth of the Michigan film industry in this tough economy.

The Minds Behind S3EG
Born and raised in Farmington Hills, Jeff Spilman received his undergrad degree from the University of Michigan. After graduation, he moved to California and attended Loyola Law School, in Los Angeles. “When I graduated... I had no intention of doing entertainment work at all.”

Despite his intentions, a phone call from a friend helped him think otherwise. “He was calling to let me know of a client who wanted a young male lawyer. He said ‘You’ve been a lawyer for two days, there’s nobody younger than you.’” At that point in 1984, Spilman started representing Joan Collins at the height of her career. For the next ten years he represented actors, directors, producers, and writers; typically in matters involving unpaid profits or profit disputes.

While attending law school, Spilman had a roommate named Mark Sternberg. Sternberg had aspirations of one day becoming a producer. He began in a mail room, and ultimately advanced to production. He worked on numerous feature films including The Last Boy Scout, October Sky, BeetleJuice, Mirrors and The Girl Next Door.

“Mark was on the production track; and I was on the entertainment law track back then. In 2005 Mark, myself, and another guy who’s name begins with an ‘S’, Jeff Stern, formed S3 in Los Angeles. We formed it to come together on film production and film financing,” said Spilman.

Larry August was added to the partnership in May 2008. August is an accomplished commercial director with Avalon Films. August is also an adjunct faculty member at the college for Creative Studies. “Larry came in to help us understand the crew base we had here, so we would know what we had to build. With over 25 years of experience, it made sense to have Larry as the director of the educational training programs.”

State Incentives
In 2006, the state of Mississippi was interested in finding ways to improve their state film incentive. S3EG was hired as consultant to help Mississippi improve their incentive and find out about other state incentives.

S3EG contacted some of the leading line producers in Los Angeles and asked: “When you go someplace to film other than LA or New York, what do you look for? They told us they wanted people and crew because it is expensive to bring in and house crew. They wanted gear, and space to do interior shooting when the weather’s not perfect, or if they wanted to build sets… We went through what attracts them to a state as well as what they wanted to see when they got there.”

In April 2008 when Michigan passed their film incentive, the partners decided to expand their LA operation to the “Great Lake State.” They had now learned a lot about incentives and Spilman was from Michigan. “We started in 2008 with a two hundred square foot office and three months later we were in a 2500 square foot office a mile from here and a month later we acquired this building which is about 25,000 square feet. Then we got hired onto Gran Torino to do production services and that’s where it all began in Michigan.”

Serving the Customer s3-image-1
Spilman explained the importance of identifying customer needs and filling them rather than trying to push your services. “Most importantly, what we’ve learned is you don’t tell these filmmakers what you are going to give them. You listen to what they want, and deliver. What they want. We realized this and it has helped us become successful at what we do.”

S3EG was either directly or indirectly involved with many of the feature films produced in Michigan last year. Spilman went on to explain, “We met with Whip It in Los Angeles. We helped them come here, and we helped with their initial scout. We even supplied them with some equipment though we were not in the production aspect of it.”

Consistent with supplying the full range of production services needed, S3EG established several strategic partnerships. Each of the partners will have a presence at the studio. “It’ll be a one stop shop. They don’t have to use all of our services, but all these services will be available to them. We have put together the best of the best.” These are the blocks S3EG are using to build a strong foundation:

Cadillac Travel provides 24 hour travel services and accommodations to meet film industry needs.
Detroit Prop City furnishes displays and props, representing a collaboration of S3EG and The Display Group.
William F. White International partnered with S3 to exclusively offer a wide array of supply specialty equipment, cranes, camera cars, process trailers, gear, grip, and electrical equipment.
Yessian Music handles audio, sound, music licensing, and original composition.
Kinetic Post services include production, post production, audio, visual, recording and remixing, animation, publication, print, web, and is currently installing a satellite at the studio.
Roush Performance also partnered with Ford, develops and markets high performance and environmentally friendly vehicles.

“We’ve evolved as a company. What we started off doing in April 2008 does not really resemble what we do now.

We started off doing production services and gear. The biggest drivers for us right now, in terms of our core business, would certainly be film finance. “Most of the films that come here are looking for money whether it’s to finance the incentive or to finance other aspects of their production so that helps us a lot. We are very good at supplying these films with the financial means they need to get their projects done.

“We also evolved from a production services company to a production company. We are now bringing films here and making them as producers or making TV shows as executive producers” explained Spilman.

Bringing Films to Michigan
With its strong presence in Hollywood and its relationships in the film and television industry, S3 plays an active role in bringing projects to Michigan. S3 is able to help producers here. S3’s finance company, Michigan Film Finance, has enabled producers to complete their projects in the state, providing another competitive advantage for S3 and Michigan.

Schooling
One of the major support beams for S3EG is their FIT (Film Industry Training) program, which began late 2009. The two week classes are designed as job-focused and demand- based, and “that is what distinguishes us from other schools.” Spilman noted that S3EG believes in this business “it’s not who you know, but who knows you.” The school’s theory is, “to expose our students and let them learn from everyone else who is successful, gain this experience, and get to know these people. Those are the people that will hire you.”

“When we offer a class we want top line professionals to be our guest lecturers.” The guest range from line producers, production teams, directors, or DPs and art department heads. A guaranteed internship on a feature film or on television, is also one of the perks of the training programs. “No school whether it’s two weeks or two years is going to teach someone on the job training” said Spilman.

S3EG’s FIT Program is a licensed Michigan proprietary school with Michigan Works Program. S3EG also offers financial aid, scholarships, and differed payment plans. “We have approximately a hundred people attend our Saturday and Sunday information sessions. If someone has a passion or dream to get in this industry and they can’t afford the tuition, we will help them. That is what we do.” S3EG has already given away several scholarships.

“It is essential that people understand how feature film works. The hours are long and strenuous, at times six day weeks, with variable requirements, and a free-lance lifestyle. You will be working with folks that are from LA and are used to working with crews that have made many, many films. The personalities are different, and it’s really hard work being a crew member on a feature…it could probably not be more grueling. So there is definitely a learning curve here,” said Spilman.
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Studio Plans
In 2010, S3EG is preparing to produce six feature films and another TV series (currently shooting “The Wannabes”), ranging in budget size from 6 to 20 million dollars. “We have the S3EG studio, our partnerships, production services, and training programs. Our studio is not only open to our production, but to any production. We are looking forward to an excellent year for S3 Entertainment Group.”

S3EG productions will be providing over a thousand jobs in 2010. “Jobs ranging from experienced crew, to interns, union positions, paid positions, and PAs …beyond that there are numerous studio positions available that would be involved in the school, handling financial aid, working in the administrative departments, marketing and sales. This is what the incentive is all about; it was created to get Michigan people jobs. That’s what the incentive means to us.”

Spilman and S3EG are optimistic about the future of Michigan film, demonstrated by their investment in local production. “This is the epicenter of film right now. Yes Georgia, Louisiana, New Mexico, and New York are busy but from a growth standpoint this is where it’s at right now. We have people coming from California and other places to work, because there is more work here. This is the place to be, and it’s much easier to navigate here because we are a growing industry. Stay here and chase your dream because you can get it here. But you’ve got to work hard. You are in the right place at the right time so seize the moment.”