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The Story Teller - Rich Brauer
by: Kuba Ingram
photos: Brauer Production, Inc.
Rich Brauer has produced hundreds of commercial film projects and worked on ten feature films. He  wears many hats on his film sets, including director, producer, writer, and cinematographer. Brauer’s drive to make films comes from his passion to tell stories; a passion he’s held for 33 years. MMM caught up with Brauer, and asked him about his past, present, and future as a Michigan filmmaker.
MMM- What movie inspired you to start making films?
Brauer - When I was in sixth grade on vacation with my parents in Beulah, Michigan, I saw the screening for The Blue Max with George Peppard and Ursula Andress at a small theater there. It was a phenomenally cool movie. I came out of that theater totally in awe, thinking, ‘That would have been a wonderful thing to work on.’ That was really the moment I decided to start making films.
Then I enlisted all my buddies and cousins to help me make movies. It’s all I‘ve ever done. As soon as I got out of college, I set up my little company with no money - just ambition, dreams, and hard work.
MMM- Tell us about your new film Fitful?
Brauer- Fitful is a mind game that involves a bit of dark humor and suspense. I have always wanted to do a movie on the rail-road car ferry, City of Milwaukee, in Manistee. As a kid, I use to stowaway on the thing in the summer and get a ride to Wisconsin and back, and I just loved it!
So when I started hatching up the idea of this woman getting stuck on this big ship, I thought, ‘Wow! Bet I could commandeer that thing,’ and sure enough, I could. We rented it for a couple weeks, and it performed beautifully as a character in my film.
MMM - Did the set on the City of Milwaukee present any challenges?
Brauer – Probably the biggest technical challenge was the audio recording - the sounds of traffic going by, and only a foot to a foot-and-a-half ceiling above the actors. There was no headroom for microphones, and that created a real problem, so we used more radio mics on this film then I have ever used.
MMM – As a veteran film-maker, do you feel that the film tax incentive is working as intended?
Brauer - I really support the film incentive program. I can definitely have a higher output because of the incentive. I can hire the crew twice as often, which helps to create this industry that we are all looking for here in Michigan. For me to make one movie here a year is ambitious for sure, and I have been able to do that and juggle my commercial and corporate work too. With the incentive, I can put out two films a year, and if others and I can do two a year, then this is going to give people full-time employment within the film industry.
I am thrilled with the way the Michigan treasury and the film office has engineered this thing.They take this stuff seriously and they made me jump through a ton of hoops to pull this off, and they wanted a lot of scrutiny on my project. It wasn’t just a check in the mail, it was a serious commitment from a management standpoint on my side of the fence.
MMM - Have you seen any encouraging signs for the future of film making in Michigan?
Brauer – Definitely. I have seen a lot of projects come up here to northwest Michigan, and have worked on several of them. It’s really gratifying to see this industry finally getting some attention.
It’s a long term commitment, and personally, I think it’s too early to draw any major conclusions. This is a ten-year plan, at least, and it takes a long time to build credibility and a relationship with these filmmakers. They enjoy the experience, and as business people, have to know the incentive is here, and they also have to know they can get quality help when they get here.
The technicians in Michigan have got to step up and prove themselves. If there were more friendly, fun, really trained, and super-competent people here in Michigan, the producers would get a bigger bang for their buck if they hired Michigan talent, and that would only increase the film production in the state. So we all have to tune up our game, and get as proficient as our counterparts in L.A. are, and when that happens we can really hold our head up and start waving the flag.
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