Indie film ‘The Lake Effect’ shot in Kalamazoo

Photo courtesy of Brian LaneCinematographer Brett Juskalian and WMU student Brian Lane set up a shot in Bell’s Eccentric Cafe in Kalamazoo, Mich. filming “The Lake Effect.”

By Erin Kaplan and Fritz Klug

Western Herald

This summer the indie film “The Lake Effect” was shot in and around South Haven, Covert, and Kalamazoo Mich., and included scenes in Heritage Guitars, Bell’s Brewery, Fenn Valley Winery, and Sherman’s Ice Cream. The film crew included eight Western Michigan University students.

Michael Markel, an organizational communications major at WMU, was the public relations and a production assistant.

“The group of people that I worked with, all the students, were so top-notch,” he said. “Everyone was just so focused on what they want to do later in life and we all worked really well together as a team.”

“It was a very unique experience for being a small film and having so many people from WMU involved,” he said.

Elizabeth Quinlan didn’t plan on staying in Kalamazoo over the summer. Once she found out she got the internship to work on the film, she had two days to find someplace to stay. A film, video and media studies major at WMU, Quinlan learned a lot from working on a real film set.

“One thing I never really thought about when thinking about making movies — and I say this because I did the preproduction side — was how much detail goes into it,” she said. “They don’t really teach you that in classes so you don’t think about it.”

Details not just in the writing of a script or capturing a good shot.

“People [cast and crew] need to eat on set and you need to think about every dollar that goes into [the production], from gas money, to flying people out from different states and there are a lot,” she said.

Preproduction of “The Lake Effect” went from April to mid-June and the actual shooting took 15 days in June and July. “So it was a long, long process,” Quinlan said. “And so I didn’t really realize that most of the movie was pre-production.”

Written and directed by Tara Miele and produced by Kalamazoo native Jennifer Westin, “The Lake Effect” is the story of Rob, a middle aged man who never grew up. When his 18-year-old daughter shows up, pregnant and with a “rocker” boyfriend, Rob has to become the father he never was.

Professor and chair emeritus of the Department of English, Arnie Johnston plays a small role in the film as a businessman. 

“I very much enjoyed being in the film as small as my part was and I was impressed by the professionalism of everyone concerned,” he said. “I look forward to seeing the finished product.”

Many films have been filmed in Michigan over the last year due to a tax incentive package passed by the State Legislature in April 2008. According the bill, productions will be given a 40 percent tax credit that film in Michigan — 42 percent if it is in an urban environment.

“Caught in the Crossfire,” a film staring Chris Kline, 50 Cent, and Adam Rodriguez was filmed in Grand Rapids; “Whip It,” with Drew Barrymore, Jimmy Fallon, and Juliette Lewis was filmed in Saline, Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti.

Brian Lane, who studies film at WMU, said the best part about the production was the cast. “It was really like a summer camp,” he said.

Working as a tech intern, Lane said the experience was unlike any he has had.

“It was a great first set to be on because it was so small,” he said. He now feels prepared to work on a larger set.

In August Lane will be working on another film — produced out of Los Angeles.

For WMU professor Jennifer Machiorlatti, “The Lake Effect’ served as a learning experience for her as well.

“The goal was to get out into the community and out of the classroom,” she said. “As a faculty member, it was like an internship. We [professors] do research, but when you work in an area like I work in that involves the specific skills with how a studio or set runs, its important for me to get into those situations [in real life], to be able to bring them back into the classroom.

“In WMU, we don’t often think of our students as going off making feature films because we are not a film school, but I think our students should be held to as high of standards as students at film schools,” she said. “They did great and I’m very proud of their work.”

“The Lake Effect” is set to be released in the spring 2010.

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Posted by heraldstaff on Aug 2 2009. Filed under Local, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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