Specs Howard to hold film- training workshops

Two of metro Detroit’s established entertainment industry entities are working together to help fill the demand for trained personnel in the burgeoning Michigan film industry.

Southfield-based Specs Howard School of Broadcast Arts is leasing space for new film and editing workshops from Farmington Hills-based Grace & Wild Inc., which has the state’s lone film processing lab and significant film, video and television production facilities.

Such workshops have been springing up locally in the wake of Michigan last year establishing some of the nation’s deepest film production incentives, which have attracted a slew of movie projects.

The broadcast school and production house have been around for decades, and the new workshops are accredited by the state.

There will be an eight-week film production workshop starting July 21 and a seven-week advanced editing workshop on Final Cut Pro software starting July 13. The classes are limited to 20 students and range in price from about $2,500 to $4,000.

“With all the industry coming into Michigan, they’re going to need crew,” said Lisa Zahodne, president and COO at Specs Howard. The school has hired 10 new adjunct faculty to run the workshops.

The workshops will be at the six-acre Studio Center production lot, which includes Grace & Wild and its subsidiary and a number of film industry tenants. Workshop students will have access to the wide range of equipment available at the site.

“The opportunity to train them for a new industry is a boon and it is a valuable and necessary element of having these people come in from out of state,” said Grace & Wild founder Steven Grace.

For more information, go to specshoward.edu and click on Workshops or call (866) 61- SPECS.