WEST BRANCH — For the past two years, several area residents have been trying to lure Hollywood producers to West Branch to film a motion picture.

Currently, Rocky Larson, owner of Songheart Productions in West Branch, is planning a series of classes to create a crew capable of working on a film, should it come to the area.

Larson said he is currently working with a film producer that plans to shoot four movies, and West Branch has been considered as a possible location. Larson said that Ogemaw County has the locations that the producer is looking for, but now it needs a crew on hand, ready to work on that film.

“The thing about the crew is, the key roles, like the director of photography, sound supervisor, music supervisor, that stuff (the producer) has his own team,” Larson said. However, he said, producers tend to look for lower-level crew members at a local level.

“The thing they normally look for is what they call the one-hour circle,” Larson said. “What that is, if you’re living within an hour of where we’re shooting, the producers feel they don’t have to house you for that. Once you get beyond that, then they feel like they may need to provide housing, which is what they don’t want to do, because if you’re bringing in (production assistants), and you’re bringing in these people, that cuts into the budget.”

Larson said these crew positions — which include makeup, hair dressing, set design, and costume design among others — are positions that aren’t highly technical. He said producers feel that once people have done them, they can work on other films as well.

And Larson’s plan is to make sure that the West Branch area has trained crewmembers ready to go, if a producer decides to film in Ogemaw County.

Larson said that he will be offering free classes, beginning this month, to help train some area residents to work on films. For several classes, including script supervisor, set design, costume design and production coordinator, participants will be handpicked. However, Larson said he plans to hold open classes for production assistants and extras in the near future.

Larson said that while it might be a lot to expect a big-budget Hollywood film to shoot in West Branch, a lower-budget film is not out of the question. Especially with the larger films shooting in the state. Larson said Grand Rapids has already been tapped as the location for an $80 million film scheduled to film this summer.

“Think about this; Grand Rapids is getting big films,” Larson said. “Detroit is getting them. There are a ton of small producers like the one I’m working with that are doing a half, to two, to $5 million movies. Which compared to an $80 million seems small, but it’s still good money. And they’ve got to go somewhere to shoot. And if Grand Rapids is all tied up with a movie like that, these guys are not going to get the attention they want to shoot their film. So we get the small ones up here in Northern Michigan, and let them have the big ones.”

Larson said he has had discussions with the Michigan Film Office, whose representatives have told him that having a crew is one of the most important things needed to lure a production to a specific area.

“If we get the locations as close to downtown, as many as we can, and we’ve got the crew, we’re going to shoot films here,” Larson said. “On an importance scale, the MFO told me was on a ratio of 1-10, a location is probably a 4, maybe a 5. Crew is a 10. And that’s where we sort of missed it last year. The focus was put on locations, which isn’t bad. It’s good to know what you have.”

“It’s not a big deal,” Larson added. “We didn’t lose a film because of it. So we’re still in the makings, and of course everyone’s new to this.”

Larson said he has been doing production work for television for roughly 30 years. He said his film experience is more recent, having only worked in the film industry for around three years. He just moved his studio, which was previously located in Prescott, to West Branch.

Larson said getting even a smaller production to be filmed in West Branch could be a big help to the local economy.

“The biggest thing is, if we’re hiring local crew, that’s going to put money in their pockets,” Larson said. “And then, of course, if we’re shooting a film right here in the West Branch area, you are going to have hotels being used. You’re going to have restaurants being used. Any lumber, any stuff we need for sets, will be purchased in the area. It brings in a lot of opportunity that way, that I see, that you have the production costs. So you have money being brought into the area that way.”

Those interested in participating in one of the classes may contact Rocky Larson by e-mail at crew@songheartproductions.com. Larson said he has also created a group on Facebook called the Northern Michigan Film Group, and more information will be posted there, as well as the West Branch Area Film Association Web site, www.filmwestbrancharea.com.