By Lindsay Patton-Carson | MiBiz
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GRAND RAPIDS — While politicians in Lansing continue to debate the future of film and TV incentives in Michigan, Teresa Thome and Patrick Ziegler have cameras rolling on a new Grand Rapids-based entertainment company that’s designed to thrive with or without state money.

While many film companies were only attracted to Michigan because of the state’s generous incentives for that industry, Fubble Entertainment’s Teresa Thome and Patrick Ziegler wanted to create a business model that was sustainable regardless of the state support. PHOTO: ADAM BIRD

Like a couple of neighborhood kids who decide to round up their friends and put on a show, the plucky pair — who have won Emmy and Telly Awards for their work — launched Fubble Entertainment LLC in December 2010. The Grand Rapids-based company has set out to make Hollywood-quality entertainment that’s made in West Michigan and distributed on three screens: TV, web and mobile devices.

They’ve already begun work on a sitcom and a made-for-TV movie and recently wrapped their first project, a 10-part web series called “Backstage Drama.” The web series is about a man who sees a murder by Russian drug dealers and then gets put in a witness protection program. He gets placed working as a janitor at a community theater in the fictional town of Grand River, Michigan. Thome describes the show as a mix of “Glee,” “The Sopranos” and “Waiting for Guffman,” a 1997 mockumentary film about community theater.

The “Backstage Drama” pilot webisode can be watched online at www.backstagedrama.com, and the entire series will be available to subscribers only for a fee of $9.99, beginning Dec. 1.

While a web series may not sound particularly innovative, the pitch for shelling out ten bucks to watch it is: Fubble donates 30 percent of each subscription to the community theater of the subscriber’s choice. To crank up the marketing of the program, Thome has been in conversations with the American Association of Community Theaters to promote the fundraiser web-show to its more than 700 member theaters.

Thome and Ziegler created that approach, in part, so they could produce their own brand of entertainment without having to rely on the tax incentives the State of Michigan once generously offered for the film industry. The state curbed its generosity in February, when Gov. Rick Snyder worked with the newly elected Legislature to cap film tax credits at $25 million. Fubble had been in business for just three months at the time, but the pair didn’t panic.

“We’re not panicky people,” Thome said. “We met with the Michigan Film Office to see what (the changes) meant, and they affirmed to us again and again that there would probably be some film incentive and that we were tailor-made for … the kind of business Snyder was trying to incentivize: a local business, hiring local people and making local entertainment in Michigan.”

Fubble’s desire to film locally and hire Michigan talent does seem to jibe with the apparent direction of the new incentive programs being debated in Lansing. This month, the state Senate passed S.B. 569 to set new guidelines for the $25 million that’s currently available for state film, movie and video incentives. Sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, R-Monroe, the bill would transition the incentives from rebates to handouts and calls for funding equal to 32 percent of spending on Michigan personnel through 2015. The bill is now in the House, and there is talk of raising the limit to $100 million.

Even so, the Fubble folks aren’t waiting around for state money. They’re raising private capital and, with Backstage Drama, have created a revenue model that should begin generating cash flow next month.

“We wanted to create a business model that allowed us to put people to work without relying on those incentives to supplement the budget,” Thome said. “So whatever happens incentive-wise for us will just allow us to produce more, but it’s not going to stop us from producing what we already want to produce.”

That way of thinking is a culmination of Thome and Ziegler’s experience in nonprofits and show business. Thome worked for a decade as executive director at the Grand Rapids Children’s Museum and Ziegler bounced between New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, working as a performer, producer and director.

Under the banner of Enthusiastic Productions, the two, along with Joel Schoon Tanis, executive produced the Emmy-winning children’s show “Come on Over!” The program has been on air since 2006 and had a revenue model that Thome helped create.

When the work there started to become “more administrative than creative,” the pair began pursuing Fubble, an idea they always considered to be just a “pipe dream,” Thome says.

“We loved that work,” Ziegler said of Enthusiastic Productions. “But, clearly, I think our vision was always to do, as we call it, ‘the grown-up world.’”

They honed their knowledge of managing small businesses and working in entertainment media to create a model that could sustain itself. That’s attracted the attention of some local investors.

“It would be hard not to build on their previous successes,” said Jeff Geitzen, an investor in Fubble Entertainment. “We all know as a community that their work has been well-recognized throughout the industry.”

The pair describes its work as “contemporary media with a nostalgic appeal.” In addition to “Backstage Drama,” Thome and Ziegler are developing a made-for-TV holiday movie based in Grand Rapids and a “Will & Grace”-esque sitcom called “I’ve Got a Life in Kalamazoo.” The sitcom is based on the duo’s friendship, with Ziegler playing a heightened version of himself.

“Everything they do is very cutting-edge. They’re smart, creative and have a high production value,” said Deborah Havens, chair of board of directors of West Michigan Film Video Alliance.

They also are tapped into the creative and business communities in West Michigan and around the country — which helped them be especially thrifty during production of “Backstage Drama.” The locations were donated, and they worked with a nearly all-volunteer cast that shared their passion about entertainment. The show also includes an original song donated by Levi Kreiss, who won the Tony Award for his performance in the Broadway musical “Million Dollar Quartet.” They expect that frugality to change with their upcoming productions.

“Our goal,” Thome said, “is to pay, at the very least, industry standard.”

For now, Fubble is in entrepreneur mode, tapping into the relationships formed during their years in the business. Thome and Ziegler are using these relationships to get recommendations and feedback for their projects and to get their work in front of people in New York and Hollywood.

“The recipe they’ve come up with is successful,” WMFVA’s Havens said. “They’re taking advantage of resources our region is known for, and that’s our community. In the process of pulling these resources together, it’s very cost-effective.”