Mike White, a professor at Wayne State College, was recently awarded a $18,350 grant currently being used towards his film “The Painter.” 

It is called the Greenlight Grant and is awarded to residents of Iowa to help further the overall production of film projects. White has applied for this award previously and has even won a couple smaller grants along the way. 

“It’s a solid week worth of work,” White said. “It included creating a deck and I have to explain that I am capable of creating a film.” 

A lot of people apply for the Greenlight Grant. According to White, there are at least 148 applications to go through. 

White said that the same day that he won the Greenlight Grant he had just lost another grant. This was before he realized he had won the Greenlight Grant. 

“Later I realized, the reason that I lost that grant was because I won the Greenlight Grant,” White said. “When we later found out we were cheering and jumping around because it is a very prestigious thing to win.” 

Through this grant, White was able to include different staff members like an intimacy coordinator and he was able to pay for her hotel and travel expenses as well. 

“It changed everything because everyone gets paid,” White said. “Normally when we make a film, we can’t pay anyone because all the money has to go into the production itself.” 

Some of White’s current students were able to help with this project and work on the film. Other students who didn’t still had good words to say. 

“I definitely think that grants like these change the entire aspect of a film,” Maya Vortherms, a Junior at WSC, said. “It’s just an incredibly big deal because it takes the level of the film up several notches not only for production, but for the actors and staff too.”