Ferndale Grad Looks to TV and Film for a Career

Film incentives may be endangered in Michigan despite increasing motion picture and television production in the state, but that’s not stopping Greg Smith, a 2008 graduate of , who is studying film at the University of Michigan.

Smith has already made a name for himself, winning Best in Show at Royal Oak’s 2010 Mitten Movie Project Awards for writing, directing and acting (he wrote the musical score as well) in A Council of War.

The satirical comedy is a “blending of all the arts – writing, theater, shot composition and writing music," he said. "It was exhilarating and very validating to win.”

The 21-year-old has directed and acted in many short films, co-founded Bad Haircut Comedy and spent a year working for Parliament Studios, a Clawson-based digital video/media company, where Smith helped shoot and edit interviews with Pandora Radio founder Tim Westergren, Weight Watchers President Florine Mark and Detroit Pistons President Joe Dumars.

Dumars was “an incredibly cool customer,” Smith said.

The Ferndale alum credits his family and Ferndale teachers with setting high standards and encouraging his creative talents. Smith's father, Roger, (FHS Class of 1974) is the former FHS band, orchestra and choir director and is currently assistant principal.

Smith’s mother, Cecilia, is a singer, musician and teacher. His older brother, Gordon (also a FHS graduate) is a singer-musician and member of the band . His grandfather, the late Gordon Smith, was principal trumpet of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for decades.

That's a lot of Ferndale blood.

“Growing up in Ferndale has absolutely been integral to my development,” Greg Smith said. “The general community is ideal for fostering an attitude of creative camaraderie, and people like Elon Jamison, Linda Murley, Melissa Smith, Kimberly Schroeder and my piano teacher Christina Dragone cannot be thanked enough for instilling in me a love for such a beautiful thing like the arts.”

Smith first performed in a high school musical while in the fourth grade. Former FHS theater teacher Linda Murley recalled that Smith was bright, intuitive and exact, musically and in all movements on stage.

"It was fun to watch Greg develop as a performer and musician," she said.

Adding that while Smith was one of the nicest students she ever taught, "He could portray the meanest of villains on stage.”

Smith was a percussionist in the FHS concert, marching and jazz bands, and he sang in choral ensembles.

“Greg was an amazing young musician,” said Elon Jamison, FHS director of bands and K-12 performing arts coordinator. "He had an impeccable ear and was very sensitive on percussion, piano and drum set."

In 2008, Purple Onion Productions (a student-run local theater company) commissioned Smith to write and direct the film Garbage Day, which was also featured at a Mitten Movie Project.

“Greg and his friends dabbled in video while in high school,” Murley said. “With the simplest of home equipment, (they) created several movies.

"Their ingenuity and simple creativity for special effects, story structure and filming techniques, plus editing, created very enjoyable films," she said. "One could see Greg had a future in film.”

Murley said Smith could see and do the whole picture — script writing, staging, the technical effects and music — and he could put it all together.

Ferndale provided Smith with many opportunities to try different things in a supportive environment.

“I’d like to believe Ferndale helped him because the kids here, especially in the music and theater programs, accept each other as they are and truly celebrate the differences in all of us,” said Jamison.

Currently, Smith is performing stand-up comedy in the Ann Arbor area. He wants to direct and write comedy films and TV shows. He will soon be directing a TV pilot called The Hardwood Diaries.

Yet as talented as Smith is, he credits three things to his success: “a great city with great people and a great family," Smith said.

For more information on the Mitten Movie Project, visit facebook.com/mittenmovieproject