Michael Roth and his brother Danny started in show business in the ‘90s, when they were straight out of college.
“When my brother graduated from college he decided to continue to be in the business and started a casting agency, and that progressed into him wanting to direct and make movies,” he said. “It kept snowballing into, me and my sister would invest in his projects, and then it became, oh we’re actually producing movies
His brother started the company now known as R&R Media, which they have run together for more than a decade, taking on between 16 to 22 movies a year.
They primarily film in places like Florida, Georgia and Kentucky.
“We just had an opportunity to make 10 Christmas movies here in our hometown,” most recently in Chardon this past Tuesday, Mr. Roth said.
They filmed portions of three movies in Chardon Square in December, primarily filming at Punderson Lake.
“Once it’s delivered to the network, they can change the title,” Mr. Roth said. “I’d say 80% of the time they change the title.”
For the last film they did, they filmed in the Geauga Theater and scouted local talent from Curtain 440. The group’s founder, Angela Miloro-Hansen, built the entire set for the three-day shoot and brought about 40 kids to act in the movie.
“We will absolutely be back” to Chardon, probably in November, said Mr. Roth, who also owns an editing company.
He explained the reason they came back to film in their home state.
“The tax credit in Ohio just became a little easier to navigate,” he said. “I had the opportunity to put in applications for 10 movies and got approved. That’s how that works.
“We get scripts directly delivered to us,” he explained.
They take those scripts and deliver a movie, funding the production and hiring all the workers.
