Op-Ed by Michelle Mower
Texas has been a huge
part of the movie industry almost as long as motion picture has existed.
The very first motion picture to ever win an Academy Award was shot in
Texas. Native Houstonian Howard Hughes was a major driving force behind
the early growth of the industry in Texas. I'm sure many of you remember
when films like "Terms of Endearment" and "Urban Cowboy" were made in
Houston in the 80's. Not only did it give our city a source of pride
when we saw "our town" on the big screen, but these films brought
millions of dollars to our local economy and employed hundreds of
tradesmen, artisans and other production professionals. It also brought a
lot of revenue to small businesses like catering companies (to feed
dozens of cast and crew people daily), lumber companies (to build sets),
rental companies for camera equipment, lighting equipment, generators,
etc., and even benefited individuals and families who were able to lease
their homes to movie productions as locations.
Then it all went away.
It
started when Canada passed legislation that gave tax credits to movie
productions filming in their country. Suddenly, all the movies that
would have considered shooting on location in Texas (or any other state)
suddenly headed north to Canada because the incentives made it less
costly to make movies. As is the case with any industry, the bottom line
is the bottom line. To battle this production migration (known as
"runaway production"), states began passing their own film incentive
legislation. These "tax credits"were usually funded through state income
tax revenues. As you know, we don't have state income tax here in the
Lone Star State. So, a group of film professionals decided to form the
Texas Motion Picture Alliance (TXMPA), a501(c)(6) organization, to lobby
our state representatives to pass a film incentive program so that we
could get a piece of the the lucrative motion picture industry. I was a
founding board member of that organization. It took us a couple of years
of walking the halls of the state Capitol and meeting with
representatives from all over the state, but we did it! Film incentives
passed in Texas in 2008. But the incentives were not competitive with
neighboring states like Louisiana and New Mexico. For 8 years, we have
been working diligently with the vital support of Governor Perry to
improve our film incentives so that we can compete with other states for
the big, multi-million dollar productions. Finally, this year, we were
able to get our incentives increased to the highest its ever been thanks
to our new film commissioner Heather Page. And it's working! Millions
of dollars have poured into Texas from television series, movies and
commercials. Problem is... they aren't coming to Houston.
Why?
There are several key reasons, but most of them boil down to a lack of
infrastructure. Our crew base is very thin (due to the runaway
production). We haven't had a viable sound stage to accommodate a
large-scale production like a television series or big budget feature.
Unfortunately, we don't have the local city or business support we need
to rebuild our infrastructure. This is what I am seeking to change.
How
do we get this infrastructure back? Let's look, for example, at Austin.
Back when runaway production began in the mid-90’s, Austin was barely a
blip on the movie industry map. Houston, at that time, was a bigger
production hub. But Austin had several things going for it. First, they
have a film school. University of Texas has one of the most prominent
film schools in the country. Aspiring filmmakers have a nurturing place
to learn, develop and grow in a film-friendly environment. As a result,
Austin has become a breeding ground for independent filmmakers. Native
Houstonians Wes Anderson and Richard Linklater, guerilla filmmaker
Robert Rodriguez and many others were either students at UT's film
school or they made films using their talented students. Many of those
filmmakers stayed in Austin to build their careers and, in the process,
helped build a strong local crew base and an infrastructure to support
the movie industry. Secondly, Austin already had a very strong music
scene, and Austinites were accustomed to going out and seeing their
favorite local bands at this bar or that music festival. In fact, SXSW
was initially just a music festival. But as the independent film
community grew in Austin, SXSW added a film festival to their program.
It was a match made in Heaven. Some of the best indie films to ever get
made have screened at SXSW. It is now one of the top film festivals in
the country. But it's not the only film festival in town. Austin Film
Festival and Fantastic Fest are two of the fastest-growing film
festivals in the U.S. So Austin has a very strong film culture that not
only provides film education and access to production resources, it also
provides a supportive film community that will actually go see
locally-made films... just as they go see local bands. It's about
supporting local artists, not just the movies we see at the big
multiplexes. This is a vital difference between Austin and Houston – we
don’t have a local film culture or a community that supports filmmakers.
Lastly, the City of Austin supports their film industry in a way that
few cities do. Recently,
Austin instituted their own film incentive program which
offers incentives to productions that film in their town. This is in
addition to the state incentives. Combined, these incentives make Austin
a very attractive place for production companies to bring their movie
dollars. This is why Austin is consistently ranked as one of the
top 10 moviemaking cities in the country.
The
movie business is just as viable of an industry as real estate, oil
& gas or medicine. Film is just as important of an art form as
theatre, music or dance. With Houston being such a business-minded,
art-loving city, I can’t understand why film hasn’t garnered more
support in our town. But we can change that. How?
If we
could get Hollywood to bring large-scale productions to our city, then
we can rebuild the infrastructure, create jobs and re-establish a
thriving industry that brings hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue
to our local economy. So where do we start?
- Education:
We need a credible film school in Houston. Houston Community
College has a films program, but it is a vocational school more than
a film school. University of Houston and Rice both have filmmaking
programs, but they are grossly underfunded. Sam Houston State has
the most promising program in the area, but again it's not very well
funded in comparison to, say, UT's film department that just got a
$50 million "gift" from the Moody Foundation (which is based in
Galveston).
- Facilities: We need a viable production facility
that is large enough to accommodate a tv series or big budget
movie. This can also be linked with a university so that students
are being trained in their respective crafts on professional
productions.
- Investment in productions being filmed in
Houston – Houston money is financing many movies being filmed in
other states, including Academy Award nominated films "Black Swan"
and "Dallas Buyers Club." That’s great! But I’d like to see
investors backing Houston-made films as well. Make those big A-list
movie stars come here to work!
- Local Incentives: Austin and
Dallas have taken significant measures to keep the film industry
alive their cities. From voting for a bond to fund a movie studio to
investing in local talent to offering their own incentives. So,
it’s not surprising that all the films and tv shows that come to Texas
end up in those cities. They are very film friendly. Houston,
frankly, is not. And we are losing hundreds of millions of dollars
in revenue as a result.
Houston, we have an image problem. If Houston truly wants to become the "
next great American city,"
it has to learn how to promote itself so others can see the beauty we
see. There's no better way to do that than through movies and
television. Look at what film and television have done for the images of
Austin and Dallas. Houston has missed out on so many production
opportunities because we don’t have a viable film industry that is
supported by our local government and our business community. It's time
to open our eyes to the possibilities. Let's get a serious conversation
started about investing in Houston film's industry. Honestly, I’m tired
of seeing Houston money going to invest in movies made in Los Angeles,
Louisiana or New York. We need to figure out how to keep those
investment dollars here to grow our own economy and local
infrastructure. Investing in Houston-made movies is investing in
Houston's future! It’s high time this town got the big picture!
While we're on the topic....
REGISTRATION NOW OPEN for the Southwest Alternate Media Project (SWAMP) 10th Annual
Business of Film
Conference, September 20th from 9am - 6pm at Rice University (Houston,
TX). Hear keynote speaker Ted Hope talk about current trends as well as
the future of independent filmmaking. Learn to produce feature films
(narrative and documentary) PROFESSIONALLY! Meet fellow filmmakers!
Discover new resources that will help you get your project rolling!
Celebrate our 10th anniversary at the after-party!
http://www.swamp.org/filmmakers/business-of-film/
AUSTIN INDIE FLIX SHOWCASE! 