On Villa Muse and Why Louisiana Loves the Austin City Council

According to a story in today’s Austin American Statesman headlined Villa Muse looking elsewhere, well…you get the picture. I don’t know whether the Villa Muse developers are posturing in an effort to swing the Austin city council their direction after last week’s rebuff of the request to be freed from city development rules. Maybe they do have realistic alternatives. I hope so.

What I do know is that over the past five years or so, Austin has lost its place at the top of Texas filmmaking locations. Per SAG leaders at a meeting this weekend, Dallas, home to much more commercial and industrial film production has reclaimed the top dog position in Texas. Fine. But that level of work does not provide a sufficient level of job opportunities to allow Texans in the film business to make a livable wage in-state.

With the lack of a competitive film incentive program in Texas, film production dollars that COULD have been spent in Texas, many of them in Austin, continue to be spent instead in Louisiana and New Mexico. I don’t know if the ambitious Villa Muse development is ever going to get off the ground here or elsewhere. What I do know is that it is a project that could help secure a lot of film industry jobs for the dwindling base of Austin based actors and crew people who now struggle to make a living and stay in Austin.

Film people love to shoot in Texas and they love to shoot in Austin. Part of that ‘love’ has stemmed from the deep well of experienced local actors and crew that have been available. How long is it going to take to deplete that well of locals who can afford to stay in Austin while the work moves not that far away to Louisiana? What kind of utter stupidity is at hand to take an industry that we (Austin) had in the palm of our hands and throw it away? Is Villa Muse the answer? It just might be part of the answer. We need more film infrastructure in Austin to encourage Hollywood films to come here and STAY for the entire shoot and then, maybe, for post production as well. We need professional studio space where movies that we don’t get now can shoot because we have the facilities available. We have a PRIVATE developer willing to spend their own money to put some of those elements in place.

Listen up city council people…the film industry is GOOD for Austin and GOOD for Texas. The Hollywood films that come in stay for a relatively short time, spend money and then they leave. They don’t destroy infrastructure or cause massive pollution. They spend dollars locally on goods and services and on employing people who live and pay taxes here.

Okay…my Villa Muse update turned into a rant on the state of affairs of the Texas film industry. Time to put and end to this article and try to figure out how to get enough work this year in Texas to qualify for my SAG insurance.