Shot in Texas: TXMPA president hopes for incentives for moviemakers

POSTED BY txactor on Jul 25 under Acting, Actors, Auditions, Austin Film, Austin Studios, Commercials, Don Stokes, Film Crew, Film Distribution, Filmmakers, Filmmaking, Indie Film, Producers, Right to Work, SAG, TXMPA, Tax Incentives, Texas Film Production Fund, Texas Filmmakers, Texas film

The following columm appears in The Dallas Morning News Online

08:49 AM CDT on Friday, July 25, 2008

By JOE O’CONNELL / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News
filmnewsbyjoe at yahoo.com

Don Stokes skipped junior- high classes to watch Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway succumb to a spray of bullets as Bonnie and Clyde. Now he’s charged with bringing the Texas film industry back to life.In June he was elected president of the Texas Motion Picture Alliance, the voice of a Texas film industry that’s seeing Hollywood take its projects to Louisiana, New Mexico and other states that offer heftier financial incentives.

Mr. Stokes is the third TXMPA president and the third from Dallas. His predecessors helped persuade the Texas Legislature to join the film-incentive race with a 5 percent incentive. He is charged with persuading lawmakers to increase it to a more competitive level, something that may come naturally to a guy whose life has been steeped in filmmaking.

“I saw when Dallas and Texas earned that third-coast reputation,” he says, “and I’ve seen it erode significantly in the last few years.”

His father, Bill, was a photography teacher turned film-industry pro who provided the soundstages and production facilities for Bonnie and Clyde in the ’60s. Bill is said to have been the model for Gene Hackman’s Texas accent in the film.

“It was a great experience,” says Mr. Stokes, now head of Post Asylum. “There was tremendous camaraderie on the set. You knew something different was going on, that it wasn’t the same old Hollywood industry movie. There was a different feel, a fresh feel.”

He’d like to see that feel return to Texas film, and he’s not alone. Close to 100 North Texans traveled to Austin recently for the state TXMPA meeting at which Mr. Stokes was elected. About 20 Austin film professionals showed up, a disparity he attributes to the greater urgency felt in Dallas.

“We’ve been hurt more than others, so we rally because we remember when we were really busy,” he says. “I do think the people in Austin get it, but they haven’t felt the overall loss yet like Dallas and Houston have.”

Regional rivalries need to be put aside, Mr. Stokes says, as the industry unites to convince the Legislature that the film industry is worth saving and growing. The unstated goal is a 15 percent refund of in-state expenditures that would still fall short of the 25 percent incentives offered by Louisiana and New Mexico – Michigan offers up to 42 percent – but with the difference offset by a strong Texas crew base and diverse locations.

“We still are a large industry, but we’re viewed as being fragmented,” he says of the challenge the industry faces in getting its message across. “We’re not all in one building or one area of the state.”

What happens if the Legislature doesn’t act? “Texas is losing infrastructure, and we’ll see an acceleration of that loss,” he says. “To an extent we might see a give-up. We need to not only retain what we have, but to grow it.”

Mr. Stokes, a co-producer of the acclaimed documentary TV Junkie, would also like to see the incentives revised to allow more low-budget, homegrown independents to benefit.