If you’re not a member of TXMPA, join today. TXMPA is at the forefront of the success of the current Texas Film Incentive program which has helped generate $610 Million in new in-state spending.

Given the current budget shortfall that is in the news practically every day, the film incentive program will likely face a serious test in the upcomming legislative session. Hopefully, the powers that be will see the benefit of $610 Million dollars flowing through our economy and the fact that the program has accounted for 55,000 jobs for Texans over the past two years.

Here’s the missive from TXMPA:

CHASE – 8pm Mondays on NBC
THE GOOD GUYS – 7pm Fridays on FOX

While we mourn the untimely loss of FOX’s LONE STAR (shot in Dallas) and ABC’s MY GENERATION (shot in Austin) earlier this Fall, and also say a fond farewell to FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS (airing its final season now on DirecTV, and this spring on NBC), we’re proud to still have two Texas shows in primetime every week, and look forward to more on the horizon.

Currently, Lifetime is prepping a pilot for MEET JANE in Austin, and TNT is developing a remake of DALLAS. Meanwhile, CBS and CSI creator Anthony Zuiker are developing a new crime drama called DESPERADO set in San Antonio. Thanks to the incentives and our top flight crews, the word is out that Texas is one of the best places to shoot series television.

TV is great for Texas – the Dallas Morning News reports that even short-lived LONE STAR “pumped about $7 million into the local economy”. And it’s not just the big cities that benefit – read about how CHASE filmed at Trinidad ISD in Henderson County:

“This was a way to generate some good, positive things for Trinidad,” said TISD Superintendent David Atkeisson. “Obviously our focus is on books, but we also want to expose our students to experiences that might spur them on to future endeavors. The thing I was most impressed with was the professionalism and patience of the cast and crew working with our kids. It was a great experience.”

The following is a list of POSSIBLE SAG signatory productions that are either already shooting or are considering production in Texas. Keep in mind that some productions begin the signatory process but don’t follow through, so before agreeing to participate in any film production, verify its signatory status with SAG. Check www.sag.org for online verification or to locate the appropriate phone contact number.

The start dates as listed below are not set in stone. For instance, the ULB (Ultra Low Budget) film, NATURAL SELECTION, has pushed back their start date to at least March 22, apparently due to the availability of their lead actress. Actual start dates of other productions may likely vary from the stated dates as well.

If you see something you’re interested in pursuing, be smart. The best method is to work through your agent. If you don’t have an agent or for some other reason don’t want to work through your present agent, be very careful about contacting production sources. Always be professional and to the point in any emails. Avoid phone calls to the production office, if the number is listed. Don’t get yourself put on someone’s ‘always ignore’ list.

This list is being published as a service to the Texas actors community. Use the information below wisely.

The list:

“Benavides Born” – 00257737
SDB, LLC – Low Budget
Location: San Diego/Benavides, TX
Start Date: March 15, 2010
Casting: Toni Cobb Brock/Sally Allen

“Beyond the Farthest Star” – 00233502
Pathlight Entertainment, LLC – Low Budget Modified
Location: Dallas/Ft Worth, TX
Start Date: March 15, 2010
Casting: Karen Armstrong

“Cash’n In” – 00256261
Lisa Norcia – Low Budget
Location: Dallas/Waco, TX
Start Date: To be determined

“Cherry Bomb” – 00246793
Strike Anywhere Productions, LLC – Ultra Low Budget
Location: Austin, TX
Start Date: To be determined
Casting: Garrett Hargrove at  contact at cherrybombfilm.com

“Cowgirl Chicks, The” – 00248526
Rodeo Films, LLC – Low Budget Modified
Location: Ft. Worth, TX
Start Date: March 2010
Casting: Judy Belshe-Toernblom, Los Angeles

“Friday Night Lights” – 00246956
NBC Studios, Inc.
Start Date: September 2009
Location: Austin, TX
Casting: Beth Sepko at  info at bethsepkocasting.com

“Limited Engagement” – 00252416
Rodeo Pictures, LLC – Low Budget
Start Date: Late April, 2010
Location: Tyler/Dallas, TX

“Mortal Vampire, The” – 00256260
E. W. Bradfute – Low Budget
Start Date: To be determined
Location: San Antonio, TX

“Natural Selection” – 00228417
Windar Productions, LLC – Ultra Low Budget
Location: Smithville, TX
Start Date: March 15, 2010
Casting: Karen Halford (TX), Meg Morman/Sunny Boling (L.A.)

“September Morning” – 00254521
Doki-Doki Productions, LLC – Low Budget Modified
Location: Texas and California, unspecified
Start Date: To be determined
Casting: Jacqueline Rush Rivera at  submit at chriseska.com

“Ten Days in County” – 00252746
Real Men Productions – Theatrical
Location: Houston, TX
Start Date: To be determined

“Theory” – 00258132
Aqua Foxx Productions, LLC – Internet/New Media
Location: Houston, TX
Start Date: March 23, 2010
Casting:  TheoryPilot at gmail.com

“True Grit” – 00257202
DW Studios Productions, LLC – Theatrical
Location: Austin, TX., Santa Fe, NM
Start date: March 15, 2010
Casting: Debbie DeLisi at  texascasting2010 at gmail.com

“Under the Western Sun”
Zobest Pictures
Start Date: April 13, 2010
Location: Austin/Smithville, TX

Texas

“Beyond the Farthest Star” – 00233502

Pathlight Entertainment, LLC – Low Budget

Location: Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX

Start Date: October 1, 2009

“Breaking the Press” - #00246726

Pumpkin Seed, LLC – Ultra Low Budget

Location: Dallas, TX

Start Date: August 3, 2009

“Cherry Bomb” – 00246793

Strike Anywhere Productions, LLC – Ultra Low Budget

Location: Austin, TX

Start Date: September 16, 2009

Casting: Garrett Hargrove;  contact at cherrybombfilm.com

“Cowboy and Lucky” – 00247361

Red C Entertainment – Ultra Low Budget

Location: Waco, TX

Start Date: To be determined

Casting:  info at redctelevision.com

Epic – Low Budget

Start Date: September 2009

Location: Texas, Mexico (city not specified)

Casting:  epicmotionpicture at gmail.com

“Friday Night Lights” - #00246956

NBC Studios, Inc.

Start Date: 9/2/09

Location: Austin, TX

Casting: Beth Sepko  info at bethsepkocasting.com

“God Save the Red, Black and Blonde” – #00246098

Ordered Productions – Ultra Low Budget

Location: Austin, TX

Start Date: To be determined

Casting: Dan Jimenez;  daj5757 at gmail.com

“Imago” – #00244751

Upstart Filmworks, LLC – Ultra Low Budget

Location: Houston, TX

Start Date: August 1, 2009

“Jacob’s Edge” - #00246799

Long Distance Freestyle, LLC – Theatrical

Location: Dallas, TX; L.A. CA; Georgia

Start Date: September 15, 2009

Casting: Nick Anderson 310-422-5856

“Letter H, The” – #00233247

GCP Film, LLC – Theatrical

Location: Houston/El Paso, TX

Start Date: September 3, 2009

Casting: Rodney Acevedo  racevedo at gutcheckproductions.com

“Machete” - #00246735

Machete’s Chop Shop, Inc – Theatrical

Location: Austin, TX

Start Date: July 29, 2009

Casting: Sonny Solomon  distraughtsound at wmconnect.com

“Minority Western” - #220674

FAD Productions – Ultra Low Budget

Locations: AZ & Dallas, TX

Start Date: December 2009

Casting Hernandez Agency 213-440-6288

“One Moon in Luck” aka “Shoot Out of Luck” – #00244805

Liz Destro – Theatrical

Location: Austin, TX

Start Date: October 1, 2009

“Player’s School” – #00238898

Nexus Entertainment and Greg Carter – Ultra Low Budget

Location: Houston, TX

Start Date: To be determined

“Pros and Cons” – #00246100

Going Bats Entertainment – Ultra Low Budget

Start Date: September 1, 2009

Casting: Scott Ross 972-877-6757

 stross at goingbats.com

“Rising Stars” – 00245871

Modern Verge, LLC – Ultra Low Budget

Location: Fort Forth, TX

Start Date: August 10, 2009

“Sodom: The Armageddon Prophecy” – #00246974

Trinity Films, LLC – Low Budget Modified

Location: Austin, TX

Start Date: To be determined

Casting: Michelle Millette;  douglasthemovie at yahoo.com

“Under the Influence – #00238358

Just Make it Happen – LLC

Location: Little Rock, AK;

Start Date: August 24, 2009

“Up & Down” – 00236412

Potion Pictures – Ultra Low Budget

Start Date: 8/28/09

Location: Houston, TX

Casting: Johnette Duff  johnetteduff at aol.com

“Wilderness” – #00247393
Wilderness LLC – Modified Low Budget

Location: Central Texas

Start Date: August 17, 2009

Casting: Javier Bonafont –  WildernessFilm at gmail.com

Louisiana

“Battle Los Angeles” – 002458852

Battle Productions, LLC

Location: Louisiana

Start Date: September 10, 2009

Casting: Fincannon Casting

“Dead Whisper” - #00231285

Dead Whisper Productions – Theatrical

Location: New Orleans, LA; Big Bear, CA

Start Date: To be determined

“Hurting Kind, The” - #00244310

TNC Shreveport, LLC – Low Budget Modified

Location: Shreveport, LA

Start Date: To be determined

“Snatched” – 00247070

Film Flam Productions, LLC

Location: New Orleans, LA

Start Date: To be determined

“Somnambulist” – #00247071

TST Productions, LLC – Low Budget Modified

Location: New Orleans, LA

Start Date: To be determined

“Straw Dogs” – #00247196

Straw Dog Louisiana, LLC – Theatrical

Location: Shreveport, LA

Start Date: August 17, 2009

The first ‘reel’ is my final edit…maybe… and one that I’m happy enough with to distribute to casting sites. I’ve always tried to keep demos to 5 minutes or so, knowing that few pepole will sit through more, if that much tape on a actor’s reel. This online version is a trim 1:43.

So, while I’d like to let scenes play longer, I’m trying to reach a ‘happy medium’ of showing enough to get the character played before having to move on to the next clip, and keeping the total reel to a manageable file size. I’ve had to leave off some clips I’d like to use for various reasons….they’re good material, but just way too old, or I couldn’t find a way to put them into the mix and still keep the time and quality combination at an acceptable level for internet distribution

The issue I faced, that everyone faces when trying to put decent looking material on the net is the issue of what settings to use for conversion and rendering of the footage so that you have the best results once YouTube gets through processing your clips. This is where YouTube itself is a big help.

A search on YouTube will result in quite a few video tutorials on how to optimize your video for YouTube. Frankly I haven’t been much of a YouTube user and I’m not up to speed with all the nuances of how to use the service. But I’m learning. If you’re like me and want to take a shot at editing and publishing your own demo, it’s definitely something that can be accomplished. But even if you take your footage to a professional editor, the best choice for most of us, you can use this information to make sure that the person who cuts your demo will give you at least a version of your reel that will play nicely on the net.

Here are the rendering settings I used in Sony Vegas 9 Platinum Pro Pack to get the results above…results with which I, at least, am happy:

File Type: MP4 – Some tutorials suggest saving as WMV, others as MP4. I had the best look with MP4. If you use WMV, try the WMv 9 setting in your software
Frame Size: 1280 x 720
Frame Rate: 29.970(NTSC) – same frame rate the source material was captured in
Field Order: None (Progressive scan)
Pixel Aspec Ratio: 1.0000
Bit Rate (bps): 10,000,000 -This may be adjustable in your software – I used as high a setting as possible and still keep the final rendered file under YouTube’s 1 gig file size limit.
Audio Sample Rate (Hz): 44,100
Audio bit rate (bps): 128,000

Below is a slightly different edit of basically the same material except for a clip from Dancer,TX Pop. 81 which is not in this version:

In case anyone is interested I’m using Vegas Video 9 Platinum Pro edition to edit. Each scene is a DVD rip using DVD Decrypter, DVD Shrink and MovAvi Converter in that order. I’m converting the rips to uncompressed .avi files, bringing those files into Vegas Video for the edit. I’m now playing with various rendering schemes in order to get the best quality for YouTube and other online distribution outlets. When I get that done to my satisfaction, I’ll cut a somewhat longer version for DVD distribution to my agent, etc.

The news that the Texas Film Commission has turned down the WACO production for the incentive program has been brewing for several days and has now made its way from the American Statesman’s film blogs to the front page of the paper. The jist of the story is that Bob Hudgins, the director of the Texas Film Commission, and the party charged with the ability to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to a production company seeking film incentive participation, has decided that the WACO production does not comply with the ‘content provision’ in the incentive legislation. What? Exactly what is a ‘content provision’ and why is it in this legislation?

The content provision was apparently added to the legislation by Senate Finance Committee Chairman, Steve Ogden and, per the Statesman article states that ‘filmmakers taking incentives cannot show Texas or Texans in a negative fashion.” Well that’s just dandy isn’t it because we all know that everything it perfect in Texas and nothing bad ever happens here. If this sounds like the legislation has set Bob Hudgins up to be a film censor, well, unfortunatley that just may be the unintended (to be generous) consequence.

During the TXMPA legislative action this year I asked a collegue if that provision couldn’t be removed as it smacked of censorship and was sure to keep away many worthy and possibly lucrative productions. I got a quick NO. I was told that this legislation would never pass without the ‘content provision’ because Ogden was too powerful and he insisted that the provision stay in the legislation.

It hasn’t taken long for this thorn in the incentive package to prick Bob Hudgins in the backside. Now instead of doing what he needs to be doing in promiting Texas as a friendly place to come shoot movies and television shows, he’s having to spend time defending his decision not to give incentives to WACO. Hudgins has been quoted as saying this is not censorship….just compliance with the law. Well…yes and no.

Hudgins is a good guy and I’m certain he would rather not be fighting this battle, particularly in the press. He’s stuck by Senator Ogden’s apparent need to protect Texas from being seen as imperfect in some unknown manner. He insists this is not censorship because the company is free to come and shoot in Texas…just not with the incentive package they would otherwise receive. So, technically he is right. But effectively, the result is the same.

This incident sends a message to all filmmakers that they must structure their screenplays, self-censoring if you will, so that the state of Texas will not take offense or they will not be eligible to receive tax incentives…the very incentives that are designed to bring film produciton BACK TO TEXAS.

We just can’t seem to keep from shoot ourselves in the foot can we? Just as soon as we get a program that is very competitive with Louisiana and New Mexico, we find that we have provided them with a big load of ammunition to use against us: “come to Louisiana where we don’t tell filmmakers what they can and cannot say”…

The whole mess has blown up into something of a publicity bonanza for the makers of WACO who, let’s face it, don’t care where they shoot their movie as long as they go where they can get the best deal for their money. Can’t blame them for that.

Maybe this mess will blow over and not be as big a deal as it seems right now. But the question is: What exactly is it that shows Texas or Texans in a bad light? Can we have no crime dramas? Movies with a bad guy who is a Texan? Historical films that one person or another could decide portrays Texas in a ‘bad light’? What exactly are the criteria for those determinations?

Let’s see…FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, shot in Austin and just nenewed for 26 more episodes contains many scenes of teenage drinking, teenage sexual situations and other content that could fall outside the acceptable parameters of this law. Is Hudgins now going to deny FNL incentive money to remain in Austin? Say it ain’t so. If he gives money to FNL will Senator Ogden be calling for his job? Say it ain’t so.

And how many film companies are going to say…”screw it, let’s just shoot in New Mexico” and we won’t have to sweat this stuff in the first place?

Time will tell…In the meantime, give some love to Bob Hudgins. He’s going to need it.

UPDATE: The House has approved the requested $60 million funding for two years while the Senate passed the bill with ony $20 million in funding, the same figure that was in the previous law. The two sides will have to come together on a funding amount and here’s hoping and praying that it will be closer to $60million than $20million.

The legislators surely understand that to pay out $60 million, there will have been SEVERAL HUNDRED MILLION in production spending before any of that money is rebated. Based on a 15% rebate, the $20 million rebated would be based on +/- $133 million in spent production dollars. Hummm… $300-$400 million in production spending vs $130 million in spending in the state…which is better for Texas?

The critically acclaimed NBC football-centric drama “Friday Night Lights” has been renewed for two seasons, with NBC and DirecTV partnering to bring the show to its loyal, and vocal audience, according to media reports.

The renewal means the show will continue through 2011. Each of the two seasons will have 13 episodes, according to the reports. The show will continue to be filmed in Austin.

The show, which had struggled with ratings on NBC was saved through the partnership with El Segundo, Calif.-based DirecTV. New episodes will be shown on DirecTV’s channel “The 101″ before being moved to NBC.

The partnership began with the third season of the show, an adaptation of H.G. Bissinger’s book of the same title that looks at the lives of members of a high school football team in Texas.

Yours truly has another quick appearance as Grandma Saracen’s doctor, Dr. Campbell in this Friday’s episode, A HARD RAINS GONNA FALL., directed by Michael Waxman.

I’ll be on tonight, Jan. 23, as Dr. Campbell, Grandma Saracen’s doctor and will return in Episode 11 near the end of the season.

Be sure to visit the TXMPA site and get involved in the effort to bring film production back to Texas.