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

JOURNEY OF THE WORKING ACTOR

Screen Actors Guild Foundation and Screen Actors Guild are delighted to continue offering innovative “business of acting” seminars to Guild members across the nation at no charge, via live video stream on the Internet!

LifeRaft Live Stream allows you to participate online and submit questions to panelists every Tuesday, 6-8pm (PT) through April 27, 2010. To learn more about the program, view the current 2010 LifeRaft Live Stream schedule and to participate in these events online, simply visit the SAG Foundation LifeRaft Live Stream show page at www.sagfoundation.org All LifeRaft Live Stream events are available for later viewing here as well.

The next LifeRaft Live Stream event is:

Journey of the Working Actor
6-8 p.m. (PT), Tuesday, February 9

Join accomplished Los Angeles actor/author Michael Bofshever  www.michaelbofshever.com), along with his stellar panel of familiar-faced working actors, as he discusses a variety of questions pertaining to the many aspects of what it takes to succeed and live the life of a working actor. Topics to be addressed include the Foundation to Having a Career, Audition Know How, Life on Set, Agents and Managers, and the Art of Perseverance.

Michael has taken “Journey of the Working Actor” to over half the SAG branches across the nation and has garnered wonderful feedback – now, LifeRaft Live Stream is happy to share his professional insights with Guild members everywhere.

Guild members who wish to attend LifeRaft seminars in person may visit www.sagfoundation.org to register for seating at the events held at:

SAG Foundation Actors Center
5757 Wilshire Blvd., Mezzanine Level
Los Angeles, CA 90036
(parking will be validated)

Celebrating its 25th Anniversary in 2010, the SAG Foundation is proud to assist, educate and inspire SAG members in their careers, lives and communities. See you online!

Please note: If you are receiving multiple SAG Foundation notices you may have indicated a preference for more than one Foundation email region list. You may review and adjust this option at any time by logging into www.sagfoundation.org and viewing the “Email Notices” setting on your User Account page.

We could use your support in attending our next script to screen this
Sunday. As an experiment this time around, we are using audio and visual
cues:

SAG Script to Screen Team presents Returning Champion Film Script

TV Writers Michele Gendelman and Ursula Ziegler test the film waters

The Austin Script to Screen Team presents a LIVE film script reading
event with Michele Gendelman and Ursula Ziegler’s Returning Champion.

The general public is invited to join actors, writers, producers,
directors, and film aficionados at 4 p.m. Sunday, August 30, at St.
Edwards University Jones Hall, 3001 S. Congress Avenue, Austin, Texas.

Admission is free.

Returning Champion is an off the wall comedy about a college freshman
who is booted out of school and has to move back home to his has-been
game-show host parents. The only way out of answering relentless trivia
questions and guessing which door breakfast is behind is to get his
out-of work parents back on the air.

An ever-growing independent film market has enticed these two TV writing
pros to submit Returning Champion to area investors, directors and
producers.

Michele Gendelman has written for TV shows: Newhart and
Facts of Life and is the author of What the Other Mothers Know
published by HarperCollins and contributor to What Was I Thinking? -
Bad Boyfriend Stories from St. Martin’s Press.

Ursula Ziegler has written and produced TV’s Empty Nest and also written for Head of the
Class, Sister-Sister, and Larroquette. She has developed TV pilots
for CBS, Fox and Castle Rock when not appearing as a contestant on TV
game shows.

Where: Jones Hall in the Ragsdale Center, St. Edwards University

When: Sunday, August 30 – 4 p.m.

How Much: Free

Discover the ins & outs of the TX Moving Image Industry Incentive Program & building the biz in Texas.

Join this open forum for producers, directors, actors and crew. Learn about the new incentives for growing work in Film, Commercial Advertising, Corporate Film, Video Gaming, & New Media. Find out how the new incentives have impacted Texas production, who’s using the incentives, and how home grown creativity can benefit from the new program.

When: Sunday, July 12, 2009

4 p.m. – 6 p.m.

Where: Congregation Beth Israel

3901 Shoal Creek Blvd.

Austin, TX 78756

(512) 454-6806

Panel includes:

· Bob Hudgins—Director, Texas Film Commission

· Linda Dowell—Regional Branch Division Exec Director, SAG

· TJ Jones— Texas Regional Director, AFTRA

· Craig Berlin—Business Manager, Pro-Tape Systems

· Ken Rector—Business Manager, IATSE Local 484

· Tom Booker—Moderator, Austin Conservatory

Cost: FREE

Please RSVP to Sheila Cooper at: (972)361-8185 OR (800) 724-0767, option 7 or  sheila.cooper at sag.org

Below is the list of candidates for the six (6) open At-Large positions on TXMPA’s Board. Please take some time before voting begins to review this list and become familiar with the candidates. An e-mail with pictures of the candidates, their bios, and endorsements for these candidates will be placed on the TXMPA website  www.txmpa.org), and distributed to the general membership on Thursday, June 18; if you would like to have your endorsement included, please e-mail TXMPA at  info at txmpa.org no later than Wednesday, June 17.

1) Craig Berlin
2) Garry Potts
3) Jeanette Scott
4) Jeff Horny
5) J. Schuh
6) Justin Muller
7) Larry Cashion
Linda Alcazar Jurado
9) Michael Druck
10) Rick Olmos
11) Robert Curlin
12) Ron Bush
13) Will Raymond

Online voting for these positions will begin at 12:01 AM on Monday, June 22 and will continue until 11:59 PM on Thursday, June 25. Just a reminder: online voting will be handled by Ballot Bin  www.ballotbin.com); as a precaution, please “whitelist” Ballot Bin. This is simply done by adding their e-mail address ( notices at ballotbin.com) to your contact list, so that when voting begins, their e-mail will come directly to your inbox and not to your spam folder.

To be eligible to vote for At-Large members, you must be a paid-up member of TXMPA (at the full or supporting level) by 5:00 PM, Friday, June 19. If you are unsure of your current membership status, please contact your Regional Representative for clarification [or send an e-mail to  membership at txmpa.org]. You may find more information about your Region, and contact information for your Regional Representative, at TXMPA’s website.

Results of online voting, along with the three (3) newly elected Regional Representatives and their respective Alternates, will be announced at our Statewide Annual Meeting, to be held at Texas State University in San Marcos on Saturday, June 27. For more information on the meeting, please visit our website.

As always, thank you for all you do for the moving image industry here in Texas, and we’ll see you on the 27th!

On June 27, Paul Alvarado-Dykstra & Shelley Schriber will officially take over as Central Region board representative & alternate, respectively. I look forward to their input, energy and organizational capabilities as we move forward in our mission – growing our membership, establishing firm financial footing, lobbying the legislative body of Texas to bring work home.

I have spent the last several months in Oklahoma, on a feature film set in Texas. We are filming here for one reason. Legislative incentives. The Oklahoma state legislature has just signed into law a bill granting a rebate of 38% to film productions, and believe me, the studios are lining up and salivating. Never mind that there is NO crew base, NO infrastructure, NO soundstage, NO office facilities. We are based in an abandoned department store. The toilets work intermittently. Next to my desk, the water flows down the pipe each time someone flushes the toilet. But the people are lovely, the locations are good, and the community is eager & ready to build up the crew base and infrastructure to make this a truly competitive destination.

This story is writ large across the country. Incentive legislation is the MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR in drawing film production to any state today. Witness Michigan! They are building one of the biggest sound stages in the country. New Mexico, as we all know, is now firmly ensconced as a production destination, growing from nothing to the powerhouse it is today in a few short years. The main, the only, reason they have been able to accomplish this is the incentive package offered by the state of New Mexico. The single purpose of the TXMPA is to change this imbalance. The biggest lure, the most important factor in bringing back our jobs, is legislative action. That is our goal.

The TXMPA at large elections begin next week. I hope all central region members will vote for our proposed slate:
Craig Berlin
Rick Olmos
Jeanette Scott

We want to have as big a voice as possible from the central region as we move forward on our quest.

Thanks to all of you for letting me represent you. We have made great strides. Now, we must take the next two years to build our membership, raise money, establish a permanent office, and muster forces for the next legislative session. Many people have been out of work. Frustration levels are high. I have been forced to leave home and family for work. Nothing does more to change the equation than legislative action. In 2011, the battle begins all over again. Nothing is automatically renewed. Let’s all band together and come back bigger and stronger, with one voice, to insure the future of the film industry in Texas.

I ask you for your vote, your support, and your time and effort to build TXMPA into a force to be reckoned with.

Respectfully yours,

Jeanette Scott, outgoing board rep for Central Region

Here is a press release sent to the membership tonight ( 6/9/09):

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Screen Actors Guild Members Overwhelmingly Ratify TV/Theatrical Agreements

Los Angeles, (June 9, 2009) – Screen Actors Guild announced today that members have voted overwhelmingly to approve its TV/Theatrical contracts by a vote of 78 percent to 22 percent.

The two-year successor agreement covers film and digital television programs, motion pictures and new media productions. The pact becomes effective at 12:01 a.m. June 10, 2009 and expires June 30, 2011.

The contracts provide more than $105 million in wages, increased pension contributions, and other gains and establishes a template for SAG coverage of new media formats.

Approximately 110,000 SAG members received ballots of which 35.26 percent returned them – a return that is above average compared with typical referenda on Screen Actors Guild contracts. Integrity Voting Systems of Everett, WA, provided election services and tonight certified the final vote tally upon completion of the tabulation.

The vote count in the Hollywood Division was 70.70 percent to 29.30 percent in favor. In the New York Division, the vote count was 85.74 percent to 14.26 percent in favor. And in the Regional Branch Division, the vote count was 89.06 percent to 10.94 percent in favor.

Screen Actors Guild President Alan Rosenberg said, “The membership has spoken and has decided to work under the terms of this contract that many of us, who have been involved in these negotiations from the beginning, believe to be devastatingly unsatisfactory. Tomorrow morning I will be contacting the elected leadership of the other talent unions with the hope of beginning a series of pre-negotiation summit meetings in preparation for 2011. I call upon all SAG members to begin to ready themselves for the battle ahead,” Rosenberg added.

Screen Actors Guild Interim National Executive Director David White said, “This decisive vote gets our members back to work with immediate pay raises and puts SAG in a strong position for the future. Preparation for the next round of negotiations begins now. Our members can expect more positive changes in the coming months as we organize new work opportunities, repair and reinvigorate our relationships with our sister unions and industry partners, and continue to improve the Guild’s operations.”

Screen Actors Guild Chief Negotiator John McGuire said, “I want to thank the SAG members and staff who dedicated their time to the negotiations process. We emerged with a solid deal that the members have now voted up. The negotiating team worked tirelessly, building on the work of the first negotiating committee, to deliver these improvements to members.”

Screen Actors Guild began talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers on April 15, 2008. Guild Chief Negotiator John McGuire, Interim National Executive Director David White, and Deputy National Executive Director for Contracts Ray Rodriguez, working with a 10-person negotiating task force comprised of Screen Actors Guild board members and officers representing the three divisions, reached the tentative agreement on April 16, 2009 after 12 months of periodic negotiations with the motion picture studios and television networks.

In what should be a ‘perfect storm’ of events that could, and MUST help stimulate a substantial increase in SAG theatrical contract film production in Texas, ratification of the new SAG / AMPTP agreement was preceded by passage and more importantly, full funding of the requested $62 Million Texas film incentive legislation.

From TXMPA President, Don Stokes:

It is my extreme pleasure to report a very successful legislative session for the moving image industry. TXMPA has played an integral roll in the passage of HB 873 which created our enhanced and flexible incentive program as well as HB 2521 which creates guidelines for preferred vendor status for Texas based companies in producing media-related services for the State and SB 1929 which creates media production development zones which encourages the creation and development of production infrastructure like sound stages.

Of equal importance, our full funding request of $62 million dollars for HB 873 was passed by both the House and Senate. Congratulations to all of you who assisted in these achievements. None of this would have been possible without our industry coming together and speaking with a singular voice. Thanks again to all of you who participated in Lobby Day and spoke as witnesses in the various committee hearings. We also owe thanks to our friends at HillCo Partners who lobbied tirelessly to make sure our message was heard and that legislators understood that we only wanted what benefited both our industry and the State. And finally I want to express our gratitude to the Texas Film Commission for all of work and efforts they put forth on our behalf. Our success was truly a team effort. Take a moment to bask in our successes, but only a moment…

FILM & TELEVISION PROJECTS

* Feature Films
* Documentaries
* Episodic Television Series
* Television Episodes
* Television Movies
* Miniseries
* Reality Television
* Interstitial Television Programming
* Nationally Syndicated Talk Show

Program Overview

* Tiered incentive payments of 5-15% based on level of Texas spending.*
* Option to choose incentive calculation based on total in-state spending or wages paid to Texas residents.*
* Possible bonus of 2.5% if 25% of production completed in underutilized area.
* Texas spending can include eligible pre-production, production and post-production expenditures.
* No cap on incentive amount.

Minimum Qualifications

* $250,000 in Texas spending.
* 60% of shooting days completed in Texas.
* 70% of paid crew must be Texas residents.
* 70% of paid cast (including extras) must be Texas residents.*

* except reality television and talk shows.

Below is the latest list of possible SAG signatory productions for south region states, Louisiana and Texas. This list is assumed to be the last such list to be published before the new Texas film tax incentive program has a chance to impact production in Texas and possibly in states such as Louisiana and New Mexico.

Louisiana

“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: July 26, 2009

“Jaws of the Mississippi” - #00225090
Jaws Productions, LLC – Low Budget Modified
Location: Lafayette, LA
Start Date: July 6, 2009

“Untitled Alphi Phi Alpha Doc” - #00241154
Omnipotent One, Inc – Theatrical
Location: New Orleans, LA
Start Date: July 9, 2009

Texas

“Beyond the Whispers” – #00244882
Broken Camera Productions – Ultra Low Budget
Location: Boerne, TX
Start Date: To be determined

“Broken Promise, A South Texas Story” – #00210652
Que Tal Productions, LLC – Ultra Low Budget
Location: Brownsville/Mercedes, TX
Start Date: To be determined

“Carried Away” - #00238361
Carried Away, LLC – Ultra Low Budget
Location: Fort Worth, TX
Start Date: To be determined
Casting: James Johnston 817-915-4565

“Imago” - #00244751
Upstart Filmworks, LLC – Ultra Low Budget
Location: Houston, TX
Start Date: August 1, 2009

“Iron Horses” - #00237421
Curveball Films, LLC – Low Budget
Location: Austin, TX
Start Date: August 1, 2009

“Last Thanksgiving, The” – #00243410

TLT Productions – Ultra Low Budget
Location: Donna, TX
Start Date: To be determined
Casting: Pedro Garcia

“Letter H, The” – #00233247
GCP Film, LLC – Theatrical
Location: Houston/El Paso, TX
Start Date: September 3, 2009

“Matter of Honor, A: The Assassination of Sam Giancana”Distraught Sound and
Film Works in Association with Tommy Fadd and Good Boy Films
Location: Austin, TX
Start Date: To be determined

“Maybe, Maybe No” – #00239585
Red Raider Films, LLC – Ultra Low Budget
Start Date: 6/12/09 – Wrap Date: 7/26/09
Location: Wylie, TX
Casting: Ryan Paige 310-424-5256

“Mongolian Death Worm” – #00244759
Sweet Tater, LLC – Low Budget
Location: Dallas, TX
Start Date: June 22, 2009

“Red, White and Blue” - #00244689
RWB Films, LLC – Ultra Low Budget
Location: Austin, TX
Start Date: June 14, 2009
Casting: Karen Halford of Casting Works L.A.

“Secret Dark, A” – 00241474
30 Days, LLC – Low Budget
Location: Houston, TX
Start Date: June 15, 2009

“One Moon in Luck aka Shoot Out of Luck” – #00244805
Liz Destro – Theatrical
Location: Austin, TX
Start Date: October 1, 2009

“Untitled Ana Zims Romantic Comedy” – #00244038
Ana Zims – Ultra Low Budget
Location: Texas (unspecified), CA
Start Date: June 14, 2009

“Walk Away Joe” - #00242161
WAJ Productions, LLC – Theatrical
Location: Dallas, TX; Los Angeles, CA
Start Date: To be determined

“Where’s the Dan? The Search for Dan Schneider” – #00242803
Cosby Siringi – Ultra Low Budget
Location: Huntsville/Conroe, TX
Start Date: To be determined

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.

This is a rare opportunity to see a truly landmark independent film in venue other than PBS. Check it out and you won’t be sorry!

Screen Door Film, THE WHOLE SHOOTIN’ MATCH
WHEN: Fri May 22, 7 PM (Doors open at 6:30 PM)
WHERE: Jones Auditorium, St. Edward’s University (3001 S. Congress Ave)
COST: FREE
INFO: www.screendoorfilm.com

A landmark of American independent film from 1978, THE WHOLE SHOOTIN’ MATCH is a rapturous rediscovery. Eagle Pennell’s first feature details the tragi-comic struggles of two small-time schemers, Loyd (Lou Perryman) and Frank (Sonny Carl Davis), desperate to land their big break. Through its anecdotal narrative and fresh, honest observation of its characters, the film intimately captures a time and place (Austin, Texas, 1977) with its atmospheric photography and rough-hewn charm, making it an inspiration for filmmakers everywhere since its release. A panel following the film will discuss THE WHOLE SHOOTIN’ MATCH and it’s place in American independent cinema.

EaglelPinnell 1978
Categories: Narrative Feature
Pictures 1 picture
Run time: 108 min. | USA | Language: English

No wonder this is the film that prompted Robert Redford to start the Sundance Institute. The film has been missing in action for close to 25 years.

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.